Q&A for How to Make Quick and Tasty Moonshine Whiskey

Yes, but the recipe is a bit different from what you read above. For 5 gallons of mash, try using 7 lbs. of granulated cane sugar, 5.5 lbs. of cracked corn, and 1.5 lbs. of rye. Add water to get to the 5 total gallons of volume, and stir vigorously for a couple of minutes. Put the mixture into your fermenter, and pitch the yeast. You don't need to heat this recipe until the distillation steps--the sugar is the source of fuel for the yeast. The corn and rye are really just for flavoring. This is technically called a sugar-headed corn whiskey.

Yes, as these materials are generally used for drinking water. Copper tubing is also used for hot water delivery.

To redistill, you generally distill several mashes and collect these runs. These are called low wines. When you have enough low wines to fill your boiler you can do the spirit run. This is the money run and must be performed "low and slow." Collect the spirit run in small glasses. After a days airing time you smell and taste each glass to determine your "cuts." First glasses will be "foreshots and heads" and the last glasses will be "tails." It's the "hearts" in between that you want to keep.

No. If the fermented wash is made with barley, the name for that would be beer. Plenty of beers are made with corn, rye, and barley, as in the above recipe. but that requires a few additional steps. For one, you need to make sure the fermentation stops when you want it to, but you can buy chemicals for that at any store that sells equipment for making wine or beer. Secondly, you need to make sure all the yeast falls to the bottom. Other chemicals can help, but time will do it as well. Then, you need to siphon off the now-clear liquid without including any of the nasty stuff at the bottom. This process can be repeated multiple times for optimal results.

Absolutely. You want to maintain a temperature between about 180F and 205F. Slower is generally better, with output between 2 to 3 drips per second and up to a thin, pencil stream. If you heat too vigorously, you will get too much water and congeners.

Yes, a still is the best way to make moonshine. I have tried using the freezer method, but the results were not that good.

No. The yeast consumes sugar and excretes alcohol, which is the foundation of the moonshine.

You can use just about any, as long as it’s not been chemically treated to delay spoilage.

Measure your proof. To create a simple solution ratio, use: 1 x ((strong proof/desired proof)-1) = the water proportion needed to mix in. Do this in small volumes so that you don’t accidentally mess up a whole bunch. You can also work with volume and the same equation, for example, 500 ml x ((65/40)-1) = 312.5 ml water. Assuming you’re cutting 65% down to 40% in this example. These calculations will usually leave the measured value a couple of points high. Be sure you understand how temperature will throw the reading off some.

Bourbon only uses fermentable sugars that come from corn, barley, and rye. If you go with molasses, you will end up not making it more like bourbon but instead like rum.