Nosy ATF

[Medic24]

WEll ain't this a thang?

This time of year and just in time for the holidays, I always order large sacks of sugar from my local little grocery store. This all to make lots and lots of sugar cookies........er...well...........maybe some home made sippin too....Anyway, they informed me yesterday that they are only getting the 5 pound bags in as usual and no special order sacks this year, and even with the little bags they aren't going to order very much....................

Now I know this is simply a 'regional' thing, but seems the ATF has been sniffing around the distributors looking to see who is ordering large quantities of sugar or corn syrup and then following up with the small stores to pinpoint who is making home made..... this makes their job way too easy.....

We hardly have any apples, or any tree fruit this year to speak of due to late frosts, and so now they are going to try and stop us with this...darn those folks... don't they know that this is Christmas gifts my friends and family all depend on and look forward to every year? :x Not like I am selling any of this wonderfull elixer............maybe trading some...but oh...never to sell. I don't ever want to cheat the goverment out of taxes ya know.

Guess I will be just going across the mountain into TN and hitting the Walmarts and such....makes a little bit of joy much harder to make ......... ;-) :cboy:

 

[angie2]

What? You are not supposed to be making it? Is illegal?
Our basement looks like a mad scientist's lab sometimes :roll:

That reminds me ~ My nephew was going up for communion and said something to his mom. I could not hear him, but I could see people laughing. SiL told me after church that Johnny said to her, "Noah's dad drinks from a 5 gallon bucket." (Noah is our youngest.) :roll:
First 3-4 rows got a good laugh out of that...

 

[Jogeephus]

The solution to your predictament might be found at the Sam's Club. I doubt the ATF would find anyone in there that would be sharp enough to remember what they sold to who. Cane skimmings are definitely under the radar as well. Or so I have heard.

 

[Medic24]

Gonna do just that..........Sam's club here we come!

reminds me... a neighbor was allowing some stuff he made up from King Syrup to ferment in his cool basement, and while he was away we got some warmer weather I guess and threw his schedule off, he called to show me all the wonderful goo painted all over his walls and cealings down there...........seems like the ants will be eating very well in a well warmed basement this winter!lol ;-) :cboy:

 

[grannysoo]

Sams Club carries sugar in the 50 pound sacks for less than $15.

 

[SmokeStackFarms]

Smart Tn. man is selling "ethanol kits" (Ha Ha)
If you want to leave out one ingredient--bingo.
I will be ordering one for medicinal purposes-- in a sense-so that I can get better mileage on my body.
I feel a cough coming on---- :shock: :roll:

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/stor ... 339&page=1

 

[Jogeephus]

Gonna do just that..........Sam's club here we come!

reminds me... a neighbor was allowing some stuff he made up from King Syrup to ferment in his cool basement, and while he was away we got some warmer weather I guess and threw his schedule off, he called to show me all the wonderful goo painted all over his walls and cealings down there...........seems like the ants will be eating very well in a well warmed basement this winter!lol ;-) :cboy:

We had a small explosion with some muscadine wine once. Boy was it a mess. Recently had 25 gallons of blackberry wine that just didn't do it. Condensed it down to 3 gallons and found it was much more efficient in doing the job and had a lot less calories. ;-) :lol:

 

[SmokeStackFarms]

I'm puzzled--my muscadines were doing great for @ 1st .
I squeezed the mush out--instead of sugar--I added a quart of honey---& yeast---vapor lock-----no fermentation.
Let it sit for 2 weeks; added more sugar(domino)syrup-warm-
& warm yeast--nothing;
I got mad---added more sugar and "Ammonium Phosphate" Yeast enhancer----nothing ----I added more yeast --nothing.
I have no idea what monster elixir I have made.
The smell is wine --no vineger--??
I'm gonna let it sit til it grows old, blows, -- I guess.
:?: :?: :?: :?:

 

[fit2btied]

The solution to your predictament might be found at the Sam's Club. I doubt the ATF would find anyone in there that would be sharp enough to remember what they sold to who. Cane skimmings are definitely under the radar as well. Or so I have heard.

Hopefully those agents won't be any smarter and won't realize that all the info about who bought what and how they paid for it is stored in them 'puters in those 'lectronic money boxes. :shock:

 

[Jogeephus]

The solution to your predictament might be found at the Sam's Club. I doubt the ATF would find anyone in there that would be sharp enough to remember what they sold to who. Cane skimmings are definitely under the radar as well. Or so I have heard.

Hopefully those agents won't be any smarter and won't realize that all the info about who bought what and how they paid for it is stored in them 'puters in those 'lectronic money boxes. :shock:

I think a lot of cotton candy vendors use cash.

 

[fit2btied]

The solution to your predictament might be found at the Sam's Club. I doubt the ATF would find anyone in there that would be sharp enough to remember what they sold to who. Cane skimmings are definitely under the radar as well. Or so I have heard.

Hopefully those agents won't be any smarter and won't realize that all the info about who bought what and how they paid for it is stored in them 'puters in those 'lectronic money boxes. :shock:

I think a lot of cotton candy vendors use cash.

If it's at Sam's, they still gotta scan in their member card before they can checkout, regardless of means of payment. It took me 30 minutes to check out a bottle of children's cough syrup a while back because of all the meth cookers around here. They put all the data into their system and crossreferenced it to all the other WallyWorlds and Sams to make sure I wasn't making the circuit searching for pseudofed (sp). When it turned out to be so much trouble I asked if I could get 2 bottles so I didn't have to go through all that hassle the next time the granddaughter was sick - took them another 10 minutes to see if that would put me over the legal purchasing limit for pseudofed (sp). Gimme a break!

 

[Jogeephus]

The solution to your predictament might be found at the Sam's Club. I doubt the ATF would find anyone in there that would be sharp enough to remember what they sold to who. Cane skimmings are definitely under the radar as well. Or so I have heard.

Hopefully those agents won't be any smarter and won't realize that all the info about who bought what and how they paid for it is stored in them 'puters in those 'lectronic money boxes. :shock:

I think a lot of cotton candy vendors use cash.

If it's at Sam's, they still gotta scan in their member card before they can checkout, regardless of means of payment. It took me 30 minutes to check out a bottle of children's cough syrup a while back because of all the meth cookers around here. They put all the data into their system and crossreferenced it to all the other WallyWorlds and Sams to make sure I wasn't making the circuit searching for pseudofed (sp). When it turned out to be so much trouble I asked if I could get 2 bottles so I didn't have to go through all that hassle the next time the granddaughter was sick - took them another 10 minutes to see if that would put me over the legal purchasing limit for pseudofed (sp). Gimme a break!

I see your point. Those meth folks have really messed things up for folks with alergies and such. Have noticed at the dollar store they keep anelgesics behind locked doors now.

 

[Keren]

Is home brew illegal in the US??

Or am I missing the point here??

:?

 

[Jogeephus]

You cannot distill alcohol under any circumstances - unless you pay a bunch of taxes and keep up with a lot of paperwork.

 

[Medic24]

I'm puzzled--my muscadines were doing great for @ 1st .
I squeezed the mush out--instead of sugar--I added a quart of honey---& yeast---vapor lock-----no fermentation.
Let it sit for 2 weeks; added more sugar(domino)syrup-warm-
& warm yeast--nothing;
I got mad---added more sugar and "Ammonium Phosphate" Yeast enhancer----nothing ----I added more yeast --nothing.
I have no idea what monster elixir I have made.
The smell is wine --no vineger--??
I'm gonna let it sit til it grows old, blows, -- I guess.
:?: :?: :?: :?:

Maybe take a chance and cook it down, get lucky and get brandy?

 

[KenB]

You cannot distill alcohol under any circumstances - unless you pay a bunch of taxes and keep up with a lot of paperwork.

;-) Maybe you could get a government grant or something for an idea you have for making fuel. that way they would buy the sugar for you.

 

[Medic24]

Is home brew illegal in the US??

Or am I missing the point here??

:?

Well it is......but one GOOD thing about all the meth cookers and other druggies is......us 'distiller's' are now considered small potatos, rather quaint, and old fashioned, harmless..........

To be very honest.........I often ask the local big lawman to sample my wares, of which he is most gracious to do........and he gets several samples at holiday time to take home or take to the office to share! Been a yearly tradition for as long as I can remember.....and actually it's not a rare thing to sit down in his office and pull out jars from several different local 'makers' and kinda critique all of them.and I do admit, there are better then me out there, I'm not bad, but like I say, there are real artisans out there.......... :cboy: :cboy: ............

 

[Jogeephus]

It is an art. Hardly worth doing if you consider the costs and the time and work involved. I think most people make it just cause they like the idea of being independent and would like to see some of our history preserved. After all, George Washington made nearly 6000 gallons on the year he died. Nobody cept some folks in England ever said he was a criminal.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

Is home brew illegal in the US??

Or am I missing the point here??

:?

Not sure about distilling, and do know some states have different rules, but in general you can brew 100 (or was it 600?) gallons of beer or wine for personal use.

Hey you guys! I have been making beer for years, but never made anything to distill - I am in agave country and in Sonora they make a killer local tequilla called bacanora. Smokey and smooth and sure seems to make you more intelligent ;-) I would love to read your techniques. You just use regular sugar? what is the base starch? corn? If you use too much white sugar in beer it ferments to hot and fast but it sure ups the alcohol. Tell me more. I know nothing about this fine tradition!

 

[Jogeephus]

Is home brew illegal in the US??

Or am I missing the point here??

:?

Not sure about distilling, and do know some states have different rules, but in general you can brew 100 (or was it 600?) gallons of beer or wine for personal use.

Hey you guys! I have been making beer for years, but never made anything to distill - I am in agave country and in Sonora they make a killer local tequilla called bacanora. Smokey and smooth and sure seems to make you more intelligent ;-) I would love to read your techniques. You just use regular sugar? what is the base starch? corn? If you use too much white sugar in beer it ferments to hot and fast but it sure ups the alcohol. Tell me more. I know nothing about this fine tradition!

If you know how to make beer you are halfway there. There are many different methods but if you want to make pure corn whiskey you do not need sugar. A purist would consider this cheating but it will boost your yield and this is why greed put sugar in the mash barrels.

Here is a warm weather recipe for pure corn whiskey using sweet mash that, I'm told, is pretty good.

Need to get 9.5 bushels of white corn - a variety similar to what you make grits out of.

Fill three croker sacks full of the corn and wet them down with warm water each day and flip them at each visit. Take the other 6.5 bushels and have them ground into meal.

About 7-10 days later, put 1/2 bushel of meal in the pot filled with fresh clean water and bring to a boil. Boiling and stirring for 45 minutes to an hour. Once its cooked, pour this off in a barrel and add a gallon of uncooked meal to this mixture and stir in well. Repeat this process until all the meal is cooked. (The number of barrels you'll need can be found on the label of Jack Daniel's)

The next day, grind up the 3 bags of malted corn - sprouts should be about 2-3 inches long. Probably best to use a meat grinder for this since its pretty obvious what your intentions are if you ask the mill to grind it for you. Anyhow, thin your sweet mash with water until your stirring stick falls to the side of the barrel. Once thinned, evenly distribute your malt between the barrels and stir them in good. Once this is complete, take a quart of rye seed and sprinkle them on the top of each barrel of mash and cover them well.

Next morning check on them and stir each to get them working.
Next morning check them and see if they are working. If not, dip some of the mixture from one that is to the one that is not, stir, cover and go home. Now you have made the beer.

Come back again and stir again then let sit covered for two days. You will see a head or a cap on the beer. This should be about an inch or two thick.

On the fifth day, the cap should be disappearing. This means the alcohol is eating it and it is ready to cook.

From here its just a matter of cooking it off slowly but once you set fire to the kettle you are breaking some serious FEDERAL laws.(States have no say in this matter - this is a common misconception that can get people in trouble.) Two pieces of advice. Cook it slowly and never ever try to teach someone discretion. If this is done, you should get about 4.8 gallons of some pure smooth corn whiskey that will go about 190 proof. Most folks will temper it some with water since this is strong enough to run a car on.

There are a lot of different recipes but this is the type most commonly made for the base of some cough syrups and other local remedies. Another type worth mentioning is known as split brandy - my personal favorite. This type is made using fruits such as blueberries or apples. Everything is the same except you use mash with a quarter of its volume made up of fruit. Blueberry Medley and Applejack are some of the local masterpieces. The best I've ever tasted was Applejack made by an apple producer in North Georgia. I've never seen anything that could match its smoothness, yet it had a kick like a mule but no nasty side affects whatsoever.(You could also heat your house on it.)

But as you can see, it takes a lot of time and is hardly worth doing unless you are the type person who just hates to see old traditions and art go by the wayside. Thankfully, there are still a few folks here that have these sentiments - or so I'm told.