What next?

harryopal

With Israel closing it;s borders to all countries with the latest mutation it would suggest we are a long way from settling into reliable patterns of tourism and travel.

Metter

I think you are right. Australian states allowing international arrivals have put a 3 day quarantine in place. Depending on the WHO and other research information I think travel bans will be wider than African countries

Balifrog

What next ? Another variant, another panic, another sensationalist headlines on TV, another lockdown... Rince and repeat

Foamcrest

Balifrog I am at a total loss as to what you are on about. Do you believe that there is no such thing as Covid? How would you treat it if in fact you believe there's a virus in the first place If not do you think its a world wide alliances of governments to control its citizens? How would you deal with the situation?

Balifrog

Foamcrest wrote Balifrog I am at a total loss as to what you are on about. Do you believe that there is no such thing as Covid? How would you treat it if in fact you believe there's a virus in the first place If not do you think its a world wide alliances of governments to control its citizens? How would you deal with the situation?

You got me completely wrong. There is of course a Covid virus and it is a nasty one. No doubt about that. My problem is with : - All the lies / half truths the governments, CDC, WHO are telling us since 18 months. - Governments systematically taking the fear mongering / dramatization approach, instead of calming things down. - The media jumping on it like vampires and amplifying everything, as drama makes better sales than plain vanilla good news. - The majority of people swallowing all those lies and BS without any critical / common sense thinking - The divide this drama has created amongst the population 2 years of destroying the mental health and economies of millions for something that kills way less people of what smoking kills. Double vaccines (sold at the magic solution with 98% efficiency) did not work, so what we do ? A 3rd vaccine ..... A new variant arrives, what we do ? a 4th vaccine.... Are we going to vax the whole world population every 8 months till the end of the world ? You know that's impossible. Solution : let people do what they want, their body, their choice. Just try to keep the serious cases, needing ICU hospitalization, under the limit of what hospitals can absorb. Stop closing down hospitals and beds. France for example has closed hospitals since 2 decades and even continued in 2020 ! Stop dramatizing For the population : stop watch TV and social media. Get on with your life. And remember : You can't win against mother nature, just learn to respect her. Disclaimer : I am not ANTI Vax, everybody does what he/she wants. I don't spread stuff that the vaccine is useless. It is not, it will help you fight off any aggravation if your get hit by the virus (well, in most cases) I don't care my if neighbor wants to take a jab every months and an Ivermectin (?) pill every Sunday. But don't come tell me that I should do it ! And don't think that being vaxed will scare away the virus. The thing will still jump on you, and you can still spread it. If you spread it to a vaxed person, no problem.. he should be safe. If you "pollute" a non- vaxed person, well, bad luck for him but it was HIS choice. There is a (very small) chance that he will become very sick, and depending on the individual (healthy young or old with comorbidities) his chances to shrug it off can go from 98% to 50% or less. It's life. Enjoy every day of it !

Foamcrest

Good oh Balifrog, Thanks for that. I take your point on mental health being affected. Carry on and I’d avoid driving any heavy vehicles if you can.

Balifrog

Foamcrest wrote Good oh Balifrog, Thanks for that. I take your point on mental health being affected. Carry on and I’d avoid driving any heavy vehicles if you can.

I suppose intelligence is not your Master subject ?

Markit

I actually agree with a lot of what Balifrog says but possibly not his reasoning but that is not important any more. Frankly I'm getting so much contradicting information from so many sources I'm going to take up drinking as my next hobby. Cheers!

hca

Markit wrote Frankly I'm getting so much contradicting information from so many sources I'm going to take up drinking as my next hobby.

Me too, but I never had this in mind when I built the still.

Metter

hca wrote Me too, but I never had this in mind when I built the still.

Sparked my interest, What type of still did you build?

Markit

hca wrote Me too, but I never had this in mind when I built the still.

I've inherited a still from my mate that just snuffed it and have no idea how to make anything so I'm thinking what goes really well with smoking lots of hams and chickens??? Good booze? Even better DIY good booze? Help needed!

Markit

50kg lasts about 6 months for 2 pools. Your idea with teak I'd be cautious because it can be quite oily where as oak isn't . But you won't find oak around here unless you kidnap a sailing boat. If you are willing to delay your pleasure for 2 years at out age you either have enormous confidence or the constitution of a bull. I'd be happy with a relatively decent pure alcohol/white spirit and a bottle of the Ozzy flavoring/coloring for which they are rightfully famous.

hca

The fact termites won touch teak heartwood is warning enough not to rush in and I dont know of any option to oak here. The only hope is have somone with some kilos to spare bring you some raw oak bookends as a gift. But your right 2 years is a hell of a long time. There is always the option to just rerun and clean up some local Karangasem to make mixer stock too.

hca

Markit wrote I've inherited a still from my mate that just snuffed it and have no idea how to make anything so I'm thinking what goes really well with smoking lots of hams and chickens??? Good booze? Even better DIY good booze? Help needed!

Sorry guys not logged in for a while, and a rather hectic few weeks so just seen this. I normally malt corn for it, dry it off soon as it sprouts to kill it, flash the torch over it to burn off the roots. crack it, add sugar to bring to a 12% after mash. use off the shelf bakers yeast, after 4 days its normally finished, the rack it off and the grain goes to the chooks. Tried with mangos, but not pleasant to drink neat. Still is a combination of designs in a reflux configuration, Based on a 30ltr tea urn in a tip over frame to empty it. The lid and the stack lifts up verticaly for fill and empty. The stainless stack is loaded with copper aircon tubes, copper and stainless scourers, a cold plug at the tee has flow control and adjustable positioning and the electric element has an analog power control. You tweak the two through the run to maintan control. No import stuff just made from what can be obtained on the island. The product comes off at 93% for most of the run, Its then diluted back down to 30 to 40%. Sometimes do a mix with fresh local coffee,vanilla and wild honey for a coffee liquer, another with tolak angin makes bendictine type drink. Run it 3 times for a vodka style neutral, mix with different things. If I take to anything up the village I mix some of the run tails back in to roughen it up and dilute to 25%. They prefer that to the good stuff, they think its stronger but you know how it is, glass goes around pretty quick in shot style so I keep the % down. I dont make it that often, the fun was more the building of the gear. Just when you get the urge I guess, something to mess about with. Yell out if want more info but I am no guru on it all.

Markit

hca wrote Sorry guys not logged in for a while, and a rather hectic few weeks so just seen this. I normally malt corn for it, dry it off soon as it sprouts to kill it, flash the torch over it to burn off the roots. crack it, add sugar to bring to a 12% after mash. use off the shelf bakers yeast, after 4 days its normally finished, the rack it off and the grain goes to the chooks. Tried with mangos, but not pleasant to drink neat. Still is a combination of designs in a reflux configuration, Based on a 30ltr tea urn in a tip over frame to empty it. The lid and the stack lifts up verticaly for fill and empty. The stainless stack is loaded with copper aircon tubes, copper and stainless scourers, a cold plug at the tee has flow control and adjustable positioning and the electric element has an analog power control. You tweak the two through the run to maintan control. No import stuff just made from what can be obtained on the island. The product comes off at 93% for most of the run, Its then diluted back down to 30 to 40%. Sometimes do a mix with fresh local coffee,vanilla and wild honey for a coffee liquer, another with tolak angin makes bendictine type drink. Run it 3 times for a vodka style neutral, mix with different things. If I take to anything up the village I mix some of the run tails back in to roughen it up and dilute to 25%. They prefer that to the good stuff, they think its stronger but you know how it is, glass goes around pretty quick in shot style so I keep the % down. I dont make it that often, the fun was more the building of the gear. Just when you get the urge I guess, something to mess about with. Yell out if want more info but I am no guru on it all.

Sound pretty knowledgeable to me - in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. I'll get back to you when I've decided to brew. What corn did you use - dried stuff from the local markets?

hca

Markit wrote Sound pretty knowledgeable to me - in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. I'll get back to you when I've decided to brew. What corn did you use - dried stuff from the local markets?

I get it from a place that sells, chook food, seeds, fertilizer, farming chemicals and that sort of thing. They sell by the bag or kilos. You might find it in a market as well. Its whole corn, not split. normally they have different sizes in stock, I look for the nice golden colured full size seed, run you hand through it, it should be pretty clean, fresh, and not much dust. Just by enough for what you plan to use as it will always end up with weevils from somewhere. You will pick it ok, it just has a heathly clean look to it. What you are after is bigger full looking seeds as the have the most flour in them. Its the flour that coverts to sugar when it germinates. So to ferment it you need to germinate it first to make a malt. Just rinse it in a bucket and float out any bits of corn shuck and other crap. Leave it in water overnight. 18 hours maybe. drain out the water, and spread it out some where flat, best trick is under a "terpal" which stops it drying out. Couple of days its sprouted, just white root a few mm with do and put it in the sun to dry out the roots. To get rid of the roots I just flash the gas torch over it but a scrap of the wire mesh for seiving sand on a gas cookers easy. You could leave them, like the old moonshiners but I read some where they can leave a bitter taste. So for all of that to work its plantable corn not the split corn they sell for chickens as the most of the flour is gone. There's no hard and fast rules, its just for fun. If you use corn but have no cask to age it for 2 years and get the colour you cant call it burbon. But here corn or rice are about the only easy to get grains unless you want to try bird seed.

Markit

hca wrote I get it from a place that sells, chook food, seeds, fertilizer, farming chemicals and that sort of thing. They sell by the bag or kilos. You might find it in a market as well. Its whole corn, not split. normally they have different sizes in stock, I look for the nice golden colured full size seed, run you hand through it, it should be pretty clean, fresh, and not much dust. Just by enough for what you plan to use as it will always end up with weevils from somewhere. You will pick it ok, it just has a heathly clean look to it. What you are after is bigger full looking seeds as the have the most flour in them. Its the flour that coverts to sugar when it germinates. So to ferment it you need to germinate it first to make a malt. Just rinse it in a bucket and float out any bits of corn shuck and other crap. Leave it in water overnight. 18 hours maybe. drain out the water, and spread it out some where flat, best trick is under a "terpal" which stops it drying out. Couple of days its sprouted, just white root a few mm with do and put it in the sun to dry out the roots. To get rid of the roots I just flash the gas torch over it but a scrap of the wire mesh for seiving sand on a gas cookers easy. You could leave them, like the old moonshiners but I read some where they can leave a bitter taste. So for all of that to work its plantable corn not the split corn they sell for chickens as the most of the flour is gone. There's no hard and fast rules, its just for fun. If you use corn but have no cask to age it for 2 years and get the colour you cant call it burbon. But here corn or rice are about the only easy to get grains unless you want to try bird seed.

How about aging it in the 50kg white plastic containers we get chlorine in? ![](https://balipod.com/uploads/attachments/3568-204a62b104d9d54ba947a60286e7bfe8.jpg[ATTACH]3568[/ATTACH] Suitably cleaned of course.

hca

Yes they would be fine but I would avoid plastic. The aging process requires wood. Plastic is no good if its not at a low abv, below 40% maybe ok. I dont know the finer points on aging and have no experience with it to speak from. So I gather the wood cask, allows some very slow breathing with the atmosphere, it also imparts the color and other chemical changes I dont understand. I think if you put 100 gallons into cask in 2 years time there will be less than that remaining. If we could get old casks or the right kind of timber like oak, my bet would be a tank made of thin stainless sheet, tig welded and put some strips of oak timber in it. An urn can easily be made into an 30 litre airtight stainless vessel but just wrapping the lip on the lid with teflon tape to make it a tight press fit. A cheap solution maybe? My plan was to make stainless tanks and bury them under the floor slab for aging with temperature stability. Our air temps here run from 23 to 33 and the tank water (big rock and concerete tanks) is always about 27degrees. So the theory was looking good but I forgot the tanks when we did the floor slab. Shit happens! I would like to know what can be done with our local timber, like teak or benkrai?? would it work like oak? That is the fun of it i guess try and see, but what is in teak ryap don't like? Maybe old teak and heart wood is just to hard? Plenty of bugs eat the outer sapwood ok. Those drums would make good fermenters once the chlorine had dissipated in the sun however. I found all this airlock fermenter caper you read about and they sell is bull dust for what I make. I found a 70 ltr plastic tub with a lid from the market, produces so much co2, so quick, once you hits it with an activated yeast mix, that no infection seems to be able to get in and over power the yeast. Your drums are very good to have. You must have big pool there and use a hell of a lot of clorine?