MOTHER'S ALCOHOL FUEL COOKBOOK

Article Tools

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

The alcohol yield—by volume—usually equals about 14% (or less) of the amount of mash used (again, depending upon the efficiency of the distilling equipment). And that end product should be highgrade alcohol ... which will test out to anywhere between 140 and 195 proof

THE SECRET'S IN THE SAUCE

There are, of course, any number of mash formulas that can be used successfully. We've compiled three different recipes—that have been proven effective by our researchers—to get you started on your own mash production.

SPROUTED CORN MASH: This is a very inexpensive mixture which—because the sprouting (or malting) process transforms the corn's starch into sugar—will produce a mash with a fairly high alcohol content. The recipe is an adaptation of an old North Carolina moonshiner's formula that MOTHER's experimenters came across in their search for information about alcohol.

To begin, mix 25 pounds of malted corn (the sprouts should be between 1/4 and 1/2 inch long) with 50 gallons of 80°F water. Add 1/2 pound of finely crumbled baker's—don't use active dryyeast (your local bakery can probably sell you this ingredient) and 5 pounds of cane sugar. The mixture is then poured into a sealed mash barrel (see the sidebar that accompanies this article for details on building your own recycled fermentation container).

[EDITOR'SNOTE: In order to sprout your own batch of corn, you'll need several large plastic or wooden trays—most any shallow, large container will do — or a sprout cabinet such as the one featured in MOTHER NO. 49, pages 102 and 103. (If you'd like to build your own sprouter, a detailed set of plans is available — for $6.00 postpaid-from Mother's Plans, Dept. W, P.O. Box A, East Flat Rock , North Carolina 28726.)

Start the sprouting process by cleaning your trays thoroughly with a ten-parts-water to one-part-bleach solution (use a scrub brush if necessary), and rinsing them — just as carefully with warm water. With this done, place a layer of unground corn seeds in the bottom of each pan, and cover 'em with three times their volume of temperate tap water. (You can, of course, produce and use less sprouted corn than our recipe specifies... if you adjust the other mash ingredients proportionately.) Allow the containers to sit in a warm, dark spot for 24 hours, then drainoffthe water and respread the kernels thinly over the bottom of each pan. You might want to place a sheet of burlap beneath the seeds to help them retain moisture ... they should be kept damp, but not allowed to remain wet enough to rot.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print