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Homemade Spirits 101: To Brew or Not to Brew?

Homemade Spirits

Brewing your own alcohol is surprisingly fun and easy. You get to experiment with flavours and see what works and what doesn’t. In fact, there are so many benefits of brewing your own alcohol that you might come to wonder why more people don’t do it!

Before trying out this modern hobby, you need to equip yourself with a home brewing kit and home brew spirits flavourings of your choice. These versatile still spirits are available in over thirty different flavours and infusions. You can choose from a wide range of different types of whiskey, rum, vodka, tequilla, brandy, gin, and other alcoholic beverages.

What are the Benefits of Homemade Alcohol?

malt home brewing beer home brewing
Source: allseasonsnashville.com

With the rising trend of making your own alcohol, more and more people are wondering if homebrew is better than store-bought alcohol. Distilling homebrew spirits is legal in the territory of Australia. However, it does require a manufacturer license by the ATO. The paperwork’s goal is to ensure the cleanliness and safety of your process.

After you acquire your license you’re ready to start brewing. Making your own alcoholic beverages offers you many health benefits, as opposed to getting commercial ones. Read on to discover a few of these benefits, as well as how to make your own spirits from the comfort of your home.

It Can Lower Your Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

When brewing your own spirits, you have total control over the whole process. Rather than risking buying alcohol from untrustworthy sources with unknown ingredients, you can create your own to assure the quality and flavour of the alcohol. The first step to excellent health is to pay attention to your nutrition. A glass of homemade wine can benefit you in a lot of ways with its anti-clotting and anti-inflammatory properties. This relates to the fact that homemade alcohol can help improve many of the parameters that impact blood clot development.

Protects You from the Common Cold

Moderate drinkers are less likely to develop the common cold or flu. This is also related to the antioxidant properties of alcohol. However, going to the other end of the spectrum and binge drinking will significantly weaken your immunity against the common cold and other infections. Occasionally drinking a few glasses of alcohol is essential for maintaining alcohol’s protective qualities.

Protects Against Dementia

Responsible alcohol consumers were shown to be 23% less prone to cognitive-affecting diseases including Alzheimer’s and dementia, according to a study published in the scientific journal Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment. Consuming alcohol in low to moderate doses boosts the flexibility of cells, making them stronger when cognitive illnesses like dementia occur.

It Tastes Better

A lot of experienced homebrewers testify that homemade alcohol has a superior taste over the store-bought version. This is mostly because of the genuine high-quality ingredients in home brew spirits. When it comes to commercial beverages – manufacturers often add artificial ingredients that dull the taste.

How to Brew Your Own Spirits at Home?

Homebrew spirits
Source: kegscode.com

Get a Brewing Kit

If you want to start making your own spirits, I suggest that you start by getting a home brew spirit kit. This includes all of the equipment you need to set up your home distillery and have it up and running in no time. Best of all, because of their small size, such kits are easy to include into your home kitchen, as well as an RV or campervan.

They include everything a beginner needs, including an air still and fermenter with a thermometer, as well as a carbon filter system with spirit collection, hydrometer, essences, wash components, and other items. A lot of kits also include the directions you need to prepare your favourite cocktails.

Follow the Written Directions

Boiling Beer at Home
Source: allseasonsnashville.com

The process of brewing spirits includes four essential steps – cooking, fermentation, distilling, and diluting.

Cooking

This part entails selecting your main components, which include wheat, oats, barley, corn, and rye, among others. After you’ve made the choice, use the spirit brewing equipment to make the drink base, also known as the mash or wash. You’ll find all the information you need on how to go about cooking on the sheet of instructions.

Fermentation

Once you’ve made the wash, it’s time for it to ferment. For this step, you need to add yeast, acid, or pectinase, which is known to boost the methanol content, pour the mash into the barrel, and secure the fermentation lock. You’ll need to set this away to ferment after it’s finished. Fermentation times vary depending on the sort of spirit you’re creating.

Distilling

The temperature at this stage is determined by the sort of spirit you’re making. You don’t have to worry, as this information will be given in detail on the instructional leaflet that comes with the package. When it comes to how many times you should distil – it all boils down to the amount of ABV alcohol in your mash.

If it’s less than 10%, you’ll have to do it twice, however, if it’s more than 10%, you’ll just have to do it once. Whether or not you use high-grade mash determines how long your mash will rest before going on to the diluting process. In some cases, you may have to wait six months.

Diluting

Although you can bottle up your spirits after distilling, their alcohol concentration will be too high unless you plan on preserving them in wooden caskets. This is why you need to test the alcohol concentration and add the proper amount of water to get the desired results. There are online calculators that can assist you if you are unsure about the figures. Homebrewing is one of the most fun and beneficial activities for moderate alcohol consumers. If you’re a beer lover instead, check out this post on brewing your own beer!

By Anthony Hendriks

The life of the party, Anthony is always up for spending some time with family and friends, when not blogging of course! Ever since a child, his love for books of mystery, race cars and travelling keeps on growing so it's difficult for him to single out that one all-time favourite hobby. If there's one thing he hates, though, it's having pictures taken but you already guessed that from his choice of plant photo for the blog.