How to Make Homemade Whiskey in 9 Steps

By Wil Fulton

We enlisted the help of Allen Katz, Master Distiller at the prestigious NY Distilling Co. to see how you might be able to make whiskey at home... that is if it weren't super dangerous and illegal. Let your imagination run wild.

Whiskey is by definition a grain-based spirit. You've got options here: corn, rye, wheat, or barley -- or a blend of multiple grains. Corn is likely the least expensive grain to buy in bulk, and probably the easiest grain to work with on a small scale.

Step 1: Choosing your base

You would have to cook the corn at an exceedingly high temperature to expose the sugars in the grains. "The easiest and simplest way to do this," Katz said, "might be to get a home brewing kit for beer, and just use it as a distilling kit in the initial stages."

Step 2: Cooking your base

Once your corn is cooked and mashed (using a rolling pin is fine), it's yeast time! This is when you add the all-important yeast to your cooked corn mush, beginning the several-day fermentation period. Again, you might want to opt to repurpose a home-brewing kit to streamline the process.

Step 3: Starting fermentation

Katz recommends heading to your local distillery to figure out how your mash should taste before you start the distilling process. "At first, it will go from the sweetest oatmeal you've ever had, to something that is fairly sour. That's the first sign that you are converting your sugar into alcohol."

Step 4: Getting your fermentation just right

You need to strain your mash into some type of still. In Katz's words, you need to be "damn sure" there are no leaks in your still: once alcoholic vapor is produced, the whole operation becomes extremely combustible -- which can result in explosions. Some companies do sell small-scale stills for this very purpose, thankfully.

Step 5: Putting your mash in a still

Once your mash is securely in a still, it's kind of out of your hands for a while. You need to make sure your mash is at a piping hot 80 degrees Celsius as that's the temperature where alcohol evaporates.

Step 6: Playing the waiting game

At that level of heat, the alcohol inside the mash will be converted to vapor, and turned into a "refined distillate" with the help of a condenser, which should have cold water running constantly around it. The vapor that rises inside the still, is basically converted back to liquid which pours into a new container.

Step 7: Shocking the vapor

The first 100 milliliters or so from a 5-gallon batch should probably be tossed. Not only is it potentially dangerous to drink (it can be comparable to pure methanol), it also might not taste that great.

Step 8: Making sure your liquor is tasty... and safe

If you want to call your fresh new batch of alcohol real "whiskey," you need to let it age in a barrel first. A smaller volume batch of alcohol will require smaller barrels to be fully effective so it "will be able to absorb the qualities of the wood."

Step 9: Bringing it all back home with barrel aging

It takes a lot of risk, trial and error, and overall effort to do it right. Be careful! Alternatively, use this new knowledge to impress your friends over a glass of the good stuff, instead of trying your hand at making it at home.

The big, final piece of advice

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