Your Final Product

Using a hydrometer, check the alcohol content of the liquid in the still. If there is less than 20% alcohol in the still, that means that the resulting alcohol is about 80% pure (the other 20% is water) and raw—it won’t taste good.

To get a decent flavor, your alcohol must be aged in sealed containers for months or years (glass is best). Oak chips or moonshine spices will go the extra mile to give it a smooth flavor.

But you can drink this raw alcohol, too. Mix with distilled water to reduce the alcohol content for drinking on the rocks.

We’ll talk about what brandies you could experiment with in our lesson on wine in a few days.

Disclaimer:

• Don’t drink anything from your still until the entire distillation process is over… or, even better, has been repeated once.
• Don’t leave your still unattended during production, it could cause a fire.
• 80% alcohol by volume, no matter how clean, can cause serious injury, blindness, or even death if you drink too much.