Being a Discworld nerd I have determined to attempt to make scumble in my freezer. And knowing the DIY nature of many on the 'Dope, I figure somebody has at least tried it, I’d I’m interested in the story of your success, failure and/or any recommendations. H-E-double hockey sticks, I want to know about anybody’s attempts at home distillation, if ya’ll would be so kind. What do ya’ll say?
I once tried freeze-distilling hard cider in a home freezer (I forget the brand of cider I used, but it was one of the British ones).
I don’t recommend it–it tasted lousy and gave me a horrible headache.
Well, technically you’re not supposed to do it since it is a form of distilling and illegal. However, it’s really unenforceable until someone narcs on you or you’re an idiot that tries to sell it in bulk. That said, I’ve made it a few times before, sure. It can give you a headache since what happens is it concentrates all the different kinds of alcohols that are made during the fermentation process. We don’t taste it in 5% beer or cider because it’s diluted with water. But when it’s concentrated down to 20 - 30% or more it gives you a lot more than you’re used to. I’d post a recipe but I’m not sure if that’s kosher.
Are you sure distilling’s illegal?
Is it any different than making your own beer at home, or wine? I know lots of folks do that, and I’d love to make pear cider; it never occurred to me that was all illegal.
It’s gotta be different; you can get home brewing kits at Walmart, I’m pretty sure.
I’ll look for the specific laws if I have to, but yes, any kind of concentrating of alcohol is illegal in most countries. There are laws pertaining to fermentation of sugars to alcohol, it is legal federally, and in most states. It’s the concentration of the alcohol that is illegal due to tax reasons. There are legal distilleries of course, but they need a distiller’s license and whatever else the ATF deems necessary. Distilling for fuel is exempt but still taxed, but the resulting product has to be denatured.
Yep, he’s right. Distillation, including what I"m doing, is very much illegal in the US. But, thanks to President Carter, homebrew is not. You can make as much beer, wine, cider, alcoholic ham juice as you like. To sell in large quantities however you would need a license, but I don’t think you’d need to jump through a lot of hoops for it though.
You should go ahead and brew something up Taomist. It’s fun! And as you say, you can get a kit from walmart or target and it won’t cost you even a hundred smackers.
Something I’ve wondered about:
In Discworld scumble is always mentioned as being “made from apples … mostly apples”. Does the pregnant pause hide something specific that’s often in homemade applejack or what?
For the record, I seem to recall from my homebrew days that there is a limit to how much you can brew, at least in California.
Don’t make applejack. It’s a bad idea. You concentrate all the worst, most toxic junk (including any incidental methanol) in the unfrozen liquid. Not a good thing to drink.
Besides, by the time you’ve spent the money on the hard cider, you coulda just bought a fifth of the Laird’s bonded, which is better stuff than you’ll ever be able to make at home anyway.
This is true. And I know already that it concentrates all the alcohols beside ethanol in there, which can be isolated in the evaporation distillation process. But that’s not the point. You can go out the a restaurant and eat a really good meal, or you may prefer to stay home and make your own meal. And it may be mediocre, but it tastes good because you made it yourself. That’s the point.
Sounds exactly like scumble
Something made entirely from apples would be wholesome and crisp, not the barely disguised paintstripper that Nannie Ogg doles out. The pause just adds menace (as if Nannie Ogg wasn’t menacing enough on her own).
Oh, and the persistent rumors of Scrumpy brewers hanging meat in the vat to add body (maybe a dead rat or so).
Si