Best 1 Gallon Moonshine Still
Do you want great tasting shine without the large (and expensive) equipment? Get the best 1 gallon moonshine still.
Making moonshine is a traditional hobby that has been quickly soaring in popularity around the world, best especially in the United States.
With the popularity of the Discovery Channel docuseries ‘Moonshiners’ as well as many popular ‘moonshine’ products available for purchase, more and more people want to make their own spirits.
What is Moonshine?
While the term moonshine has often been linked with a clear grain-based alcohol, but the truth is moonshine is a term that encompasses any spirit that is made illicitly.
The term ‘moonshine’ was coined due to the fact that moonshine was often made and run ‘by the light of the moon’ in order to avoid detection.
Of course moonshine was not always illegal. In fact, making moonshine was a popular pastime for early American pioneers seeking a profitable way to use their excess grain. In fact, whiskey was even a form of currency at one point.
Check out: Is Moonshine Illegal?
However, this all came to a head when rising costs associated with the American revolutionary war were answered with the taxation of spirits in the United States.
How Much Does 1 Gallon of Moonshine Cost?
One of the most attractive aspects of making moonshine is its versatility. The first step of making moonshine is to make a mash. The choice of recipe and type of mash will play a large role in not only the cost of your moonshine, but also your final product.
In general, there are three different types of moonshine mash you can make: sugar, fruit, or grain.
Sugar Shine
Sugar shine is by far the cheapest (and easiest) mash to make. Sugar shine is nothing more than sugar, water, and yeast. With these simple ingredients in mind, you can produce a gallon of moonshine for only a few dollars.
While choosing to make sugar shine may seem like a no-brainer, the final result is not comparable to the other two (more expensive) types of moonshine mash.
Sugar shine will produce a neutral clear spirit that is ideal for flavoring to replace almost any of the liqueurs in your favorite adult beverages.
However, it will not produce a spirit that has a high alcohol by volume (ABV) that many look for when making moonshine.
Instead, you will produce a spirit with an ABV similar to a commercial spirit like vodka. It’s a cheap way to fill your liquor cabinet, but won’t give you a traditional moonshine proof.
Fruit Mash
Fruit mash is one that is a bigger investment, but offers a great payoff. A single gallon of mash can use between one and two and a half pounds of fruit.
The cost to make this type of moonshine per gallon will vary based on the type of fruit and whether or not it is season.
If purchasing a large amount of fruit, it often makes sense to seek out a local farmer to purchase overripe fruit for a discount.
While making fruit mash often includes lots of prep work, it makes a delicious shine. A fruit mash will make a moonshine with a high ABV and lots of kick and burn with a subtle fruity flavor.
Those who want a more pronounced fruit flavor with a high ABV will either flavor their shine during the distillation process, or infuse it with fruit flavor afterwards.
Grain Mash
Those who want to make moonshine often want to try their hand at the traditional grain moonshine recipe.
In general, you will need just under a lb of grain per gallon of moonshine mash. However, the costs involved will vary widely depending on the type of grain used. In addition, you will need to either include a malted grain in your recipe or add an enzyme like amylase in order to convert your grain into fermentable sugar.
While the costs will vary, you can currently get about 50lbs of cracked corn for under $13. It may be a large upfront investment, but the price per gallon would be relatively low.
How Much Moonshine Will I Get From 1 Gallon of Mash?
While there are many factors that will affect your final outcome such as recipe, sugar content, and number of runs, in general, here is what to expect in return for your runs.
- 1 gallon run will yield 3-6 cups of alcohol
- 5 gallon run will yield 1-2 gallons of alcohol
- 8 gallon run will yield 1.5-3 gallons of alcohol
- 10 gallon run will yield 2-4 gallons of alcohol
What is the Best 1 Gallon Moonshine Still?
A good moonshine still should have a few important features: it needs to be a quality build, it needs to be easy to use and it needs to produce great tasting shine.
While the above points are all great considerations, it is also important to consider size. Of course, many people likely assume that when it comes to moonshine stills, bigger must always be better. However, this is not always the case.
Of course, there are some benefits from owning a large still, like the 50 litre Magnum All-in-One Still Kit.
The Magnum’s large capacity means that you can make a large quantity of moonshine all at once. Depending on your consumption needs, you can make enough shine to last you a season or a whole year in a single run.
However, bigger equipment is more difficult to store. While the Magnum does offer the advantage of being able to act as both a still and a fermentor (which saves money and storage space) many large stills also require you to purchase a fermentor.
Compared to the Magnum, the Mist 1 Gallon Air Still is small. In fact, the Mist is about the size of your kitchen kettle and just as easy to use.
With its small size also comes a simple design. While most traditional stills use an outside heat source, the Mist uses electricity. This means that it offers a plug and play design that means you can run your mash as simply as pressing a button.
Get started shining with the simplest still ever. Get your Mist today!