Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Home Distiller's Workbook: Your Guide to Making Moonshine, Whisky, Vodka, Rum and So Much More! Vol. 1

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chris blackman

Good book to learn from

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2023

I love the little book ton of information. Great little read.

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Critical reviews›

Amazonimus Prime

Good and concise

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2013

I wish I could give this a 3 and a half star review. The book was good in its rudimentary concepts. Nice for the beginner. It was obvious that the author had knowledge and background on distilling. However, he uses Wikipedia for the only source of information. This might be nitpicking but it's still something that helps to take away some of the legitimacy of the author. He also says a few things about laws that are also not true.
Otherwise, this book has good information about the basics and how to get yourself started with cheap no frills stills and how to create ones that are a little more professional.

2 people found this helpful

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chris blackman

Good book to learn from

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2023

Verified Purchase

I love the little book ton of information. Great little read.

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Jeremy Conroy

Affordable, Tasty, Homemade Spirits.

Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2013

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This is a good book, for beginners looking to make there own spirits. My State has the highest tax on liquor in the country. After buying this book I have saved a ton of money. I rarely ever buy liquor at the store anymore. So it was definitely worth $5. Having said that some of the recipes are off. The recipe for tequila calls for 32oz of blue agave for every gallon of mash. 32oz might be right if you were making 6 to 8 gallons of mash. The recipes I've had the greatest success with are whiskey and moonshine. The whiskey I make is pretty much moonshine with aged oak chip flavored water added to it. I just cook the oak chips in my oven, fill up a jar with water, add the chips, stick them in my fridge and let them age. Once I've made a batch of moonshine, I poor some in a jar, add some oak chip flavored water, filter it with a carbon filtered britta water filter, then presto I got a decent tasting whiskey with out too much waiting time. Moonshine is extremely easy to make, but you have to have a lot of time on your hands to make it. I usually make a gallon at a time which require you to make about 8 gallons of mash. distilling all that mash is an all day thing. You can buy stills on EBAY. I recommend the one that comes with a fish tank pump. The fish tank pump recirculates the water, so you don't have use a lot of water. I bought a 2 gallon still, then when I got good, I used that design to make a larger 5 gallon still on my own. Anyway, I'm going to stop making alcohol now, I gave both my stills away to a friend. I just don't have the time anymore. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a rewarding, yet time consuming, hobby and shares a love for affordable, tasty, homemade spirits.

53 people found this helpful

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Michael Magda

Good Read for beginners

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2024

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This book was an eye opener, everyone that is interested in making moonshine should read it. Very informative, nice job Jeff

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Amanda

Love this so informative and funny!

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2024

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Hilarious read!! I love the
little bit of humor in this!!! My hubby just kept giving me weird looks as I sat reading and giggling! And then I called him a schmuck!

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SellWholesale

Fantastic Intro to Distilling

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2013

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I was curious about distilling and picked this book up based on price and other favorable reviews. I now highly recommend this book to any other curious souls. The author clearly knows what he's talking about and has walked the walk. There are very clear instructions on how to make your first batch using ingredients as simple as frozen corn! I enjoyed the bits of humor sprinkled throughout the book. It really gives a glimpse into the life of this true moonshiner. Let this be your first book about distilling. You won't be disappointed.

P.S.
For those in the United States...please write to your local politicians pleading for them to approve a home-use distilling bill. Currently it's illegal for us to distill alcohol in the USA without a license, which is basically impossible to get. The author prices this at $50k, but I've also done some research, putting the full initial investment around $600k to jump through all the necessary hoops. Either way, it's impossible for us normal people to try. Some people simply want to try such an interesting craft, like those who brew their own beer or wine at home. There's no reason for alcohol distillation to be illegal. Seriously, write to your politicians today. Right now. Don't forget! :-)

2 people found this helpful

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Amazonimus Prime

Good and concise

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2013

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2 people found this helpful

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Sparkle

Very Thorough!

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2011

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I read this book last night. One of my friends has offerred to show me the ropes of distillation. The author seems to know a lot about this topic and it shows. In this book, he discusses the different types of distilling, the equipment needed when buying or making your own and the methodologies for producing the results. He offers up shopping lists, pictures and links to sites that can also be helpful. He does all of this with a charming style and a sense of humor.

He also offers some VERY important tips that prevent problems you would encounter if you were trying to just figure out on your own.

He includes some recipes - that include the ratios needed to produce product. Recipes for things like Whisky, Grappa, Scotch, Schnapps and Fuit Liquors.

He even tells you how to prevent your spirits from being "off".

I'll still be glad for personal instruction, but this book sure has helped me get ready for it and will be a great reference tool.

113 people found this helpful

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Yusuf Zahri

Very, very basic intro to topic

Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2021

Verified Purchase

The book is conversational in tone.

The book starts with some stories about how the author saw his first still after offering a toke on his ditch weed to a moonshiner. That sets the tone.

There is some great information. Like panning for gold, you will have to shift and work a bit to find the shiny objects.

Key facts, alcohol starts to boil at 170 degrees and water boils at 212 degrees (all in Fahrenheit). So, keep the temperature of the mash between those two temperatures. Collect and throw out the first ounce of distillate because there is bad stuff. The middle portion is good, solid alcohol. Then, when the smell changes and the discharge starts to get "greasy" stop. It is the tail, and it is not so good.

All in all, this is a wonderful book and entertaining too.

12 people found this helpful

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Valued Customer

A very, very basic book. Don't waste your money.

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2015

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This book was massively disappointing, I don't know how it has so many positive reviews.

First of all, the book is tiny. It's got 80 pages of large print, widely spaced text with a few basic diagrams thrown in. If you shrank the print size and spacing down to normal book sizes I think you'd be looking at about 40 pages, which is pretty paltry. I read it in about an hour.

Second, the information presented is poorly laid out, frustratingly lacking in detail, and poorly edited. The book jumps around with little sense of flow, repeats itself, and uses Wikipedia as it's only reference.

Third, despite promising to in the title, it doesn't actually teach you to make Moonshine, Whiskey, or Vodka!! It doesn't seem like too much to ask a book to actually deliver on the promises in it's title, but incredibly this book fails at that. This book gives sketchy "recipes" without any details on what to do with the ingredients for Moonshine, Whiskey, etc... but amazingly says right there on page 60: "In this book we don't really have time to cover everything...so we are going to make rum." Then the author says that if you want to actually learn all the steps for making something other than rum, you'll need to buy his other books!! What kind of shady bait and switch nonsense is this?

Finally, as other reviewers have noted, the author has a bizzare habit of arguing nastily in the comments with folks who give his book low reviews. Had I read the reviews more thoroughly before purchasing this I would have seen the warnings for everything I've listed here, noted the strange way the author responds to constructive criticism, and gone elsewhere.

There are other, much better books availible. If you want a short and sweet guide to whiskey and distilling that actually provides all the steps you will need to make your first batch of whiskey or bourbon I recommend How to Make Whiskey:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Whiskey-Step-Step/dp/1480174408/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1EW7Q3MVSRZ54CEAREJD

309 people found this helpful

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L.D.Disselbrett

The book is ok

Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2023

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Easy read takes 5 min to get through it

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