Ingredients:
50 lbs. corn meal
200 lbs. sugar
200 gallons water
12 oz. yeast
10 lbs. bran (optional)
Makes ~ 36 gallons.
To boiled corn meal add the yeast and sugar to ferment the mash.
When the mash quits bubbling, it is cooked in the still and the steam is captured in a barrel filled with water (the “thump”).
From the thump, the steam is allowed to cool and condense by running it through a long copper coil (the “worm”) submerged in another barrel (the “flakestand”) that is constantly cooled with water troughed in from a nearby stream.
Condensed, the clear liquor drips from the bottom of the flakestand into a catch can or 1/2 gallon glass jars.
The liquor is tested for alcohol content, or “proof,” by adding gunpowder to it and igniting the mixture.
If it burns, its “proof” is established at somewhere between 100 and 200 proof or 50% to 100% pure alcohol.