We absolutely love it here but I will be the first to admit that it isn't for everybody. In fact probably not for most. Many have been griping about being isolated now but it's a way of life here. Now in all fairness all of the 15 acres are not useable land. About 5 acres are cleared in the holler but some of that is taken up by the two streams running through it. The other 10 are mountain. It's gorgeous scenery, just not real useful except for hunting.

I work in a packing plant. We process 13-1500 sows a day. We are running balls out. We are going to start running butcher hogs on Saturdays because one of other plants can't get hogs.

I can't help but think retailers might be creating some of the shortages themselves. I was in Walmart the other day (our biggest customer) and there were none of our products in the cooler. That's really weird since they are getting every bit of the product they order. It was also odd since the previous three times the cooler was full, but beef was empty. It was reversed the other day.

Just think if the nightly news said there was gonna be a shortage of hand soap or beer or even socks, you know there would be a run on any and all mentioned.

I think its all just getting really stupid.

It's not hard at all. About $150 in equipment and a source for extract kits and you're in. Some guys do it from all grains but I haven't got that far yet. Lots of sources for extract kits so that's how I do it. Just cracked open a bottle of Golden Ale last night from my most recent batch. Finishing up a Saison batch and a couple bottles of Session IPA still to go. Next up...an American Pale Ale. Then the wife wants me to do a batch of seltzer(White Claw)

Edit: Here's a starter kit.....add a LP burner and you're brewing...or some guys use the stove. You'll need some bottles https://www.northernbrewer.com/coll...ts/brew-share-enjoy-homebrew-starter-kit

There is no need to go down south. There are some nice folks in the Leonard area that make some good apple-jack shine! I would live to build a still and dabble in this!

There are some nice folks in the Leonard area that make some good apple-jack shine!

Cough, cough, thats really more of the area I was talking about just didnt want to post it.




quote=RobG]

All 'Shine' starts as BEER. Once you have the brewed beer, minus hops, you just strain off the liquid from the wort, run the beer thru the still a few times and discard the used wort. Used wort is good feed filler for cattle or goats.

Any thing can be brewed into raw beer. The more raw sugar in the plant the better. Blackberry vines, potatoes, corn, sugar cane.....

I know a guy that has a Whisky distellry. He is buying beer from our local distributors that is pulled off the store shelf's due to age or not selling. He runs it thru his still 4 times and all the hop flavor is gone. He is buying CASES of Corona Especial real CHEAP. This Corona is still good beer but he can not resell it, nor can he give it away. It must be dumped into his wort vat.

You are using the term “Beer” extremely loosely. Moonshine can be made from anything from pure sugar to fruits, and, corn, and many other grains than barley.

Yes, loosely used term of making the pre fermented product. I kind of skipped a lot. Yes BEER is a un distilled wort. Wort can be made from many different starchy/sugary stuff.
To make basic shine you can use a liquid like sugar or molasses. But most will make a mash of different items of grains. The mash is most times cooked down to a syrupy liquid. The liquid is strained off. The mash is most times dumped or fed to livestock. Sometimes some mash is saved to start a Sour Mash. What comes out as liquid is a slurry of unfiltered wort. So you filter the wort and add any sugary to boost the fermenting. Each wort has a different flavor depending on what its brewed with and added. Like juniper berry's to flavor gin

Distilled RICE wort, Soju is one that will kick your butt. But some Korean makers used to add just a bit more formaldehyde as a preservative. Slight amounts of formaldehyde will show up in brewing but not enough to cause much problem. But O-B beer and Osker beer in Korea were known to have higher than natural amounts.

I like rice with my Teriyaki, but rice does not belong in Beer.

This is a Mopar site so a moonshine class its not.

"Modern Marvels" has two great episodes on breweries and distilleries.

mexicans do what usa youth wont do, desides usa dont wont lazy usa workers and want cheap workers. I am not a mexican just a usa worker that worked hard [thing of the past\]

In USA's winter time we buy fruit and viggies from Chile. During our growing season up here in USA we sell fruit and Veggies back to Chile during their winter time.

Yes in USA the average person will not accept working the long hard hours that a Migrant worker will. The large Corp farming groups exploit the migrant workers, paying them below minimum wage and then charging them rent and other things. What money the migrant workers can save they send most of it back home to feed their families there.

So to get this all back to USA workers doing the work in USA, the pay would need to triple and health beni's paid, so the costs at the store would need to quadruple..... No win.

Maybe I'm a skeptic but I see these plants like Tyson using this as a way to make more money.

Step 1 - Tell everyone that the meat supplies are going to dry up and create a panic buy like the great toilet paper rush of 2020.
Step 2 - Close a few plant and tell farmers they can't buy their products because of low production. This creates price drop from the surplus animals.
Step 3 - Step back and enjoy the money from higher prices, lower labor, and lower supply costs.

I won't be buying Tyson again.

Another option: automate everything. I just sent a custom circuit board off to a client that's developing a system to photograph and determine if certain fruit is ready to be picked, then have a robot reach out and gently pick it.

These systems can work pretty much whenever, and while they need high wage people to design them, they don't need hardly anyone to run them. And they don't get sick like humans, or poo in the fields causing other outbreaks, or need health insurance.

What's that phrase that gets tossed around? "Never let a good crisis go to waste."

The meat packing plants definitely have a problem with the virus going around, so it probably is a good thing to close them for a while. That doesn't mean that Tyson won't take advantage of it in the meantime, I just don't think it's the primary reason they're closing plants. But I could be wrong

You build PCB’s in the USA? That’s rare, I worked for a prototype shop from 88 to 99. Most of that industry went to Singapore in the 90’s.

Yes, but it's all low volume stuff, like the Fan Controller The bare PCBs are made in the US, and I found a smaller assembly house in the US that is remarkably inexpensive and does good work.

The board in question was a single prototype I hand assembled and tested (and wrote the software for). Hopefully they'll need more