It's best to ferment your moonshine mash in a glass container. Don't ferment your mash in a wooden or low grade plastic container. Making the best moonshine mash will come with practice. Experiment with different containers, amounts of oxygen exposure, and even types of airlocks.
Suitable Containers, Covers and Weights for Fermenting Food
Food-grade plastic and glass containers are excellent substitutes for stone crocks. Other 1- to 3-gallon non-food-grade plastic containers may be used if lined inside with a clean food-grade plastic bag.
Glass Containers: Easy to Find
Glass is one of the best options for fermenting vegetables because it doesn't scratch easily, nor does it contain chemicals such as BPA.
Typical brewing applications for stainless steel include kettles, mash tuns, fermenters, bright tanks, beer cooling systems, piping systems, valves, and fittings. 304 grade and 316 grade stainless steel are the two most popular stainless steel alloys used in brewing.
A Small Ceramic or Glass Dish
Mini jelly jars, condiment dishes or small dessert ramekins that fit inside the mouth of the jar work very well to weigh down fermenting veggies. Partially fill the jar with water to create extra weight or add these jars on top of fermentation weights to help keep vegetables submerged.
The number one concern is to reduce contamination from pathogens. This can be helped by using glass instead of plastic containers to store your ferments.
Mason Jar. A plain old Mason jar can do the trick when it comes to fermentation. Make sure you're generally working with a wide-mouth jar (I like to use these half-gallon-sized jars). This is important because you want to be able to get things in and out with ease, so a narrow-mouth jar can be difficult.
Releasing the carbon dioxide in your mash can be as simple as shaking your fermentation bucket, removing the lid to allow the carbon dioxide to escape and repeating as necessary. You can also use a big whisk to agitate your wash/mash and then let the carbon dioxide escape out of the top.
Stirring May Introduce Oxygen Into the Mash
Stirring mash after adding yeast may allow oxygen to enter the mash or wort, especially when stirring from the top. This is something you don't want to happen. Fermentation is an anaerobic process, which means it needs to be free of oxygen to proceed without disruption.
It depends on what type of wash you have but as a general rule of thumb, it is best to distil within 2-3 days after fermentation is complete. The wash will keep for up to a month so long as the fermenter is airtight.
Bulk Fermentation Bowl – Plastic
Cambro makes a popular line of food storage containers. Many bakers use these for bulk fermentation.
Primary fermenters are used to begin fermenting your beverage. It is food grade and has a 6.5 gallon capacity. Includes bucket and a drilled gasketed (airtight) snap-on lid. Fermenter is printed with gallon markings.
Most pilot- and large-scale fermenters are made of corrosion-resistant stainless steel, although mild steel with stainless steel cladding has also been used. Cheaper grades of stainless steel may be used for the jacket and other surfaces isolated from the broth.
Though both fermentation buckets and carboys work well for fermenting beer, buckets tend to be best for primary fermentation and carboys for secondary fermentation and aging. If you anticipate needing to get inside the fermenter during fermentation (to add dry hops or to stir a mead), a bucket may be your best bet.
Stainless steel is used widely for commercial fermentation, but of a quality that is resistant to corrosion; ordinary pots and pans should not be used. Aluminum, copper, and silver do react to acids and should be avoided.
To avoid air contamination, you should keep your fermenting product in a sealable storage container. Many home fermenters use a simple mason jar with a lid to lock out air, but there are other alternatives. Typically, storage containers have a valve to vent carbon dioxide gas released during fermentation.
Try not to disturb the vegetables during fermentation to reduce the amount of oxygen reaching the vegetables so that mold doesn't develop.
The quickest you can properly make moonshine is about two weeks. However, you really should let mash ferment for at least a week itself, so the best moonshine will usually take closer to a month to complete. Moonshine recipes all have their own timelines, so this may vary depending on what you want to make.
Moonshine mash made with Turbo yeast will ferment within 4-5 days. If you use bread yeast, it may take up to 1 week for the mash to ferment. Check the mash for large bubbles on the surface. After 4-5 days, check the mash to see if there are large bubbles that are moving very slowly or sitting on the surface.
Burping is essentially just opening your bottles ever so slightly during the second fermentation process to release air or “excess pressure” in the bottle. Many brewers recommend burping bottles every day, or every other day while your bottles are fermenting at room temperature.
Bread yeast can be purchased in individual packets or in bulk. You can use one tablespoon of yeast per 5 gallons of mash or follow the directions below to make a yeast starter.
If you run your mash too early, you run the risk of getting a lower yield of alcohol as the fermentable sugars are not fully converted into ethanol. You also run the risk of your mash boiling over during the distillation process because of the sugar present in the mash.
Plastic scratches more easily than glass, which may promote contamination. Because of the potential for cross-contamination, plastic may be less suitable than glass for beer brewed with wild yeast and bacteria such as Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus.
A quart-sized jar is perfect for most fermentation recipes like hot sauce or a smaller batch of pickles.
Cross-contamination can also cause an off-taste that is strong and yeasty tasting. Cross-contamination is not bad and will not harm you, but it is best to always use a lid so that you can eliminate these problems. The best method is to use a canning jar with a plastic lid.