I was bottling my homemade coconut rum (from Midwest Supplies) last night, and this tastes wonderful. I’m going to be making some homemade grog from it, plus it’s great on the rocks or in a smoothie.

The process is long and involved and requires much more attention during the fermentation. Add sugar to water, boil, cool, add yeast. THEN, rack after three days, monitor fermentation, add packets A and B, wait another day, add packet C, blah, blah, blah, until finally I’m on packet F. Six extra steps! I think I’m too lazy to do it again, even though the end result is delicious.

However, it’s not as clean and bright of a tropical flavor as I would like, and despite following all of the directions, it’s still cloudy. I did multiple rackings and filtrations to rid it of the carbon haze, but no luck.

So, as a chemist in my right mind, I’m thinking that it would help if I distilled that stuff before adding the coconut flavoring. I am woefully aware of the laws of our country that forbid distillation of alcohol by the private individual. But why? I brew my own beer all of the time. It certainly isn’t a safety issue, so what is it?

I would think that even the religions that prohibit alcohol use would be delighted if this were legal. Well, not delighted, but not unhappy either… every beer I brew of my own is money the alcohol industry doesn’t gain. As a political conservative, it appeals to my desire not to pay the large “sin??? taxes levied on certain industries.

So what’s the deal? And, in a country where counties fight to STAY dry counties, is it a hopeless case for me to lobby?

I’m annoyed.
Taste: [rate 3.5]
Ease: [rate 0.5]