Home Distiller

I'm a member of a few forum sites, and I've never met so many dickheads on any other forums who feel the need to abuse noobs as much as they do on here.

I have a recipe that asks for, among other things, 2 cups of water and 1/2 a cup of instant coffee. If I want to use plunger coffee, can I just use 1/2 a cup of plunger coffee powder and leave it in 2 cups of boiling water for a few minutes, in the same way that you would make a normal cup of coffee...

Even the best alcohol can give you a terrible hangover, or worse, if consumed in excessive amounts.

rad14701 wrote:Male or female, drunk babysitting is not a fun thing to do... Been there, done that... It gets old after the first time... Well, actually, it gets old during that first time...

If it's a decent looking female, then drunk babysitting can be really fun!

center hearts of a good neutral run will smell of virtually nothing after it has been aired for a while, just a little bit burney in the nose before it is cut down. If your cuts or still aren't that great, you'll probably end up with a sweet smell and taste, slightly chemical, almost like a really ...

Super 6 is not a turbo yeast.

Would apple juice concentrate work alright?

You could always put some neutral spirit in your airlock.

I caramelized some sugar, and added it to some neutral spirit in an attempt to make a caramel liqueur, but the caramel goes hard and crystallizes instead of dissolving into the spirit. Is there anything I can do to dissolve it in the spirit?

Maggots don't appear for no reason. What was in your airlock to attract the flies in the first place?

I have one of these stills and I have packed it with that Essencia brass mesh. It puts out alcohol at 88%ABV, and it sits at a constant 78C for the whole hearts run. All I do is check up on it every 15 minutes to make sure the temperature is all good.

I have a container of bread making yeast that is about 7 months past its best before date. It has been sitting in a fridge for that entire time. Is it still OK to use it for a sugar wash, as long as I add extra yeast to compensate for it being old?

I'm using feed store molasses, from the same shop which was recommended to me by another guy who makes rum. It's exactly the same molasses as he uses, and he says his rums are very good.

I have been making neutrals for a while now and I'm very happy with the result. I have made 3 batches of rum so far. The first batch was made from 4kg molasses, 4kg white sugar and a packet of Essencia Super 6 yeast, topped up to 24L. Second and third batches were made from 3kg molasses, 3kg sugar, ...

That's the yeast I normally use, and it's definitely better than the turbos in terms of alcohol quality. It's quite slow to ferment in comparison to the turbos as well, and try to keep the temperatures in the low 20s, rather than the 28°C that the yeast packet recommends. You don't have to use finin...

Teddysad wrote:First and easiest thing to check is the Power supply
Swap with another - 2 min job and see if the problem goes away

I'm having trouble finding a PSU to borrow off someone, seeing that I need a power outlet for PCI-E and SATA drives.

I installed a second hand motherboard to my computer, and all was good for the first 3 days. I ran several benchmark tests, and it performed flawlessly under load. Then it started randomly turning itself off for no apparent reason. It will be working fine, then suddenly it's as if a ghost is in the ...

flip wrote:who s coming to watch, in south africa, if any ?

What part of South Africa you from, I'm originally from Cape Town.

kiwistiller wrote:No I don't mean the adding a quarter of whatever, I mean the measuring 500ml or whatever. you really need to learn to make cuts by taste and smell.

I really should get a whole lot of jars and label them, then make my cuts that way. I really do need to learn about making cuts indeed.

One more thing, if I want to make golden rum do I then water it down to 65%ABV and age it in bourbon barrel oak for a few months? And if I make a 500mL heads cut, do I add 1/4 of the heads into the hearts, even with white rum? Do I also add tails into the hearts until the temperature goes above 90C...

I don't need much copper though in the condensor do I? Will a 1cm layer of scrubbers be enough?

One more thing, if I want to make golden rum do I then water it down to 65%ABV and age it in bourbon barrel oak for a few months? And if I make a 500mL heads cut, do I add 1/4 of the heads into the hearts, even with white rum? Do I also add tails into the hearts until the temperature goes above 90C?

Dnderhead wrote:aaa,,, whould not that sort of remove the flavor? or part of it.

That's the part I wasn't too sure about.

Does having copper in a still make the the alcohol much better than ceramic rings or stainless scrubbers, assuming that the ABV is the same?

I used 4kg molasses and 4kg white sugar to make a 25L wash. The airlock stopped bubbling 2 days ago and the SG has been 1.018 for the past 2 days. Does that sound like it's finished? And how much dunder should I add to my fermenter considering it's my first batch of rum?

Do you guys carbon filter your rum? And if you do, do you carbon filter it before or after aging it in oak?

kiwistiller wrote:copper mesh, or stainless. and, yeah, there is a lot of info RE packing in the parent site. but no worries. should go up to a few inches below takeoff, depending on still design. pics are helpful

+1 to that.

Mr.Spooky wrote:

Dnderhead wrote:excess nitrogen and a alkaline wash=ammonium+copper= blue distillate
(DUMP IT IN A SAFE PLACE) mite be good for a ant hill ?

this hasent hapened to me,,, yet, but what causes the excess nitrogen and a alkaline ?

Excessive amounts of nutrients added to your wash.

I was talking to a family friend tonight who says that his Essencia Express still (90%ABV from a 12%ABV wash) produces a nice rum from 4kg molasses and 4kg brown sugar, so I'll see what my still can make.

My still produces alcohol at 88%ABV with brass scrubbers in it, but if I take the scrubbers out and put rings in then the alcohol output drops down to 80%ABV, so should I just have rings in my condenser for rum runs?