Home Distiller

First set was fresh oak chips, 65%ABV aging, tasting at both 50% and 40%. Second set was used oak chips, 65%ABV aging, tasting at both 50% and 40%. Haven't tried the second set yet, because it's still aging. When I dilute it down to drinking strength, the nice whiskey color fades out so it's more wa...

I'm not sure if the woody taste will disappear by keeping it on oak longer, since I am using little heavy toasted oak chips & not sticks, so it may not produce that nice vanilla flavor?

I've come up with a new idea. I just taste tested some stuff I made a few months back. It's been aging on small heavy toasted (store bought) oak chips the whole time. It tastes unpleasantly woody. Most of the corn taste is gone/masked & it just tastes like licking oak, very dry & bitter tast...

I also found I could cut coolant flow by about 75% by adding some stainless steel scrubbie up the take off from about the point where the hot coolant outlet is down to half the length of the liebig big results for a few cents. Good luck. 75% slower, and there will be almost no water coming through ...

Perfect answer, thanks rad!

Updating on the distillate. It smelled very strange, like a chemical peach/banana smell? Tastes slightly of peaches but more of alcohol. Not very good, it's probably because I didn't use enough fruits. Oh well, I didn't get much product from the run either because it fermented very slowly & fina...

After about 4 runs, I have come up with a total of 2.5 gallons of feints, unflavored, averaging around 60% abv. (Mixtures of heads and tails) Now I am thinking about running these for a high abv feints run through a pot still. All feints are from UJSM. I may wait for another run to collect more befo...

Running is a nice time to just chill. I run 12 gallons or so in 4.5 hours or so. Not much work to watch it drip though. Just make sure you have lunch, beer, smokes and so on since you can't run out and leave it unattended. I like to read on hd or play cod. Haha, that's funny. As I was running this ...

I usually run at a near straight up and down angle, maybe very slightly off like 85 degree's. The temp of the liebig all depends on how fast I run the water. If very very slow, the liebig will start getting hot all the way down slowly. If very slow, it will be cold at the bottom, and warmer till the...

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 4#p7256144

There's the new topic.

Alright, so if you have ever seen my build you would know that I used a lot of copper wire inside the condenser. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=49883&start=30 (scroll down) Here's my theory to why I can't run fast without huffing... Due to the large amount of copper wire...

WOW!! I wish I could run 10 gallons in 3.5 hours... My runs vary from 6-8 hours all the way down to 35-37% abv from high 70's. Add another hour for still setup, cleaning, & charging the still. Due to my condenser, I can't run very fast ... I have a theory to what might be the problem which I wil...

Great, thanks. I'll get started & see how she turns out!
If only it didn't take so many hours of running the still, would I be happier with this hobby.

Of course, I break down my still after every run so I gotta put it all back together before each run, and tear down after.

I have 10 gallons of UJSM that has been fermenting for 1 month (untouched) I was too caught up in work to run at all this past month.
(3rd gen)

Is it good to run? Or will it come out bad?

That's a good step forward Cack, didn't think of that one.
Hah, bear; I'm sure most of what we do online wouldn't be appropriate on a resume.

I see Tried and True filled with a few nice recipes, methods, & mashes. I know there is only 52 topics there, but in the future if there were more, it would seem beneficial to organize them in sub-forums. Subforums - Mashes (UJSM, NChooch's Carolina Bourbon, etc...) - Flavoring (Strawberry Panty...

Yes, that's true. Coffee filters are extremely slow at filtering this stuff, slower than getting some drop.
Maybe I'll try to find an ingredient that doesn't use real cinnamon.

Hmm... seemed to turn back to almost regular color after thawing out back to room temp.
Slightly cloudy now instead of clear though.

A 1st gen. batch of ujsm nicely made. Aging on oak & cinnamon sticks. Filtered a pint out early to try today, & tastes great (a little on the sweet side, but still mellow enough). Used a coffee filter (IF anyone knows a better/faster method, that would be much appreciated!) Diluted from 64% ...

Oops... Yep, I was thinking parallel & horizontal in my mind. It's pretty much vertical. Almost straight up and down

Yeah, I have a union on it. I'll try out the 45 degree angle. (I accidentally bent my inner condenser tube when tightening union without a pipe wrench & just using the condenser for leverage, bent it back though, but scary!) I read the angle doesn't make too much of a difference, but I'll defini...

I'm assuming you went with a UJSM-style no-cook sugar mash w/cornmeal. The 1st generation runs of this stuff are supposed to be the sweetest I heard, which so far mine is. Easy problem to solve here, oak em'! Put some nice heavy toasted or charred oak chips/sticks in there & let it age. Tastes g...

It's at about a 5-10 degree angle. Fairly parallel, just slightly adjusted to match up with my parrot a little better.

Just tried some SS Top Shelf - Scotch Whiskey in some UJSM aged in heavy toasted american oak chips. I recommend this, smells & tastes genuine! Nice sweet honey notes w/very noticeable vanilla flavor. UPDATE: Tried this without any oak flavoring, and it changed the color nicely, but did not tast...

I was wondering what the hell "major" was - I even googled it! Haha.

Yeah, starting with ujssm is a great idea.
I started with AG in beer brewing, but now switching to ujssm is like heaven.

Very well could be moisture cackalacky, but it kinda puffed out the moisture on the mirror in a pattern. It isn't visible, but when it really huffs you can see the steam poof out. So I may just be paranoid & you're right about the moisture? I'll try to find a way to make a control valve on the l...

Well, I thought my liebig was doing the job right... It's a ~2 1/4 ft long liebig, 1/2" w/1" jacket & a lot of copper wire for turbulence. If I run the water fast, the jacket stays nice & cool. If I run the water slower, the jacket stays warm at the top, colder at the bottom. Not s...

That makes perfect sense, yep.. got my definitions all mixed up
Thanks for the quick help there.

Ran into another problem now heh, will post in a new topic.

After my 1st generation run, I'm supposed to throw it all (excluding 1st 300ml) back into the fermenters for the 2nd generation? I read this off of the tried & true UJSM topic. Sounds like a strange thing to do, am I supposed to throw it all back in the fermenters or back into the pot/still with...

That sounds juicy, will do copper! Thanks for the tips.
Putting together a quick UJSM right now while the fruit finishes up the next few days.