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@sunshiner, I am growing bananas here in connecticut (in pots and brought indoors during the winters), I have yet to get them to floresce or fruit. Probably because growth nearly halts during the entire winter. I think I only get one or two leaves of growth during the winter. My oldest banana plant ...

I don't think has been mentioned, but what you are making is described as simple syrup. You have to be careful with this. If you do not use it right away, it will start to grow black mold almost immediately. I.e. don't make it for future use. Sugar water will eventually get infected and ferment, sim...

Per you name, are you also a sailor per chance?

right, so I suspect it's about efficiency then. A condenser to cause reflux allows you to use higher heat to boil off vapor faster. So yeah you could do it without a condenser, but why the hell would you want to?

So I am just jumping into this with no real idea whether this counts or not, but doesn't a reflux top on a column simply increase the theoretical length of the column? What if you just made a column long enough that the ambient temperature would be enough to cool off the column enough that the vapor...

don't forget to crack the lid after you shake the bottle or the CO2 will go back into solution.

looks like a copper barrel tap. I found one that looks JUST like it.

https://smile.amazon.com/Beverage-Dispe ... way&sr=8-6

looks like a copper barrel tap

from darkness he

To make grappa proper, you need to distill pomace. Else you have something different (brandy, acquavite d'uva) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grappa Yer right, I didn't realize that. I had always thought that what made it grappa was to run a 2nd fermentation on the skins and distill it. I didn't rea...

I had a beer (not for distilling), that fermented through overnight. I was so unready for this that I assumed it was just stuck at the beginning and kept trying to remediate the problem untill I finally checked the SG and discovered it was already finished even though there was no sign of a krausen ...

in making grappa you necessarily have solids in the kettle

Well you could press it just prior to distilling. If you are making wine with grapes anyway, you probably already have a press of some sort. You only need the grapes on for the duration of the 2nd run fermentation, not during distillation.

So, I realize this isn't a distillation response, but a vinegar response. If your ABV is too high, just add water to bring the ABV down to 6% or below. Unless you are cutting the mixture in half, you won't affect flavor. It's quite normal to make a full strength 12-13% wine and cut it in half with w...

My favorite drinks are situational, note I didn't say Cocktail, because Cocktails are a very specific family of 4 component mixed drink. Look that up. Formal Setting: Dirty Martini Beach or Boat: Rum Punch or Planters Punch Pina Colada Mohito (Muddled Mint & White Rum Martini) Whole lime squeeze...

Crystal Light is a powdered lemonade like product. you mix it with water to make lemonade.

sherry flor develops a very thick pellicle, and it part of what makes it sherry rather than just a rich wine.

Since that day I usually purposely make some of it into vinegar...that is until my wife threw out mu mother a couple months ago. Now that right there, that's funny!!! You must have missed this part cranky wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2017 10:57 pm I actually wait 30 days for the cider to ferment, then rack ...

Well yeah that why I posted the story. It was so fast I didn't know it happened. yes it had alckihol in it too. Probably wasn't the best because of the fast run, but it wasn't bad. I remember that much. this also happened many years ago like the early 90s, so I don't remember all the particulars, bu...

THanks, if its ok with you, I'd like to combine them so it doesn't look so silly. I did the second one because I couldn't find my first post and didn't want to get into trouble.

cranky, I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to ask something that you didn't mention nor did anyone else ask. In my experience, apple throws a LOT of lees (yeast sediment). I have seen up to 2 inches worth of yeast settle out of apple wine, and still not be clarified. Aren't you afraid of aut...

I'd like to find out what the final result is/was, because my primary interest is apple brandy.

How'd it turn out?

Backstory: When I make apple wine (to drink as wine) I basically use the best malic acid rich apple cider I can get (by taste not by price), and sugar up to 1.090SG. I always find a day later the sugar dissolves even more and it ends up closer to 1.100 after it's stabilized. That's about what I like...

maybe for making likker this doesn't matter so much, but the best apple wine I ever made was from apple cider that had so much malic acid in it that my balls hurt after drinking it. From then on that was how I chose my cider to make wine, and I wasn't sorry for it...least not too sorry for too long....

I once had a beer that fermented dry quite literally overnight. I pitched yeast, the next morning checked and said Hrmm, the yeast did nothing. I mean it did NOTHING, just a bucket of raw unchaged fluid. I stirred it up to make sure I didn't oversulphite and kill the pitched yeast again, and checked...

I have made this mistake with a jar of sulphites, getting too close when smelling it to see if it was still useable....not the same thing obviously, but certainly just as unpleasant a surprise.

Ha, I never thought to check my profile to find my own posts. I just discovered that almost immediately after posting this. Ah well, I added some more info about me and my goals here so hopefully I won't be made too much fun of.

Hi so brand new here. I swear I posted here first, but I can't seem to find that post now, so I am posting again before a moderator feels the need to counsel me :) I used to be a wine and beer maker when I was much younger, and I specialized in making a 14-15% apply wine (both dry and semisweet), th...

Hi Dad, Thanks for the response. I wasn't really looking for a reaction. Just trying to add some more knowledge into the hobby/industry about something I happen to have some knowledge as someone who needs to know in order to keep the ocean from eating their ship. As you said, I would never suspect g...

my initial reaction here is that your principle source of power for the distillation process will come from a bank of batteries. Producing heat for a still is quite a sink of power and the cost of the bank may exceed the value returned. Also keep in mind that even though the panels may be continuous...

While reading the website section on "Distillation" page "Using Salt in Distillation, I read a comment which I am pasting here: make sure you use ordinary non-iodized salt not iodized. Virtually all salt sold in NZ in containers for domestic consumption is iodized. Also be aware that ...