Home Distiller

I'm new to the site and distilling. I have a four gallon pot still on it's way to me. I'm interested in whiskey and rum and have already learned a lot from this forum! I look forward to reading more and meeting people.

Let me be the first to welcome you to the forum! Good news/Bad news, the good news is you will become very good at making cuts or redistill a lot, the bad news is it's really hard to make cuts with that small a boiler. We recommend minimum 5 gallons but most folks here run a still with a boiler between 10-15 gallons.

Thank you sir. I figured, I'd start off small. But I understand what you are saying. I've been doing my reading and learning more and more each day, about many different aspects of this hobby, including the drawbacks of going with a smaller still (when purchasing, I wasn't fully aware of the differences). Hopefully, I'll get the hang of making good cuts with the smaller setup. I'm hoping to get started this week, as soon as my still arrives.

Welcome Capt! You are a leg up to have been reading much and often. But, as an example of the required patience and understanding required to make good product, you see by order of the small still that those are two difficult skills to acquire. Dont let the small size discourage you though, it may even make you a better stiller for having to recognize and pay more attention to your runs. Read and enjoy. Stay safe above all.
GA Flatwoods

Thank you GA! I'm really looking forward to my first run and trying to perform all of the tips and tricks I've read so far. And safety will certainly be a top priority. This site has been an amazing resource so far. I've found answers to so many things I wasn't quite sure about and I can tell that any questions I may have will be answered by some really experienced people.

Not to toot my own horn, but my rum recipe will give you a pretty good output from a 5-gallon (20-liter) ferment. It's not the easiest recipe around, but it does make some darn nice rum, if I do say so myself. (I wouldn't be a bit surprised if I was able to win a few awards with it, honestly.)

Anyway, if you do the full 5-gallon ferment and split that ferment into two 2.5-gallon stripping runs, those should be just about the right size for your 4-gallon still. Then, if you combine the output from both of those stripping runs into a single spirit run, and all goes well, you should wind up with five 750 ml bottles of 90-ish proof rum from a total of three runs -- not too shabby, I don't think.

That's one of the reasons why I developed my recipe the way that I did, so that guys like me with smaller stills could make the most of them.

Just thought I'd toss that out there. Welcome aboard, mate.

Not too shabby at all Bob!! That sounds great. Now the question is... will you share your recipe?

CaptainJ wrote:Not too shabby at all Bob!! That sounds great. Now the question is... will you share your recipe?

Can you see my signature? That's it right there.

Oops, right there in front of me! Thank you.

Bob,
I downloaded your recipe and I'd really like to give a go after I get a few basic runs under my belt. One question I have is where do I get the "live dunder" for my first batch? Is this dunder from any other rum batch?

CaptainJ wrote:Bob,
I downloaded your recipe and I'd really like to give a go after I get a few basic runs under my belt. One question I have is where do I get the "live dunder" for my first batch? Is this dunder from any other rum batch?

If you do a search for "dunder pit" without the quotation marks, you can learn all about it.

Basically you take what's left in your still after a run, put it in a bucket, cover it to keep the worst of the bugs out, and let whatever indigenous bacteria you have in your region do their worst with the dunder.

You kindof have to think "milk" versus "cheese". Milk is what's left in the still after a run, and wild bacteria will take that milk and make it cheesy over the course of a few weeks or months or whatever.

Does that make sense?

And I think you're on the right track trying some easier recipes first. My rum recipe is definitely not for the feint of heart.

I'm thinking you'd do well to try a few runs of Birdwatcher's Sugar Wash Recipe, and then you could save the dunder from one or two of those runs to start off your dunder pit, and use that dunder to start off making rum, once you're ready.

Yeah, I need to do some baisc runs and get acquainted with the process in general and my equipment. After reading so much I just want to jump in and make everything! But I understand I have to learn to crawl first. Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it.