New Distiller Here

[jmashspirits14]

Hi, I am new to distilling but am fairly familiar with the process. I haven't ran anything just yet but I am finishing my first still tomorrow. I'm making it from an 18 quart pressure cooker modified and going to for now run it to a solid copper worm. I'm going to start with a simple straight corn mash of corn meal, water, sugar, and malted corn but there's a couple things I haven't made my mind up about. Like if I need to use yeast or can just corn malt be used. If I understand correctly yeast can cause bad tasting spirits and hangover. Apparently this is why some use just malted corn I guess. Also trying to figure out just how much of the first liquor has to be thrown out. I only plan on brewing 5 gallons of mash at a time until I get everything figured out and produce a consistent finished product. Yeast does not have to be used if I am understanding correctly, it just ferments faster for those that are impatient. I may fabricate a doubler later on as it is supposed to result in a better tasting more pure product.

[woodshed]

Thank for stepping over here and introducing yourself as requested.
The answer to your question I believe will remain the same. Research, read, remember.
No one creates alcohol with just malt. Not possible. Now dive into the site and find out why. Start in the shallow end.

As far as ol timers go. I am 42 years since entering this craft. Most here will tell you I won't lead you wrong. But I won't take your hand and lead you either.

[thecroweater]

Hi Jmash welcome here, just to kick you off let me tell you how it very basically works. Yeast turns sugar into alcohol now you can use malt to convert starches to sugar but you need a yeast of some sort pretty much everytime

[Tokoroa_Shiner]

No yeast = no alcohol.

[cranky]

No offense meant by this but Stop what you are doing! Step away from the pressure cooker and go read and follow this thread.
http://ww.homedistiller.org/forum/viewt ... 52975//url" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
We want you to be safe and successful and there is so much you are missing.
and welcome to HD

[ShineRunnah]

Another pressure cooker....awesome.

Do yourself a favor and slow down, slow WAY down. Do the required reading on this site and figure out the answers to your questions and replace some of the faulty info you have in your head with more accurate info.

Good luck!

[HDNB]

welcome! did you malt that corn yourself? thats something i jave not come accross in my travels around here yet. if i could find some, i don't think i'd mix sugar in with it, i'd be treating it like gold.
enjoy your time here, there is a ton of information here that will get you making a good drop. that link that cranky offered is excellent. look for kiwistillers guide to cuts within it.

cheers, try to have some fun!

[Truckinbutch]

As per Woodshed ; start at the shallow end of this pool . Forget what you learned (?) other places . Once you get up to speed you will have much fewer questions .
All of us will be willing to help once you have given yourself a solid foundation to work from . None of us will hold your hand and lead you along the path .

[moosemilk]

I posted in your other thread as well. Like said above, start in the shallow end of the pool, otherwise you could end up in the chlorinated part of the gene pool. Whatever you learned on youtube, it's mostly useful as a "what not to do". Best of luck. Hope you take the advice given.

Btw in reference to your other thread, brandy is easy. Not so true. There is more to it than making wine and running it. Brandy is a lot different making cuts than with whiskey which is also different from rum. And often wines have sugar added. Brandy doesn't. There's a bit of free info for ya. Stay safe.

[sltm1]

Nobody asked....aluminum pressure cooker?? Hope not and if it is, you need to do a bunch or reading, also it's a bit small to do good cuts. Check my link below, safety is our 1st rule and intelligence, not guess work is demanded to do this hobby safely. Enjoy the ride!

[skow69]

Welcome jmash. Don't forget to do the cleaning runs. Regarding foreshots, I figure 1 ounce per gallon of original wash.

[jmashspirits14]

I was asked on another thread to elaborate a little but on my introduction so that's what i'm going to do. I appreciate all the help from everyone so far. I believe I have run into a bit of a problem and I don't know what to do. I was asked to talk about my still a little bit and my original still at the time I first posted was what I thought was a stainless 5 gallon pot and a 3/8" copper worm. Well the pot isn't stainless, its a high polished aluminum. I didn't want to use that because of various reasons I have read. I purchased a new all stainless still. 5 gallon pot, doubler, and worm. Well now i've found out that if you have a solid stainless set up you have to either use copper packing or filter the spirits through activated carbon but I cannot really find a black and white answer on this. If its a purely flavor thing i'm not really worried about that right now but I also read that some part of the still that the alcohol vapor comes in contact with must be copper because it neutralizes fusal alcohols. I don't want to produce anything unsafe, but I cannot afford to keep buying stills everytime I make a mistake. If pure stainless stills weren't safe to produce spirits why on earth would they make them! I just really don't know what I should do at this point. I can't buy another still right now. This is why I wish I could find someone local that has been producing good spirits for many years that is willing to teach someone. I could have got the same still but with a copper head and copper worm but I know copper has to be cleaned every so often sure to corrosion and stainless won't corrode so that is why I bought the all stainless still.

[moosemilk]

If your worm is copper, that'll do. If it's not, you'll want to add some copper. Copper helps remove sulphate from your distillate. It'll be drinkable, but not palatable, without copper. A quick cheap fix is to buy yourself a short bit, maybe a foot, of 1.5 preferably 2" copper pipe. Some PURE Copper scrubbies in there. That attaches to your boiler and reduces down to your worm. Make sure your worm is minimum 3/8 INNER DIAMETER (1/2 inch OD...but 1/2 inch ID is best...i have 1/2 inch OD but run it very carefully and never charge my boiler more than 2/3 full). Glad to see you did some research. As you can see, doing research in advance can save you time, money, and possible disaster.

It's a learning curve. We have all had our hiccups. My worse luckily only being a puke once which I caught right away.

Now that you are this far, ask before purchasing, let us know your idea of what you are going to do, and you'll get good response because you have done some research into it!

Happy New year and glad to see you're still aboard!

Edit: check thrift stores and scrap yards. Get to be friends with the local scrap yard guys, it'll come in handy. Often find cheap pipe you can use, stainless kegs and pots, etc at scrap yard. I visit so often that sometimes I get the "nah, just take this one, no charge" treatment. I have acquired a pile of pipe and scrap for next to nothing for future builds.

[HDNB]

I just really don't know what I should do at this point.

The one thing that you can do is slow down and read more, until you understand the whole picture better. then it's a good time to move ahead with experiments.
your copper worm will be enough copper. you don't need charcoal unless you are are having BBQ. Follow a tried and true recipe exactly. read kiwistillers guide to cuts until you get it. read the entire parent site twice and understand the calculators.
then do your three cleaning runs.

then maybe you are ready to run some sweetfeed or UJ

good luck, have some fun!

[cranky]

read the entire parent site twice and understand the calculators.
then do your three cleaning runs.

By all means read the parent site but you need to be aware of some inaccuracies.
(From my spoon feeding thread that is here to help you)

Once you have read and understand all of the above it is time to read the parent site.
The parent site contains a wealth of information but something very important to keep in mind is that some of the information on the parent site is outdated and is now considered unacceptable or unsafe but since you have read all those links I've listed above you will be armed with the knowledge to understand exactly what those are but I'm going to try to do a rundown of the worst stuff so you know what to look out for.

When I started writing this thread I was going to try to list everything that is wrong page by page but after running into the same things over and over again, and since by now you should know the basics, I decided to just list a general description of what to look out for. So here is a list.

#1- There are numerous references to using pressure cookers even a diagram of one which could serve as a what not to do rather than what to do- Don't use a pressure cooker, They have rubber or synthetic seals and most are made from aluminum and there are just much better things to use like a stock pot.

#2 There are also numerous references to rubber, silicon and synthetics which are now considered unacceptable. As you know since you have read the above links.

#3 References to turbo yeast. Turbo yeast is not intended for making drinking alcohol no matter what the guy at the brew shop said. So just ignore anything that tells you turbo is good.

#4 There are several references to using materiel other than stainless steel or copper (IE: paint can, preserving pan {AKA water bath caner}, pressure cookers etc...) Remember that only copper and stainless steel are acceptable material.

#5 Inappropriate use of glass, Don't use glass for a boiler or a thumper or a vodka bottle (or any bottle) for a reflux condenser. Most of the glass we run across every day, including mason jars, is not capable of withstanding the temperature fluctuations of a still so as a general rule glass is not a good idea.

#6 use of small diameter tubing for a worm condenser. The absolute bare minimum size for a worm style condenser is 3/8 inch inside diameter. Even that is considered too small by many. 1/2 inch is better because it will allow air to go into the still while still allowing vapor to collapse on it's way out. They need room to pass each other or you run into problems and if your still pukes small diameter tubing will clog and cause pressure to build and blow the lid off and possibly cause a fire or injure you. Safety in this hobby is paramount. Nobody here wants to see you hurt and keeping this hobby safe keeps it moving in the right direction toward legalization.

#7 Recipes on the parent site in general are pretty outdated, The guys in the forums have worked very hard to develop recipes so you don't have to. So do yourself a favor here and choose one of the recipes in the tried and true section when it is time to begin fermenting.

Perhaps some of the best advice you will find on the parent site is this bit found under steps to distilling

This 'parent' site contains a wealth of information, but is somewhat static. The forums are VERY dynamic, and cutting edge.

http://homedistiller.org/intro/steps" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[jmashspirits14]

The new still has no copper, zero. I hope I didn't waste my money. Here is what I bought when I discovered that my original pot is actually polished aluminum and not stainless.

[Halfbaked]

Can you send it back? I would if I could. I Know you don't want to hear this but I wouldn't use it. Safety is priority over money. Find you a keg and some copper or stainlesss

[jmashspirits14]

Dammit! I don't know. It hasn't been shipped yet but I have already paid for it. I don't know if they will give my money back or not. Not a good idea huh? They said they test every unit before they are speed out. I would like to have a keg still but they are so expensive.

[liquid therapy]

Check to see if you can get your money back. If not maybe you can get a credit for things you can actually use in a good set up. A simple keg pot still isn't that much. The bad thing purchasing a full still puts your name on the "list". Building your own is not only rewarding but helps you understand how they work. Keep reading, it will really help before you actually lay out your time, effort, and money.

[Halfbaked]

cancell it or refuse it when it gets here. Read here and make your self a nice still and learn while doing it. Read read read read. when your still is done you will know how to use it. Call the seller and tell the you found out it was illegal and they can grab the shipment and stop it

[liquid therapy]

+1 halfbaked.

[cranky]

+2 and before buying anything post a picture here so these most helpful people can do just that...help. There are many designs on here and making your own is the best way to do it for the reasons mentioned. It really isn't that hard, I have a total of about $200-250 in mine and that includes a 4 gallon pot ($10 thrift store find) with a SS bowl on top ($5 thrift store find) and a keg for boilers, both converted to electric, a controller (link in my signature), and a 1.5" column ($71 at lowe's but it is possible to find shorter or smaller lengths or used for less money) with a boka head and a pot head and a 24" and 36" liebig. Building all this myself helped in understanding how things work. I should note that a 4 gallon pot is actually considered too small but I don't use it for stripping, only low wines and the domed bowl top leaves enough head space that I can fill it within a few inches of the top for smaller spirit runs.

[thecroweater]

With all due respect that still looks like a piece of crap and I bet they hit you up a couple hundred for it. Those small vapour lines look like rubber or nylon hoses and the whole show looks pretty small. If you can find a way to cancel the sale do so. You say you want to start with gal ferments, cool well 13 to 15 gal beer kegs are ideal for that size for that with scope to go bigger should you require it. A pot still connected to a keg is the easiest cheapest way to get started

[rad14701]

That's quite honestly one of the worst, if not the worst, still rig(s) I've seen posted here as being for sale to the public... There's so much wrong with it...

[ben stiller]

Be a great picture in the what not to use forum

[cranky]

Those are probably corrugated water lines like some people are using for condensers, They come with rubber seals which is bad but they are available in both SS and copper at the big box stores for about $12 each. I don't understand the locking lid on the flake stand either and the worm is most likely way undersized.

[jmashspirits14]

This its what I would like to have.

[Halfbaked]

Much better and you could save some money having it if you build it yourself

[jmashspirits14]

I was going to buy one of these but its $190 just for the head and condenser and I would have to find the right keg because it only fits one style of keg so I would have to order and pay shipping on that too putting me well over $300 and I saw that all stainless still with everything for $200 so that's why I bought it. I cant cancel it because I bought it off Ebay but the only thing I can do is wait for it to arrive, then return it for a refund.

[T-Pee]

This its what I would like to have.

I'd be willing to bet that the keg still you pictured would cost you about 50% of the one you ordered including a new keg, you would have pride of ownership building it yourself (honest to criminy you CAN do it!) AND you won't wind up on a .guv hit list.

Doooo eeeeeeet! We're here to help you or kick you in the ass. Your choice.

tp