Hi-yo from the swamps!

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Hillbilly Popstar
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Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Hello Gods of Ethyl. I hail from deep Louisiana. I have been lurking here for about a month.
I am a somewhat accomplished home brewer with a few all grain recipes under my belt. That hobby had fizzled out since the birth of my 3 children. I have since acquired a passion for bourbon and rye. So when my wife bought me a custom oak aging barrel for Christmas, taking my old hobby a step further was a no brainer. She planted a seed and now has to deal with me being absorbed into all thing distilling.

I purchased the still shown below. It's and 8 gal. With 2" whiskey column.
I did my first run yesterday, and I have questions... but I don't suppose this is the place for that.

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joeyfla
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by joeyfla »

It is pretty....and I've wanted one that's all stainless steel. However, buying one gets you on the Fed's list of owning a still. Good luck.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

That maybe true. But this website had an explicit disclaimer that they never share customer information. Plus, owning a still isn't illegal.

I don't mean to imply I have a false sense of security about what I am doing. I just feel that small time distillers are probably over looked as long as we are not trafficking our goods for profit.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if it weren't so, wouldn't these forums be full of terrible stories of hobbyists getting arrested and having their equipment confiscated? Or have I just not been reading enough?
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Yes. I saw that. But most of those stories involve people that were either running a large still and/or selling their goods, no?

At any rate, what makes people think that being a member on this forum won't get on a watch list any quo ker than purchasing a still?
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by HDNB »

Hillbilly Popstar wrote:Yes. I saw that. But most of those stories involve people that were either running a large still and/or selling their goods, no?

At any rate, what makes people think that being a member on this forum won't get on a watch list any quo ker than purchasing a still?
or people with a pissed off ex wife, child custody problems, disgruntled employees or any number of dime droppers. they may be able to track URL's but they have already forced sellers to provide client lists and thousands of people who bought have been directly warned by the TTB. so there are lots of ways to end up being looked at by the gooberment.
don't yell, don't sell. the less people that know whats going on the better.
btw, owning a still is illegal in many places...you do not have to make booze with it. Florida, Virginia, all of Canada for example.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Duly noted.

Sorry if I seem to have an attitude. The warnings are apreciated. But as far as where I purchased my still goes...
What's do is done, I can only move forward, so I have to have a positive position on the matter.

Btw, aren't there a few online sellers advertised on this site?
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by LWTCS »

joeyfla wrote:It is pretty....and I've wanted one that's all stainless steel. However, buying one gets you on the Fed's list of owning a still. Good luck.
Not trying to install a false sense of security here, but that's not exactly how it works.

On the opposite side of the spectrum however.......

The vender claiming they don't report has nothing to do with their own policy. Should the TTB decide they want customer info, they will come and take your whole shooting match away from you until you comply.

Fortunately at the moment they have more important things to do than to chase down a hand full of jars.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by GrassHopper »

Doesn't appear as you have been properly welcomed yet! :wave:

So....welcome Hillbilly Popstar, glad to have ya aboard.
Enjoy the ride
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by LWTCS »

GrassHopper wrote:Doesn't appear as you have been properly welcomed yet! :wave:

So....welcome Hillbilly Popstar, glad to have ya aboard.
Enjoy the ride

Ah, so sorry.
Welcome HPS. Use your new rig in good health.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Lol
Thanks fellas.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by HDNB »

oops. how embarassing, i usually don't miss that part! :oops:

Welcome, hope you enjoy your time here!!!

Of Course, LWTCS is right on all counts. hopefully thay are all too busy to bother with the small fry.

I have and will continue to buy stilling equipment online i'm not really convinced that anyone would come "searching" I'm sure they have better things to do... but i definitely keep a low profile on activities in real life...so i can continue being an as&*40le and mine enemies won't have the "easy" reason to make that call.

right guys? ... :shifty:

:lolno:

have fun, stay safe!
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Bigbob »

Welcome Hillbilly Popstar, saw that you already did a run. I hope that you did the necessary cleaning and sacrificial runs. If you havnt already, please read crankys spoon feeding post in novices. This will give you a huge step up in this great hobby. Enjoy the forums! :wave:
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Bigbob wrote:Welcome Hillbilly Popstar, saw that you already did a run. I hope that you did the necessary cleaning and sacrificial runs. If you havnt already, please read crankys spoon feeding post in novices. This will give you a huge step up in this great hobby. Enjoy the forums! :wave:
I did a vinegar run and pushed some steam through it.
The run I did was going to be a sacrificial run. But I have read that sacrificial runs are mostly for home built stills that have fresh metal and likely have Flux run in the seams. My still is not home built, nor is it soldered together. When I did my run I sampled the resulting hooch and noticed no off flavors or metallic flavors. So I am hanging on to some of it until I can get another batch to compare.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by BayouShine »

Hillbilly Popstar wrote:My still is not home built, nor is it soldered together. When I did my run I sampled the resulting hooch and noticed no off flavors or metallic flavors.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=46170

Please listen to what everyone is trying to tell you. We're all here to make this hobby as safe as possible.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

BayouShine wrote:
Hillbilly Popstar wrote:My still is not home built, nor is it soldered together. When I did my run I sampled the resulting hooch and noticed no off flavors or metallic flavors.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=46170

Please listen to what everyone is trying to tell you. We're all here to make this hobby as safe as possible.
With all due respect. I don't mean to spit in the face of conventional wisdom. But even in that thread the consensus seems to be that it's the Flux (solder) that causes the need for a sacrificial run. My unit was all arc welded. Whether tig or mig I don't know, but there's no Flux on it anywhere. Furthermore, I sampled well over an ounce throughout the course of my run last night and noted zero effects aside from a slightly fuzzy head.

Now I am proud of the resulting beer schnapps I made, but I have also read that throwing out your first run as a sacrificial run is something of a right of passage for home distillers. So if that's what I need to do to join the ranks of accomplished hobbyist on this group. I will do so. But I'd like to be provided with some science behind this insanity please.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Appalachia-Shiner »

Hell, drink it iffen you want to.
I've drunk a lot worse shit and it ain't kilt me yet.
I know me an old boy who dropped a JAR in a mud puddle and broke it... They took their shirts off, soaked it up and drunk it anyway. Can't be worser than that.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by BayouShine »

Hillbilly Popstar wrote: With all due respect. I don't mean to spit in the face of conventional wisdom. But even in that thread the consensus seems to be that it's the Flux (solder) that causes the need for a sacrificial run. My unit was all arc welded. Whether tig or mig I don't know, but there's no Flux on it anywhere. Furthermore, I sampled well over an ounce throughout the course of my run last night and noted zero effects aside from a slightly fuzzy head.

Now I am proud of the resulting beer schnapps I made, but I have also read that throwing out your first run as a sacrificial run is something of a right of passage for home distillers. So if that's what I need to do to join the ranks of accomplished hobbyist on this group. I will do so. But I'd like to be provided with some science behind this insanity please.
To each his own, I guess. You're good to go now that you have that run done.

If you thought that was crazy though, you'll really like the suggestion to take that pretty thermometer and smash it on the floor... :crazy:
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Actually, the thermometer didn't read anywhere close to where I read it should...
Judging by the taste of my cuts.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

I'll probably make a new post about that now that I am somewhat introduced and yall know how hard headed I am.

It involves a puke, a spike in temp, and banana flavors.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

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Hillbilly Popstar wrote:Actually, the thermometer didn't read anywhere close to where I read it should...
Judging by the taste of my cuts.
Hillbilly, hope your not makin cuts by temp. With all due respect. :roll:
Anyway, that for sure is an entirely different subject and you can ask why in another thread if you can't find the answers.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by HDNB »

to make amends for my poor welcome:

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2014/ ... ur-podcast" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
It’s the smell. After an hour of refluxing isoamyl alcohol and acetic acid – a combination that smells bad but not out-of-the-ordinary bad, for a chemistry lab – my mouth began to water and I got a sudden craving for bananas. Yes, that’s right. Isoamyl acetate is the smell and flavour of bananas.

It’s commonly made in undergraduate organic chemistry labs as its synthesis is an ideal representation of a nucleophilic substitution. The reaction, called Fischer esterification, occurs when an alcohol, in this case isoamyl alcohol, reacts with a carboxylic acid, glacial acetic acid here. With the help of heat and an acid catalyst, an ester is formed.

The smell of nearly all fruits comes from aliphatic esters, simple molecules containing a carboxylic group directly beside an ether linkage leading to alkyl or aryl groups. Molecules with a small number of carbons smell fruity, but once more carbons are added the smell changes to soapy or even metallic. Isoamyl acetate has only six carbons so its smell is distinctly sweet. These esters can also be found in non-fruit sources such as peppermint and green tea
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

GrassHopper wrote:
Hillbilly Popstar wrote:Actually, the thermometer didn't read anywhere close to where I read it should...
Judging by the taste of my cuts.
Hillbilly, hope your not makin cuts by temp. With all due respect. :roll:
Anyway, that for sure is an entirely different subject and you can ask why in another thread if you can't find the answers.
Yes and no, I have the Rowley book and used his outline to try and generally understand what was happening as I watched the temp go up. But I was sampling along the way and deciding g for myself what I wanted to do with each jar (and when to switch jars).
The thermometer hardly followed the format it was supposed to anyways.

More about that later tonight, when I get time to start a new thread.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

HDNB wrote:to make amends for my poor welcome:

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2014/ ... ur-podcast" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
It’s the smell. After an hour of refluxing isoamyl alcohol and acetic acid – a combination that smells bad but not out-of-the-ordinary bad, for a chemistry lab – my mouth began to water and I got a sudden craving for bananas. Yes, that’s right. Isoamyl acetate is the smell and flavour of bananas.

It’s commonly made in undergraduate organic chemistry labs as its synthesis is an ideal representation of a nucleophilic substitution. The reaction, called Fischer esterification, occurs when an alcohol, in this case isoamyl alcohol, reacts with a carboxylic acid, glacial acetic acid here. With the help of heat and an acid catalyst, an ester is formed.

The smell of nearly all fruits comes from aliphatic esters, simple molecules containing a carboxylic group directly beside an ether linkage leading to alkyl or aryl groups. Molecules with a small number of carbons smell fruity, but once more carbons are added the smell changes to soapy or even metallic. Isoamyl acetate has only six carbons so its smell is distinctly sweet. These esters can also be found in non-fruit sources such as peppermint and green tea
Thank you for this.

Now this baby bird is hungry.

Please indulge me, is this compound one that's likely to come out with the heads?
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by HDNB »

can't say for sure on bananas yet, i have not made that one. but overall the fruity smells are in the heads.
ive had green apples, and juicy fruit gum and a general fermented fruit smell.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

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Hillbilly Popstar wrote:
GrassHopper wrote:
Hillbilly Popstar wrote:Actually, the thermometer didn't read anywhere close to where I read it should...
Judging by the taste of my cuts.
Hillbilly, hope your not makin cuts by temp. With all due respect. :roll:
Anyway, that for sure is an entirely different subject and you can ask why in another thread if you can't find the answers.
Yes and no, I have the Rowley book and used his outline to try and generally understand what was happening as I watched the temp go up. But I was sampling along the way and deciding g for myself what I wanted to do with each jar (and when to switch jars).
The thermometer hardly followed the format it was supposed to anyways.

More about that later tonight, when I get time to start a new thread.
"The thermometer hardly followed the format it was supposed to anyways."

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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Oh come on man. That was a joke. Lol

I usually have a better sense of humor about myself than you'd expect.
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Re: Hi-yo from the swamps!

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Although, the temp kept surging up and down during my vinegar run. IA that normal?
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