Building my first copper still

Many like to post about a first successful ferment (or first all grain mash), or first still built/bought or first good run of the still. Tell us about all of these great times here.
Pics are VERY welcome, we drool over pretty copper 8)

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DBCFlash
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Re: Building my first copper still

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Well then, there ya' go! I used to work on component level electronics in the military so I learned all this stuff long long ago, but I haven't used those parts of my brain in ages, so I think they must have shriveled up.
Now I get to impatiently wait for the fabrication shop to weld my pot lid. Maybe I should ferment a sugar head to use as my sacrificial spirit run? I have a couple of gallons of vinegar to run before that and I plan to distill a few gallons of water to try and keep so I don't get any weird tastes in my liquors.
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Oldvine Zin
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Re: Building my first copper still

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You need to wait until after you do all of your sac runs before any keepers, that includes water.

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Re: Building my first copper still

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Oh and I forgot to add - Store bought distilled water usually costs a lot less than doing it yourself.

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Re: Building my first copper still

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Rad wrote: As an aside, I had an issue once where I was constantly blowing light bulbs in an apartment and discovered that the mains voltage was fluctuating between 127V and 134V... Bulbs rarely lasted 2 - 3 weeks before blowing...
That's classic symptoms for a dirty neutral, on the power company's side. I used to see it all the time in 50 amp pedestals in RV parks, especially older ones. If the neutral has a lot of resistance, some of the current will return on the opposite hot, so the voltage on one leg goes up while the other leg goes down. If they were perfectly balanced, nothing would happen, but the farther out of balance they are, the bigger the discrepancy between voltages. It took out a couple of TVs. It's kind of cool to watch on a pair of meters while you flip switches.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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skow69 wrote:
Rad wrote: As an aside, I had an issue once where I was constantly blowing light bulbs in an apartment and discovered that the mains voltage was fluctuating between 127V and 134V... Bulbs rarely lasted 2 - 3 weeks before blowing...
That's classic symptoms for a dirty neutral, on the power company's side. I used to see it all the time in 50 amp pedestals in RV parks, especially older ones. If the neutral has a lot of resistance, some of the current will return on the opposite hot, so the voltage on one leg goes up while the other leg goes down. If they were perfectly balanced, nothing would happen, but the farther out of balance they are, the bigger the discrepancy between voltages. It took out a couple of TVs. It's kind of cool to watch on a pair of meters while you flip switches.
And now . . . . the rest of the story...

Turns out the landlords son had lived in the apartment I was in... He had been growing weed in the attic, as I found out from a mutual friend... He had bypassed the meter to feed the attic... When I complained about the voltage abnormality the landlord called in the electric company to investigate... They discovered the bypass of the meter... The landlord attempted to accuse me of it, even though electric was included in the rent, until I explained how the son had been growing weed in the attic... That ended that... Slapped with a hefty fine the subject was never brought up again...

And that's . . . . the rest of the story...

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Re: Building my first copper still

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I never intended to keep anything from any of the cleaning runs, but my post kind'a sounded like that, huh? I'm not really too concerned about getting a full 5500 watts out of my element as I suspect it is a little overkill for my 9 gallon pot and short condenser.
I am looking for an inexpensive source for my sacrificial alcohol run. Should I just ferment some sugar and throw out rum, or buy some cheap assed box-wine and throw out brandy? What do you salty-dogs use for your first sacrificial runs? I don't have any previously collected heads which I think would be the obvious choice.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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DBCFlash wrote:What do you salty-dogs use for your first sacrificial runs?
Birdwatchers, in the Tried and True Recipe forum is a good reliable sugarhead for sacrificial runs... My All Bran recipe would be another... Pick any Tried and True that is cheap and easy to make and the pain of tossing the resulting spirits won't hurt quite as much...
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Re: Building my first copper still

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I started an UJSM and will use the year for the next UJSM
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Re: Building my first copper still

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Cheap-ass wine.

Patience is not my strong suit.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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Just started a batch of birdwatchers for my sacrificial run. I've never fermented anything before so I'm anxious to see what happens. I didn't do well in High School chemistry so all this temperature, PH and specific gravity stuff made me kind'a uncomfortable. Got my sugar on sale so if I ruin the batch I'm only out about six bucks.

I've convinced my wife that leaving my fermenting bucket in the kitchen sink is prudent as it could foam over and it's nice and warm in the kitchen. Hope it doesn't get too stinky.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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DBCFlash, I have two carboys fermenting in the kitchen as I type this and we never smell much of anything at all... Right now one is corn meal and the other is barley, oats, and wheat... Birdwatchers should only smell like CO2 if anything at all...
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Re: Building my first copper still

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I've been having trouble keeping my wash at a steady temperature. Didn't really think it through. It's been getting into the low sixties in the house and that's just too low I think. Blizzard hit, can't get to the farm store to get a warming pad so I'm hoping the little yeasties just go dormant until I can warm the bucket up consistently. Birdwatchers, just so I have something to run through a brand new still.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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DBCFlash wrote:I've been having trouble keeping my wash at a steady temperature. Didn't really think it through. It's been getting into the low sixties in the house and that's just too low I think. Blizzard hit, can't get to the farm store to get a warming pad so I'm hoping the little yeasties just go dormant until I can warm the bucket up consistently. Birdwatchers, just so I have something to run through a brand new still.
It will come back to life when the environment warms . Some of the best runs come from slow ferments .
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Re: Building my first copper still

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You were right. The house warmed up and it's bubbling away again.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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DBCFlash wrote:I've been having trouble keeping my wash at a steady temperature. Didn't really think it through. It's been getting into the low sixties in the house and that's just too low I think. Blizzard hit, can't get to the farm store to get a warming pad so I'm hoping the little yeasties just go dormant until I can warm the bucket up consistently. Birdwatchers, just so I have something to run through a brand new still.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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Okay, things seem to be going well, but I made a few mistakes along the way. I used about 10.5 pounds of sugar, two small cans of tomato paste and just short of 5 gallons of water. I Heated two gallons of water the sugar and Tomato paste to about 180 degrees mixed it well, poured the mix between two clean buckets back and forth about 10 times to airate,let it cool to about 90 degrees F, pitched two packs of Fleischmans yeast in a couple of cups of warm water and once it was bubbling away I stirred it into my big bucket, I then topped up the water to almost five gallons. I didn't really understand how to read my Hygrometer but it floated at the 1.10 mark ( I think I understand it better now). I got some amazing bubblation activity the first two days, then the house got cold and it slowed way down on the third day. Fourth day I got a heating pad on it and the temps have been at a steady 28 degrees since. Right now the SG appears to be around 1.045 and the wash tastes much less sweet than previously. SG is still dropping so I'll let 'er rip a little bit longer.

Next time I'll do better. I should have started closer to 1.09 so I guess more water and less sugar would get me there. I think just one 6oz can of tomato paste would have been appropriate and I'll put in lemon juice next time. Plus now that I have the heating pad I'll keep the temperature in the 28 degree range more consistantly.

My rough calculations have the wash at about 7% right now which is a success in my eyes.

I learned sooooo much actually doing this first wash. I don't think my mistakes have ruined the batch, and ultimately this is just for my sacrificial run on my newly built still.

Let me know if you think I've wandered of the right track with anything I've done.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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DBCFlash, yes, one can of tomato paste would have been plenty... As far as your OG, you could add a bit more water now that you don't have a huge krausen on top of your wash so they yeast colony is less stressed as the ferment progresses... The more you can add the better... Sounds good otherwise...
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Re: Building my first copper still

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Thanks for the input Rad! I went ahead and brought the level up to five gallons using water warmed to the same temperature as the wash. That would have had my OG at about 1.09 which should have been a better starting point. Now my wash is at 1.035 SG. If it continues at this rate I should have something in the next three or four days. Still smells good, looks kind'a peachy.

Haven't heard from the fabricator about my pot-lid yet and a have a little more soldering to do so I have plenty of time before I can run anything.

I have a six gallon glass carboy and I'm wondering if there's any benefit to racking my wash into that. I guess it would be easier to see when if clears, and I could start another wash (or mash) in my fermenting bucket.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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One has to be very careful with glass carboys, plus heavy to handle.. best option is to use a 5 gal water carboy, if you don't have spare bucket.. that will free your fermenting bucket..

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Re: Building my first copper still

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I could easily just leave it in my ferment bucket, I was just curious if there were any reason to transfer the wash. I think the original Birdwatchers recipe has him racking from a bucket to a carboy around day three, but I just couldn't figure out why.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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I found some PTFE hose to use as the gasket between my pot and my lid but I needed to bond the ends of the hose. It's insanely difficult to find a glue that will work on slippery stuff like that. Found a loctite primer that sounds like it will then allow regular superglue to work on it. It's all on order now but I had a helluva hard time figuring this one out.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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DBCFlash wrote:I found some PTFE hose to use as the gasket between my pot and my lid but I needed to bond the ends of the hose. It's insanely difficult to find a glue that will work on slippery stuff like that. Found a loctite primer that sounds like it will then allow regular superglue to work on it. It's all on order now but I had a helluva hard time figuring this one out.
You don't want glue due to what the glue consists of... You might be able to heat the ends until they start to melt and then press them together... Heat up a piece of metal or an old knife and use that to melt them together... Use a couple small scraps first though... I've done the hot knife trick with Tygon hose and did it with other unknown composition pieces of hose in the past... Make sure you have proper ventilation... You want to make sure the hose doesn't "work harden"...
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Re: Building my first copper still

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DBCFlash wrote:...It's insanely difficult to find a glue that will work on slippery stuff like that. Found a loctite primer that sounds like it will then allow regular superglue to work on it. It's all on order now....
uh-oh....glue on a gasket???

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Re: Building my first copper still

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You have cherished ptfe hose, and are wasting it on a gasket? Make an everlasting gasket man and save the hose for transferring low wines around. My back is crying! :shock:
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Re: Building my first copper still

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just an idea if you can carve interlocking hooks in the ends of your hose,

then wrap the joint with a couple wraps of Teflon tape ? it might work

or it might not, but practice first to see how your cuts affect length/ diameter.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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Google "pro weld plastics welder cabelas"
Its basically a soldering iron for repairing rubber worms but would probably work.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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PTFE doesn't melt like other plastics, I've been told. It's composition will break down before it melts. I have put some thought into the joint and I will only glue the section outside of the pot so the hot vapor can't get to the glue joint. If you look up PTFE tube you can find one for a fair price for your fluid transfer.
I just looked at the Everlasting Gasket thread and it looks okay, but I'd need a huge one for my 9 gallon pot. I'll see how things go with my hose gasket and if it's a bust I'll look into making one of those.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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Perhaps I'll even wrap the joint with teflon tape to make sure the vapors don't contact the glue.
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Re: Building my first copper still

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DBCFlash wrote:I could easily just leave it in my ferment bucket, I was just curious if there were any reason to transfer the wash. I think the original Birdwatchers recipe has him racking from a bucket to a carboy around day three, but I just couldn't figure out why.
I make wine from top end kits, and if you really wanted to make a good tasting wine, rack it the minute it reachs the SG of 1.000, or as they say in wine making, remove it of its lee... what this does is make the wine less acidic and therefore somewhat a little sweeter.. yeast continue to work when the sugars are all done, creating other favours in the process..

I know when we make a sugar wash, we are not creating something to drink, such as wine or beer, but the behaviour of the yeast is still present.. You may want to try this out, take a small clear jar and take a sample of your finish wash and taste it, and put the jar aside, 2 - 3 days later take small clean jar and do the same.. on some wash there a very small different in taste, on other wash, there is a noticeable different.. this help in determining when to remove the wash off its lee or trub.. some like rum I usually give the wash another 10 days before remove it of the lee, and another 10 or more after racking it off its trub before stripping..

Just something that helps in improving the quality of the liker..

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Re: Building my first copper still

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This is some complicated stuff, this booze making is! Thanks for that insight StillerBoy. I certainly can see how pulling the wash away from the lee would make something different, but I'd never even venture a guess as to what that difference might be. I will certainly keep this idea in mind when I start to modify my procedures, and hopefully I can see what difference it might make in a wash. I'm still a few days away from 1.000.
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