beginners luck

[vernue]

I've been so lucky - distilled nothing but AGs, and so far fairly good results. worst challenge is keeping my hands off the stuff until it has ripened....

Been experimenting with different grains to get a feel for different tastes. have a few bourbons, did a single malt, then a single malt rye (my least successful experiment so far), millet (OMG - it smells SO good), next will be wheat. Then a green wheat. Then a bit of thinking about what's next, some thoughtful tasting, and then .... who knows? I'll take suggestions!

I'm pretty good at reading here (so much better than washing dishes or working!) and following instructions, and I'm sure that's the major part of my success so far. Doing nothing terribly fancy, no staged mashing, and distilling in a pot still constructed from a Clawhammer kit. Amazed by how much I still don't know. Amazed that someone as ignernt as me can actually distill drinkable grog.

My favorite discovery so far - BIAB!!!! I love it!!!! Don't do it for every grain, but love doing it when i can!

Judging cuts is still a challenge - still hard for me to figure out what a raw distillate will taste like down the line. Getting a little looser with tails, just to see.

Have tried collecting all in 250 ml jars, then adding a block of toasted and charred to each one for 6 weeks, and only then tasting and blending. It helps me figure out what the raw stuff will taste like later, maybe.

Thing I hate worst - chopping off the hard dry dough used as a sealant. If anyone has a good method, I'd love to hear it.

What I like best (aside from the fact that girls just can't leave me alone - hah!) is sipping my own stuff late at night and really enjoying it. And hearing the mash just a-bubbling away.

A special thanks to Ian Smiley for his book and advice - he's never too busy to answer.

[StillerBoy]

Thing I hate worst - chopping off the hard dry dough used as a sealant. If anyone has a good method, I'd love to hear it.

What is it that you have to seal with dough.. you may want to make a gasket with teflon tape and have no more dry dough problems..

Mars

[The Baker]

Hi, vernue,
You said, "Thing I hate worst - chopping off the hard dry dough used as a sealant. If anyone has a good method, I'd love to hear it."

CHOPPING?!

I wonder if you use a thinnish paste? Not mixed much? I think that would be hard to get off.

Have you ever made bread? I make a soft dough, (a bit of salt which helps the kneading and no yeast though that does not matter sometimes I get a bit of raw dough from our bakery....) and knead it a fair bit. Then roll it into a 'rope', letting it rest a few minutes from time to time when it gets a bit 'elastic' and doesn't readily roll out longer.
Then thumb it into position. This would probably come off much more readily than a thinnish 'paste'...
(Of course you let it dry before you try to remove it?)

And I can do this after the heat is started to the boiler; probably the removal of the dry dough, on the lid at least not the boiler, as well as putting on the new seal; and have it well set up before the boiler contents are very hot.
Years of experience as a baker...

Geoff

[Still Life]

Congratulations on all your non-dough "luck".
I've felt lucky doing this many times, then realized I'm just following rules and recipes other have lain out.
Hardly luck when you have discipline and a great support system.
Continued success to you.

[Bushman]

Congratulations on all your non-dough "luck".
I've felt lucky doing this many times, then realized I'm just following rules and recipes other have lain out.
Hardly luck when you have discipline and a great support system.
Continued success to you.

+1, good thing I read all the comments before posting as these were my exact thoughts. I also use the tephlon tape on my essential oil still.

[amdamgraham]

I had the same issue with dough-crete on the still but then got frustrated and set my gear aside and let it sit for about two-three weeks. It falls off in your hands after that. No kidding. if you have long enough gaps between using your equipment just pull it apart and let the parts sit with the dough in place. The metal must fluctuate with temperature over time or maybe oxidize a little and the dough will pull away from the metal. There may be a spot here or there that needs extra attention but what starts out as needing a jackhammer can be easily peeled away by hand.

[Truckinbutch]

When I was using flour paste I found that wet rags wrapped around it for a time softened it to where it was easily removed .

[EventfulAnimal]

Removing the dough - just wet it and come back in 10 mins. I like the rag idea too.

[Stargazer14]

Teflon plumbers tape works best for me, I bought a few rolls of the extra wide 1" version.
Just wrap a new piece on each run. Works great, fast, no mess.

[Truckinbutch]

Pretty setup

[vernue]

perhaps my dough was too wet - i used a drier dough last time and it was not nearly as difficult. i like to take the dough off right away and clean everything right away - the mrs is not wild about my new hobby and i work in the kitchen, so it's important to get it all dealt with mui pronto. i like the teflon tape idea - i haven't seen 1" tape here, but i'll look for it.

what y'all say about following instructions is so true - and i guess that's the beauty of the web. both information and support are available. i've done things i'd never thought were in my skill set: pouring concrete, laying bricks, building a masonry heater, servicing my chainsaws, filing and sharpening chains, soldering copper, distilling - and yes, so much of that is just reading carefully and following instructions and asking questions.

[Mikey-moo]

Teflon plumbers tape works best for me, I bought a few rolls of the extra wide 1" version.
Just wrap a new piece on each run. Works great, fast, no mess.

Are you just wrapping the tape around the outside? I usually wrap the rim the of the lid, then put the top on... so the PTFE is sandwiched between the two and makes the seal.

Does wrapping the outside work ok?

[Stargazer14]

Works great, the tape is tight even with just half a wrap overlap. The seal on the pot is actually very tight already, without tape I never could detect vapor coming out, but the connection at the end of the swan neck to the condenser is just a lose insert, so it certainly needs sealing. Even with the neck being an 1/8" smaller than the condenser, the tape does a great job. It's tight almost like shrink-wrap.