Hiding your smell!

This hobby is fun & enjoyable, but it is not tiddlywinks. Be safe!

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NcGunny
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Hiding your smell!

Post by NcGunny »

So people dont have this problem because they have no neighbors within shooting distance of their homes. I live in a neighborhood where houses are maybe 60 yards apart, and I do run my pots in a shed attached to the back of my house. My wind always blows the same direction unless we have a hurricane blowing in, I have started running a cover scent with a outdoor fire while I am running. Found a good use for those pesky big ass pine cones I usually end upwalking on at 1 a.m. while I make sure nobody is making off with something. Was wondering if anybody else has to camo up their runs?
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bearriver
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by bearriver »

If someone managed to catch a whiff, they likely wouldn't even know what it was. At any rate if you are so concerned, I use something like this for different hobby. It works perfect to cover any odors: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0052ZPMA ... SY200_QL40" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

You shouldn't have anything smelling except the fermentation process and when you dump backset onto the driveway. The act of distillation itself should not produce any detectable odors. I can't understand what is smelling enough to make you burn a fire when you run your pot still.
Last edited by bearriver on Sun Apr 20, 2014 9:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by NcGunny »

Most of it comes from my barrels after I have siphoned off into my boiler. I tend to clean up barrels or buckets while I am heating up an dump it on the edge of my property in a pit. The wife can be out in the driveway and smell it so instead of taking a chance I just start a fire to cover it up.
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T-Pee
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by T-Pee »

I figure that if the neighbors know what the smell is, they're just as guilty as I am and need to share summa theirs!

tp
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bearriver
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by bearriver »

I feel lucky my neighbors already know haha. But it sounds like if that's your process then it is working well for you. Although that fire does just draw some attention to yourself.

I like a the cover of being a brewer (which I am not). Your neighbors will know you as that home brew guy, and think nothing when they see you spray out a fermenter or clean out your boiler. All ya got to do is rip the labels off some microbrew beer and pass them off as your own around Christmas.

Tp is spot on...
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ga flatwoods
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by ga flatwoods »

I throw the remnants into the pond. Catfish love it! All but some oats usually sink.
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by hellbilly007 »

When I dumped my spent wash, in a drainage ditch, the scent can be picked up about 200 feet away. SWMBO wasn't happy. I now send it down a floor drain and flush with ~5 gal of water mixed with a handful of baking soda mixed in, just to be safe. Most of my neighbors are familiar with these smells, guilty or not 'shinin is part of their history.
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by MyUncleMo »

Bacon!
Get a batch of bacon going on the kitchen stove or in the oven.
Really though, does your distilling smell stronger than any other kitchen smell? Or is it your ferment? The Boil up?
Yes - my home and home office stinks like a rummery from the past months Hook Rum (gen1) project.
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by Prairiepiss »

The act of distillation itself should not produce any detectable odors.
I'm not real sure where you got this idea from? When I run my still. The whole house smells like alcohol. And my wife can smell it before she hits the front door.

But I could care less if the neighbors smell it. For all they know. I drank a lot and spilled some.
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bearriver
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by bearriver »

I just cant smell anything with where and how I run mine... Quit smoking cigarettes years ago, but I guess my sniffer is toast... :( I can totally see breaking down a hot still indoors making an alcoholic odor. Done that before and the wife put an end to it. So now I just wait for it to cool down before bringing it inside the house.
Last edited by bearriver on Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Brutal
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by Brutal »

I run in the garage and live in a normal suburban neighborhood. I really don't want people smelling what I'm doing, and I believe it is easy enough for them to smell. One time I spilled a small amount of wash filling the boiler so I washed it down the driveway under some cars with the hose. My one neighbor (and his wife) who does know what I do smelled it driving past my house.. So I feel like I need cover. So now I run my charcoal grill every time I run the still. I run it in the driveway and its a good enough reason for me to be hanging around out there all day. I usually drop a few smoking chips in there every hour or so. Sometimes there's sausage in there, sometimes there's nothing in there at all. I just walk over and keep checking on it.. Lately I have taken to slow cooling a brisket or some pork in one of those disposable aluminum tubs in there. It covers the smell, explains why I'm out there, and the wife can't be too mad at me for stillin' all day because guess what? I cooked dinner. 8) 8)
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by Prairiepiss »

Pour some Orange juice in your trash can. Let it get nice and ripe. And move it around to block the smells down wind. Most people wouldn't question a smelly trash can. Even better if you can get it where they have to smell it.

Or go kill a skunk and toss it in the back yard. Ain't nobody gona smell shite for a while after that. LOL
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by bentstick »

Prairiepiss wrote:
The act of distillation itself should not produce any detectable odors.
I'm not real sure where you got this idea from? When I run my still. The whole house smells like alcohol. And my wife can smell it before she hits the front door.

But I could care less if the neighbors smell it. For all they know. I drank a lot and spilled some.
:thumbup: same here!
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by Bob Loblaw »

When I read the title, I thought this thread might get personal :lol:
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The KYChemist
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by The KYChemist »

With my reflux still, there is barely any smell, throughout the run. When it first starts to condense, in the head, there was definitely a smell akin to nail polish. My best opinion is that is was the foreshoots coming up first, that escaped out the top of the column. After that, there didn't seem to be much. Even the wife could barely smell anything, when she got home. With The Mechanic keeping an eye on things, for a bit, I went outside to clear the nostils. When I came back in, I could barely smell anything, as well. A pot stil may be different, but I haven't run one yet. We have a storm overflow ditch out back, not unlike a small 4' wide creek. I run a garden hose from the kitchen to that, to drain the keg. I just make sure to do it late, and under the cover of darkness. By morning, I can't smell anything. The ferment is a different story. The whole house smells great, in my opinion. Not so much in the wife's. I think it smells like beer and baking bread. Three 5 gallon buckets. Its strong for a day and a half, then mellows out. Gone after four days, till the fermenters are opened. And then, you only get a whiff of it every once in a while when racking or moving to the boiler. Just my observations. Thought I'd share.
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by bentstick »

Not runnin a pot,runnin a 5 perf plate column,and yes with the pot head it was even worse!
Just sayin when wife comes home and she hits the steps on front porch she knows what is a goin on,and I am in the basement,luckily I live on a 1/4 mile dead end road, with one other house at the beginning,I am the last house with 800 acres of nothing but woods and swamp behind me! the wild life love the spoils also,ie spent grains!
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ga flatwoods
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by ga flatwoods »

If in Colorado I would have to say don't worry about it! Light some Incents!
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Da Yooper
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by Da Yooper »

Bathe regularly and use deodorant.
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by DFitz »

If your garage is equipped, just pump the backset into the washing machine discharge. Most should have a close by clean out at the least. Plenty of places for backset to go without tipping off nosy neighbors. Grain, well, now that's a whole other story. Maybe keep a barrel around and make friends with a hog farmer or sumpthin.
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W Pappy
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by W Pappy »

Hell the grain just throw it in a garbage bag and set it on top of your other garbage.It gets mixed in with other garbage hell your tryin your hand at all grain beer hahaha.
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by Rogerd »

Funny story, on my first run I did it outside on my farm. No close neighbors around to worry about the smell, but it drove my goats nuts. They got out of there pen and they bothered me through the who process.
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by S-Cackalacky »

Most of my neighbors are too distant to pick up any odor, but once, after a day of stillin', I climbed into the truck for a trip to Wally World and realized I smelled like a lush. Doesn't help that I stagger aroud like a drunk because of leg and foot problems.
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W Pappy
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by W Pappy »

S-Cackalacky wrote:Most of my neighbors are too distant to pick up any odor, but once, after a day of stillin', I climbed into the truck for a trip to Wally World and realized I smelled like a lush. Doesn't help that I stagger aroud like a drunk because of leg and foot problems.
Bet that would screw with the popo on a DUI stop fail everything and pass the breathalyzer :lol:
Buy the ticket and ride the lightnin boys !!!
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S-Cackalacky
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by S-Cackalacky »

W Pappy wrote:
S-Cackalacky wrote:Most of my neighbors are too distant to pick up any odor, but once, after a day of stillin', I climbed into the truck for a trip to Wally World and realized I smelled like a lush. Doesn't help that I stagger aroud like a drunk because of leg and foot problems.
Bet that would screw with the popo on a DUI stop fail everything and pass the breathalyzer :lol:
Yep, they would be sending that breathalyzer out for maintenance and I would be the only sober guy in the drunk tank.
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by woodshed »

I run reflux columns and a pot still in a well insulated building and can certainly smell the entire process. But that's a large volume in a controlled environment. And of course it changes as you go through your cuts. I do not live in suburbia but would think most of the neighbors would have no idea what they were smelling.
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by W Pappy »

The first time I did a cleaning run with vinegar was in a 5 gal pot in the kitchen about midnight. I have a 3 story house our bedroom is on the 3rd floor the wife come down stairs mad as hell hahahaha.I said just think of it as old grandmas douche bag hangin in the shower no body likes it but it is necessary hahahaha she didn't laugh.She ask if the real run would smell of course I says nooooo not a bit.Well 2 days later here she comes again 3am there was no hugs and kisses for Pappy hahaha.My keg is in the garage I will just fire the smoker up when I run just to be safe I have that going a lot. I think a lot of us get paranoid about the smell because we knooooow what it is the fermentation smell the smell during distillation the smell of backset. Rum guys probably smell a Dunder pit 1/4 mile away. I wouldn't know one if I fell in it from what I hear I don't want to.
Buy the ticket and ride the lightnin boys !!!
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by coastershiner »

I do it outdoors, not much of a smell, but draining the boiling backset sure does. I have a small pit in my garden for it, If u wait for it to cool, way less smell. Cleaning runs sure smell tho!
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by Zacher »

NcGunny wrote: Sun Apr 20, 2014 8:01 am So people dont have this problem because they have no neighbors within shooting distance of their homes. I live in a neighborhood where houses are maybe 60 yards apart, and I do run my pots in a shed attached to the back of my house. My wind always blows the same direction unless we have a hurricane blowing in, I have started running a cover scent with a outdoor fire while I am running. Found a good use for those pesky big ass pine cones I usually end upwalking on at 1 a.m. while I make sure nobody is making off with something. Was wondering if anybody else has to camo up their runs?
Couldn't help but smile at this one. I would buy a basic homebrew set for ~$80. Make some sort of holiday ale and ferment it really warm or add a lot of sugar. It will not be toxic but it will taste like ass. Then brag about it to the neighbors you are worried about and give them a bottle. You will never have to worry about anyone ever questioning what you are doing again! :D
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Re: Hiding your smell!

Post by Dancing4dan »

I tried using the charcoal fired meat smoker. Was a bad idea! Neighbors were looking over the fence asking me what I was cooking. :wtf:

Just pour a little oil in the lawn mower gas tank next time. Let it idle and make like i'm doing a tune up.
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