Tell us about your mistakes.

[shadylane]

flames about 7+ feet high massive puke and wash and distillate pouring out the PC and jar!

Just a thought. If the jar is setting a pan, any spills will be contained.
S#!t happens, a puke or just forgetting and the jar overfills.

[googe]

Yeah feel really bad about it, get complacent some times in this hobby, never pays well!.

[pfshine]

Don't gotta say anything about a still hdnb. Just lost brewing equipment bits and bobs.

[jedneck]

Didnt fill steamer full enuf. Now need a new element.

[Copper Thumper]

I once accidently dumped a couple of cups of dap into a fermenter (dropped the bag).


Yah.

That crap made ammonia and I used it to clean the bathrooms. lol

[pfshine]

Didnt fill steamer full enuf. Now need a new element.

Sorry to hear jed. My condolences.

[jedneck]

Shet happens. I put my spare 3000 watt inthekeg to run the 2 remain strip runs of racked clear.

[cranky]

Shet happens. I put my spare 3000 watt inthekeg to run the 2 remain strip runs of racked clear.

That's one of the reasons I keep a bunch of spare elements, I figure as long as I have 5 spares I'll never need one

[Brutal]

Shet happens. I put my spare 3000 watt inthekeg to run the 2 remain strip runs of racked clear.

Jed. I've been wondering what the effects of that would be on the boiler charge. Did it ruin what was in the driven boiler?

[jedneck]

Shet happens. I put my spare 3000 watt inthekeg to run the 2 remain strip runs of racked clear.

Jed. I've been wondering what the effects of that would be on the boiler charge. Did it ruin what was in the driven boiler?

Not that I can tell.driver was charged with4.5 gallons water and driven was charged with 12 gallons of slop. Got a 1.5+\- gallons of steam stripped low wines that smell like steamed stripped low wines but not as tailsy. They are at 45%.usually go to 25%.
Soon as I get an unraped keg I will be going wood fired.

[skow69]

Wood fired! Wow. Good luck. I've always thought the ol' boys who did that must have really known their stuff.

[jedneck]

Wood fired! Wow. Good luck. I've always thought the ol' boys who did that must have really known their stuff.

My oldman used woo to strip. He only ran sugar washes. I'm planning on a wood fired steam injection for stripping on the grain.

[skow69]

Cool. Sounds like a great idea. Don't forget the pics.

[KYMountainMan]

Don't leave stainless steel touching copper over a lengthy period of time.

Long story short, I left copper packing in my column for a very long time (3+ years) and paid no mind to what I was doing when I left it there. Now my copper mesh is as green as an old penny and my column is mildly tarnished on the inside.

Reverting back to Chemistry class from High School (20+ years ago) .... oh yeah ... I remembered something about Stainless Steel and Copper with some sort of Galvonic Corrosion or something along those lines. What I thought was useless info at the time, I'm sure.

[Monkeyman88]

So what about everyone with SS ferrules in their copper columns?

[KYMountainMan]

So what about everyone with SS ferrules in their copper columns?

I don't know about that. And your mileage may vary. However, I have asked around, and even Brewhaus said that Copper Packing will rust SS columns.

As a last resort I called an old buddy who works at our local distillery, Glenmore Distillery, as a quality control specialist and flavoring supervisor. He said one of the reasons they don't use direct connections between copper and ss vats is for the corrosion aspect of it also. He said they use a brass ferule as a coupler in between the two metals. The brass is different enough from the two metals that it doesn't cause 'as much' corrosion as the two metals contacting each other directly.

Here is a good read .... https://www.fastenal.com/content/feds/p ... rosion.pdf

[der wo]

The brass will not help I think, because it's an electrical conductor too. I think they use brass unions, because they are not expensive. Copper will corrode stainless steel. What you can do apart from taking out the packing after each run is, to use a sacrifical anode (zinc). Of course at the outside of the still! Zinc is poisonous. There is liquid zinc (99% zinc and 1% paint), I painted the lid with it, because there is copper soldered on stainless. Pics in my signature.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

So, I planned a run this weekend. I was supposed to do it Saturday, but woke up and realized that I had forgotten to squeeze. SOB! So, I cut my 3 stripping runs over 2 days. I figured I would do one that night, after extreme cold crashing one in the freezer, and then one in the morning. I had to go get a chest freezer I found on Craigslist for my beer making, but then I would do one more after that.

Well. In my frantic squeezing Saturday morning, I flew right through and squeezed everything, including the yeast cake on the bottom. This left me with only half of the amount of wash I usually have to rack off in the buckets. This means I could only get 2 stripes out of it, not three.

Not only that, but I need 3 strips to get enough to do a spirit. Crap, figured this meant had to wait a week. When I could make more ...

There is a bright side to everything, though. ..

My Solution

READ MORE:

So, I've only ever done a strip and spirit run. Don't have a thumper, and never single foot. So it occurred to me after the first strip, to do a true 1.5 run. Just take the low wines from the first, throw it in the wash off the second run, and do a slow run. Best part of it is, this is a light flavor bourbon, so this might even keep some flavor to the run.

I figured while I'm at it, I would do another first I have been meaning to do. On Odin's suggestion and push, I am doing my cuts right from the still. No hydro (although I haven't cut with one in a long time), no seperate jars, just my finger, collection jar, and the stillin dog.

*Just switched to the collection vessel, tried to predict my late heads, with the onset of the honey malt coming through. Is it right? Don't know! Can I go back? Nope!

I may not be able to drink it for 3 years, but by God I'm free!! Haha.

[aircarbonarc]

I wanted to cry today! Finished my second stripping run today. Was able to fill a 6 gallon carboy. Went to put a bung in the top of it so I could move it out of the way. When I pressed down on the bung the carboy explodes sending low wines over my entire garage, and soaking both my feet. A entire day's work down the drain literally! Got a small cut on my thumb too! Totally a suck of a day, luckily it could of been worse. No more car boys with low wines for me ever again!

I was racking the last of some beer from the yeasty slop on the bottom of a 6gal carboy. I gently put the carboy down on a concrete step.. And it shattered. Yeasty slop all over my feet and garage.

[aircarbonarc]

This is a story I heard from someone. In Germany if for instance your family has a still, and a license to make farm Brandy then that still and license are inherited. So these two brothers inherited grandpa's still and license. This still is a beautiful old piece of copper art. They were moving or storing the still head and... Dropped it and dented it so bad past repair that they had to get a brand new copy made... Ooops sorry grandpa. I would cry

[Danespirit]

This is a story I heard from someone. In Germany if for instance your family has a still, and a license to make farm Brandy then that still and license are inherited. So these two brothers inherited grandpa's still and license. This still is a beautiful old piece of copper art. They were moving or storing the still head and... Dropped it and dented it so bad past repair that they had to get a brand new copy made... Ooops sorry grandpa. I would cry

I am affraid this story is only anecdotal
In Germany you can't legal own a still with a capacity of +0,5 L, anything less than 0,5L you can buy and posses legaly.
From 0,5L to 5 L you will have to pursuade the customs that you will only use it to distill oils etc. Most likely they wouldn't allow it anyway.
If you have got a permit for distilling spirits, it can't be handed to another person...family or not.
In Denmark you can't even own equipment for distilling, no matter the capacity of the boiler.
BUT...as we are within the EU, it guarantees us free trade from county to country.
In France you may legaly own a still up to 20 L and in Spain the only restriction is....it must be possible to transport it safely (weird or..?).
So buying a still in France or Spain and importing it, would be legal. (free movement and trade within the EU)
Of course you would have to report it to the customs... BUT the moment you distill one drop with it, it's illegal again..

[der wo]

It's not 100% correct:

In Germany:

When you have a farm with trees, which produce fruits suitable for distilling, you can get a license for distilling your own fruits. But only if a license is available in your region at the moment (so probably you have to wait). When you have a license and sell (or inherit) your farm, the license remains valid and you will get a better price.

When you order a still from spain, the seller is obliged, to report it to the customs. That is dangerous.

BTW: The 0.5l still is not legal but allowed in Germany. Because the law about the 0.5l still is not valid for privat persons only for licensed distillers (they use them for test distillations), but the customs tolerate them (and they don't get a report from the sellers in this case).
Legislature vs. executive. Please don't tell the judiciary

[der wo]

Btw here a beauuutiful picture of a cuuute selfmade ministill from the german forum:

[Danespirit]

Right der Wo.
I just read about it here: http://www.ebay.de/gds/Rechtliches-beim ... 593/g.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
And also about how this law was made to "protect" the fruitfarmers and they sell their product to the government.
I thought we have pretty silly laws here in Denmark..apparently we are not the only ones.

[cuginosgrizzo]

Btw here a beauuutiful picture of a cuuute selfmade ministill from the german forum:

anlage296.jpg

I LOVE that condenser!!!

[der wo]

Yes. Those are the rules of the customs. But the law is different... at least in Germany. I think the rules in Austria and Switzerland are as described in the link. They have an extra law for homedistillers, the Germans not (but this 0.5l permit, what technically should not be relevant for privates...).
Yes it's silly. But will change. The whole law about alcohol production will change next year. Mainly because of the protection and subsidization (the EU doesn't like that). But there is a new sentence in the law, which could make it possible, that 5l stills get really legal someday.
Happyhappyjoyjoy
If the finance minister allows it. You know this ugly guy in the wheelchair you saw permanently on TV about Greece last summer... here a picture of him:

[Danespirit]

Yeah..you know..i have a hope that some day at least small scale distilling gets legal all over the EU..
Distilling should be seen as a hobby, not a criminal act.
Until then...

[aircarbonarc]

I think the EU actually already ruined small scale home distilling in Europe, especially eastern Europe. That homemade Croatian Plum Brandy is something god himself stilled.

[backwoods92]

Danespririt - while we can´t make alcohol using distilling equipment in Denmark, we can however own a still (for essential oils) and there are no size restrictions on those but ofc if the customs knock you your door while distilling shine, your busted... But we can own stilling equipment (for oils ofc

there are Places in Denmark where you can buy 50-100 litre "essential oil stills" and they are basically just a potstill

[UnSub]

I'm relatively new to the hobby, having just finished building a boka column for experimenting... I installed a closed ended thermo well into the column below the top plate.... I don't think that was "proper"; it is conducting the heat from the column and not getting a good vapor reading. I'll try to separate it but I can see leak issues in the future because of it. The length is slightly shorter than the plate and is likely soldiered to the plate itself or I'd just try to drill out the rim. Time will tell what developed from that. I didn't realize it was going to be an issue until I ran my vinegar cleaning- then it was pretty obvious...