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Alchemist that's a really well built and impressive looking air condenser, fantastic job. I am so envious that you can get those finned tubes where you are. Even if I could get them in the UK they would be expensive. Do you control the fan speeds? I would imagine all those things going at full whac...

Maybe turn the condenser around and use a longer lyne arm to get jar farther from the fire. All it would take is some more copper tubing to make it safer I take everyone's point. It is also way more that "more copper tubing'. That is not an excuse not to be safe but it is not insignificant to ...

Thanks for the input folks.

Yummyrum wrote: ↑Mon Dec 09, 2024 6:18 pm Beaut job on the condenser Alchemist . Functional Steampunk feel to it .

Functional Steampunk could not be a higher compliment to me. Thank you so much.

There seems to be some little skepticism of air coolers and for the moment, I can't figure out why. The water cooling took me 20-30 minutes to get set up and was so water wasteful and fussy. This way I'm set up in 2 minutes. Nice setup. :thumbup: Here's another way to use aircooling. 4 of them!! Is...

@Alchemist, that is a very impressive setup, nice and neat, compact footprint. Those heating elements are expensive over here. I suppose if I want to go to air cooled I can just run my old air still: only issue there is capacity, but it works fine. Indeed I now wonder about extending an air still s...

Nice looking condenser!! Your collection point next to the gas stove seem a little dangerous to me. I also use propane, but my collection point is almost 10 feet away from the flame, so if I spill I'm not fighting a fire. I am all with you on saving water, but you have waste heat when using air coo...

I was totally bitten by this and have been putting the parts together for a few months. I ran it on both my systems over the weekend and it is utterly incredible. It cooled my 10 L and 40 L stills, both on propane, running full out with no issue. IMG_3473.jpg IMG_3472.jpg IMG_3469.jpg IMG_3468.jpg T...

This was a great read!! For anyone else thinking about doing 'the real deal' I'm looking at finding some others to join me....

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Yes, that is exactly why and why I posted what I did. I'm saying I found the starches in the bread did add fermentables when enzymes are added, contrary to thinking it would not be meaningful.

Yes it's my understanding that the rye bread is just there for flavoring. Correct. No enzymes used, and I doubt the amount of starches in the bread would add any meaningful levels of fermentable sugars anyway. Like corn in UJSSM, the bread is there as a flavoring agent as Sailman points out. But ha...

OMG, I've been doing so much distilling and not posting a thing. In the two months I've brewed, stripped, done the spirit runs, blended and am now aging (where applicable): 2 generations of Odin's Pumpernickel Rye and made my own pumpernickel for it. Part is aging with 1% toasted caraway. My variati...

For the fennel doux, is that fresh herb?

The coloring herbs, are all those dry herb?

I've searched around those are my educated guesses but....

Thanks

It is a busy time here in the hills of Oregon this time of year. I finished up building an oak and iron cider press so to test it out pressed about 40 lb of feral apples last weekend. I tossed the 2.5 gallons of juice onto 2.5 lb of spent peated grain that I had just pressed off a whisky run. Just f...

NZChris wrote:It's better to buffer than to have to try to restart a stuck ferment, especially if you have a history of pH crashes.

Thanks. I've no history as to date I've done grains. I'll certainly buffer and get some nutrients in there.

Does anyone know if brown sugar will buffer out pH issues and if it has enough nutrients for a good ferment or do you need to supplement for a good ferment? No more buffer that standard sugar in my experience. All my molasses washes needed magnesium to avoid stalls. Does that mean it DOES need some...

Does anyone know if brown sugar will buffer out pH issues and if it has enough nutrients for a good ferment or do you need to supplement for a good ferment?

So, thinking ahead to batch two, if I boil the trub to kill any acetobacteria would I be safe using it for nutrients? And what about the dunder from the still? Safe to continue it's use?

Yes. Perhaps a vinegar infection. But... My product started coming off fine at about 80 C, I pulled my foreshots, and continued on. The first oddity is that the % coming off per my Tralle Hydrometer said 25% and proceeded to go down from there. By the time I had collected about 6 L of product the h...

still_stirrin wrote: As a check of your P&T hydro, check it against a known product, store bought or home produced. If it proves correct, then you may be the victim of the vinegar bug. Hope not, but....

I did this already and said so.

I thought of that and held out hope given others commenting on a semi-vinegar taste. Know anyway to test that out?

Would that match the temp vs density mismatch?

To say the least I'm a bit confused. I just finished a stripping run of 20 L of Buccaneer Bob's rum . Life made me deviate somewhat on the fermenting vs distilling schedule. Meaning it has sat a couple months fermented out on the yeast. First impression of the fermented wash was quite sharp. Quickly...

Now that I can wrap my head around. Thanks Jimbo.

But that doesn't explain it. I have run washes up to 154F and they still ferment out dry. And I've kept worts to 145 and they remain sweet.

Jimbo wrote:Im no chemist, but i think the complex long chain sugars probably dont break down much, since beer is boiled for an hour and still turns out sweet.

Just from an empirical observation standpoint, then why do washes go dry and worts don't when made the same?

Jimbo wrote:Alchemist, I dont think alpha amylase will work, you might need gluco-a or GL enzymes to break down the complex sugars left by a higher mashing temp.

Reasonable. Do you know if those are still active in unboiled washes? Empirically I'm thinking yes.

I think you missed my point kiwi. I know there isn't active enzymes left in DME or LME. I'm talking about adding them in.

May? Aged? What's your hurry? Try it again next Thanksgiving. Maybe I should have simply said oaked, not aged. I'm in no rush at all. It tasted wonderful straight from the still. My query is stems from the change from good with no solvent nose to bad with a solvent nose. I've never seen or heard of...

Yes. It works fine. Its mashed at a beer mashing temps for a little sweetness in the beer, so you wont get it to ferment fully dry but youll get close, maybe 1.012. Makes a tasty whiskey. If you add in some amylase while fermenting, it should go sub 1.00 shouldn't it? I mash for washes just like I ...

Ok, that topic isn't real clear. So here is what is going on and what I would love some insight into. I was given some very sulfury pear cider from year. I double distilled it May and it has been wonderful. Made sure the cuts were very clear. Foreshots removed in both runs and a hefty heads cut in t...