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Yes definetely, some yeast strains are more competitive than others! Also, if conditions are more favourable to one group over another they will have an advantage. For example EC1118 is seen as quite a dominant strain that will for example out compete most wild strains or bakers yeast - hence it bei...

Yeast does best in neutral to low pH. According to Dr. Cone a pH around 4.5 is generally fairly optimum for most S. cerevisiae yeast strains (depends on other factors too, like how far away from the preferences in that strain for temp etc.). Low pH also retards bacteria growth which is generally hel...

Some mollases from feed stores has a preservative in it that stops yeast growth, there is a thread devoted to this somewhere. From memory I don't think you can do alot to neutralise it, but not often used in winter months - source at different time of year? I haven't had the problem myself. Also che...

Most likely still good as gold (depends on how long it has been stored and the yeast population health - i.e. more lipids developed = greater population robustness against adverse environment). With rum you generally don't have to be too worried about bacterial contamination etc... you should see th...

Spongy when directly in/by the vapour path. This is in machined teflon disks/o-rings as opposed to teflon tape where it is not so noticable. Goes hard again when cools and liquid evaporates. This is a known phenom. not just my crazy observation :eugeek: . I think thinner teflon such as in tape and s...

My gaskets are the 'PTFE (teflon) Envolope' Type. I've wondered about very carefully casing the EPDM in PTFE tape though, but that sounds like a bad idea in my head, let alone in practice. Jury is out on EPDM (like most sythetics). I wouldn't consider it safe personally, but all you can do is draw ...

My spirots still have a bit of an "off" smell to them when I pull them off though. I am not sure where the smell is from, but it does not seem to go away with airing even. I let my last collected spirits sit out for about 4 days and they still had an off smell. I may have gotten some head...

EDV 493 is ideal for sugar or molasses washes at mid 30 degrees celcius. Isolated for rum washes. http://www.ethanoltech.com/PDF/493_EDV.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow Another option is to cool your wash, could use a frozen coke bottle of water ...

HaHa Mackeral... may have been slightly impaired when I posted that... I don't use turbos myself much (did a few some months back to see/remind me how they stack up). I have done about 3 commercial turbos in the last 5 years. I still like Wineos plain sugar wash varients or similar for neutrals. But...

I know there is a lot of turbo hate, but chemicaltaste is a new one on me. What where your brewing conditions and the turbo brand you used? What sort of still you using mate? FYI my personal choice for a neutral or a basic fruit wine like you are running is something like Lalvin EC1118 yeast. It is ...

Ahh, don't actually recall anymore. I bought so much mesh at the time that I have had a life long supply. This would have been about 7 to 8 years ago now though. These days I am lucky if I can remember what I ate for dinner last night. They have nothing in NZ anymore though, all stuff is from US. I ...

I dealt with Mike McCaw late last year and he used the sales@amphora-society.com email. He informed me that Mike Nixon in NZ was no longer active due to poor health, I hope he is well as I have dealt with him on and off over the years for packing etc and he was always a really top notch bloke. It ma...

Thanks for the recipie, always good to see what others are up to. I'm kinda just playing with the opposite approach with a rum wash I've just put down. I'm using an English Ale yeast (Safale S-04, will also try the US ale S-05 after this.. supposed to be not as estery) which are characterised by est...

I have tried a still spirits triple distilled turbo packet, believe this is the one you are talking about or basically the same. This has silicon dioxide in it and recomends you add turbo carbon and turbo clear (even though it has bentonite added also). I did this wash just before Christmas but didn...

Hey crackalac, go to the mother page... http://homedistiller.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow then use the top left drop down box 'Distilling' then go down to 'Diluting the Distilate' then you can use the supplied Dilution Calculators etc. Hope t...

A residual current device (RCD), similar to a Residual Current Circuit Breaker (RCCB). I have mine inside too.I have however found condensation can build up and for example on one of my sealed hard element boards has caused the surface to become damaged and moisture get in. I used to have a propagat...

They should always be open, generally this is at the top above the reflux condenser. If your condenser is designed well you won't have problems with vapour loss from this point.

If your ambient temps are generally below 0 degrees C than most heat pads will struggle to keep temps up. I have a seperate thermostat controller as well but this is for summer use really, in winter they will just keep going and going.. also depends alot on your heatpads wattage rating. I have an RC...

The glass ones have the advantage of being clear so readings are easy! I have some plastic lab ones that are cracking and peeling off the top layer - so I don't trust them. A tip someone posted somewhere was to put a tiny amount of packing (copper mesh/scrubber) in the bottom to buffer those nocks f...

What is it made of? If it is the common vinyl (pvc) I would avoid it at all cost, for exactly the reason you suggest. It will not like the alcohol and possible heat at all - and then neither will you. It is such an easy thing to avoid when we go to such lengths to control flavour and smell of our pr...

Dr Smooth: What Ima wonderin is if I use only mollasses, will it still with more color and will there be enough nutrients from the lasses or do I still need a nute pack and how much mollasses equals 20 lbs of sugar? A rum wash will come over clear like water. The colour comes from aging on charred ...

looks good, thanks for the pics... love the infectious substances bucket!! :lol: The parrot on the side looks good, keeps it compact. Do you find that the spirit warms up from the uninsulated column and affects your alcoholometer readings at all? I don't like the plastic tube on the parrot output, o...

What... Bad cough medicine.... heh, not the real stuff! :lol: Love the stuff in fondue, cakes and coffee. Guess it's a Swiss thing though. I wasn't sure if the stones are crushed or not, good to know - thought that could unleash some nasties. Admittedly I have had some real harsh stuff in my time, p...

Different flavour no doubt to real Kirsch (Kirschwasser).

Does anyone have any experience with making kirsch in an authentic fashion - is any sugar etc added at all (I imagine not)? Water to fruit ratios etc. I have done a search on here but not much at all comes up.

Sorry can't remember the exact sizes was along time ago and it is at home. It must be about 5 inch hole, I can get my big mits in easily, it reduces to a compression fitting, slightly machined out. The extra copper reducer is used here for my 2inch column or it fits directly to the smaller 40mm appr...

This is what I did with my keg, makes it really easy to clean. these were standard dairy fittings from the scrap metal yard.

Because of the nature of gas their will really be no noticible difference in performance between the two sizes of conection. That is, this won't cause a bottle neck type problem for you to have a 2 inch reducer and a 3 inch column. Having said that if you push it with too much power and wash volume ...

These are comments by Dr. Clayton Cone of lallemand that may also help; "Harsh and bitter sensory properties are enhanced when the juice or must is deficient in micronutrients such as pantothenic acid. Too little juice nitrogen will "starve" the yeast during the fermentation. The resu...

Thanks for the links, interesting stuff indeed... just browsing through the accelerated aging links at the moment. What developments have occured in recent times that would be easily adopted by the small scale hobbyist? I am sure many on here would love any tips or new ideas from someone with as muc...

Hey mate, just been up your way today. Awesome day overlooking the ocean. Have fun with it, just another good reason to be a Kiwi... (got to rub it in as much as we can). It can get pretty adictive, this sport of ours. Read through the various forum posts and you'll soon learn much more than the bre...