Home Distiller

I've been doing all grain lately and I've been having some issues with lactic souring myself. I've found that if I mix up a starter the night before, typically about a ¼ cup of sugar, a teaspoon of DAP (diammonium phosphate)and a pinch of Epsom salt in about ½-¾ quart of water with 2 packets of yeas...

The Bayou burner I'm referring to is the SP10 jet style burner. Bayou has a similar banjo type burner that I think uses the exact same 10" burner. I don't think it's rated the same as the Blichmann but I think it would still be an excellent burner, both are in fact nice burners, except personal...

I've been on this road too. Didn't travel all the way to it's destination but sure felt a lot of the bumps in the road. The 7 year itch arrived at 7½ years. I hate to say it but sometimes a relationship needs to hit the reset button and reboot; clears a lot of the errors. You also might be in a situ...

True, this is a hobby of patience, however, most of us, I think, would choose to heat our mash water/boiler charge as quick as possible since it doesn't matter how fast it can be heated to the temperature we're looking for. To me, speed when needed and not detrimental, is a great thing; better to ha...

I just got my Blichmann burner today. First impressions...WOW!!!! My brothers Bayou Classic would boil 2.5 gallons in about 15-16 minutes and the roar would really start to grate on you after a while; my old burner was about 20-25 minutes. The Blichmann is near silent, just a soft "Sshhhhhhhhh&...

I got a chance to use my brothers Bayou Classic (SP10) burner and it worked reasonably well, but it's LOUD. I was able to bring 2.5 gal. of water to a boil in my BOP in 15m flat, which is a little better than what my homemade one does. I've decided to get the Blichmann instead. I've read more review...

Thanks for the replies. I'm running a 15.5 gallon keg as a boiler and I have a 7.75 gallon ¼ keg that I can use for smaller batches. My bok is capable of 94-95% but I can't get down to pencil led thickness without it flooding. So far I've been happy with it, tuned fairly low I can get 94+% out of it...

To many choices LOL. I think I'll play it by ear. I've got a few sour mashes to strip out so I might just collect all those and add my feints to clean it up a little. Not so sure I like sour mash.

I like the corny keg idea, I've got to get some of those for storage.

Thanks.

I'm preparing to run a DWWG run through the bok for a clean neutral spirit. I've got about 3 gallons of ~42% stripped DWWG and I'm wondering if it will be better to make another batch of wash, strip it and run with what I've got, or will diluting back to 10-15% with lots of water and running as a sp...

Should feints be added to a new run or left to run by themselves? I've got about 3 gallons of feints from my previous spirit run of mostly UJSSM and I'm wondering if I should add that to new "mostly" all grain stripped runs and just do the new runs and keep the fients to run all together. ...

I do like what was quoted from Fester. A simple permit, i.e. not a 25 page book to fill out, and a distillers test, information that covers the basics so you prove competency and that you're not going to poison/kill yourself or family when they drink it. Something simple like a short course, similar...

I've noticed a few times a residual scent of the previously stored wash/distillate after washing. It's mainly when I rinse and cap and don't air out the jugs/bottles. I also find that inverting the bottles to drain and air for a day or two helps.

I guess I'm going to try a soured batch myself. I wasn't intending on a sour wash but the last corn/barley ferment I did seemed to kick off after the transfer to the better bottle. I thought it was just becuse it was cold in the garage and had warmed up enough to kick off the yeast again. Then I not...

On the main site there is a lot of information about grains, including where someone has worked out ppg to pkgL. 2.2# of grain in 1L (.946 quart) seems way to high to me. Keeping the gain/water ratio somewhere close to the widely used max of 2#/gal, would put you in the 1kg per 4L of water range usi...

I usually clean them with a rinse of Dawn soap, then I use a laboratory glass cleaner called Alconox which does really good. I think it's sodium carbonate. I got a 4# carton a LONG time ago as it goes REALLY far. Beyond that, for some really stubborn stains, left over residue, or other gunk left beh...

Nobody seem to have a comment on this?

Well, my brother has a Bayou burner, I think the "classic" model which I'll borrow to see how well that works and I guess post of results here.

I had yet another water accident. First time was loose ends on the hose, popped off and flooded my garage. This time I guess the hose, 1/4" heavy walled tygon, got to close to the burner while I was getting 8 gallons of water to boil, and burst. I'd gone in the house to answer the phone, talked...

Head M F'er In Charge

My 2¢ contribution to the topic....

Just wondering what size burners most use and if anyone is using a Blichmann burner. My homemade burner just seems pretty weak to me. It's about a 5-6" banjo style salvaged from a gas water heater. It appeared to be jetted for natural gas and I got a lot of orange tips, so I turned a new jet fo...

Rather than start a new topic, I'll add my questions here.

What does over oaked taste like? I think I might have over oaked some ujssm myself; it has a fairly strong "green wood" flavor to it. I'm not sure if it's over oaked or if my toasted oak stick wasn't toasted enough.

I ran an UJSM varient a few days ago and I thought I might keep some records of the cuts as a indication of what to expect for cuts on a spirit run. The Charge: ~40l (hard to see in the keg :) ) of low wines @~45%, from successive ferments of UJSM style corn + rye + barley malt. The Result: Untitle...

Second attempt. Boiled 10# of corn in 8 gallons of water, waited until 165°F and added baking soda to bring the pH up for the enzyme, added 2# malted barley (2-row) and alpha-amylase. Waited a little longer than an hour until the temps dropped to 145°F and added citric acid to bring the pH to around...

Thanks all for the replies. I'll try to address some concerns here. I went with the full strength stripped runs at 42% because I wasn't sure how well my still head would work and wanted to make sure I'd get high enough abv throughout the run to oak. I didn't want my hearts to end up to low of abv to...

Well, once I got my boiler good and clean I fired her up with the 10 gal. run of UJSSM + a few stripped all gains and grain sugar heads. Boy am I happy!!! On a charge of ~42% it started out at 88%. I collected a liter of fore shots/heads and 2 quarts of heads (prolly should of been a bit more but th...

I found a 1/2 gallon bottle of Kahlua that I had made January of last year. Sometimes finding gems like that is a real treat. This stuff is wonderful!!!! It was so good that I had to make another bottle tonight using my much better cuts neutral vodka to put away again. This time I tinkered with the ...

Next batch I'll wait until the corn is 165 or less an add both the alpha-amylase and the barley. I'll also keep the amount of water down to get the sp. gr. up too. This last batch I just added 5# cane sugar. I also pitched a yeast starter this morning while the mash was at about 105F. WOW, a yeast s...

Well I've delved more into grains, actually calculating yields and whatnot. Before I didn't care much about yields, grain bills etc. So this last mash I boiled 8 gallons of water, then added 10# of cracked corn, stirring occasionally so it would not burn and boiled/simmered that for 40 minutes. It s...

Finally clean! I mixed up another lye solution and let it sit in the keg upside down for a few days. I rinsed it out and mixed up a solution of borax and shook it all around, then rinsed again with fresh water twice. I ran a test run of plain water and it came out perfectly. Just a faint hint of a m...

Hello First post on HD. I have made two runs so far os UJSSM. i did not backset the first into the second so there is not a Sour mash But i did pour all of my spirits into my second run . If I understand this correctly from what you wrote, you added your first run spirits to your second run wash an...

Yes, the thermometer goes between the slant plates and centered to the column.

As far as "steel wool" I hope you mean stainless steel wool, a.k.a. stainless pot scrubbers.