Home Distiller

I guess I could have been a little more specific. The reason that I have a thumper is for the second distillation. In one run using the pot still with the thumper I get about the same proof and quality as doing a stripping run followed by a spirit run using the pot still only. It certainly can be be...

Since the thumper is there to preform a second distallation, with the heat being supplied by steam from the pot, a larger thumper may take more time to heat up and produce product because of the heat loss from the surface area of the thumper. Not necessarily a bad thing. Insulating the thumper can o...

The following comes directly from the parent site: It's OK to add baking soda or other alkali to a STRIPPED wash, but NEVER put it in the primary ferment and then distill. If you do, and your still contains ANY copper, you will severely corrode the copper, and get blue, ammonia-smelling distillate. ...

One thought that comes to my mind is RV water line antifreeze. I use it to winterize my camper. Never thought about using it for anything else until now. The stuff is relatively cheap in my part of the world and is basically alcohol and water with a coloring agent. Might be a good way to get a jump ...

Have you checked the Brewhaus website? They have a nice assortment and are reasonably priced.

http://www.brewhaus.com/Liquor-Bottles-C93.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Without knowing the original gravity of your wash the final reading just indicates that the wash fermented out dry (no sugar left to ferment), but that does not tell us potential alcohol. I will just take a guess at this point. If your wash finished out at 10% abv on a 13 gal. wash, then the wash wo...

For a while I diluted everything to 50% abv (100 proof) because the math was easier, but there are a number of women that like to hang out with us old boys in the shed out back when the liquor is getting passed around and they want their shots straight up too. Hillbilly women, you just gotta love em...

I usually dilute to 50% (100 proof) because the math is simpler. I can always dilute further later if desired.

12 pounds ground malted corn (green), 5 pounds sugar, 6 gallons water. Steeped malted corn in 3 gallons water at 150f for several hours, added sugar dissolved in one gallon water and topped with 2 more gallons of water. Used a white wine yeast. Fermented out to 1.005 sg. Ran about half of this today...

I almost hate to admit it but i have accidentally soured another mash. These all grains can be tricky. Here is what happened. Prepared the mash, put it into the insulated mash tun, checked it periodically stirring each time. After 2 hours it had thinned out nicely.Then placed the mash into the ferme...

I've had good results with Producer's Pride whole corn from Tractor Supply. Don't know where you are but hopefully there is one in your area.

I ran this mash yesterday thru a pot still with a thump keg. The thump keg is a fairly recent addition to my set up so there is still a little bit of a learning curve going on for me on that. I collected in small amounts (150 to 200 ml) at a time to make precise cuts. The transition from heads to he...

I took a break for awhile, had too many other things going on. When I jumped back in I thought it was time to do some all grain mashes. I followed NChooch's recipe on corn and malted barley and got great results. Now for my mistake. After getting my most recent mash ready I put it in the insulated m...

I don't have a problem with a company protecting their trademark. We should not be making disparaging remarks toward any particular brand whether directly or by innuendo. The recipe should simply state "a generic style Tennessee Whiskey" without any reference to a brand or insinuation as t...

If someone has no control over their own behavior, then blaming someone else is just an easy way to justify their own short comings. If someone is an alcoholic, there is plenty of cheap booze available off the shelf depending on what part of the world that person is in. I am fairly new to the board ...

My personal favorite is polypropylene. Look for the recyclers code usually on the bottom of the container. It will appear as as a triangle formed out of arrows with the number 5 in the center and should have the letters pp just below that. Then you know its food grade.

Like SB said run while you still can, but its probably too late. I know it is for me. My girlfriend finds it humorous that every time we are out and I see something that is stainless steel or copper I am trying to figure out how to make a still out of it. I don't think she minds though because we li...

I run an off set condenser head on my reflux rig also and am well pleased with it. One addition that I made that I didn't see mentioned in your build was a liebig condenser on the take off line. The distillate coming off the coil condenser is going to be hot. The liebig will cool it down. If you are...

When you start out small it don't take long to realize you just gotta go bigger. Did the same thing myself.

On a pot still I gauge the flame by the outflow from the condenser, like Blanikdog said, its more of an art than a science at that point. Adjust for the flow you want by the amount of heat applied. On a spirit run, slow and easy works for me. I don't need to know specific numbers.

with her sister

Thanks for the words of wisdom Husker. I do practice discretion having only let a few select people know about my hobby. On those social occasions where others are present I slip my product to a host, that knows of my hobby, who at some point will bring it out to pass around. As tempting as it is to...

Thanks for the welcome. I have long had an interest in this art and with all the information available now it made it easy to get started. My great-grandfather was a moonshiner according to family lore but he passed on long before I was born. I guess he was just trying to make ends meet, being from ...

I've been practicing this art for about 2 and a half years. Learned a lot from reading info on the parent site and this forum, well maybe a little from some other forums to, but I really like this one. Armed with a little knowledge and some hands on experience, wonderful things happen. I rarely drin...