Home Distiller

RD, DH, What I meant was: if you plan a second distillation, you can add some of the original wash/wine you used. So not adding backset, but adding of your originial wash/wine (if any is left, of course) to your low wines and thén go for second distillation. Helps me to get over more taste. Hope I ...

RD, Turbo clear usually consists of two "agents". And they are needed for turbo washes, because - contrary to the washes presented in the tried & true recipees department - they do not clear very easy. The first "agent" is a signaling product that tells the yeast cells to st...

dont follow you,, you distilled, then added the spirits/alcohol back to the spent beer? then your back some place close to where you started.? I'm not quite following 100% either, that's what I think I read from Odin's post.. I would think I would just distill the melomel from 10% to 30% in one sho...

In diluting I'd just be adding the first run back to the boiler with what's left in the boiler and top off a lil for whatever evaporated and never came back down from spirit heaven, right? Then chuck the first 50ml or so and bottle what else comes out till it starts coming out at the same abv as wjh...

This sounds dirty but how do you rinse the head out? I've just been spraying out the boiler and running some water through it. As for brandy yeah I know it was just an example it just reminded me of it. I do have more gallons of the melomel but I'd prefer to bottle that this would be more of an expe...

Random, Those filters work. A little. If you are after a neutral you can polish them up a bit with it. Do not expect it to turn a brandy into anything neutral-like, though. Oh and dude as for brandy to neutral I would not want to do that it'd be a waste. I do have some melomel (fruit mead) that I w...

Random, Those filters work. A little. If you are after a neutral you can polish them up a bit with it. Do not expect it to turn a brandy into anything neutral-like, though. The way to use them is to run some hand warm water over them before puting them to practise. And they work up until 45%. Any h...

I know this is a really old thread but does anyone know WHAT Turbo Clear actually is? I mean what is actually in it? Watching the video it looked like a big package of mixed up gelatin. I have a lot of gelatin for homebrewing (I mean a TON.. like 25lb) and figure if this is somewhere I can use it I ...

Somewhere in this thread a really good joke is hidden! :think: :thumbup: :wave: Give us a clue! On a side note I'm going to purchase an inline carbon cartridge. It came with the little attachment to fit one but didn't come with the cartridge itself. It says they're good for one run of 25 liters of ...

blind drunk wrote:

I plan on getting a Brita filter pitcher to run it through next time.

Have a look -

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 33&t=14358

Wow, thanks!

I shared this with some family members last night and they enjoyed it quite a bit. I didn't bring much so we had small tastes but everyone who enjoyed spirits said it was quite tasty. The only constructive feedback was that it tasted and smelled a bit yeasty which I attribute to not filtering. I pla...

Do you have someone around that has a sniffer that works? Someone who you can trust to tell you if your spirits smell ok or smell like nail polish remover? Hate to see you make something that tastes good to you but the smell repulses everyone else. I've got a friend who lives very closeby who is a ...

Geez...!!! :wtf: Can't smell... :problem: Can't taste... :think: You would have had a hard life growing up in my neighborhood... :shifty: You'd have been eating road kill sandwiches and washing them down with skunky beer - or worse... :lolno: I often wonder how we ever survived when I think back on...

I see this often,,when you ferment it does not produce anything different than wine or beer , then when you distill that does not create any thing,its just concentrates the alcohol .you are making it about 10 times stronger,so if you drank 1/10 the amount you whould be drinking about the same thing...

In a way, Random, the problem is your nose. Or the absence of smell, right? Normally heads can be smelled pretty easy. Bit of a flowery, buttery thing. In tasting it, I find that it is harder to discribe. If you've got something like a slight brandywine (fruit, grapes) taste, you know you have stil...

" it'd be safely drinkable?" if ya like it drink it.. Sweet.. just did..now I'm drunk and have to make more!!... Okay no I didn't really. will take a small drink though to make sure it's good :) I already told my mother in law that no one is mixing this with anything but water :) I'm usua...

Random, A few tips that may (or may not) be helpful. I gave a few general lines you can use for making cuts. In the end, since every wash can be a bit different, it finally comes down to smelling and (in your case more important, I think) tasting. If you are happy with it it is probably good and ce...

Okay sorry for redundat questions here. My process (less the puking issue). 5.6% abv whiskey wash, toss 50ml, collect until what comes out is the same abv as what I started with, save what's left to run through again some day.. Did 2 runs with the above steps. First run started at 4l (lost some due ...

"there any reason why I'd want to run it to be stronger than around 40%" a bit tricky, but lets try,,as general.the lower percent you distill at the more flavor you have but also more unwanted alcohols etc. and this takes some aging,the more there is the longer it takes . the higher perce...

If the spirit is going to be consumed in a couple of days is there any reason why I'd want to run it to be stronger than around 40% and dilute it down? So if I just take what I collect from my first two runs, then run that together and the spirit is around 40% is there any reason that would not be a...

Rad - Word. I have no intention of using turbo yeasts. This is a 5.6% ABV whiskey wash made from dry malt extract (I have a ton of it and I don't feel like doing my standard all grain process, I like how fast the steps are in this hobby. There are a number of them but I can fire up the still while d...

Based on the Pot Purity calculator at 1.075ml, 300w power up and power during, at 35% reflux, 15% wash (estimating), it shows that the first 20min should give 192ml at 60% then 143ml at 33% to make what's collected 49% then just 1% purity at 110ml to make 47%... so based on that if I just rerun what...

I will try to answer your questions. First on how much foreshots/heads to collect & throw out. I usually discard the first 50 ml that come out of my airstill on any wash. Be it sugar or grain or wine (for brandy making). About how much tails to collect, as you say, I am not sure that is what th...

Okay so another place I went wrong is for some reason I thought I tossed the first 50ml and then collected until the abv went down to whenever I wanted to stop, which should have been a little less than 18% abv for everything. Instead AFTER the 50ml I tossed I was supposed to separate some more to a...

The best advice I can give you is to not think you will end up with 100% of the available alcohol as drinkable... The best rule of thumb is to consider 1/3 of what you think you'll get as drinkable and the rest either being thrown away (foreshots) or redistilled (head and tails)... That way you won...

Dnderhead wrote:you probably just "wasted" heads.

Good, glad I thought that right when I saw it. I would be pretty annoyed if I had collected that with the rest and decided it was good spirit. Of lessons to learn that one wasn't too bad just won't fill it up so much next time.

if "murky" then it boiled over/flooded/puked you either had the boiler to full or did not turn the heat down in time. depending what is being run most only fill boiler 1/2-3/4 full. Cool that's what I figured thanks for confirming it. So what I did was after I noticed it was running clear...

I cut the first 100ml of clear spirit (not including the little bit that is on top of the murky badlooking stuff, in case this was my real heads. I'm wondering if that first bit spurting out (now it's dripping like it should) was just the beer/wash boiling over? I filled it to the 4L line and wonder...

I have another thread going but this is more specific. I'm distilling a 5.6 abv wash I made from dry malt extract. It was clear going into the still (used gelatin). I loaded up it's 4L capacity and when it started pouring it went FAST. It was practically spurting out, not dripping. I had planned on ...

Wash fermented to 5.6% ABV, cleared with gelatin, just racked the first 4L to the still, will discard the first 50ml, keep the next 1200ml which should be approximately 18% (a smidgen less as the calculator includes heads in the ABV calculations), then keep as low wines, then run two more 4l (will h...