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Well i ran my whiskey today. Not totally disappointing. I collected around 1.75L @ 45%. So i think the yield is a bit low and leading me to believe that my yeast is just pretty shit. Anyway, thats the last of it, now i will carry on with bakers yeast until i get my system down pat and then i can re-...

Righto, cheers

Well looks like the FG will settle on 1.010. I have taken it off the grain to settle in a second fermenter. What is everyone's best method for racking? I can use a racking cane but obviously it needs to sit above the sediment I was half thinking about using a water purifier/micro filter. Will this s...

Cheers guys. Thanks for the tips Jimbo. Took 3 screwed up washes....then a bit more reading to get those 3 very simply aspects together. Hahaha it all sounds so simple! @ Halfbaked. At the moment i have no means of squeezing the grain. I may attempt at making a press that i can screw down and squeez...

Also, if the FG is 1.01 does this mean there are still sugars present that didn't get converted and in turn make a sweeter whiskey?

Just a quick update. Looks like aerating the wash helped a lot. So i had an inital reading of 1.080 on sunday. Now its reading about 1.01. So it looks like its a better conversion then my previous attempts. 2 things i did different was higher temperature on the stall (perhaps a little too high) and ...

Cheers Pappy,
Yeah mate, i love it all. Always said, its the times that everything goes wrong are the times we remember. Kinda f$%&ed up really.
Happy distilling

I hear ya. I did some initial reading (a fair amount but obviously not enough) but for me i can only absorb so much and then i just need to have a crack and learn from my mistakes. Probably not the best approach but thats how i do it. So am i right in assuming that when you say settle, then you can ...

Wait, have I completely missed a step here? At what point do I allow it to clear? After the ferment is complete I let it sit for a day or 2 more but I notice it developing a thin film of mould? On the top. Then I drain it via a plug into my boiler...should I let it sit again? Sorry I will have retur...

Bakers yeast certainly is cheaper! I might do that until i can get the bloody thing to ferment then i can experiment with different yeasts. Anyway, i checked it this morning and i got a reading of a touch over 1.080. So thats quite high, maybe a touch too high but it's better than my previous attemp...

Fail. It came out at a bit under 40% and was cloudy straight away. I've put another one on today and hopefully i get this right. This time i milled 12kg of grain. 4kg barley and 8kg bairds peated malt (i wanted a more peaty whiskey). I brought roughly 50L to 75c and dumped it on the grained. After s...

Well it looks like the FG will settle at 1.01. Ill put it through the pot tomorrow but not expecting great results. There is always next time.

Rightio, cheers lads. I will try that on the next attempt.
@Rad no i haven't done an iodine test but this sounds interesting. I will look into that, thanks for the advice

Howdy, Yeah at the moment im fermenting on grain. More oxygen you reckon? Whats the best way of doing this? One of those aquarium stones? Do i oxygenate for the entire ferment or just for a while before i pitch my yeast? On the plus side my brandy is going supremely well and my vodka's have a banana...

My pot is controlled with the phase angle controller. I blast it to get it to temperature, drop it back down and collect fores and heads, then i edge it back up to collect 3L/hr. Nice pencil lead stream. Im getting pretty good at making cuts etc. But this one is the first time it came out low % and ...

Well i must have taken the readings wrong or something. Im not bad at running my pot, been doing it for a few years but always been pretty simple rum washes and UJ whiskeys. Really not sure what happened with this one and not 100% sure of the science behind starch conversions etc. i assume that the ...

Great well i might just wait and see what happens to it. My temp is around low 20's. I gave the wort a big stir before i put in the yeast but haven't touched it since. So what FG should i be expecting for good conversion? So next time a few more Kgs of barley? On my second wash it started around 1.0...

The second batch of AG that i was going to throw down the drain, i ran through the pot just to see what would come out. It started around 40% and was very cloudy. I collected about a litre then shut it down

ah ok. Its still fermenting so will be at least a week for the final readings. I just thought 1.045 seemed a bit low. Wont that only yield a beer of around 4% Is that what i'm aiming for here? I thought a reading closer to 1.070 was better or is that only for sugar washes? Anyway, im running a 2&quo...

Howdy all, Just having some problems with my AG wash. Its my 3rd attempt now and doesn't seem to be going well so it's getting frustrating. I have a 50l boiler. So i milled 5kg of barley and 5kg of peated malt. I placed that in a big 180L, well insulated fermenter. I then poured about 40L of 65c wat...

So sounds like i can use it i guess. It's only $9 per 30kg so i guess thats not too bad. How much would i then have to use for a 50l wash? I can get panela here in great abundance which im pretty happy about so to make a basic rum with 10kg of panela and thats it. So with this Molasses i was thinkin...

Ash content Solid residue determined gravimetrically after incineration in the presence of oxygen. In analysis of sugar products, sulfuric acid is added to the sample, and this residue as sulfated ash heated to 525 °C is taken to be a measure of the inorganic constituents. Sometimes determined indir...

Hey, Im living in Colombia at the moment but still producing some rum and whiskey. Ive found some Molasses at a feed store but thought i would run it by you guys. Having lived in Colombia a while im still not completely trust worthy of some of the products here. Anyway the molasses im talking about ...

Righto, point taken on the condenser. Thanks for the advice, Ill change it before i use it again. Im very particular before i start my run, checking everything 3 times but there is always that possibility. But it did get me thinking.... Has anyone heard of or know of someone that had a still explode...

No, i meant 7kg which is a bit over 15lbs. Hmmm maybe that really is not enough for a 50l batch. So is 80gms of bakers yeast enough? or if i add more sugar, say 10kg of panela, should i add some more yeast? Cause i feel like 5l of an average of around 30% is a bit low for a 50l batch no? Also a quic...

oh. and im still a little confused about dunder. I am currently on my third batch. I siphon my wash with a tube (i still haven't made a good raking cane). I put the tube a few inchs off the bottom and drain until that point. When i have finished my run and it has cooled, i put about 10-15l back into...

Cheers. I guess i will do a double run to bring the % up a bit and see if the undesired smells make their way through. If so i will have to make better cuts on my first run. how do people get 60% on a first run? I got about 80% from my detuned reflux but that column is over 1m high and the output wa...

Hey, I have recently started using a pot still. I have worked out how to use my reflux still quite well but now i am more interested in creating some nice liquor from scratch. So i had a pot head made up that attaches to my keg via a flange. Anyway, i guess my question is with cuts and quantities. A...

Well, if anyone is interested my ferment turned out quite well. I think i basically made cachaça. I ran it through my detuned reflux still. I am currently using gas and i think the regulator doesn't provide enough gas because it took 3 hours to heat and another 4 or 5 hrs to produce roughly 2 litres...

ah well, see what happens. Smells really nice at the moment, kinda like apple cider. I thought i read somewhere that Panela had its own nutrients....well i was just bored actually and this is what i had at hand so i thought i would try it. lemons and tomato paste i can get, marmite might be a little...