Home Distiller

Even at 2 gallons, you still don't have enough sugar in your wash. The sugar will give you an SG of 1.016, or a potential alcohol of ~1.6%. Heating your barley mash that high probably didn't convert much at all. Even if you did fully convert the malt and corn flakes, the SG would probably be, at mos...

It didn't stall, it bubbled for a few hours and then finished. You don't have nearly enough sugar for 5 gallons, and the malted barley addition was probably cooked too warmly for it to convert into fermentable sugars. If you typed your recipe in as prepared, it should only net an SG of around 1.005-...

Hi! I started homebrewing probably 12 years ago. I enjoy the building of gear almost as much as the brewing and the fruits of the brewing, so distilling seems like an obvious progression for me. I first joined HD in 2007, and built a 20 qt pot with a liebig condenser. I did my cleaning runs, but nev...

rad14701 wrote:I have had good luck along those lines but your mileage may vary...

And you are correct on foaming only being an issue with stripping runs, and spirit runs without prior stripping...

Thanks, Rad! My first run will probably be your All Bran recipe!

My boiler is a 20 qt stock pot, and my lid is an 8 qt mixing bowl. Can I count the 2 gallon capacity of the lid as space for foaming? I mean can I fill my boiler with shy of 5 gallons and still consider it only 3/4 full, or do I want to keep it to only 3/4 of my stock pot? Also, am I correct in assu...

Cool (pun intended) I'll give it a shot.

sambedded wrote:Take a car radiator with electric fan and use it for cooling your circulating water. It works extremely well.

I have a brand new transmission cooler sitting around for a project that never materialized. Would that work, or would it be too small to be effective?

Question 1: How do I attach the element to a power cord that I can plug in? (I have seen people using Metal electric boxes, is there any other way to do this? Like the following minus the adjustment knob --> http://www.milehidistilling.com/heater-element-with-thermostat-1500w-115v/ ) Here's how I p...

Just teflon tape the hell out of the threads. The rubber washer wont be an issue, cuz it will never get wet. Mine threads into a stainless lock nut which has straight threads on the inside of my pot, so the gasket is necessary for sealing. I did get to wrap it with teflon tape and it worked well wi...

Gonna be a real bitch to re-tighten the terminal screws on the element if they ever work loose. If they do work loose, you will be the first to know ....from the smell of burning silicone sealant and PVC. :shock: :o :) :ebiggrin: In reality, except for the rubber washer, it should be good. Thanks f...

Are they from the Dollar Tree? Scrub Buddies brand? The ones I've seen were labeled "copper coated." Does a magnet stick to them?

I just finished wiring and protecting the element for my boiler. It's a 5500 Watt element that I'll be running at 120V, so I should be getting 1375 Watts out of it. I'm using a 14 gauge cord. I used JB Weld to attach a 1" PVC coupling to the back of the element, and then filled it in from the b...

For beer brewing, I've used zinc coated copper elements, and I soaked them in acid to remove the zinc. I don't need to do anything with these, other than the cleaning runs, right?

Cool, I'll go with it then!

Thanks everyone! I'll try wrapping the stock gasket with teflon tape, and if that doesn't work, I'll buy one of the teflon o-rings.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_362369-135-9008070046_0__?productId=3693210&Ntt=water+heater+element&Ns=p_product_price|0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow It claims to be made of a stainless steel alloy. I'm planning on running it at 120v in a 5 gallo...

I already bought a 1" stainless lock nut with straight threads. It's a very thin gauge stainless stock pot, so I was hoping to go weldless. I was planning on punching a hole in the boiler, putting the nut on the inside, and threading the element into it. I neglected to think that I'd need some ...

I'm getting ready to build an electric boiler, but I was wondering what everyone is using for a gasket, other than the rubber one that the element comes with?

I'm rebuilding a pot still that I built several years ago, but only ran a cleaning run through it because I was uncomfortable distilling on a gas stove. I'd like to try it again, but this time using electric. Anyway, I'm replacing some questionable materials. I'm using a stainless floor flange to at...

Maybe I missed this somewhere in the thread, but I'm beginning to build one of these to control a 110 V 1500 W element. How big of a heat sink do I need to use for the alternistor?

I built the following small pot still using a 20qt boiler: http://brewing.lustreking.com/gear/purifier/assembled.jpg The condenser is a 26” Leibig, with a ½” center. I’d like to move off of the kitchen stove and into the basement. I’m planning on using 120V and pintoshine’s dimmer-based heating cont...

Thanks! I searched the homebrewing forums with no luck but never thought to look at the main site.

I was about to enter it in promash, but found it actually was listed in there as cane sugar. Same value 1.046

Thanks again!

I forgot to take an OG reading of the UJSM that I started two days ago. Does anyone know the pppg of table sugar so I can calculate what it should have been?

Thanks!

That's an awesome mash tun you made. Simple and easy to build - I've saved the page in my folder of stuff I want to make :) Damn, I need to get into a house soon so I can do all of this. Thanks! I also wanted to mention that I usually pre-heat my mash tun. I boil up a gallon or less of water and pu...

Hmm... don't have an insulated cooler. However, maybe I could insulate the plastic fermenter to hold the temperature during the starch conversion. I could do a test run with just hot water to see how well it holds the temperature. If the temp drops more that you'd like, keep in mind that when there...

Thanks!

I don't think I've come across this on the forum, or the parent site.

I've been building a pot still using a 5 gallon pot as a boiler. How much wash should I put in there? I certainly know not to fill it, but I don't know what's safe: Half, less than half, two thirds?

Thanks Lustreking! Effective and cheap! That's even better! Of course, I was counting on using the same $40 PID to control the hot-plate temperature while distilling. I'm in a small apartment, and can't use gas. I didn't realize that they were that inexpensive, cool. FWIW, the Love TS-13010 also ca...

You could do it a lot more easily and cheaper than using a pid. I have two temperature controls that I use for fermenting beer. I have a Love ts-13010, which has a relay built in: http://brewing.lustreking.com/gear/controller/controller.jpg http://brewing.lustreking.com/gear/tempcontroller.html"...

Chev wrote:Linky no more

Is this the one?
http://www.zanesvillepottery.com/ViewPr ... ber=swjug1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow