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I'm OK with a fairly long coil--I'm just trying to figure out what size diameter and length before I go and drop the cash on the copper :p. You can coil up 25 ft pretty easily. I just want to make sure I'm not going to need a 50 ft monster for this little endeavor!

Gents-- It's been some time since I was in the hobby, but I finally got off my kiester and have been been making a series of rum ferments and stripping them. Just one problem--it's freaking cold outside! Living up the in the North, the air temp has been cold enough to freeze water lines from the tap...

I'm also guilty of money being a prime motivating factor, but I have yet to break even. When you consider the cost of a boil pot, mash tun, fermenters, kegs, and chest freezer, I easily have $400-500 in equipment. But with most of my equipment already purchased, I should be going into the black some...

Oh yes, I'll be trying! I've already made a batch of rum (didn't last long) and I have a batch of scotch fermenting now, never mind the sour mash I'm running. But I am limited in my time (ie maybe distill once every 3 weeks) and my experience, and I figure that buying some decent stuff might give me...

Well, I reached legal age some months ago, but due to my brewing and distilling habits I have yet to actually purchase any spirits. However, I've been looking to expand my palette recently, so I'd appreciate any advice on which commercials I should buy. Of main focus, I'm looking for recommendations...

Hmmm, this irks me along the same lines as a lot of those gimmiky liquors. Like a few of my buddies were raging over some "grape vodka" they had bought. Much more expensive that the standard store bought with a mostly neutral flavor. In fact, I would rank it well below several reasonably p...

Ftero, it might be a really bad idea to place the steel disc in direct contact with the burner unless you have it welded to the bottom of the boiler. If the boiler is simply resting on top of the disc, it's very likely that the disc will heat up to a dangerous level. A much safer solution would be t...

It's all good. I just didn't want to be fingered for advocating shipping our precious aqua vitae around.

Just wanted to clarify that your talking to rad14701 and not me, THM. I know were similar, but I was here first....I think :D jk I too would love to see more research data on this. Although a few of my own sources have also pegged those Sterling engines as big part of new energy. A buddy of mine on ...

New site is shiny and all, but I had two problems with it:
First, avatars are on the right, which confused the heck outta me.

Second, I was having a bunch of trouble telling when one post ended and the next started.

Fortunately, reverting to the old skin solved both of those issues .

Rad14701-I'm not sure what gave you the idea, but I was never advocating the shipment of liquors. In fact I think that it would be a bad idea on several counts-first, it's illegal, second it's potentially dangerous should a bottle break, third, it could bring undue attention to the distiller if the ...

Agreed with the general consensus above. I run a pot still myself, but I'm not above making some vodka with it either. I recently ran 10 gallons of Birdwatcher's recipe; the wash itself merely had a mildly acidic flavor to it, clearly a fantastic start for a neutral spirit. On only my second run, I ...

I've been thinking, and while this site is already a tremendous resource, it's missing one element: real world experience. You can tell me that a whiskey has some delightful peach notes, but how am I supposed to really grasp that without tasting it? So the best way I can think of experiencing these ...

Yep, you don't even need to wash out the carboy/fermenter it's in. Just throw the new sugar/water mix on top of the existing yeast cake and it'll take right off! In beer making, this is often done when making a big beer like a barleywine or a Russian Imperial Stout. Basically they make a "norma...

Certainly an interesting concept, but I'm doubtful of the efficiency claims they make; simple thermodynamics limits the potential efficiency of a heat engine to a much lower value. For super heated steam at 600*C and 2MPa high side and 40*C low side (AKA generic big ass power plant, far exceeding sm...

Glassman-If you are going to ferment on the grain, you won't receive any benefit from sparging; all of the sugar in the grains will be in contact with the yeast. You only sparge if you decide to ferment off of the grains, in which case rinsing the grains will let you extract more sugars from them. I...

Thanks for all of the replies, gents. I see the topic isn't so one sided after all, but my batch is now happily bubbling away, with no boil. I ended up with 5 gallons of 1080, 5 gallons of 1050, and 2 of 1030. Wort was still coming out at 1028 when I stopped, but I had absolutely run out of fermente...

All right then, looks like there's a pretty strong "don't boil' sentiment out there. So I'll forgo that step. I've got my water heated and my grain ready to grind :p. Really, I just need to fit it all into 2 6 gallon containers, that's my biggest worry. Who knows, maybe if I'm getting decent gr...

Ok, so I know that for a mixed grains mash that fermenting on the grain is the preferred method, but I'm looking to do an all malt batch for some scotch. And the majority opinion on that seems to be to sparge as per tradition. Now I've brewed many a batch of beer, so the ways of sparging are no myst...

Oh, and fellas, if you do decide to use real coffee, as I did, White Russians are a no-no. The acidic nature of the coffee curdles the milk/cream on contact. Irish carbomb, anyone? Mine never lasts longer than a week....I need to start making larger batches and see what the fuss about the 3 month st...

Gaaaaahhh, I only saw this just now but after reading #4 I was certain it had something to do with a taxidermist :p.

Heh, man that barrel is really temping...it would match well with my new keg boiler, and free up some of my other fermenters for other things :p.

Care to share the seller, copster?

Sadly, last updated in Sept. 2006...

Punkin: In beer brewing there's two kinds of malt extract, liquid and dry. So his recipe is most likely calling for a can of liquid malt extract and a bag of dried (or powdered) malt extract. DME can have enzymes, but they need to be added, and it is very expensive to do so. Victory: Rough math puts...

Zymos, while you bring up a valid point concerning bpa, many, if not most, of those water jugs are made out of a different plastic, and thus don't face those threats. In the beer and wine community, this has been discussed very regularly (about once a week) and the consensus is that if the plastic i...

I think your setup matches the definition of "bells and whistles." Needless to say, from either a beer or distilling vantage, I'm very jealous. Good luck with your enterprise!

Lots of times, if your yeast is putting out a bad smell, most notably a sulfur smell, then you probably have insufficient nutrients in your wash. Hope that might help you, Flash!

Say, when aging rum do you generally use charred, toasted, or 'raw' oak? Since you say for wine I would assume toasted, but you know what they say...Don't AssUMe

After closer inspection, looks like there is some vegetable matter than floats, and thus forms a 1" cap, on top of the fermenter. If you mix it it liquifies nicely, but it does settle back out. So I am led to believe that most of the fermenter is liquid. I think the yeasties have started munchi...