Home Distiller

Done with corporate.

*Redacted*

moose11 wrote:

Dnderhead wrote:why not place a speaker in the liquor cabinet? this may not be as fast but over time...?

What song would you play?

Hehe - and does booze prefer rock and roll to classical?

Somebody please show me an example of a still exploding without the help of dynamite. Not the heat source going up, not a vapor concentration in an enclosed room, and not a blockage in the condenser. Just show me one example of the alcohol in a still causing the still to explode. I have three point...

Honestly, I think some of what you are seeing, is the VERY sharp angle, and temp drop, due to lack of insulation. The very sharp angle causes the vapor stream to slam into the tube. If that tube is 3 or 4° cooler than vapor condensation temp, then it can cause a quick vapor collapse, reflux some, a...

Bayou-Ruler wrote:

Huh. Never saw that smiley before.

Appropriate to the situation.

What's it like when you have it diluted down to 30 - 40%

Sounds interesting.

Probably hoping that if they make the mediation process inconvenient enough, that you'll be less likely to follow through on your claim. Course, with the price of gasoline so high it does put a burden on someone who doesn't have income.

Seems pretty slimy to me.

Hillbilly produced me a nice flute. However, it came with a serial number and that I don't like. I'm pretty sure thats the law. I can tell you that under federal law any still vendor can be forced to relinquish all their records and they legally must give up your info. "What requirements are t...

When I use the white coffee filters I'll usually put them inside a funnel then run some vinegar or citric acid solution through them first, followed by copious amounts of water. I taste the water coming through the filter until it comes out tasting like regular water. Don't know how much it helps fo...

uplander wrote:i finally got the valve out off the keg. i beat the piss out of it with a screwdriver and hammer no luck, then i filled it with soapy warm water beat it some more and it came out in like 5 or 6 pieces

Hulk SMASH!

Acetobacter maybe? Could just be a film mold. If it were wine, and the pH were high enough I'd make up a solution of KMB / Citric and give a small squirt to the top. I don't know what would happen if you were going to add metabisulfite before using for distillation. May not be the way to kill it off...

87corey wrote:made the condensor

bbb copy.jpg

Wow, that is great work.

Here is a link to the MSDS for the solder in question.

It does have selenium, as you stated, but I'm not qualified to say what kind of health risk it poses.

wwwDOTfastenalDOTcom/web/msds/getmsds.ex?sku=0803477 (Didn't want to link directly - so replace DOT with . and you should be good to go)

Yikes. Do what Rad said, and make sure you're going into this safely. Sounds like you've been watching too much Discovery channel. There's a lot of stuff here to help you. Check the tried and true recipes - there has to be a tested recipe out there that will give you the shine experience you're look...

Was wondering if you couldn't do this with standard pipe run into a copper ball? I was pricing the 4x2 copper reducers and they're pretty dear - $47 each at pexsupply. New England Copperworks sells 4" half balls at about $20 apiece. Was thinking you could run 2" into one half ball, and hav...

Fastill wrote:And you might want to think about getting 2 hydrometers, 1 for mash and 1 for spirit.

Or if you're like me, 4 hydrometers - two for mash and two for spirit. I think I have two mash and 1 spirit at the moment.

They're fragile, and if you're a bit klutsy, they won't last forever.

Ordered from Bootleggerstills.com on 11 Jan. Contacted by Shirley and she stated they lost my order because they moved shops but is starting on it now. PayPal status changed to shipped on 24 Jan. USPS site just says electronic info received. I guess that is what I get for not doing research or buil...

Just browsed it for a few minutes, but love the new layout.

Calculators galore. Very nice job. I'm sure you guys put a lot of hard work into it.

Well done!

I'm lookin for some advice here. I got fired today, the reason given, poor performance and attitude (I have ALWAYS had very good employee evaluations). The PM specifically stated I didn't have the companies best interests at heart. When I stated that he was completely wrong he said, "Well, may...

Tilt Reflux?

Sounds like one of the still drinkin models. Is that the one with the glass jars as thumpers?

Heh. And once you come to HD the advise is DON'T BUY THAT STILL!

Auction fail!

GreenMtn- It sounds like you got yourself a nice acetobacter infection. I was looking at your posts from October and it looks like you had the grapes for a few days before crushing. If you wait too long between picking and crushing you can get lots of secondary infections started, since grapes have ...

Was the smell present in your fermentations as well? In wine making, a nutritional deficiency in the wine must result in the formation of sulphur compounds when the yeasts that are having a hard time. I don't know how this might apply to a distillation, but I imagine some sulphur compounds have pret...

The stockpot on that setup looks like my brew pot. If that's the case it's made out of some of the flimsiest, thinnest steel out there. It must be balanced pretty well, because it it is the same pot as mine, I would expect it the lid to be flexing and bending big time. That being said, it looks just...

I know that some winemakers use the process of micro oxygenation to help accelerate the aging of tannic red wines.
In wines very small quantities of O2 are bubbled through the wine to help accomplish this.

I was wondering if anyone had heard of it being used in accelerated aging of say, whisky?

Some wine makers actually prefer to open ferment for the first 2-3 days. They say it allows the yeast access to oxygen during the aerobic phase. I am a little skeptical but, maybe. You can cover your barrel with saran wrap, or a plastic trash bag using a big rubber band (or something) and just poke...

cause that person next door will never understand that hobbie size still stuffed away in the basement! Christ, People see my mash tun and hot likker tank setup and they think i'm making Meth.... WTF? If they saw a still... They'd think I was from the future! #PEOPLEARESTUPID! Not so funny... A cowo...

Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but combining what Itchy wrote as well as BrewVegas info, it seems like he recovered most of the alcohol from the run. 0.08 * 5 = 0.4 gallons (@100%) or about one gallon at 40% ABV Could it be that the hot plate isn't in good contact with the bottom of the kettle? If y...

Question from a simple pot stiller - Do you just have the valved drain line up with the surface of the plate, so that it can drain to the outside? If the valve is closed couldn't you wind up with a volume of distillate accumulating in external downcomer (is that the right term?) when the plate is di...