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"I use any wine I don't want to drink, to distill for brandy, and if the brandy does not appeal I run it again for neutral." Sure, that is how brandy is made; distilling wine. Traditionally in a pot still (I didn't notice your type of still) but you can use a reflux still with the packing...

When running a pot still it is never a good idea to fixate on numbers... You get what you get regardless and relying on hard numbers for temperature, volume, or %ABV will just make you crazy... Yes, tails have an ABV reading and they can start far higher than you might think... There is some great ...

'I love the 4 liter Carlo Rossi jugs, have 4, but the cheapest that I have found them so far is $10.00.' Full of wine? Surely you aren't looking for a better deal than that?? Or were they empties? They were full of wine, which is of no value to me. Personally I don’t find it to be tasty at all. So ...

a thermometer just gits confusing on a pot still. as it will just increas as the alcohol is depleted. so to start collect in jars,then separate out what you want to keep by taste/smell/feel. what you dont keep can be redistilld. I usually re distill tales as heads can become nasty. this depends som...

rad14701 wrote:If shooting for clean neutral spirits it is important to allow time to clear... That can be read as allowing the yeast colony to settle out of the wash...

Damn it…

rockchucker22 wrote:We also have pigs I got my first last year after 3 years of hunting.

Nothing better!!! Good eats?

My tried and true rule of thumb is to stop collecting as soon as the heat, coolant, and effort are greater than the results... This comparison works regardless of the %ABV of the collected spirits or the estimated amount of alcohol remaining in the wash... Most folks are gonna get to that point by ...

Kill a big one man, I am hoping for a pig myself, which is a different part of the country I bet...

Welcome from a newby, to a newby! We’ll be in the Cornell and Codott area later this month, go PACK!!!

There are some here in the forum, myself included, who don't much worry 'bout clearin. We'll run "dirty" but just run pretty slow. Others are real particular and want a good clear wash before runnin. You'll have to decide how ya want to go. I'll give it a day or two for most of the yeast ...

My boiler is 16 gallons and I am running a worm condenser and currently have 20 liters of All Bran wash going through. I was planning on capturing 12 liters…sound about right? Sorry to come late to the party. First off, if you have 20L of wash, and collect 12L of low wines, then you are running qui...

'I love the 4 liter Carlo Rossi jugs, have 4, but the cheapest that I have found them so far is $10.00.' Full of wine? Surely you aren't looking for a better deal than that?? Or were they empties? They were full of wine, which is of no value to me. Personally I don’t find it to be tasty at all. So ...

I think I will slow it down a bit next time fella’s. I put 20 liters in the boiler and collected just short of 12 liters of low wines in a 4 hour period. One would assume that I have somewhere in the vicinity of 7 liters of backset still in the boiler? I’ll have to wait until it cools down a bit. I...

Price out cheap wine in gallon jugs at the Big Volume grocery outlet store. I've found that I can buy a gallon or two liter glass jug for about the same price as new virgin bottles. You can dump the wine, drink the wine, use it for cooking, give it to your mother in law, or distill it. Bull. I love...

Question: If All Bran is more neutral, do you personally use it for mixed drinks, drink it neat, or? I drink All Bran neutral with just about anything... Neat... With water... Flavored waters... Crystal Light... Diet anything... It makes clean neutral as long as you don't go overboard on the cereal...

Glad to see your distilling skills are coming along nicely SG... Try to get some 1 or 2 gallon glass jars, they take up much less room. Also, a SS keg is a great container for your shine... 3 to 4 runs will give you enough low wines to do a spirit run. My low wines are about 55% to 60% abv (dependi...

Killer build, definitely something for me to strive for…nice work all around NC!

So are you looking for the wash that will produce the most alcohol or that will produce the most drinkable alcohol...??? And let's assume that you mean neutral spirits... What you would be looking for is a good reliable sugar wash that produces a minimum of foreshots, heads, and tails, leaving you ...

Hi there, yes you can use it and providing that it has alcohol content, it should clean your still well. I don't think it will be worth drinking though. I ran 12 liters of Carlo Rossi for my cleaning run and it did the trick. I'm sure others will chime in on the yeat. Best of luck.

SG

If you have another wash handy and ready to go, add all of these low wines to the wash and do a slow single run. It'll be awesome. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Good luck. I’m trading off between All Bran and Rum Wash, so once I get back to the Rum, I will do just that, looking forward to it… Having th...

Doesn’t the ABV seem rather low? Not for a strippin run. With a wash of 7-8% my strippin runs generally start around 50-55%. There are some here that just do single runs but most pot stillers double back and run their low wines again. I usually run my low wines with some wash at about a 3-4/1 ratio...

I’m curious as to what type of wash would produce the most neutral spirit in a pot still? My first assumption would be to use a pure sugar wash or similar, but I’m not sure. Eventually I will build a reflux type head; so I understand that aspect of the equation. However, I wanted to start as basic a...

It's 2" tapered pipe thread isn't it? Tapered pipe thread is designed to seal with the threads. And they are tapered. The male end will have a small diameter at the end and taper bigger. The female is opposite big Id on the end and taper smaller going in. So it won't screw together like a regu...

Well cool, glad I could bring something to the table!

Well, here are my readings:

Bottle # ABV %
1 49.00%
2 47.00%
3 46.00%
4 46.00%
5 43.00%
6 42.00%
7 41.00%
8 39.00%
9 36.00%
10 32.00%
11 31.00%
12 26.00%
13 24.00%
14 21.00%
15 16.00%
16 8.00%
17 0.00%
18 0.00%
19 0.00%
20 0.00%

Doesn’t the ABV seem rather low?

I think you're good with what ya got. 200ml is a good start for learning your cuts. When ya figure out what your doing you can consolidate some. For instance, collect the first two or three jars after fores @ 200ml, then collect 5-6 jars @ say 400ml, etc. To see how your cuts work start with jar #1...

APRICOTS, Bwaaahaaaahaaaa, I was thinking it was a type of spice that I hadn’t heard of, I need to think more literal sometimes!!!

Thanks!

SG

Very pleased to finally be able to say that I now have a good sipping quality rum. I am generally not concerned with accurate measures and quantites. 3 liters @ 65%: 2 alligator chared oak sticks zest of one orange 4 or 5 dried cots 4 or 5 dried pineapple chuncks teaspoon black tea teaspoon whole p...

Good deal Big R, thanks. I think the biggest issue I am/was having is that 20 liters is going in and I am expecting more out. As it stands I have 4 liters of what I consider heads, hearts and the start of the tails, is that in the ballpark with respects to quantity out? I am sure there are a lot of ...

Ok, I’ve got 20 bottles so far with approximately 200 ML in each of them, this from a 20 liter charge of brown sugar wash. If my math is correct I have only collected 4 liters (1000 ML in 1 L). So, do I seriously need double or triple the amount of collection jars in order to do my cuts correctly? I...