Home Distiller

Try placing the pipe in a freezer and the ferrule in the oven. The cold will cause the pipe to contract a bit and the heat will cause the ferrule to expand. Work quickly when putting it together. And don't forget to use your oven mitts.

SNKSKNR was my car's license plate number, now I use it as my forum name. As a young adult, half of my friends drove Mustang Cobras while I drove an old Toyota Cresida. I secretly bought an 02 Z-28 and parked it at my uncles house. My uncle showed me how to work his mig welder, a few weeks later I f...

My condensor coil is single wound with a 1/2" cold finger and about 9" long. At full power it has no problem taking care of the vapors. I think you will be fine with a 7" double wound coil, they are more efficient than single wound cold fingered condensors. But there is only one way t...

I use a 2L bottle as an airlock, I run the airlock outlet to my homemade Co2 reactor and then to my 55 gallon Amazon River planted aquarium. I have to constantly trim back the plant growth. I use a needle valve to bleed off the excess Co2 so the fish can still breath. It's not as adjustable as my bu...

I think you need to learn the still you have now before moving on to another one. If I recall, Rads still can be ran in potstill/stripper mode as well as LM. Are you using an electric stove? If so, do you have a metal plate between the boiler and stove heating element. The metal plate helps distribu...

No worries. You can still use the calclators on the parent site.

I didnt mean to make it sound useless. Just not a proper reading, but useful, kinda like a good indcator.

Kick ass. Sounds like youve been doing alot of reading. Congrats.

My parrot and still mate app or the Moonshine app (both apps are android)are pretty handy. The moonshine app has more calculators but crashes alot on my SGSIII. Both apps were developed by two different HD members.

I use a blender to crush my grains, works great. Ive read where you might get an astringent taste from the husks being ground up to fine. But I still havnt ran into that problem yet because I always let it settle after fermenting on the grain. Then siphon all the clear liquid into your boiler. I use...

Wow. Killer job man. You show pride in your work, kepep it up. Please post the final product when completed.

Lucky you. I can only get it online, and I try not to order anything online for this hobby. Im lucky to have a brew shop down the road, thats were I get all my grains and nutrients. Lol. Dont loose your job on somthing that only takes a few minutes to mix. I remember the excitment when I got started...

Excellent. Now just give it a couple of days after the bubbling stops to let the yeast settle. Then siphon it to your boiler leaving the yeast bed in the fermenter to reuse in your next batch. I've left yeast sitting inthe fermenter with the lid on for over a month and it still did its job when I ad...

@BB

Thinking is good. Thats why we are all here, to share our thoughts and progress.

No inversion? Serious that would make it that much better I have read a bunch of threads that are both pro and con on inverting sugar, if the yeast are eating the sugar it seems the outcome is the same in the end. Not producing anymore or less alcohol? The only thing I can see is ferment time may o...

I read somewhere around here that 1.001 or lower is ready. Also remeber that Hydrometers dont give a proper reading on rum washes due to all the unfermentables in the mollases.

was just asking because without it the best you could ever get is 50% takeoff 50% reflux. Unless of course you have a standpipe style reflux line, which I don't. But even with that you will never know the 100% takeoff rate if your condenser is knocking down faster than your takeoff line allows. may...

The cinnomon sounds tasty. For your first rum checkout pugirum in the tried and true. I found it a little dificult finding that amount of mollases so I switched it up a bit. I use 6lbs of dark brown sugar and 2 jars of grandmas mollases, 5 teaspoon of dap, 1/2 teaspoon epsom salt, 1 crushed multivit...

@ BB

I suppose the valve could be left on for stripping and used as a potstill.

When you go into full reflux youll have your take off valve closed. The vapors building up in your rig will want to get out some how, if not boom. All types of reflux stills need some type of venting to prevent pressure build up at 100 percent reflux.

Just remove the airlock and place a loose fitting cloth on the opening. The rising co2 will keep any air out and the cloth will keep the creepers out. Next time only fill your fermenter 3/4 full. Always leave a little head space. Same as you would when filling your boiler.

You only need one valve. Remove the unnecessary valve from the reflux return line and put it on the take off where it belongs. And I hope for your saftey and those around you, that you drilled a 1/4" minimum vent hole in the top of your reflux condensor. Without a vent hole, it will explode. Ot...

All bran kicks ass. Good starter recipie. Great taste. I dont even invert the sugar anymore, still comes out just as good. Good luck and have fun.

Sounds like you have one of them fancy left handed hydrometers. Lol j.k. I dont see the need for them fancy tools. I just look at the airlock, no bubbles and sour tasting means its done. Cook it. But really man, plain sugar needs some sort of nutrients. Like j.a.s. stated add a can of tomato paste o...

Must be a rumskey, or fuax wiskee. But not a "whiskey" or "whisky" nor borboun. Real whiskey comes from cooked grains. But either way congrats on getting your noodle wet . Once you go cooked AG its hard to drink that sweefeed swill (j.k. i'll take three fingers neat). I never tri...

corn starch converted will make corn syrup,witch makes a vodka or neutral. What is the difference between pre gelled and fresh gelled? Why is it that when we make fresh cornstarch and convert it its called whiskey, if its not refluxed? But if its pre cooked it is automaticlly considered a vodka/neu...

Couple of months ago I purchased about 12lbs of 6 row malted barley, and had it milled at the brew shop. I only used half of it and the other half is in the originall bag it came in, stored in a closet. I want to make a few more batches of corn whiskey and dont want to be stuck with a pot of corn st...

You have to let it clear. My first few batches of rum were very yeasty tasting. On the third or fourth batch I got side tracked and could'nt distill until the following weekend. That's when I noticed that the liquid was a lot clearer and all the crap was at the bottom of the fermenter. Now I prep up...

So after many succesful NCHooch bourbon all grain mashes I decided to try pintoshine's double fermented corn sour mash. After the bacterial ferment, I cooked the corn and gelled it. After letting it cool down to 155* I added 2lbs of cracked 6 row malt. After sveral minutes of stirring, the gell neve...

Welcome. What are you looking to make? Neutral/vodka or flavored (rum, wiskey, brandy) or all of the above. That will help with your still choice. Those are old style cooling managment (CM) stills, with the through column reflux cross tubes. The newer style (search milehigh.com) have a cooling jacke...