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well, if you're making liqueurs just use some less sugar to compensate for the additional gycerine ....

You guys should also try limoncino. Made the same way but also toss in some lime leaves. This gives the drink a little more complexity. Very nice !

I used to have a fontain-pump but the thing would barely pump is upto the height I needed it to go (2.20 meter). When I switched to a VM-system I definately needed a stronger pump and I got myself one of those pumps which you use to drain your cellar. Got it second hand but it was brand new. It pump...

I didn't read all of the posts above but something I would like to add to my boiler is insulation.

This should save on costs for heating and also keeping the environment in mind it would mean less pollution.

leaving headspace is very good advice, I was too enthusiastic and forgot about it ........ my grilfriend was very pleased !!!!! :lol: I was just wondering, why add lemon juice if you don't know the pH. I always measure mine before I do that. This year the pH of my apple batch was 4, so I didn't have...

Indeed! Got myself an apple wash and a blackberry one going !

I have to restrain myself from starting too much !

WOW ! Congratulations! You're realizing a dream many of us have ! Personally I would love to work/own a distillery !

Pretty much, a needle probably won't carry enough cells though - you need an innoculation loop - just a loop of heat proof wire ( ie not fuse wire ), the loop being about 3mm across. when you streak on the plate, draw a zig zag across the plate starting closely spaces and pulling the streaks furthe...

What I've been doing is taking the foreshots I collect and sloshing them around in my fermentation vessel (5 gal plastic). I figure there's not much that can live in 85% alcohol. well, it's better to sterilize with 70% alcohol. More germs are killed with this percentage. It appears that a certian p...

and ? where you able to purchase some?

haven't been on the forums a while so I know this thread might be old but I might be able to add some information. The mechanism why ethanol is given when someone has methanol poisoning: the enzyme alcoholdehydrogenase (this usually breaks down the methanol and ethanol) has a preferance for ethanol ...

I would lookup : Graham condensor. You can use this but only when you have it standing vertically.

well, as I couldn't find more information I took the plunge and opened up the barrel. I was able to take off the top 4 rings without the barrel falling apart ( I had numbered the staves just in case). It seemed that the barrel was unused and already lightly charred. With my blowtorch I charred it so...

thx, KH! That atleast helps me a little bit further. I also didn't pay too much attention to it at the time ...... didn't even remember the coal method .....

Is THM still active? His profile says 0 posts?

Recently I obtained a (they said unused) barrel ! Which I am mighty pleased about ! It's an oldie but seems to be in good shape. Now I am fairly certain it's made of oak, so I'm gonna proceed to use it. The plan is first to make bourbon and when that has finished: whiskey. First I need to soak it to...

I would be very carefull with something called: spirytus We have something in the stores which is called spiritus (the same?) and what that is --> ethanol whereto methanol has been added to make it undrinkable. Also they added a colour to it (blue) to make it recognizable. Apparently there are homel...

if there is any sugar present then you can't use the alcoholmeter for a reliable reading ! And raisins have quite a lot of sugar in them !

about 1,5 meters I think

yeah, cinamon is a bitch to work with. The way I cricumvented this is by making an extract and use that to flavour my drink!

Brix should mean: grams of sucrose per litre

This would mean that Smiley and Nixon/Stone use different concentrations of sugar

7,4 brix = 73.5 grams/liter
17 brix = 181.5 grams/liter

I hope I am not wrong on this ......

yep, agreed !

wow, cardomon flavour? Are you thinking of only using that spice or also adding others? Personally I think it would make a dull drink if you would only use cardomon, but that only my opinion.

Sounds good Linw! Let us know how everything goes !

If you don't like the holywood blockbusters (like me) then these movies, which I recently saw, I absolutely recommend. Le conseguenze dell'amore, Le (2004) Delicatessen (1991) The latter is from the directors duo Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro and I recommend all of their movies ! I hadn't seen de...

were getting a lot of these lately ..........

let us know of your progress because my mother in law loves the stuff. It is always good to keep your mother-in-law happy !

Ignorance is bliss !!!!!!

I don't use the true brue proof meter but it sounds like a manufacturing problem ....... I use my alcoholmeter al the time and it's still right (at least I think so )

I would switch brands if I were you !

indeed, wouldn't worry about it ! (I would worry more about the glass, be carefull that you don't cut yourself) say it would happen again you could always: heat the mash to inactivate the enzyme (downside is that you also inactivate the yeast). Then add some more yeast and the proper quantity of enz...

we use 70% ethanol to clean our workbenches because it has te be sterile (or as much as possible). When cleaning I use quite a lot of it (better safe then sorry) and I must say that once when we cleaned many workbences after each other (our equivalent of spring cleaning) some of use were getting ver...