Home Distiller

thats not how I was told to do it.
if it is 200ml sugar I use my measuring jug and fill it to the 200ml mark with sugar. Thats what the homebrew shops say to do....seems to work.
Usually those essences have a separate mesurement for water.

I guess that I was being greedy. Seemed like a lot of work for less than a gallon of product. A 1/2 keg boiler would be better as I could have run all I had at one time and done a better cut. I'd say for my first true oakable try it's not bad. Biggest thing I've noticed so far is how smooth the pro...

what might the advantages be of using this method?

On a spirit run that big I don't think I've ever had as little as 1.5litres of heads. I'm super extra conservative on my cuts though. I can get past the main solvent smell on a run like that in about 2.5 litres but there is usually something else I can smell for another litre or so...I don't know wh...

I use feed grade molases, I assume its not all that great a quality because I never seems to ferment below 1.025. My friends that drink rum love the rum I make with it so I'm not too worried about the "quality". And the wash its self NEVER tastes good to me and same with the spirit after t...

just had a sip. Good bacon flavour in there. Not sure if its the kind of thing I'd enjoy drinking though. I havn't even finished filtering....took me about an hour to get 75mls. Unless my friends really really like it I don't even know if I'll bother filtering the rest. Its too much like hard work.

I'm filtering the vodka now and because of the level of solid fat in it, its a very very slow process.
For me to do this again the bacon vodka is going to have to taste spectacular.
I'll report on flavour when I've got enough to sip.

I just wanted to add, it not bubbling doesn't mean its finished. as your fermenters gets more use the airlock seals and lid seals and even the tap can leak. if any of them have a small leak your airlock won't bubble or it may bubble very slowly. read the wash with your hydrometer its the best way. Y...

if you have added extra malt its not going to finish at the reccomended gravity. Extra malt means extra unfermentables. The best way to tell is get the same reading a couple of days in a row, 24 hours apart. The longer you leave it the better though. The more it clears now, means the less yeast you ...

ah nice. Didn't know the finer details but figured copper.
No wasn't a turbo and its a well used still.

Hello I've added bicarb to several of my stripping runs and several days later I seem to have little blue fibres/specs in the bottom of the jar along with some undisolved bi carb. Not all of them have the blue. Some jars are the first half of the strip and some are the second half so abv varies amon...

yes sign up for http://www.photobucket.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

upload photos there and then use the link photbucket provides you to imbed your photo into your post.
very very easy

I'm not sure what type of coupling your talking about with joining to the keg, but if it needs to constrict with heat to rely on a seal, I think perhaps it may actually be leaking there? even with a small gap at the thermometer port that could leak too...doesn't need much space to leak. I would get ...

nighforce I don't think you are tooo far off the mark. I make sure my washes are 1080 and when I strip as a general rule I get 4ltrs of strip per 20ltrs of wash. and the strip is usually just over 45%. I strip down to 20% and sometimes 10% depending on what I'm doing. The only thing I can think of, ...

Its macerating as we speak!
don't know if I'll wait 3 weeks though. I can't imagine it would take 3 weeks to get all the flavour out of such thin strips.

Interesting!!!!!
I've thought about bacon alcohol several times! I'm just going to have to give it a shot!

you don't need turbos and you don't need bakers yeast. Actually you might just need bakers yeast, but not as your main fermenting yeast. I use ec-118 to ferment and I use bakers yeast as nutrient, I boil up the bakers yeast and throw it in with dap, multi vitamins, citric acid and some tomato paste ...

I was originally against essenses and wanted to do everything "properly' the purist way, which is fine for real bourban and rum. When it comes to liqueurs I am fairly confident that I couldn't even come close to the flavours I'm getting out of the essenses. Ammaretto I can do with out brew shop...

I tried bourban and rum essences when I started and they are just crap. the only way to get anything close is age your neutral on oak and then ad a bit of essence....but even still it's not the best. BUT recently I've tried still spirits essences for black sambuca, coconut rum, hazelnut liquor and a...

from the reading I've done, people say that it adds a better flavour to it and mellows it out more when you have the red wine stain on the oak still.

that looks great!!

thanks guys!!

I've still got tons of my fishing gear inside! I'm probably going to move more stuff into the shed soon.

Bottle trees are one of the best inventions for home brewers!

thanks!

I think everyone should post up pictures of their sheds! Its good to see how everyone else is set up!

Thanks guys!!

Thanks!
I've actually got two other stills there...one I don't use anymore and the other is a vm column that I need to make a flange for!


I hope I can keep it organised forever......but I know what I'm like so it might not last too long!

Is finally done! so I thought I'd post a few show off photos! I got a stainless sink from my boss, shelving, lockers and stainless benches from my parents friend who works at a hospital. It has come together well and I'm loving it! http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/Rollux/P1040420.jpg http://i7....

na no luck there. I'll have to buy some!
I'm keen to give this a shot! thanks mate!

lwtcs I don't have any rum on the go and I've got more rum than I need at the moment so it will be a while before I try something like that. Are the apricots and figs the only things your chucking in your rum for aging or are you going a bit of oak too? Thanks for that Blind Drunk! Were the figs you...

I managed to get myself a 12kilo box of dried figs.
I'm wondering what I can make with them? Not sure if I should chop them up and ferment with them or macerate with them or what?
If you've got ideas or recipes you would like to share that would be great!
Thanks!

ec-1118 has never been a fast moving yeast for me.