Search found 293 matches
- Sat Mar 06, 2010 12:14 pm
- Forum: My First .....
- Topic: My first neutral run. Sorry, no copper here!
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1630
Re: My first neutral run. Sorry, no copper here!
It will be very interesting to see if the vacuum still can concentrate the heads and tails congeners. Heads are actually a tiny amount but it only takes a trace to contaminate the hearts with an objectionable taste. If you could get the heads reduced down to just themselves, it would probably only b...
- Sun Feb 07, 2010 6:41 am
- Forum: Novice Distillers
- Topic: Best still for newbees - expert poll
- Replies: 31
- Views: 4653
Re: Best still for newbees - expert poll
It seems to cut both ways. Getting anything really good takes patience and practice. A pot still will teach you cuts (or you will be drinking swill). A column still is a more complex build, so a simple pot (liebig or worm, doesn't make much difference) gets you up and running so you can see what's i...
- Sat Feb 06, 2010 3:33 pm
- Forum: Research and Theory
- Topic: Different column idea
- Replies: 16
- Views: 3104
Re: Different column idea
Search "spiral still" - or see Riku's book. They can delivery azeotrope and get sharp cuts if you run them slow. The best designs use a short column and a spiral without packing. They aren't as efficient, so they don't produce as fast, but they are 1) air cooled and 2) self regulating at l...
- Sat Feb 06, 2010 3:07 pm
- Forum: Novice Distillers
- Topic: Best still for newbees - expert poll
- Replies: 31
- Views: 4653
Re: Best still for newbees - expert poll
Small pot still. Easy to build and try out. If you have patience, you can learn to make cuts. Small so there's not a big threshold to getting started. If you've got money and don't have tools or skills, buy one from a reputable seller. Ask around. Then if you like it, build another something or othe...
- Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:09 pm
- Forum: Novice Distillers
- Topic: STRONG "apple wine"....how?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 3556
Re: STRONG "apple wine"....how?
The trick with apple brandy is managing the cuts. The apple aroma is right at the end of the heads. Miss the cut and you lose the flavor. One trick is to triple distill and put apple pulp in the thumper. Hard cider has a lot of heads in it, so it can be fiery and deliver death-dealing hangovers. Get...
- Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:44 pm
- Forum: Still Related Hardware
- Topic: Stainless - Copper Soldering Advice
- Replies: 11
- Views: 4496
Re: Stainless - Copper Soldering Advice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjkSVKeM1Bs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Copper plating really helps. Doesn't take much.
Copper plating really helps. Doesn't take much.
- Fri Oct 23, 2009 5:46 pm
- Forum: Novice Distillers
- Topic: Brandy: to strip or not to strip?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2930
Re: Brandy: to strip or not to strip?
with a stripping run, you can use the spirit run to get a sharper cut and less heads. Brandy tends to have a lot of heads. I've used both pot stills with thumper and column VM stills. The product is the same, but with the column, there is more of it.
- Wed Oct 21, 2009 9:05 pm
- Forum: Column Builds
- Topic: Thoughts on my reflux column design.
- Replies: 89
- Views: 24101
Re: Thoughts on my reflux column design.
it takes very little to induce turbulence. a single strand of wire with a few bends in it should be enough. The bends will help hold it in place. The butterfly valve will have an opening more or less equal to the sine of the angle of the valve if 0 degrees is closed - subject to the geometry of the ...
- Thu Oct 15, 2009 12:07 pm
- Forum: Research and Theory
- Topic: i was tryingto do some research
- Replies: 1
- Views: 764
- Sun Oct 04, 2009 1:50 pm
- Forum: Sugar
- Topic: MIKE"S SIMPLE FIVE recipe.
- Replies: 31
- Views: 6942
Re: MIKE"S SIMPLE FIVE recipe.
How big are those Aussie condoms? 500 g seems like a lot of protection....
- Sun Oct 04, 2009 1:07 pm
- Forum: Novice Forum Graveyard
- Topic: Re-using yeast
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1482
Re: Re-using yeast
If you ferment in 5 gallon carboys and rack your mash, the yeast left behind from the racking can be refrigerated. It will settle out into two layers. There will be plenty of dormant cells to start a new fermentation. Also, this gunk, when boiled to burst the cells, makes a good yeast nutrient. Sinc...
- Sat Sep 26, 2009 9:47 am
- Forum: Materials Safety
- Topic: PTFE - Acceptable synthetic?
- Replies: 74
- Views: 60837
Re: PTFE - Acceptable synthetic?
This will probably keep coming up, so here are a few things to keep in mind: Things can be proven to be unsafe, but they can't be proven safe. It's like proving there aren't any tigers in Peoria, the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. And there might be a zoo in Peoria, so all the evide...
- Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:35 pm
- Forum: Novice Forum Graveyard
- Topic: Question about Jacking
- Replies: 16
- Views: 3226
Re: Question about Jacking
I've done it with dry ice after chilling the wine in a freezer down to 0F. The dry ice gets surrounded by a shell of ice and that's it. Everything that tastes bad in your starting liquid will taste even worse. It's very inefficient and not even mildly amusing as an experiment. As has been repeatedly...
- Thu Sep 03, 2009 11:44 am
- Forum: Yeasts, Enzymes, Fungi, Nutrients
- Topic: Mashing with Rid-X septic treatment only, success it works!
- Replies: 47
- Views: 13183
Re: Mashing with Rid-X septic treatment only, success it works!
There isn't any evidence to support the belief it might be harmful.
http://msds.reckittprofessional.com/cus ... 0893_r.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
http://msds.reckittprofessional.com/cus ... 0893_r.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
- Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:35 am
- Forum: Yeasts, Enzymes, Fungi, Nutrients
- Topic: Mashing with Rid-X septic treatment only, success it works!
- Replies: 47
- Views: 13183
Re: Mashing with Rid-X septic treatment only, success it works!
I, for one, support fearless experimentation. The worst that's gonna happen is you get some stinky strippings and dump the lot. Do it slow and watch the head temp, that will give a little clue as to the composition. I find the fact that this involves an enzyme that goes after cellulose very interest...
- Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:09 am
- Forum: Fruits & Vegetables
- Topic: apple wash
- Replies: 47
- Views: 11204
Re: apple wash
Earlier this season, I took a gallon of fresh strawberries and macerated them in neutral for a week, put that in the thumper and steam distilled it off. Came over very nice, but lacking in sweetness. So I macerated some more strawberries and then filtered it. Came out tasty. I've also put sweet cide...
- Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:38 am
- Forum: Fruits & Vegetables
- Topic: apple wash
- Replies: 47
- Views: 11204
Re: apple wash
Apple squeezing time is coming soon around here. This year I'm going to freeze some of the squeezed pomace. Then when it's distilling time, I'm going to put some in the thumper and see how that works. We don't add sugar, so it takes a long time to work off and comes out about 6-8% depending on how g...
- Sat Aug 22, 2009 7:22 pm
- Forum: Research and Theory
- Topic: Latent Heat of Vaporization
- Replies: 8
- Views: 3691
Re: Latent Heat of Vaporization
Your last question boils down (heh) to one theoretical plate above whatever the charge %abv is at the time. If you've got a lot of heat loss from the column, you'll get some reflux and it will be a little higher if you run it slow, fast and it won't matter much. But it sounds like you are basically ...
- Sat Aug 22, 2009 7:04 pm
- Forum: Research and Theory
- Topic: I never get enough reading material
- Replies: 13
- Views: 2470
Re: I never get enough reading material
The Compleat Distiller - Nixon & McCaw Mountain Spirits / More Mountain Spirits - Dabney Designing and Building Automatic Stills - Riku Alcohol Distiller's Handbook - Wilkie Pyrotechnia - Birenguccio (Trans. Smith) That'll get you started. And the one, the only, the original: http://distillers.t...
- Sat Aug 22, 2009 9:43 am
- Forum: Off-Topic Discussion
- Topic: Distiller/chemist/engineering feedback needed
- Replies: 15
- Views: 1837
Re: Distiller/chemist/engineering feedback needed
Lime water scrubbers for coal plants produce gypsum and calcium sulfate as waste. This is frequently used in drywall. Very high sulfur coal would produce excessive amounts. So probably mostly sulfates of calcium -- depending on other metal ions in the scrubber solution could have other metal sulfate...
- Sat Aug 22, 2009 7:45 am
- Forum: Recipe Development
- Topic: Apple Brandy from Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate
- Replies: 23
- Views: 12065
Re: Apple Brandy from Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate
Did the spirit run last night on 3 gal of low wines from concentrate. By very slow distillation in the CM rig, was able to separate the apple flavor from most of the heads. At the risk of a derail on technical matters: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f312/warbaby442/jughead/cmwatercleaning.jpg mor...
- Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:40 am
- Forum: Recipe Development
- Topic: Apple Brandy from Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate
- Replies: 23
- Views: 12065
Re: Apple Brandy from Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate
The tricks to getting the CM head are a precision flow control valve, a water pressure regulator and power management. I'm using a micrometer hydraulic flow control valve and it gives very precise control. I tried a fixed regulator at 40psi, but that was too high and am now using an inexpensive plas...
- Wed Aug 19, 2009 3:55 pm
- Forum: Recipe Development
- Topic: Apple Brandy from Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate
- Replies: 23
- Views: 12065
Re: Apple Brandy from Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate
I run a packed column 3' to 9' depending on the phase of the moon with either a VM or CM (100% reflux) head. The flavors have to go somewhere. Column stills can do a good job on flavored spirits. I'm leaning more towards the cooling management head because it can separate the heads into several dist...
- Sun Aug 16, 2009 8:36 am
- Forum: Research and Theory
- Topic: Cooling water temps
- Replies: 2
- Views: 824
Re: Cooling water temps
I think your friend is correct about the need for consistent, steady input temperature. The temperature will only affect the amount of water used, so colder means less water consumption. For commercial distilleries, water consumption is a cost that has to be controlled. Here's the tail end of a stri...
- Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:52 am
- Forum: Fruits & Vegetables
- Topic: apple wash
- Replies: 47
- Views: 11204
Re: apple wash
20 gallons of cider in a day is a lot of work for two people. I've found that gentle distillation (I've used both pot with thumper and column) gives the best separation of heads. I get a higher yield with a column. I've been using vapor management (VM) on the last several batches and was very happy ...
- Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:41 am
- Forum: Fruits & Vegetables
- Topic: apple wash
- Replies: 47
- Views: 11204
Re: apple wash
Grind them up, squeeze them out and ferment the cider. Check out cidermaking... We use stuff from these folks: http://www.leeners.com/cider.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/yates/MG10.3.01.htm" onclick="w...
- Mon Jul 27, 2009 11:12 am
- Forum: Novice Forum Graveyard
- Topic: Tri Clamps
- Replies: 20
- Views: 2267
Re: Tri Clamps
I've dealt with both of these: http://www.stpats.com/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow http://www.klgstainless.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow There's been some experimenting with electro...
- Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:06 pm
- Forum: Recipe Development
- Topic: Metamucil
- Replies: 22
- Views: 4049
Re: Metamucil
Um, what's the purpose? I'm a little puzzled. Here's the ingredients -- there are several different formulations. http://www.metamucil.com/drmetamucil/products/dosage_info.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow Maltodextrin is pretty fermentable. Not ...
- Fri Jul 17, 2009 12:34 pm
- Forum: Recipe Development
- Topic: Apple Brandy from Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate
- Replies: 23
- Views: 12065
Re: Apple Brandy from Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate
I've had good luck with the frozen concentrate. I get mine from a restaurant supply. A case of quarts makes about 8 gallons. If you dilute carefully and watch the s.g., it's about 1:1. A little sugar doesn't hurt. Any skinned fruit with pectin will have a lot of heads. The flavor is towards the end ...
- Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:48 pm
- Forum: Research and Theory
- Topic: perforated plates
- Replies: 56
- Views: 10453
Re: perforated plates
I lost all my PCB making supplies in the flood last winter so I just ordered up a bunch. I CAD the pattern, then laser print it (reversed) on the flimsy paper they use for color adverts. There's also special paper for this -- it's a little easier to use because it doesn't require soaking. Then fuse ...