Home Distiller

As my handle suggests, I really - really - enjoy gin. It should then follow that as a ginthusiest I also enjoy a quality tonic. Now, I've made a few different batches of tonic syrup based on recipes that I've stumbled across online (all of which have been delightfully enjoyable), and my seeking has ...

Thanks WV, all my experience is really based in cold compounding and maceration, so I figured I'd check into some other methods. Thanks for the feedback!

21 year old male speech & dialect coach from MN. And Gin fan Im guessing by your moniker? Any good recipes to share? That guess would be correct, my good man! I first got into it many years ago when I came across an old journal that belonged to my grandpa. (According to family lore, he ran a st...

It looks to be a pretty heavy stock, I'd say L or (M?). Based on the setup, it looks like it ran from the original pump, to a cistern (yes, the house has a 15'X7' cistern), and then pumped from there off to the rest of the house. It was definitely not used as a waste removal system though.

21 year old male speech & dialect coach from MN.

I'll talk to my friend and see what he thinks!

Is there a test I can do for the presence of lead?

So a friend asked me to help him remodel an old house (from around the turn of the century I believe). So I go check it out and he leads me to the sub basement where I procede to notice an old unused irrigation system. I asked about it and he said that the previous owners had installed a new system ...

Wonderful, thanks for the advice!

Bit of an old thread, so this is a longshot, but I'm wondering about the possibility of hooking up a rig like this onto my lyne arm right before my liebig connects (I'm using a pot still). Think that would produce viable results?

Alright, so I've had two successful stripping runs thus far, each yielding 110-proof. Just wanted to ask a couple of questions. Often I see on here that people are measuring their runs based on wattage, etc. But on a gas range how do I do this? What I've been doing so far is load up my pot, seal up ...

Thanks for the feedback! Only real reason I'm going to try it with EC1118 is because I have a couple of packs floating around my apartment.

Given that this post is currently 84pages long and I might have missed a thing or two, just wanted to ask a few clarifying questions: 1. For a 3Gal batch, would the following be correct? -7Tbsp Tomato paste -Splash of Lemon juice -5.6 Lbs sugar -10g EC-1118 2. Do I need the lightbulb/heat belt? Or c...

This reminds me of an issue I've been experiencing with my condenser. When I'm running my pot still, the output alternates between a slow stream, dripping, and the occasional lapse in flow. Is this an issue with leveling out my condenser bucket? Or something else entirely?

Hey guys, browsed the forums for a while but couldn't find anything about this. Without an alcometer, how exactly do I determine the ABV of my distilled wash? I used WPOSW and it turned out a 10% wash, then I distilled down two gallons of it in a pot still. It passes a flame test, but I'm wanting to...

Solid, thanks! Something like that mesh ball is actually exactly what I had in mind

Nope, wasn't planning on a valve. So I don't need to incorporate any sort of pressure release (ala pressure cooker style) into the lid of the stock pot?

Thanks for the feedback! Also, I was perusing the faq and came across this Second: ALL stills must be open to the atmosphere. They should NOT be closed. A closed still will build up pressure, and can blow up. An open still, will have part of the still (after the condenser) fully open to the atmosphe...

Before I fully assemble everything, I want to bounce some design questions off y'all. The still I'm currently working is a relatively small 16quart piece that uses a stock pot as a boiler. Off the top of this I'm planning on running a 18"x1" column, with a elbow at the top leading to 2' ly...

Alright, thanks for the input! I'm eventually planning on moving into the world of reflux, but as this is my first time doing this it seemed the a pot still would be the better starting option.

Hey there gents and lady folk of HD, long time lurker, first time poster. For quite some time I've been making compound gins using commercially available neutral spirits and I'm looking to cut some of the overhead cost by distilling my own. In my perusals I've come across a lot of controversy about ...