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Hi guys/gals,

When making apple brandy, does anyone boil/cook the apples before introducing them to the ferment?

Not sure what the issue is. I have the power to the boiler turned down to the point I have to keep an eye on it just to make sure it will run. I've increased the water flow from 620 gallons per hour to 1000. I have the cross tubes for reflux connected to an independent pump which circulates 320 gall...

well thank you for helping a reflux rookie out. That explains a lot. This may solve my overheating issue also.

sorry forgot to mention, I am using a 30 gallon garbage can as my reservoir and that water is a cool 68 degrees. Vapor is getting through the leibig. I'm using the bottom inlet for my water going in and the top for the water going out. I'm not sure, I'm following you when referencing water to the &q...

Let me start off by saying that I have a pot still that I made and it works great, however this a hobby for me so I wanted to try something new and became interested in reflux. So I done a little research and decided to purchase a 30” cross tube column from milehigh distillers. It is an impressive l...

How important is to control the water flow going into the condensor? I would think the ideal amount would be as much your pump will push.

Depends also on what your after. i just did a single run with 3 ss scrubbies in a 36" column and ran it at a fast drip/ broken stream and hit 180pr. but im workin towards a detuned sweet spot for whiskey. mine was pretty lose. Wow, wasn't expecting that high of a yield from a reflux on a first...

I'm sure this has been asked before but my searches have returned nothing. I have a 30" column, how many copper scrubbers should place in the column?

Insulation and a heat source is all you need. Anything from an insulated box with a incandescent light bulb in it. Find the wattage that will give you the right temp. To a insulated box with a thermotaticly controlled heater. Heat blanket, hot pad, heat tape, heat wire, hot water soak, aquarium hea...

My fermenter (a 32 gallon garbage can) is located outside in a storage building and during the winter it can get rather cold during the night. I've read on this site that some use aquarium heaters, how effective are they? I would like the temp to remain at a constant 80 degrees, which shouldn't be d...

I ran a stripping run this weekend, and the flavor was/is outstanding, so I did not do a spirit run I bottled it up with a couple of toasted applewood chips in each jar. This should be outstanding in few weeks.

Today is the day. Two months ago, I took one gallon of blueberries and 1 cup of sugar, covered that with 110 proof neutral. Well let me tell you today, I popped the top hoping that it was ready for some college football. I must say it is unbelievable. It is so good and smooth that I worry someone wi...

according to her she did not but the proper amount of water in the bottom of the pot.

it's Stainless.

My wife recently canned some of her world beater chilli,while doing so the bottom of her pressure cooker slightly warped. While I don't feel it is safe to use for canning due to the extreme pressure build up, I feel it will be safe to convert to a still for running of feints and other small ferments...

rad14701 wrote:For anyone who hasn't read it, there is a good discussion about sour mash and backset on the parent site...

going to read that now. However, I thought backset was used to add more, yet different flavor to the ferment.

If this has been asked or talked about, I'm sorry as I done a search and did not find answer. As anyone tried to sour mash (I think that is the right term) a sweet feed ferment? I'm thinking about giving it a try, however if I can learn from this forum before going on my own that would be great. Her...

What size jars does everyone use for collection during spirit runs? I use pint jars that are numbered, I feel it's easier using the smaller jars, although I must say I'm still struggling a little with the Heads to Hearts cut. The hearts to tails is much easier.

I have some double distilled Sweet feed that I cut to 85 proof, separated into quart jars, and then placed approximately 1/3 a cup of smoked hickory chips in 1/2 of the jars, and in the other 1/2 I used apple wood chips. All of this took place a month ago and today I checked it's progression. The co...

Hello, and WAR EAGLE!!!

For stripping runs I collect everything in 1/2 gallons and it normally takes 35 minutes to fill the jar. For spirit runs I collect everything in pint jars and the average time is 14mins per jar. I've found that is is much easier to make cuts using the pint jars. One thing I've learned is that the le...

Thank you, for the guidance. I believe I have all the info I need to get this started. I will provide an update as I go along. I'm sure it will turn out great!

sugar is a raw fermentable that adds no good flavor, and only dilutes the flavor of the grain or fruit you are fermenting otherwise. A store cider at 1.055 will ferment out great on its own and make a nice still charge of greater than 7% ABV. excellent!! One last question, does the cider contain al...

Why are you adding sugar to it? Thats a straight quantity over quality move. I've read everything I can possibly find on fermenting store bought cider and I'm still a little unclear about the negative effects of adding the sugar? Will it take away from the flavor that I'm after? If so that's not a ...

My plans are to take 5 Gallons of store bought apple cider, 2lbs of sugar, 2 tlbs of DADY yeast, pour all of this into a carboy with a balloon airlock and let it ferment. Once complete I'm going run it through a pot still for the final product.

My question is about SG what should it be roughly?

I call mine Goat. 17 years ago when my wife and I first started courting, I would sneak away for 12 to 14 hours from time to time to run my mash. She would always ask "where are you going, or where have you been". My reply was always "i had to go see a man about a goat". To keep ...

so it carries over the flavor from the welch's? I would have thought all of that would have been stripped out.

your first mistake was using the turbo yeast, that stuff isn't worth a hill of beans. Next, I bet if you look inside your worm and other copper parts it will be green. If so that will have to be removed.

No Sir, it's not crystal clear at the moment. Still has little haze, unfortunately I can not think of any to compare it to. However, I can say that it has a sweet taste and a nice aroma. I will give it another week to see where it's at. I currently have a sugar wash working that should be ready to ...

No Sir, it's not crystal clear at the moment. Still has little haze, unfortunately I can not think of any to compare it to. However, I can say that it has a sweet taste and a nice aroma. I will give it another week to see where it's at. I currently have a sugar wash working that should be ready to r...