Home Distiller

One big tater, i dice it up, put it in a pot with about 3 cups of water, boil for a while, then throw away the potato and put the water in the mash before fermentation. Gives the distillate a rich silky texture. At least in rum anyway.

Jimbo, your method is so much easier then the homebrew techniques i've been trying to use. I'm giving it a go tomorrow... Thanks! But when i make rum, ive been adding a bit of boiled starchy potato water to the mash to add a smooth mouthfeel. I've done a side by side taste and the difference is amaz...

Last run was 6 lbs rye malt, 2 lbs cracked corn, 1 lb smoked cracked corn. Man oh man that rye is tough to work with. When it settles to the bottom of your mash tun it gets like cement, and you cant drain off the wort. So i've had some luck with adding rice hulls to get it to drain easier, and also ...

Ended up around 10.5% abv. I had let it finish fermenting, then racked into glass, and left by an open window (it's winter here) to cool down and settle overnight. Then siphoned into boiler, leaving a half gallon at the bottom to start my next batch. Ran a quick stripping run, then diluted to just u...

Anyone use a piece of pipe for a long narrow thumper? I was thinking a length of 4" copper capped at both ends. Maybe 18 to 24 inches long? At the top, connected by a 2" union, I'd have a coaxial design with a "T" like for a liebig condenser. The union would allow for filling and...

Hi all! So my ultimate goal is to produce a beautiful aged sipping rye whiskey. But the ones i like usually have some corn and a bit of barley. Since i am a novice, i was wondering if it might not be beneficial to make a seperate corn whiskey, rye and barley whiskeys, and then blend the finished pro...

It seems like people only malt part of the corn in their mashbill, rather then malting it all. Why is this?

Wow, I had too many tabs open... meant to post on another thread, actually hadn't read this thread yet. OK, note to self: dont drink and post on internet forums. Ayway, thanks for the nice answer Woodshed. I guess you mean that that apple and butter pecan are the flavors that come out in the finishe...

Yeah me too! Got a 50 lb sack waiting on me to figure out what to do with it. Want to use this in 50% rye mash.
But hows the best way to remove the sprouts from the kernels?
Also, anyone ever try smoking the corn? I'm thinking that a little hickory smoked corn might taste nice in a whiskey.

Well, for any other noobies reading this, I might as well tell ya another really embarrasingly dumb thing i did that first run. I didnt get the condenser going right away, and for a minute there was hot ethanol vapor coming out of the final end of the still. It was just dumb luck that i didn't blow ...

My friend is 32, from Philly, barman and engineering dropout.

Well after 2 days fermenting i took a second SG measurement at 1.065. That's down from 1.110. So it seems that calculates to about 6%abv. I calculated that there was the sugar potential for 8.5%, so i guess it should be done tomorrow evening. Still tastes kinda sweet though, but that might be just t...

Following someones link, i went to melissas dot com and ordered some sugar cane pieces. After calling the company i found out that they were harvested in Hawaii, and vacuum sealed in HI as well. So I'm hoping that there will be some good bacterial and yeast strains on the surface. I'm starting a dun...

Thanks. I heard that molasses can mess up a hydrometer reading though. Before adding yeast the reading was 1.110. Seems high.
I guess i can just compare the difference before and after to see the alcohol levels.

So i basically followed Pugi's rum recipe, except i didn't have all of the yeast nutrients he used, so i used some tomato paste. 2 lbs inverted light brown sugar 1 gallon blackstrap molasses 4 gallons tap water 2 Tbsp tom paste 1 cup distillers yeast, boiled for 20 minutes and cooled one packet Flei...

I found some feed molasses on Amazon, from Evolved Habitats.
But they add Propionic acid to inhibit bacteria. Would this also inhibit yeast?
Anyone use this stuff?

Ours is only 1.0 ppm.
However if i leave it out overnight, aren't i inviting wild yeast and bacterial strains? Should i then boil it?

My local tap water is known for making great beer. But a check on the municipal website shows that it contains both flouride and chlorine. Some reading here suggests vitamin c can neutralize chlorine, or leaving it sit overnight. So what should i do about the flourine? What do you guys do for your m...

Thanks Googe. Flour paste is for the three seams i left un-soldered, so that i could take it apart and store it in a drawer. Now I'm thinking i should solder two of those joints and forget the drawer.

Hmmm. Thank you.
How long should the ethanol cleaning run be?
I just figured it had been running clean for long enough, and it had smelled and looked clean.
So i let it run a bit more after that and then tasted some.
Now I'm worried that i ingested something dangerous.

OK, I'll do that. However i should also add that first i tested it with water to see if it was air tight. Then i did a vinegar run. Then water again. Was gonna do the ethanol clean next, but I wasn't sure it was really truly clean, so i disassembled it and boiled each part in a dilute vinegar water ...

IMAG0444.jpg Well, after all the worry it couldn't have been easier! Took a hack saw and cut through the pot lid first though, then just bent the two halves around out of the way. Wish i had an angle grinder to just cut em off. Used the homemade gasket popular here. I used a 2" hole saw on my ...

IMAG0443.jpg Well, I've never tried any kind of metal work before, so this is pretty basic. But with the help from this forum i was able to make this pot still, and I'm pretty happy about it! It's just the basic design, i think it's called "Samohans pot still"? With a 5 gal boiler and a 2...

I like the idea of using the precut wood as a guide.

Thanks guys! I'll post pics next week

Hi guys and gals, Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. My question is about building my stock pot still. I need to drill a 2" hole through the stainless steel stock pot lid. SO: no problem gettin my hands on a 2" hole saw bit, but my drill is a wimpy Black and Decker 5.2 amp plug in model...

But couldn't you negate these surges by using a double boiler?
I'm thinking of a cheap hotplate, a 5 gallon pot, wire riser and hot water, then put my boiler in there

So i'm working on building my 5 gallon stovetop pot still for all grain whiskeys and some rums. Maybe gin in the future. It is an all stainless boiler and lid, with copper pipe,and a 16" x 2" riser leading to a copper liebig. I'm wondering if it would be beneficial to add just a little cop...

By smeared you mean the heads and hearts mixed up?

Hi guys, I've been reading through this site like it's my job! So much info here, and cant wait to get started. YOu all seem like a good bunch. I'm a bartender who's long had a love affair with whiskeys and frankly most spirits, and an interest in how the good ones are made and aged. So I'm designin...