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Mind you, I’m not defending spirits in plastic!! Though I’ll sometimes recycle a plastic booze jug to give away where I know it’ll be consumed quickly, or for a travel outing where the weight or risk of breakage makes it sensible. In such cases though, it’s not long term. It bugs the crap out me to ...

Hard to say. Carbon works to absorb certain volatile organics in beverages, removes chlorine from treated water sources, but its not really intended to filter microparticulates, though possibly capturing some. Post RO there should be very little by way of measurable solids and pretty much nil for su...

Guys, point taken regarding the testing and submissions of safety data, were only just finding out what problemd microplastics are causing, lots of talk regarding bottled water full of it, for me i am reluctant to drink any drinks from plastic, we have good tap water in Yorkshire, thank god and i u...

Your single phase outlet will measure 240 volts between the hots and 120 volts between each of those and the neutral. The element will connect to the two hot wires and it does not need the neutral. The ground terminal is to be connected to an earth ground. Have you recognized that OP lives in Europ...

In what may be the briefest follow up ever, this idea may be a complete bust before it gets to see the light of day. With the cost of DME being close to 10x the cost of sugar it is likely a non-starter. Since the goal is to recover more value from the initial grains the cost of DME is at least on pa...

So I was just having a think the morning about what I would plan to make this season, having just ordered some grains yesterday. I’ve kind of got it down and was thinking about jug space then recalled that I’d need to do a gumball on the spent grains. Then, in a moment of epiphany, I thought, “hey, ...

The Dernord 240v, 5500w element is single phase only and it doesn’t matter where in the world you are, 240v is 240v and watts are watts. As someone noted already this will draw 23 amps. Just divide the wattage by the voltage to determine the amperage. If your voltage runs lower, the current draw wil...

I cut whiskey to ~65% for aging. If I’m pulling a sample it makes for an easy 2:1 ratio to cut for around 43%. Most of these I find to be just a little more pleasant at around 40% and as the previous post has noted, it is quite dramatic how much of a difference a point or two in proof will affect fl...

I usually don’t check final gravity. When it appears to be stopped, has settled, and tastes sour, it’s about as far as it’s gonna go. A quick stir to degas is all it needs while I contemplate my next opportunity. That’ll confirm cessation of activity, too. If I do check gravity I note that ag often ...

How much water did you use? About a foot to 16" down from the top of a 55 gallon olive barrel It was reading an estimated 11% That seems like a lot of sugar for that volume of water. Most here seem to agree that 1#/gal is a good rule of thumb. That’s pretty much about how it works out for grai...

How much water did you use?

I’ve been using this type of mash method for years without realizing it was really a thing, other than a workaround from the first time I tried cooking corn and vowing to not go through that again!! This past season, however, was the first that I’ve tried doing a Gumballhead method. With a more corn...

I’ve got a Victoria mill and have it connected to a motor that really runs a bit faster than I’d like, but can’t really slow it any further without stalling it. I adjust it so the plates no longer rub, turning by hand. The plates are not very parallel and I can’t help that. I always buy cracked corn...

I’ve had a few strip runs that have produced a straw colored distillate. I have a sight glass at the base of my column and can easily tell when puking is imminent and such has not been a problem for these runs. But, it’s a strip run so I don’t care. It’ll be fine for the spirit run. For that matter ...

Maybe try brown sugar instead of white?

Looks typical to me. Spirit run will be a completely different creature.

You say you added sugar to ensure a target yield point, but the OG of the mash pre-sparge was right in the expected range of 1.060. Sparging doesn’t change the qty of available sugars, only the overall volume. The sugars, by mass, will ferment to a qty of etoh, by mass. And, will still distill out t...

I remember my first ferment and run was just awful. Like bread in a jar. I was so proud of myself! The next batch was another disaster and I learned that plastics were a no-go, before arriving here. Then it got better, and better, and better still. Better enough to make me look for help to make a lo...

I tried a 65% rye (corn, barley) last season and didn’t go into it with glucanase; taking a wait and see approach. Wrong; it needs glucanase. I ordered some of the LDCarlson stuff after the ferment (on grain) was done. Even added at that late point it made a huge difference to the viscosity, though ...

Sounds more like a way to overextract a lavender tea to me, rather than the oils or hydrosols aspect. I’ve tried to do similar with other herbal teas to get a little more out of them, mostly catnip. It just made it way too strong tasting. Maybe some lighter flavored ones would work better. Nettle? C...

Another possibility to consider is that they may have been employing a little bit of business ‘shell game’ where what was being distilled might be partially something that’s already been distilled. Bourbon may have a certain definition, and they may have a bit of a constraint over what they call ‘th...

I like the suggestion to grind a flat spot on the two clamps, at least before making more permanent modifications. Although the light duty triclamps may do fine, too.

Years ago I did some project work with my company and became associated with one of our clients who had a small, commercial vineyard. I picked up a bit of side work with him to collaborate on some equipment and he got it in mind to distill some of his filtered waste with the intent to use back in hi...

I had a similar notion a couple of seasons ago to help me in tweaking my recipe and sort of standardize my methods. I was following a reasoned out recipe, with satisfactory results, but wanted to gain a better understanding of how I could manipulate preferred flavors in a given batch over making ran...

Happy to share and the same to you!

Sounds like you’re mostly on base with your understanding, certainly as a working knowledge. Malting (allowing the germination of the grains, and then stopping growth and drying them) releases the natural enzymes of the seed package so that the developing sprout can utilize the starch of the endosp...

SS, that’s one of the most sensible and cogent set of reasons I could see to this question. I can add that in pursuit of what I was/wasn’t looking for, that I was becoming increasing dissatisfied with some flavor I was getting from hybrid sugarheads and since I was doing a partial mash already, the ...

Nothing factual, but just based on some reasoning and empirical data, I think the warmth does more to affect rapid change but the cold swings are definitely helpful. I keep everything in the garage. Unheated and uninsulated. We get fairly hot weather in the summer months but usually from Nov-March i...

If you were to chop a former Buffalo Trace barrel to use in jars or jugs would that amount to being aged on Buffalo chips?

I’ve made a couple batches now of the SBB; a couple because I liked the first so much. My metrics were pretty low for success; 1. It had to taste better than the common brand that starts with a B, as a light rum, and, 2. It needed to remind me of how a rum and Coke tasted back when I was first able ...