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Oldvine Zin wrote: ↑Sun Jul 17, 2022 5:44 pm That sucks, I use my brutes for fruit ferments but for corn I have the 60 gal stainless tank

Stay safe
OVZ

60 gallon stainless! Good lord that's awesome.

My money's on the silo. I mean, if you build it with your money.

HDNB wrote: ↑Sat Jan 20, 2018 3:22 pm Don't keep the corn too long it will go rancid fairly quickly. I try to use my milled batches I. 6 weeks or less. 500 lb should net you about 150 bottles or so after cuts. You gonna need a nice barrel

Just for the record, it's 2.5 years later and the corn is still in good shape :]

Well, the BIAB turned out to be a lifesaver. I had installed a pulley in a beam above the barrel, so I was able to lift the wet-ass corn out of the Brute and swing it a foot to the right and drop it in the (non-functioning) steam kettle. Then I saved what liquid was left in the barrel and boiled up ...

I have a steam kettle here that I still have not wired up, and it just hit me that I could use that instead of the barrel -- even if it's not connected to power it's still a 40-gallon stainless vessel.

I guess that this isn't a problem for some people, but this is the second time it's happened to me. I wrote off the first one as "maybe I hit the side with the stirring paddle on the drill," but this time all of that happened within a BIAB in the middle of the barrel, and now I have 20 gal...

I just picked up a brew-in-a-bag that is 27.5 in x 32.5 in, which almost fills a brute barrel. The full recipe takes 50lbs of corn, so squeezing that is far less than pleasant -- I've done the mop-bucket-and-grain-bag thing before, and honestly never want to do it again. It's the main reason I fell ...

A flute is never the wrong tool for a job. Although a thumper would be nice... Once I have the steam kettle running, I might run the flute into a thumper. I should've left more headspace and run it slower, y'all are right. But hey, I have a cleaner condenser now, right? Little victories? In the end ...

I'm making an evolved habitats rum, heavier on the molasses than usual. I threw 15 peeled bananas into the boiler. OMG does it smell good in here. Painfully delicious. I was also stupid and left the boiler on full for too long, and probably got some puking. Once I noticed this I cranked up the reflu...

Sweet! I'm really looking forward to finally building a thumper, although I've had good luck with single-run rums through the flute.

https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/17114/one-barrel-belize-rum Guessing it’s this? Yup, that's the stuff. I'm gonna order a few bottles tomorrow, I miss it already. I hadn't brought any of my own rum down, but I brought my oldest oaked UJ (3 years) down with us, and sat at a bar and shared it with...

My wife and I just got back from our 20th anniversary/25 years together trip to Belize — 10 days with no kids and pure freedom. There were two local rums that we loved — one was a coconut rum that makesMalibu seem like dishwater. It became the sweetener in my coffee, and was incredible with whatever...

So, after almost a year of dormancy I pulled the plates out of the flute and ran them through the dishwasher -- which proved to be pointless, they came out just as green as they went in. So I scrubbed the green off with some scotch-brite pads. Some of the hoses had disconnected while the column was ...

most people drop down to 2 or 3 plates, A lot of people on a lot of forums use 4 plates. Saying that "Most people" use 2-3 is stretching things a bit I think. It was an informal poll in my own head :] Just going on random data I stored there. I'm more than ready to be wrong, and apparentl...

I can't find the post now, but there's one here where someone experimented with making PTFE plates and found that they would curl. I'm all for more experiments, so don't let me talk you out of it, they could be manufactured differently, or of a different thickness or something. Those look like serio...

Once you get up and running, a simple experiment on passive reflux would be:

1) Do a normal stripping run and track your ABV
2) Do the same again, but with a fan aimed at the column

I've been wanting to try this for ages now, but I don't run a pot column since I built the flute.

I thought it was common knowledge that its shite. Mine has rusted and fused with the ferrule so I'll have a bastard of o job to fix it once it breaks. I've been looking at stainless ones on ebay with integrated twist lock. I don't have a proper element guard so they may save me a few bob. https://w...

This shouldn't really be limited to the 5500w models, but those do seem to be the most common. After maybe two years in my keg, the internally exposed part of the element not only rusted, but it rusted so badly that the threads were gone and the element came loose in the keg and fell out. Here's a p...

A mop squeezer bucket and a 5-gallon paint strainer bad are a popular way of squeezing everything out of the corn around here.

I don’t think anyone answered you corn meal vs cracked corn question? It’s just a lot easier to get the starches out of a finer grind.

I’d run it.

Welcome, and salutations and a bucket of greetings and whatnot. Make sure you read up on the starter stuff before you start assembling, and get through your cleaning runs before you start distilling for real. We have some great beginner recipes in the Tried and True section — rad’s all-bran was my f...

Heh, that reminded me of the old “turn your kegs on their sides” debates from a few years back.

Some old timers might remember it. Fun times....

I’m with shady. If you’re adjusting more than 3-4 times once you know your still, you’re doing something wrong.

The general reaction to my first few batches was, “this tastes like jet fuel.”

Fast-forward a couple of years and I have Blantons fans begging for jars.

Keep reading, keep learning, definitely keep asking questions.

Oh, and also, keep writing. This was entertaining.

Rum also, IME, comes off the pipe pretty harsh. I hated my first rum for probably 6months, now it’s possibly my favorite.

If you're running at 110, you can just wire that sucked up directly, a PID isn't going to speed things up.

Going to 220 after that is just the best feeling.

I wonder how people are tasting these for comparisons.

The second sip of any hard liquor is going to seem less harsh, that’s just the nature of human tissue.

Also, to answer your earlier question — if your ferment is based on sugar, it’s a wash. If it’s based on grains, it’s a mash.

I run a 5500w element on 220 at maybe 2/3 power in a keg boiler. I’m usually refluxing, but I’ve done that while stripping, too.

I would highly recommend a Dernord or whatever brand stainless element, as the Camcos will rust.

Anytime, man, it’s what ee’re here for.