Home Distiller

Yup, that's what I used and how I did it, following that post exactly, except I went the extra step and soldered mine just for the extra insurance. Easy enough to do so I figured why not?

The Yeast Bay contracted White Labs to archive and package their stuff, so the packaging looks the same. I've had good results from their products. East Coast Yeast also has some fantastic wild blends and isolates, but can be hard to get. When it's in stock at love2brew.com, you need to grab it whil...

The brilliant Michael Tonsmiere has a big list of bottled beers with viable microbes that can be cultured, check it out:
https://www.themadfermentationist.com/p ... t.html?m=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Anyone have advice on how to join the flange fitting to the spear for non-welders? You can use a ratchet handle or something similar to slightly flare the end of the spear so the flange will press fit. That may be enough, but for mine I put some liquud flux on the area before hammering it home, the...

Excellent thread, thanks for sharing! I'm a big fan of apple wood, I need to use it more often. I like cherry, but too prefer apple. I have some plum that I'd like to play with, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

...I'm listening. Any old glass marble? Flattened, round? Wasn't there a thing with lead and marbles? I use these: glass marbles . 2# for 3 bucks. I bought 4 bags, but only use about 3 bags in my 2” x 39” column. 14mm makes them fit well, yet leaves enough open space for rising vapors. I made a lit...

I've run lots of beers. Since going low-carb, I don't drink much beer anymore, but I had so much stockpiled I ended up turning a lot of it into whiskey. It all came out good, except for a very sour saison, which didn't have much ethanol left in it. I basically got a bunch of lactic acid. Hop oils ne...

I bottled up one 750ml of my smoked whiskey to see how it's coming along. Much better than I hoped for. It's very smokey, malty, good body... Tastes like a nice single malt, except the smoke is sweeter rather than medicinal. I used 2/3 beechwood malt and smoked the rest myself on 50/50 mix of apple ...

I do this anytime I make beer or AG whiskey. The results make for some fine vodka or light sipping stock.

Spirit run of some port wine brandy i got from my winery hookup. Finally getting the pipeline refilled.

Finally stripping my 20 gallons of strong desert wine today. It'll be good to have the brandy pipeline full again.

I use some dark roasted grains in a lot of my all grain recipes to get closer to optimal mash pH, fine tuned with phosphoric acid. The roasted specialty grains definitely add a pleasant but subtle complexity to the final product.

Is there a plastic protective film that you can peel off with your fingernail? If it's bare metal, it's probably just not as polished as the top side. You should be fine. Unless there's plastic, get rid of that. You're fine otherwise.

Going to spirit run those low wines into some nice brandy pulling just the very middle of the best hearts... I've done a good amount of brandy myself and actually have 20+ gallons more to strip as soon as I find the time. Don't be afraid to keep a little bit of late heads. There's a ton of deliciou...

I visited my buddy's winery yesterday and he gave me 20 gallons of his high alcohol port wine so I can make more brandy. My stash is getting low so it'll be great to refill the pipeline. He's a big fan of my product and is excited about seeing what I can do with some of his other wines too. He's tal...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/index.php?threads/revised-buying-guide-for-ph-meter-based-on-the-book-water.446437/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow Pay attention to anything that users ajdelange or mabrungard have to say, they are very knowledgeab...

I did one of two last spirit runs of my smoked whiskey today. Hopefully I can do the other tomorrow and the spirit run and finally get this batch aging.

Fermentation doesn't always give visual indication. Check with a hydrometer to "see" progress.

Smearing sounds like a potential explanation for the papery flavor making it into your distillate, but you could probably address it earlier in the process too. I mentioned oxidation earlier, which causes a trademark musty wet cardboard flavor and aroma in beer. The best way to avoid this is to not ...

Are your collection jars clean?
I had a friend who brewed some awesome beer, but one batch seemed like it was heavily oxidized. Turned out his freezer was making the mugs taste freezer burned but the beer was great as always once poured into clean glassware. Just a thought.

I would think Hawaiian Punch is loaded with preservatives that would prevent yeast from doing their thing, that's precisely what preservatives are designed to do. Are you sure you have any alcohol in there? Have you checked with a hydrometer?

I mashed some barley that I smoked with apple and cherry. I made ten gallons of beer then partigyle another ten weaker gallons. That's the third round, the previous two were 100% beechwood smoked malt. After stripping this latest batch, I should have enough low wines to finally do my spirit run and ...

Run it, you're fine. As long as it doesn't smell horrid, doesn't have mold, it should be safe. If it sours too much or turns entirely to vinegar, you won't get much ethanol from it. Sounds like this batch is good to go.

Doesn't an acid and an alcohol combine to form an ester? Probably that's what's going on.

I then added the third minute on 80% and it was at 172F. (remember not only is it 40%, it has honey to crank up the heat) At that point, I covered it in plastic wrap to catch the condensation. Otherwise, welcome to suggestions. You should leave it uncovered until it cools. That lets some of those h...

PID (Proportional Integral Derivative) do not work for running a still unless you use manual mode, which defeats the purpose of a PID. You can try if you want, but a zillion people before you thought the same thing and guess what, it still doesn't work because... YOU CANNOT RUN A POT STILL BY TEMPER...

http://thefederalist.com/2017/09/06/hom ... istilling/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

This nice article came up on my feed today. Aside from the mention of YouTube as a place for good advice, they did a nice job.

Choice of yeast and how you treat it seems to have an effect as well. Choose a neutral ale yeast or a bread yeast and keep it near the low end of it's temperature range and it will come out very clean. Letting temps rise to the top of the range has IME created some flavors that carry over and is (I ...

Tagged. I have a working account now and will be happy to help. I'm traveling for the next couple of weeks, but will jump in when I get a chance.

Bacteria doesn't always leave evidence that is visible to the naked eye. Puke smell is butyric acid and definitely the result of bacterial infection. Esterification to pineapple aromas can be accelerated by some strains of brettanomyces. I would pitch in a Brett blend like East Coast Yeast Dirty Doz...