Home Distiller

If your wife frequently leaves you notes saying "the darned garage floor is sticky again".....you might be an AG stiller.
BD

Guess I got into the habit of StarSan when I started malting corn, based on the trouble with mold. Now it's just part of my standard protocol for everything. Probably unnecessary, but it ain't broke so I'll not fix it!
BD

Best of luck to you, Moose. And Yay! Better Living through Whiskey
BD

Amin- I really don't think those will work at all. Their inner workings/tubes/seals, etc. are designed for water, not organics like EtOH. There are other lab-based water stills that have more glass and stainless, but I doubt those will work either for a huge number of reasons. A traditional still is...

I try very hard to never let anything sit and get crusty. I clean everything with hot water (and a brush if necessary but rarely with soap), then a final rinse with SanStar and then stored dry and dust-free. When I say "everything", I mean it--pots, stirrers, hydrometers, spoons, measuring...

I do two things with grits or corn meal: use a paint stirrer designed for a 5 gallon paint tub and a drill, and suspend the grits/meal in cold water and add that to boiling water, then return to boil. Like 3 gallons cold water plus 12 lbs meal in to 6 gals of rolling boiling water, then return to bo...

I know I'm behind in answering this. I have a number of programs on my work computer that drive some high-end scientific instruments. These instrument manufacturers let me know that I should NOT upgrade since their programs will not run in Windows 10. So, if you run a bunch of unique softwares you m...

I may have missed it but I don't think anybody mentioned anything about electric stoves cycling on and off. This will cause smearing. Maybe the stove needs a new element or maybe it just cycles too much, a plate of some kind between the burner and boiler might help but a better heat source would pr...

Q uote "I have a 2 inch pot still similar to Samohon's plans, on a 5 gal boiler on a kitchen stove. Currently it takes me about 3-3.5 hours to complete a 3-4 gallon charge." Getting a pencil lead stream on a 4 gallon stove top sounds too fast to me. But you say it takes you 3 hours + to r...

I am curious about the flavor comments tho. Is hydrolysis of the sucrose via invertase in teh cell wall responsible or partly responsible for the sugar zing in sugar heads? Why doenst maltose, another disaccharide except with 2 glucose molecules instead of sucrose's glucose + fructose have that sug...

I seldom ask dumb questions, but here's one. Would Gluco enzymes convert sucrose into glucose ? I am pretty sure that the answer is "no". My understanding is that some of the gluco enzymes will produce glucose from larger polysaccharides/starch by cutting them off the ends of the starch m...

I definitely detect the very sweetish smell just before the fores start to drip. Condenser on and cool, but nevertheless get a smell before the very first drops of fores distillate. I only detect it for a minute or so. Makes sense it's an organic that does not condense at cool tap water temperatures...

I'm going to try to make homemade "Sterno" with my fores. Be useful for camping fuel and a little safer if the container is tipped over when lit. I'm in the process now and will let you know if this works.
Bd

Hey folks- for what it is worth, dextrose is another name for glucose (a monosaccharide), the sugar the yeast uses directly. Table sugar is sucrose, a disaccharide that is broken down to glucose and fructose before the yeast can use it. It makes some sense that sucrose vs glucose gives different pro...

Nice read and thanks for posting! I liked the old picture at the beginning of the article. But it shows me that I'm underdressed when I make runs (the picture is of a guy standing next to a still and he is wearing a tie!)
BD

Been thinking about this since I read SS's reply this morning... Im not sure where the theory behind packing the column with scrubbers came from, but I have definitely read it in several places. But now that I think about the science of distillation, specifically condensation, the only way to cause...

shadylane wrote:Here's how I grind cracked corn. Whole corn or wet grain is too much for it.
Posting with boom. Malt is easy to get but the shipping is expensive.

That's mighty close to my set-up. I use an old pillow case to catch the grist.
Bd

Jimbo wrote:I had a 1/2" drill smoking trying to grind 50 lbs of cracked corn through one of those. Never again.

Know what you mean. I run the corn through it three times, tightening the adjusting collar between runs. If I try to go from whole corn to meal in none run, it'd burn out the drill.

Bd

If by aging you mean oaking, this is a good place to start.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=49973
Bd

I am going to run it. I also think that I am going to get a small mill. As I said before, never had this problem, I am beginning to think that a faulty thermometer could have been part of the problem. Not sure my gelatinization was all that great. This sure had made me gun shy though! Feel like a b...

I personally have done nothing but AG since I started half a year ago. I've learned everything I need from this forum and have streamlined my procedure as much as I think is possible. My bill is always 60% cracked corn, 20% 6 row, 20% other grain in 8-10 gallons. I boil my water, add the corn, rehea...

What condensation you'll get (during heat up maybe) will run back down the column walls, not through the pacing core, which is what causes reflux rarification/separation. To be effective with reflux, you need a true reflux condenser at the top of the column causing the condensing vapors to collapse...

Or maybe you have an extension going on that 45? That's exactly what's going there. I need to get a coupler, first. I was gonna use the remaining 2' or so of 1/2" to bring it out to my collection vessel. I haven't decided if I want too solder that extension piece in or just leave it a "pu...

It's beautiful! The elegance is its simplicity. And it looks sorta like mine!
Bd

I'd be more worried about squeezing out crap I didn't want in the boiler than losing the tiny bit of liquid that might be retained in the husks. Hey all- I originally thought the same thing, that squeezing the hell out of the grains after mashing would produce a lot of unwanted junk. But, I'm makin...

Bless your heart for being such a good son, Rad. You took good care of her and that's a wonderful thing. The day before my mother-in-law died, I was by her side and told her that I loved her, and she said "I know". No better response is possible and I'm sure your mother felt the same way a...

stilldistillin wrote:http://whiskyscience.blogspot.ca/2014/10/copper.html

too good of a link not to share...

Why are the stills shown in the photo on that link different colors? They are all copper stills, but some are dull reddish but others are more typical copper color.
Bd

Kentucky Bourbon: - All grain, no added enzymes nor sugar: 60:20:20 (cracked yellow corn:6 row barley:honey malt) - Oaked with oak spirals (medium toast) - This is my fourth batch of this recipe, and, to my taste buds, its amazing! And I owe it all to the fine folks here at HD! Bd bob, this is this...

Kentucky Bourbon:
- All grain, no added enzymes nor sugar: 60:20:20 (cracked yellow corn:6 row barley:honey malt)
- Oaked with oak spirals (medium toast)
- This is my fourth batch of this recipe, and, to my taste buds, its amazing! And I owe it all to the fine folks here at HD!
Bd

..."my lid came apart (the seal buffer fell just barely off the lid, causing the pressure to release and tons of liquid and steam to come out the side). I was able to put it back on, but I had to virtually restart. Any advice for amount of liquid and space below the lid? Also, Any advice for p...