Home Distiller

But commercial distillers have multiple reasons for their actions. And maybe it would be interesting to think about this reasons. There are a lot of new, small-scale distilleries starting up these days. If any of them could gain a commercial advantage from using aluminium instead of stainless or co...

So the obvious question.. why isn't anyone distilling their own water? Because distilling your own water is incredibly time consuming, wastes a lot of energy, and leaves you with water than you then have to treat to make useful again. About the only time distilling your own water makes sense is whe...

Think about what's happening: The thumper is passively heated. If you fill it with water, you need to pump enough energy into it to heat the thumper charge so it's passing vapor through rather than condensing it. If you're pushing vapor through and condensing it before the thumper is hot enough to e...

One thing you can do with your foreshot is to make sterno. It's basically calcium carbonate, vinegar, and high-proof alcohol. I did this as an experiment last year with foreshot, and it definitely works. From memory (which may be a bit fuzzy): you need about an ounce of calcium carbonate (grind up s...

Not sure this will help you, because I don't know what you're making. And few people have the patience to actually do comparison testing when it comes to years-long aging. But here is an anecdote: I lived for six years in Slovakia, in a region particularly known for excellent slivovica (plum brandy)...

Have you got a source for popcorn that costs less than the ~$8 per 50 lbs that cracked corn costs? If so, go for it; if not, why bother?

I add baking soda and pitch some more yeast in and it will generally come right. Don't add baking soda, especially if you're carrying over backset/dunder. It will leave salts behind, and you don't want to do that. You want calcium carbonate instead of sodium bicarbonate. If you want to be fancy, yo...

I've only just started reading it and can't give a full review yet, but so far I'm really enjoying Proof: the Science of Booze , by Adam Rogers. (2014, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, IBSN: 978-0-547-89796-7). The author is a writer and editor for Wired, so the wring is crisp, entertaining, highly enligh...

spisska, dude, you put a lot of effort into your drinkin'. I greatly admire the ambiance. Disclaimer: I own a total of two suits and zero fedoras. I do have a pair of leather-soled shoes, but only wear them, like the suits, when I really have to. But upon discovering what an egg-white does to a coc...

UJSSM in a proper whiskey sour. That is: a couple spoons of sugar, maybe 50mL of fresh-squeezed lemon juice, an egg-white, and around 100mL of UJSSM. Shake it to hell in a pint mason jar and pour over ice. Garnish with an orange slice and maraschino cherry. You can do it without the egg-white, but y...

Any chance this thing could move along, be approved by the house and senate, and end up being vetoed? Next to zero percent chance of that happening. Presidential vetoes are quite rare, and are only ever applied when a bill is highly contentious and goes directly against a president's policy agenda....

We (the HDA) had actually kept this quiet in case ‘big liquor’ was against it and may try to get our piece struck from the bill. The short-shortsightedness of big business never ceases to amaze me. Is there really no awareness that in the years following the legalization of home-brewing, beer consu...

I am jealous partly for the music, and the rest because you surely have god's own limestone-filtered water ...

Them mountains, they're worth more than pretty things to look at ...

I'm now convinced that there's nothing more American than untaxed corn whiskey. That's American history, American tradition, and American spirit, all in one highball glass.

Pun very much intended.

Heh. I grew up in DC -- the city proper that is. Northwest, between Rock Creek Park and Connecticut Ave. And the Seldom Scene were a constant fixture even going back to the '80s. Growing up, I'd listen religiously to the bluegrass they'd play on WAMU every Sunday morning. There are some real gifts t...

You went to a bluegrass festival and didn't take any of your own with you? Fer shame. After making a supply trip with my buddy on Saturday where we got 100 lbs of cracked corn on sale for about $13, some feed and supplies for his chickens, failed to find any apple cider at a reasonable price ($8.50 ...

I have a hard time believing that you could get enough vibration from the music to shake those heavy kegs [...] That's the great thing about this process -- you don't *need* to shake the kegs. Sound is a pressure wave, and will go straight through the barrels and out the other side, subjecting the ...

If you're not completely sold on GoDaddy, you might take a look at asmallorange.com. I used to have a couple sites with them, and have nothing but positive things to say about them, particularly their customer service.

I'm not affiliated with them in any way, just passing on my good experience.

For what it's worth, I *can be* a dickhead, but I'm usually able to keep that part of me in check. Also, for what it's worth, my partner in this thing has a brother who's a cop. Different jurisdiction, so no issue there, but his (the cop's) opinion is that where we are, no local police would be at a...

I hear you, and obviously not getting busted is a concern. I'm not at all worried about the guests at this particular party -- my neighbor is a recording engineer, and the other people there were all musicians, engineers, DJs, and so on. As a group, they're no strangers to substances more illicit th...

To address the concerns: Yes, we figured out the thumper is a bit small for the rig. On Sunday, we ran a double-run. Everything worked fine through the first, but we didn't drain/recharge the thumper in between. Just let it be. So by the time our hearts started running on the second batch (which als...

Here's the still: http://i.imgur.com/53QEGGW.jpg Chickens are included for scale. It's on an cheap 1500W electric hotplate here, but we're likely going to move to a propane burner soon. The hotplate just takes too long to get going, and neither of us has any welding gear, nor any strong desire to dr...

Hi all. I understand the site etiquette says a new user should post here to introduce themselves, so here I am. I've been lurking this site for about a month and have learned such a tremendous amount here, that I thought it only right to register in the hope that I might give back a fraction of what...