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Sounds interesting pynys pub. Any chance you could attach a pic of your rig. I am having a hard time visualizing the shooting chamber thing, especially after your comment on back pressure. Would be nice to understand your rig before answering. Safety first. As for shooting after heads, that is corre...

Only one more year of treatment and not five? What a great surprise.

I hope you have a nice spirit aging now that will be ready in a year when you celebrate.

Otis

Keep the ferment in the yeast's optimal temp range. Ok so not even 24 hrs after your advice and I forgot to turn my heater off and my mash is at 30c. You can lead a horse to water...... So I turned off heat and removed insulation. Temps over night were 10c but it only dropped from 30c to 29c is the...

It sounds like most of you are using pot stills? Anyone using a flute and making getting a "ready to barrel" in one run? If so, what are you seeing for alcohol % ? Or should I treat this like other whiskeys when making my cuts? I tend to follow the % and taste. If this one carries a difficult taste...

From my limited experience, go well under 10% if you want subtle. Maybe around 5-6%.

Be sure to update us on what you decide and how it turns out.

Otis

I occasionally extract oil using one one of my spirit stills. My rule is that if I can smell the oil, it should be cleaned before distilling spirits in it. Cleaning before a gin run would be especially important IMHO. I use a mildly acidic water with a light brushing to clean mine. Let it dry and sm...

It's not the steam pressure that is the concern, it's the vacuum caused by the cooling of the boiler sucking the contents out of the thumper back though your system. Your system should not have much pressure at all as it is open to the atmosphere. So either add a vacuum relief valve or crack a line...

A lot of people talk about "compressing" heads. As the equipment we distill with shouldn't generate any pressure at all I'd see the term "concentrating" as more appropriate. I agree that concentration is a much more appropriate term. I have been using the terminology I read/learned here on HD by sa...

I'm planning on making a gin using juniper berries from my own tree. I have made gin once before. But this time, I want to cutback the botanical's, and make a lighter tasting gin. Can't wait! I’m with you, liking lighter gins. By lighter, I mean less Juniper. I use Shady’s recipe for my base and fo...

Never considered swaging with a drill; Is there an advantage? I use something like this, and a hammer. HDX-Swaging-Tool-–-1000-012-501.jpg Cost was less than 8 cad beer tokens. That and a pipe flaring tool used on exhaust systems for 1.5 and 2 inch pipe. Largest is 3/4" actually. Can't imagine usin...

I have a set like Bushman posted that goes up to 7/8. Love it. works great on soft copper and with a powerful and fast drill I have used it on hard drawn copper. Its just tough to hold the pipe if it is straight. P.S. It gets hot as hell use caution. Have you tried a low RPM drill motor? Just wonde...

OtisT see if this helps. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21258 I have the tools that Expat and Deplorable posted an have had varying degrees of success, next time I use the tapered expander I will try it in a drill. In the op video I noticed a bend in the pipe that in effect was ...

Bushman, thanks for sharing that. I like the type you shared. I have used the hammer in kind and find it a PITA, mainly because it is hard to maintain a grip on the pipe without crushing/scaring It while trying to hammer the flaring bit in. I don’t think the tool you shared would present the same le...

I can’t speak from experience to the LM side of what you propose, but I have done a lot of distilling with a 2” VM head over a 3” packed column and don’t see any issues with it. (Of course, I don’t know what I’m missing.). The way I see it is my copper coil RC in the 2” section can handle my max of ...

I too had read the "complete distiller" and tried to follow it twice, and was thinking that if it was in full reflux, how is it going to stack in the column?? I’ve never tried to stack foreshots, personally using the slow heat up approach to bleed off foreshots without any reflux going. I have had ...

I’m no metallurgist, but that looks exactly like brass and does not even closely resemble copper. I personally would not use it.

What does it sound like? Brass has a definitive ring to it, while copper sounds much more dampened.

Otis

Hi folks. I’m curious about the impact of forest fire smoke on fruit for distilling. Currently, massive climate change induced fires rage across the western US. Orange skies and the sickly smell of creosote and other nasties extend across the major fruit growing regions of CA, OR, WA and more. Other...

Ya, different strokes.... and please consider my advice in the context of the question asked. The poster In the previous message I replied to said he could not tell a heads cut point by smell and asked for advice, so I gently recommended he consider trying by taste. I smattered my response with “jus...

Thanks for sharing Demy. I have done this myself with great success, marking my carboys in one liter increments. Alternative method: As an alternative to using a dremmel tool for marking a glass as this video shows, I used a craft etching paste (acid) to mark each measure line. The little jar of gla...

I’ll just reply to your post, not the whole thread, that you should consider making head cuts by taste, not smell. Just my personal opinion that I find this more definitive/repeatable than cuts by smell.

Bushman wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 09, 2020 5:18 pm

Just picked a bunch of plums today now I have to fight my wife for them.

We know who is going to win this one. Nice knowing you Bushman. (Insert smile face with black eyes here). Otis

He is running a pot still, so no packing. The way this is described, I’m not sure if your product stream is consistent or not. Is your product stream consistent while your thermometer is seeing temp surges? It could just be early condensation drops on the thermo probe that stop dripping when things ...

What is your heat source? Is it on a controller for consistent power, or perhaps a hot plate or stove that cycles on/off?

Otis

#1. On the colum of a ccvm still, is it necessary to make the tee and the arm going to your condenser the same size as the colum? No, assuming you don’t want to fraction with a 1:1 reflux ratio. I don’t know anyone who does that. I run a 1” output on a 3” column and a 3/4” outlet on my 2” column an...

It depends on what your needs are. Just my opinion, but you will want something with a smaller minimum volume than you can get with that short/fatty. Several ways to do this, and I’ll list a few: Maybe a tall/skinny? (1/6 bbl, 5 gal total volume.). As an example, I have a short/skinny that holds abo...

Howdy neighbor and welcome to HD. You want to make a clean neutral there are some good recipes in the tried and true section. My favorite is Shady’s sugar shine. You will want a fractioning column to get the cleanest neutral, and I don’t know many who fraction using a 1” column. 2” seemed really slo...

Looking good OVZ.

Otis

I’ll bet the staves could be remilled into staves for a badmo barrel head. I make those in 1 to 3 gallon size and they age product at a pace like a large barrel. See the link to badmo barrels in my signature below.

Otis

Hypno. You may get 4 gallons of of high wines from that batch, but after cuts you will be left with only half that. (Approximation). My assumption above about your yield is based on the weight of the grains you are using. Has little to do with the amount of water. As for your target ABV, you should ...

Sounds tasty hypno. Can’t wait to hear how it turns out.

What is your total ferment volume after adding all the grains?

Do you plan to do 2 or 3 more ferments with the same bill to fill that barrel?

Otis