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DrTorque wrote:I've got to start doing this soon...

What's the color like after 5 days?

Real similar to jack daniels or jim beam

seems to be a smidge more red

Thanks!! I've set up ; proportionately, 16 1-gallon jugs with 60 square inches of charred oak and 10 square inches of charred sugar maple and have given all the in the freezer and in the 150 degree soak...off and on for 5 days. What a fabulous creation!!!! After taking 4 barrels apart, all 4 have on...

Can anyone tell me the inside surface size of a full size empty bourbon barrel in square inches?

Nice quiet neighborhood with NO nosy neighbors. Mostly retirees eccept for me and 1 other

I added a photo which I finally found...the mash being cooked. I'll add more stuff in the near future so you guys can see how I do things in larger scale. I also have my 10 gallon still registered and I do a lot of stuff on that as far as recipe development. With just a 10 gallon still, how long,ho...

A neighbor of mine has 2 fig trees and another neighbor picked all the figs 2 years ago to make fig wine. It did its thing and one carboy cleared nicely but one did not. Plus he had another fermenter full of pulpy goodness. I convinced him to let me distill the whole thing and turned it into "F...

Water heaters are generally bad news in most of the USA. How come? I can go to a hardware store and buy any water heater I want, but I am of course not allowed to install it myself. Need to be a certified plumber to do that. My house insurance company wouldnt like it, not to mention the municipal c...

Cruisaire wrote:Cool! Any details on your column heighth, dia.?

Sure. From the 2" connector to a 2"x1" connector, 90 degree elbow, 8" connector(to clear the edge), 45 elbow, 30" leibig(using 1/2" down the center)to 1/2"x 1/4" connector to 10" and out

I also got a keg this past summer, bought one of those connectors, and actually ran for the first time last night. SOOOOOOOO>>>>>much easier running a 10 gallon batch rather than 4-2.5 gallon batches. Time for batches went from 4.5 hours down to 2.4 hours with the output the same.

That would work... so would paying a welder a few dollars to cut a hole and weld on a half coupleing. Thread your valve into that. Doing things right will always pay off. Not saying thats the only way to go, but its a damn good one and you won't regret building it right. True. You're right this is ...

HookLine wrote:

alice wrote:This site DOES suck!

It's sucked me right in, anyway - to the point that I hardly visit or read anything else any more,...

Same here.

Me too

[quote="partsbill"]

Current starting sg is at 1.052. I'll try the more accurate measure in 4-5 days with current batch.



Ending sg @1.002

Just calculated.......would have thought it to be more than 6.70800%

Maybe I didn't measure right the first time. I'll try better this time

makes sense. Thanks!

Say, for example, that you're producing great alcohol without running tails much at all therefore accumalating great quantities of backset. Is backset better, to put back in the next batch, at a relatively low alcohol content(after running your tails) or is it just as well to have it to include all ...

OK here it is. I just copied it from another post of mine: Since March, I've been making simple moon. Recipe consists of: 25 lbs. cracked corn 25 lbs. sugar 1/2 gallon molasses 5 gal. backset 23 gal. tap water 3/4 oz. Fleishmans yeast. Now I've made approx. 800 gallons of mash which in turn has made...

Many years ago, I went at it for about 1 row. Of course I was about 10 or so. My dad thought I ought to give it a try. He knew the man who used the horse and plow for his cornfield weeding. Best I can remember.....Damn hard to control.

After the topic of read, read, read; I'll concede that the process that I was using to wash the cracked corn several times in 140 degree water several times is NOT mashing. However, I've run the sweetest smelling, best tasting moonshine I've ever made!!! I have re-covered from my previous problem of...

I currently have 3-30 gallon fermenters going right now. Have 2 40 gallon Rubbermaids full of 5-day old mash ready to distill.

I built a frame 14" square from 2x6 lumber. Mounted 2 light bulb sockets on the inside and use 2-100 watt light bulbs. Both are wired to a dimmer switch which allows me to keep the heat regulated. Have 3-30 gallon fermenters set up this way. Works great.

Its been really great following you on this adventure!! Great CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

I'd also like to get in on the bottle or 3;....way over here on the east coast.

Best thing I ever did was buying that keg - apart from building the still that is I feel the same way. I've never had near the results with anything else. A good barrel performs magic on your hootch. A while back I bought a used barrel stamped with "jim beam" and when bought, still had 1....

goose eye wrote:if you getin suger for 32cents a lb go back an get some more. itll keep.

I thought it seemed really cheap. Whats the going rate in your neck of the woods?

:D Problem SOLVED!!. I'll admit that I'm not the best student but this time went back to school. I read, read, read. My ingredients haven't changed in 12 months yet the seasons have. Since it was getting chillier at night, I "ASSUMED" that I would need a little heat from my fermenting heat...

I think I'll start all over again with a clean slate. I'm sure i could have cleaned better, plus the break just might do me good. Only bad thing is that this is the drinking time of year for me and my friends. Thanks for all the help. There is still much for me to learn and with all the possibilitie...

I think I'll start all over again with a clean slate. I'm sure i could have cleaned better, plus the break just might do me good. Only bad thing is that this is the drinking time of year for me and my friends. Thanks for all the help. There is still much for me to learn and with all the possibilitie...

measured sg this morning and its at 1.053 As stated previously, I ran this same batch ith the same procedure for @8 months and the only thing that wa changed was the sugar and corn I bought, the yeast I bought, the bags for lining my fermenters(which btw I didn't wash), the molassas I use, and the w...

If your not mashing does it really matter how much starch is in the mix?? In my opening statement: "My procedure is: Put 12.5 lbs of corn in 2 buckets and cover with boiling water and let set for @30 minutes. Rinse the starch out of the corn using @10 gallons of hot water until corn isn't stic...

tater wrote:How clean are you keeping fermenters?

new liner every time

Since I don't have a starting sg, am I going to be able to determine the alc. content? Maybe. If you know the amount of sugar used (in kilograms), the ferment volume (in litres), and that it has fully fermented out (has no sweet taste), then kg sugar ÷ litres of ferment ÷ 0.017 = % abv (Sorry, only...

going back to my original statement about the quality of the corn, the guy at the local homebrew store suspected that. With the drought in some areas and floods in another, there's probably no telling where the corn was harvested from even though I have always bought form Nutrena;( naturewise cleane...