Home Distiller

Hmmmmm I haven't seen that before but it makes sense, cob. My intent is to go with a 2" column (I don't really need bigger, and TBH I'd be happy with a short alembic style still) and the 4" on top is for filling and cleaning access. I intend to use my keggle to boil water and maybe wort as...

Thanks, Oldvine Zin! I've gotta get myself plugged into the scrap yards I guess, and start watching craigslist more often. And yeah, I'm trying to avoid the whole "penny wise pound foolish" thing, and in a lot of ways it's true: you get what you pay for. I hadn't read that topic yet either...

Thank you so much for your reply Twisted Brick. I've read the build that you just linked and I am in awe of the machining required. It's part of what made me go "well maybe I should just buy an already made shotgun condenser instead of building a simple Liebig." Eventually I want to get 1/...

corene1 haven't even remotely considered it. I'm trying to take baby steps here and bite off only as much as I can chew at a time. Because of the batch size I already use for brewing and poultry processing, a keggle works perfectly. My brother already has dozens of kegs on hand because he makes back...

NZChris that's not a bad idea; I'll have to look into that. Not sure I want to go the bugger route

corene1: thank you for your reply! I really enjoy designing and building, and I just got frustrated with the prices of copper pipe earlier. I'll check into the link you gave and see what I can come up with. We have a full shop here and my brother is an excellent metalworker and has offered to help w...

Currently I'm using a homebuilt pot still, and I'm thinking about upgrading. My current set up is a heavy-duty 10gal SS pot, with a head/column/lyne arm made out of SS mixing bowl, 1/2" column and lyne arm, each about 2' long. My condenser is homebuilt brewing counterflow chiller, the distillat...

Saltbush Bill thank you for your reply and questions! I went through the entire stripping run watching the abv and smelling/tasting for the scorch. Didn't notice it at all, nor anything like the original maple nose or flavor in the wash, just the addition of fermentables. I am probably just not sens...

I'm stripping my first 8gal wash of this recipe. I let it sit after ferment for the yeast to settle, then racked it off. I plan on pouring the hot dunder onto the yeast trub, then adding the molasses for the next wash. To this original ferment I also added almost a gallon of scorched maple syrup. I ...

Thanks Otis, I'm leaning toward just cutting my losses but I want to get what little I can out of it, at least. Even if it's just cleaning supplies lol. The fermenter has been on a crate next to a heater and maintained a steady 75-82F. We had a really cold snap and the floor isn't insulated but the ...

Ok so I started a 25#, ~15gal sugar wash based on the Gerber technique, but I think I didn't sanitize well enough, and didn't pitch enough yeast. It went from 1.070 down to 1.032 and stopped. Smells a bit like vinegar, tastes a bit acidic. I don't have litmus paper or pH meter. I tried adding some b...

I'm still working my way through the thread, but thought I'd pipe in about starting my first batch. I went with the following recipe because it fits a 25# bag of sugar and will fit into 2 stripping runs in my pot still: 15gal water 25# sugar 2T citric acid 2ea, 8oz gerber rice cereal 3T DADY pinch e...

I know there's a lot going on here, but I just made an ingredients purchase run before the big snowstorm. Thought I'd share what fermentables I have on hand and what's going on in my fermentation zone: brew shack 01.JPG Something like 75 pounds of sugar, 50 pounds of finely milled 2-row base malt, 5...

Thanks for the reminder, Oldvine Zin. This is a close friend since childhood, who loves his peaty scotches, and it's just a gift for him. He knows about don't tell, don't sell so I feel fairly safe. Update: like I mentioned before, I have a gallon of low wines from this bourbon batch. It's a little ...

Ok I did a stripping run, started with about 7 gallons of filtered wash, racked off the sediment. Pulled about 5 ounces of foreshots for the metal shop, and then went until it was down to 20% ABV before stopping. Ended up with 1 gallon of low wines at 40%. It's got a slight blue haze but actually sm...

It worked! Let it sit overnight and I now have about a 3gallon brick of leftover corn to feed the hogs. So now I'm off to do a stripping run.

So the ferment is done, and I poured off about half the liquid before I started to run into the grain. I tried straining it through my mash tun but it wasn't going anywhere, so I decided to build a strainer out of some cheap food grade buckets I have lying around: First I drilled a bunch of holes in...

Thanks WithOrWithoutU2, that's what I figured. Otis gave me some suggestions on sources of white oak and I'll be getting some when I have a chance. Meanwhile yup, I got a grip of oregon white oak and it's already mostly seasoned. Just gotta keep working on it. So far great results!

Hahahaha OtisT you speak truth once again. I have a place outside and a full rainsuit, plus I'm used to wearing the juice as I'm usually the one running the press when we do our annual apple juice party.

I'll set up the tripod and get some pics if I can. Probably sometime in the next few days.

Windy City hahahahahha excellent point. We never actually used it around the shop, it was just hanging out there. But now it's not, so I think it's a moot point. I have to bootstrap everything and I'm a poor dirt farmer, so affording something like that is going to take me a while. Winter is the wor...

raketemensch and Windy City: the mop bucket wringer is a great idea!I think we used to have one around the shop but I can't find it, so we probably don't. I'm gonna just have to go with the messier option of twisting and squeezing the polenta in a grain bag! It's still blipping away but it's slowed ...

I guess I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it! I'm hoping that a lot of the grain settles, and I can rack the liquid off, then put the polenta into a grain filter bag or the mash tun. If I don't get every last drop that's ok, maybe the pigs will enjoy getting a little drunk.

Vlagavulvin you speak truth and I appreciate it. Most of time I've been brewing full mash I have been focusing on maximum fermentability because I like light, strong beers. Your advice brings me further along that path toward the best whisk(e)y!

It might be hard to see, but even the grains that look whole and intact are totally crushed inside. I just pulled a handful of the same grist out of the bag, and I can't find a single intact piece larger than 1/3rd the size of a barley grain. This grind has worked for me with beers, getting nearly m...

Yeah I milled the barley at the home brew supply store, I believe their roller mill is on .041 and it gives a pretty good beer grist. I usually get about 75% brewhouse efficiency with this particular malt, milled this coarse. It's got a diastatic power of about 140 so I could have made it as low as ...

Bourbon07.JPG Bourbon08.JPG After a few stirs I let it sit overnight in the cooler wrapped in blankets. When I went to transfer it this morning, it smelled like it's already fermenting. Must be something wild on the barley. Oh well, it'll be unique for sure. Bourbon09.JPG Topped up with cold water ...

Alright, finally got all the fruit out of the way to make room for the bourbon experiment. So I did this yesterday: 11 pounds of cornmeal added to 6 gallons of boiling water, kept on low heat, blended thoroughly. Bourbon01.JPG After about an hour it was pretty stiff. Let it cool down a bit and put i...

You make it sound so easy, Vlagavulvin! Let us know how this one turns out please.

Just for giggles I looked into it, Geoff. Turns out, 100% fact! Tons of recipes out there, especially wild fermented no-knead varieties. Flour, seawater, wild yeast. What a crazy world we live in!

distiller_dresden thank you for the info! I will take your advice to heart and have decided to put some of the salty sweet corn that I need rid of in the stripping boil. I just added the malt to the cooled gelatinized corn (I used meal) and it was like stirring polenta. Hoping in the next half hour ...