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Well, I didn't quite get carried away with fruity goodness. More like moved by fruity okness. You never know what contact will (rim shot) bear fruit. Last year I helped install an antenna at a new hams house and I told her I was always looking for fruit. Whaddaya know, I got an email yesterday sayin...

IMALOSERSCUMBAG wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 28, 2021 6:55 am

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Ahahaha! That is me!

baldyben wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:51 am

I too apologize for my sharp reply , Its just that i am quite new to all this and i thought it might have been a good idea . I had heard of carbon filtering the final run and thought why not the low wines as well. Now i know...lol
thanks Dave

No worries!

baldyben wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 26, 2021 3:27 pm

stillanoob wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 26, 2021 1:10 pm

Yes. The carbon sellers will sell more carbon and you will be doing your part to keep the economy rolling along.

Thank you for your constructive advice

I apologize. My intent was to say no, there is no purpose but my oft misguided sense of humor got the best of me again.

Yes. The carbon sellers will sell more carbon and you will be doing your part to keep the economy rolling along.

Apple brandy for sure. You can make cider and apple butter too. Apples are like the swiss army knife of fruit.

The heat will cook off the alcohol for sure. It might be tasty though, who knows?

Yes, you can put some yeast in and let it ferment. Both the laws of man and physics allow it.

As far as how long, as always it is temperature dependent. A couple of days warm would ferment most of the sugars. In the fridge it will be a long time.

I'm curious as to what the goal is here.

So jealous of the plums! The whole county here is having a poor plum year. And my second favorite thing I have ever made was the white plum brandy.

Very cool! Maybe it is running in HRPMs (half revolutions per minute)

He was running it dry with no cooling though, I wonder why?

I think my biggest mistake was I had read on here that lots of guys fire high temp until they start getting some likker then dial the heat back and keep that pencil stream, I always fire slow to medium and this time I fired high, I run full blast until I start feeling warmth at the condenser. I can...

To me this makes the most sense, I know the lines weren’t plugged when I fired up because I had just done my cleaning runs last weekend. I did have the heat turned up more than normal because I was stripping. Thanks for your help The thing is you don't know for sure. All you know is that it wasn't ...

Great first foray! I have been making cider for many years and I believe that the best brandy is made from cider that is so delicious you have a hard time distilling it because you want to swill it as is. I find the best drinking cider is fermented at cooler temperatures over a fairly long period. W...

Around here critters seem to munch on it, even after fermenting on the grain. Excellent for compost too.

Even if you do use one, the Alcometer does everything in its power to turn its back to you when you want to read it anyway. Haha! I thought I was the only one that happened to! I use a 0 to 40% alcometer. So it stays submerged until near the end of my run. I can see at a glance where it is at withi...

To finish my whisky I generally tilt my head back and tip the glass up high...

I agree with Chris, the trick is in the heads cut. I was lucky enough to get to run some apple brandy with a commercial distiller who make an awesome apple brandy. He trained in Cognac and has a 1700's giant copper pot still. To him there is only heads, hearts and tails. In the beginning of the run ...

Hell yeah! Today and tomorrow. Today is my trademark burgers with 25% pork, 75% bison and herbs & garlic. Tomorrow is brisket and pulled pork, gonna have to get things going real early to have those done on time. No need to take a pic, I just use a Weber.

Deplorable wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 02, 2021 7:20 pm

stillanoob wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 30, 2021 6:29 pm

… What is better about a shotgun?

Storage

Ya got me there, no doubt.

With a shotgun you either have to waste water (not an option in my drought stricken area, I am on a well) or use a pump to recirculate. If you have any plants that need water you can direct your used cooling water to them (from any condenser). My Davies condenser (inner and outer water tubes and on...

… What is better about a shotgun? Mobility? Good point. I don't move my still around and so the worm works for me. Another downside of the worm is I need to rinse and then dry it inside so I don't get any blue build up. Overall though I love my worm, it will knock down any amount of vapor and alway...

Worm Tube is iconic for it's looks, but there are many better condensers out there these days, shotgun is a popular one, compact, low water usage, can handle most of what anyone throws at it, if sized correctly. You could probably use the 35 gal as a res with that. Why do you say that? I have a 15 ...

Nice! Since it was quite recently I remember the feeling of those first runs well.

Naw, nothing like 20 years. If you carefully follow the recipes and advice here you will make something decent right off the bat. Truly excellent will shortly follow if you keep reading and learn from your own experience. The first bit up the learning curve is quick. Then you get to the part you can...

My cherry tree isn't quite ready. I picked the first few yesterday. Tasty but not quite sweet yet.

I'm not a master distiller but I'll throw this out there, i put a 5g pot with a lid on it, weighted down with a 10#weight inside and i have ¾ copper fittings keeping it off the bottom of the pot still. This dramatically helped my cuts with 5 gallons of wash in a 20g pot. Hmm, that is an interesting...

I was deciding if I wanted to rerun my sugar wash. I ended up with 7 galls at 30% which was enough to run again. No problem making cuts but did end up with a ridiculous amount of heads. (terrible recipe). You're a better man then I, I despise heads. I'll find a use for them though, might age them a...

I've run 1.5 gallons in my 12 gallon gas fired still, no problem. You didn't have any issues making clean cuts? Reflux or pot? I'm still a new guy, so take it with a grain of salt. It was a pear/apple brandy. I like heads in brandies. Especially after it ages. I hate tails, no matter what type of w...

That was kinda what I guessed. I made some cider a bunch of years ago from fancy organic apple juice, unpasteurized or filtered. It too was lacking. There is something about starting the ferment while it is freshly pressed that contributes a better apple flavor.

I think I went up to 20 PSI or so. Not that it needs to be anything like that much. I left it for 20 mins or so and the gauge hadn't budged and soapy water found no leaks. I pressure tested because I did flare fittings to attach to the keg and there were several soldered fittings as well. I wanted t...