Home Distiller

You might also find some PTFE gaskets suck because they are malformed and another one works well.

True that, but with PWM the ammeter just flips up and down not providing an average. I guess what I have is called a "multi function power meter". I was glad to see I'm getting 245 VAC. It seems to show that whenever I power it up which is admittedly a small sample. Better a favorable read...

I can drive the boil by the PWM % as the reference without regard to the amps or watts. The ammeter has other useful features in that it tells me lots more like kWh used. I also use the setup for an HLT control where the ammeter works as expected.

Again, just put the meter on the input side before the controller. It'll show you the draw, without being exposed to the weird waveform. Ez PZ. Sadly if the controller is using pulse width modulation the meter will show the current draw at the time so you see it switch between full on an off. You d...

The fact is, if you're not selling booze and you're not making HUGE quantities, they probably just don't care. I agree. I live in a city with a police department, but I asked a local sheriff in a dry county. They said someone making some homemade beer or liquor for their own consumption was not int...

Thanks Powder Monkey and Twisted Brick. I would expect that alpha would get complete conversion of the starch but leave some complex, unfermentable sugars that the gluco would cut up so the yeast could eat all simple sugars. I was wondering what the gravity would be after the alpha got done and then...

Twisted Brick wrote: ↑Fri Feb 11, 2022 8:03 am That's interesting. I've always relied on gluco to 'finish' conversion so I could get an OG.

Have you measured gravity before and after the GA? I am curious how much it changed.

I read that hydrating yeast in proper temp water was ideal prior to pitching and that hydrating yeast in wash, water with sugar and pitching directly into a wash kills off much yeast. Is this a myth or just overthinking things? While yeast re-hydrate the cell membranes don't control what comes into...

Ultimately, the only WORK done is lifting the etoh vapors at the top up to the condenser. Perhaps I understand you wrong. But what about reflux? For rectification you need reflux. And reflux costs energy. For a result of 96%abv directly from a wash you clearly have to reflux something like 4/5 of t...

I'd use a beer line cleaner for quick brushing.
https://www.morebeer.com/products/beer- ... 12-48.html

Truckinbutch wrote: ↑Sat Jan 29, 2022 10:26 pm I try to focus on what I can resupply from an OPPFORCE . Social breakdown may make that a necessity ,

Hopefully you can take some arms from them before your stash runs out in a pinch too.

It sounds like reasonable cover for someone making liquor at home for their own and family consumption. I hope it spreads to other states until congress agrees too.

Another caveat is Pulse Width Modulation(PWM). It's a technique that involves cycling the power on an off to control power. The system I use one sets the power to some fraction as a percentage and the controller turns the power on and off to represent the fractional power. This controls a boil very ...

I have heard of others using a heating element to sanitize a fermenter. You should be able to make it work with caveats mentioned like not scorching contents and keeping the element submerged.

morefog wrote: ↑Tue Dec 28, 2021 2:57 pm From the pic your system can't run under pressure so I'm wondering if you had success.

Yup, pressure is out with what I have. I have not yet tried the 50% glycol to see if it works.

kimbodious wrote: ↑Thu Dec 23, 2021 3:36 pm Go modular! My stills are 2” stainless steel. I use a copper potscourer or two for copper in the vapour path. Check out the pics from the links in my signature.

Have you ever wished you went with 3" stainless steel?

Asos21 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 21, 2021 2:13 pm What does confuse me is how are companies like still spirits allowed to sell a produce which creates a toxic (dangerous) spirit?

This is why we can't have nice things in the US.

I have curdled commercial bourbon cream by adding more bourbon.

While running water only for a cleaning/testing run I wanted to see how much power the product condenser could handle. It was a half hearted attempt since I didn't have the parts to run the PC off of the tap and rigged a pump pushing tap water from a bucket. The still is a sanke keg 15.5g boiler wit...

Dancing4dan wrote: ↑Mon Dec 20, 2021 4:41 pm And PTFE wins by a mile!

Even stainless has lots of incompatible things, but PTFE was straight A's.

I like to remove organic crap from stainless with a hot (160F) PBW soak. That'll probably work on that waxy compound. I also like Barkeeper's Friend and would scrub it after the soak.

iwine wrote: ↑Mon Dec 20, 2021 11:42 am Is there a way of adding something that keeps it from separating

Keep searching here. I have a recollection of one of the pros answering your question with a process about pH matching before adding the cream.

One of the brewing software packages I use to calculate this uses (0.12 gallons) / pound of grain. This is primarily barley and I don't squeeze the grain. Some others say as high as 0.2 gallons per pound. I suspect that this is the rule of thumb you already know. Since the OG is important for beer m...

Theres more than one account in the element height threads of being able to put a hand comfortably on the bottom of a boiler mid run, very much implies mixing not happening. ( Dont yell at me if you try this at home and burn yourself folks :roll: ) I found this to be exactly the case during my clea...

You can use this chart based on length and amperage image.png 10 awg should be fine. 5500w / 240v = 22.91A / 0.8 margin of safety = 28.64 A. As long as your total run is less than 50' you should have acceptable drop. I agree with you about 10awg being sufficient. I would suggest the wire needs to b...

I think you will have success welding a ferule on top and making colum adapters from caps like you asked about. I did something similar. I had an 8" ferule welded on top and purchased one of these https://www.brewershardware.com/images/product/tccapred80x30x15x15.jpg https://www.brewershardware...

Get a used deep freezer from the used appliance store and keep your grains in it (frozen, of course) until you need it to brew. Freezing will hold moisture in the grains and kill insect larvae (which almost all grain contains, even commercially malted grains). A cheap $100USD freezer will help a lo...

I may not be understanding your yeast process. I would caution against adding DAP before the yeast get re-hydrated. The dry yeast doesn't have as much control over what enters the cell and the DAP can be toxic before they can regulate it's uptake. So I have read. Like Shadylane said. You probably do...

I know some commercial mead makers front load the nutrients when making a hydromel/session mead (~8%abv) and use US-05 to boot. I am sure you could very successfully crate a protocol to use these nutrients but might not need to stagger them.