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Thanks guys went with about 4 feet

Hey Folks I'm redesigning my still from having a Liebeg Condenser to a thumper and was wondering what is a safe distance to have your condenser from the Turkey fryer flame? Thanks in advance,
Raildog

LWTCS I would reccomend that you try the Old Forresters Signature....its a total different animal they the regular Old Forresters. As for as the Blantons goes, while its nice, I just don't think its nice enough to justify the price. OFS can be hard to find but most decent liquior stores will order i...

Acrolein, I generally drink Buffalo Trace, but have been searching for something different. Yesterday I bought some Blantons, a Weller Antique 107 and an Old Forresters Signiture, all 3 are very nice but my favorite was the Old Forresters, nice spicey fruity nose and very little heads burn.....just ...

Well guys I did the feints run on this batch 2 days ago and did the cuts this morning, talk about an eye opener....in more ways then one. The smell was of heads well into the low 70's, was finally able to find a couple jars well into the tails that was acceptable from about 63% down to about 50%. I ...

Thanks Dnderhead, I wasn't aware they made a dried wheat extract. Any thoughts on what a good malt to wheat ratio would be?

Hey folks I am kinda thinking of doing a dried malt extract wash for making a malt whiskey. Have any of you ever done this? How did it turn out? Any comments or suggestions? I'd like to get some wheat flavor in there too if possible. Could I just add some cracked wheat to the fermenting DME? I'd lik...

I bought a bottle of Four Roses Single Barrel last night. Nice aromas us front but sadly heads in the finish. I guess its luck of the draw where in the run the barrel where your 750 ml came from. I've had it before and it was fantastic, not so much this time.

Amen Usage, I gave a friend what I thought was some pretty good Hearts last year, he put it in his liquor cabinet and left it alone, I was at this fellows house the other day and he offered me some, damn it was bad. Its hard to get my head around how something could be good to drink after a few week...

Thanks for the invalueable advice guys, I sampled the stuff I put in the barrel last week and is already tasting better then when I made the cuts, I was afraid I was too greedy with my head cuts at 80%, it turns out I think I was pretty close. Again thanks

Yeah thats what I got out of this gentlemans advice, just take a small amount from each seperate jar, delute it down to 30-40 percent cover it with maybe a coffee filter and come back the next day and decide your cuts then.

Thanks RD, you and Pint and Uncle Jess have taught me a bunch, and saved me a lifetime of trial and error. Again Thanks.

I talked to a guy this weekend that operates a micro distillery about making better, more accurate cuts. His advice, for someone like me, was to delute it down to 30-40 percent before letting them set overnight before making cuts the next day....this seems to me to be a important detail I may have m...

thanks for the advice Dunder and Glock. I'm heading out to make cuts on what we ran a couple days ago and run my last of this batch. I'll report back to you both on the results.

I don't really know what to make of this small barrel question. My way of thinking dictates that smaller barrels should have a much lighter char. I recently bought myself a 5 gallon Gibbs but now am reluctant to put my white dog in it as I don't want to ruin 5 gallons of white liquor by over oaking ...

I hesitate to ask this but have read several posts and yet to get an answer. I use cracked corn and barley to do my wash, kinda like making beer but end up with a 7% wash. But lots more time involved .My question is how the big boys do a wash using fine meal like grits or corn meal. Does it settle t...

Hutch,
I was planning on putting the pulp, after the ferment is complete into pillow cases and squeezing it out with an apple press. We have tons of pears around here this year.
How did you handle the product after distilling? Any oak ect.?

Gentlemen, Yesterday I ground 4- five gallon buckets of pears, s.g. reading of 1.055 added sugar to bring it up to 1.070, added potassium bisulfite to kill the wild yeast. This morning I made a starter with my Lalvin EC-1118 yeast and pitched it into the must. I'll let furment to dryness. What I don...

thanks, i'll do that

Well guys I went back to using propane, I hate getting all that soot on that pretty copper buy what the heck. I will just have to find a more descreet place to practice this craft. I had been running 2-15 gal batches of UJSM but thats producing too much so I cut it back to 1-15 gal at a time. Did I ...

sorry i wasn't clear, 10 gal. charge, 15 gal capacity. Thanks

Mentors, I am building an all copper round pot still 15 inches wide by 18 inches tall. I normally distill outdoors but that is not an option at this point so I am thinking of using a 1500 watt hot plate to provide the heat for this still. My question is if the hot plate will provide enough heat or s...

Wow, that was a quick responce, thanks guys.
I think I'll slow the still down just a bit. I do the freezer thing on charred white oak chunks, then run it thru coffee filters.........this is some good stuff, and no hang overs.
Thanks for all the help you guys provide....
Raildog

I googled Fusil Oils, nasty stuff.........how do you handle it? Or get rid of it? I wonder if its from running my still too fast? When I saw it floating on my 40% product, I poured it into my feints jug.

is that normal, nothing to worry about? BTW Thank You...

I have a question that I can't seem to find an answer for. Then my distillate gets down to around 40% i notice a small ammount of cloudly film floating on top of the product. Any ideas what this could be? The wash as UJSM but I have also seen it in my cooked mashes as well. The stuff is small, maybe...

any pics of the steam wand connections to the pressure cooker?
Thanks

Plans or pics please..........I know this is the direction I need to go, Thanks

I guess I missed the plans for the steam wand............saw the keg mods for the mash tun, really nice work.

I have a pump from March Mnf.Co. , it works great to move hot water and wort around...........I've did probably 25 ten gallon batches of beer with it. I think I paid 130.00 for it.