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Brazing and soldering are two very different things and take different fluxes and heat. Copper and stainless heat at different rates and flux is very easy to over heat. I am no expert at either, practice,practice,practice until you are comfortable with it. Good luck, you can do it!

Passiton - thanks so much for this thread. I am new myself and have been collecting parts for a build. I had planned on one very similar to what you have so I gained a few pointers from what you did. I believe you soldered everything, no TIG, is that correct? And if so any problems with the 6"...

Passiton - thanks so much for this thread. I am new myself and have been collecting parts for a build. I had planned on one very similar to what you have so I gained a few pointers from what you did. I believe you soldered everything, no TIG, is that correct? And if so any problems with the 6"...

Just my 2 cents, I’m no expert and someone please correct me if I’m wrong. I just ran this recipe x4 and really liked the results. But to make things easier you don’t have to cook all this at once. By heating the sugar with citric acid and wheat germ you are making inverted sugar with wheat germ. Yo...

SUCCESS!! :lol: :lol: I just completed my very first ever VM run and I’m pleasantly happy. This contraption actually worked and produced 95% from a few strip runs watered down to 40% I couldn’t be happier. And I’ve learned so much. I was surprised at how the leftover liquid in the keg looked after t...

One of those quarts will not make it to the spirt run. Lol the Death wish recipe is really good even on the stripping run. Can’t wait to taste the spirt run.

Sorry for all the added comments but I have a question: when I stripped my 22-24 gallons of wash, I kept in separate jars from my stripping runs about 16oz or 475 ml combined of four shots from the 3 stripping runs. When I do my spirt run, do I need to collect four shots again? Or should I just put ...

I do need to find a better way of keeping water cool. I did have to add 2 of these 3gallon frozen jugs of water like giant ice cubes. I really don’t want to have to be adding cold city water during a run. If I could find an old window ac unit I might try bending the cooling fins down into a cooler o...

I am intrigued by that apparatus on top of your cooling water vessel. What is that? Nice rig by the way. :thumbup: Love that polish on the keg. Thats a lot of work. Thanks Deplorable, it was a lot of work to somewhat polish the keg and copper.They will probably never look so nice as I doubt I’ll be...

I finally had a chance to run the DW wash this weekend, I Split the 22-24 gallons of wash into 3 runs for practice. I stripped down to about 18-20% for better or worst and the start of the collection run was about 65%. Pics are jars from all the runs. Next weekend I’m planning on doing the spirit ru...

Otis, shady lane and yummy rum, thanks for all your help. I have read so many of all your current and old posts. SALUTE & CHEERS to you

I must say, even being a novice I can appreciate the modular design as you can do so many things with it.

Pot still mode. Not sure how many columns to run in this mode? But this was my guess. 1255F6E8-7C97-4EDD-A8E1-E4969B1D671F.jpeg I would put the sight tower immediately after the boiler and use a much shorter column in a pot still configuration. Ok, glass is moved, column lowered, and a new parrot. ...

Thanks guys for the advice, I really do appreciate you. There is a port in the tee for a thermometer. It’s not a blind port. Thanks for advice on pot column length, I have several sizes to pick from so I will shorten it up and move the glass when I do some stripping runs it this weekend. I’m also ma...

Vm mode with table

Vm set up

Pot still mode. Not sure how many columns to run in this mode? But this was my guess.

The death wish has been fermenting for 6.5 days now, the SP is at 1.001 and it’s still active. Plan to let it go a day or two more then rack it, let things settle and run it this next weekend. It was a nice day today so I set the still up for some pics as it will likely never look this good in the f...

shadylane wrote: ↑Sat Feb 20, 2021 9:11 pm My thinking
A pound of boiled wheat germ in 6 gallons not only makes a good yeast nutrient.
There's enough to act as a pH buffer

I definitely believe that, this fermentation is going great so far.

Well I made the DW x4 so 24gal. With starting sp of 1.074, just waiting for temp to cool and pitch yeast. If all goes well it should give me a lot of product to play with this new still.

I typically stop my strip once I’m somewhere below collecting at 10%. I don’t directly measure ABV output. I go by vapor temp, which is around 208F on my rig. Hitting an exact number is not important. There are other methods too. When to stop a spirit run is a bit more nuanced. As a rule, I end my ...

I appreciate the feed back on cleaning. I plan to make a big batch of DW and use some for cleaning and then rest for drinks. I’m a somewhat of a beginner when it comes to pot stills and absolutely a newb to a vm still. Please keep that in mind for my questions. I understand the process of making the...

A bit off topic but at the end of S10E12 of moonshiners, they talk about birdwatchers recipe, S10E13 they'll make a run. I saw that too. Should be interesting to see how they represent it and if they reference the website. I know the show is 100% for entertainment and staged. But I still enjoy it. ...

Death wish it is then. Can anyone comment on dady yeast?

Turbo is a specific strain of yeast that was breed for the Ethanol fuel Industry . Its whole purpose is to survive in a vrt high ABV wash to squeeze the last drop out of as much sugar as possible . As a result , it produces heaps of bad tasting byproducts . Not an issue in a car engine , but horrib...

I had a hard time picking between the the death wish recipe and bird watchers. I think I’ll go with bird watchers for first run just because I won’t have to boil any wheat germ. Question; I’m still a little confused on some yeasts seems most out here like bakers yeast and get that. But I do have som...

4A6AB2BF-6BAD-4D52-A99C-F0F97A53AB3D.jpeg I needed a bigger fermenter, been using 5gal buckets. Just picked this 50 gallon food grade drum up cheap. It was used for olives. Now I need a way to heat it. I read on this site about using aquarium heaters. And I like the idea one guy had about putting t...

Passiton. Regarding the Thermowell or not, I personally don’t think it makes a difference. I prefer no thermowell. If you have a short 3” spool to replace the sight glass with, to create space for your RC, I would do that and move the sight glass just below the tee/above your packing. At least move...

[url][ just found this on YouTube by accident and figured I’d watch it. I loved his small glass column,it’s worth a short peek.

Thanks zed. Well I guess it was a good test day. No leaks although I want to get some fittings for the water lines. The coil knocked down all water vapor at the top with keg at full boil and 5,000w element going full blast for 3 hours. So I guess it’s on to cutting column so I can move the glass and...