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Based on the instructions from Angel Yeast I do 8kg to 23 litres of water which works out (If my conversion-fu is working) as 2.9lbs per gallon. I follow basically the same method as Dancing4dan although I don't even temperature control the start and I systematically let my ferments clear for a mont...

Have you tried substituting with Blackberries? If so how do they compare? I pick many kilos of these every year for hedgerow reds, and I sometimes have to buy some black currant to make up my ratios, so if I can get a decent result using Blackberries I'm onto a winner. I started with blackberries b...

Depending on how you heat there can be a scaling problem with gins. You need to make a decent batch of neutral so want a boiler of 30-50 litres charged with low wines. But when you're playing with batches of gin, 1 litre charges or smaller are the best strategy as they don't commit you to large quan...

I've tried both. In my experience you lose about 30% abv to the water in the berries so if you start with 95% you end up with about 65%. Starting with 60% you get about 30% by which point you're just adding sugar and no water to proof down. The flavour seems a little more bitter at the lower abv alt...

I thought you might say that NS. The difference in efficiency when you make the jacket as tight as possible, is a big deal. If you changed your vape tube for 22mm you'd see a huge jump in knockdown power. If you have the copper I wouldn't hesitate. You will be wasting so much less water. I know. Bu...

OK. First of all it's more of a double threat and a bit more, but that looked rubbish in the title line. Act One - Crème de Cassis Ingredients: - Cassis (blackcurrant) berries. - 95% Neutral (or thereabouts) Rinse the berries and remove any stalks or leaves. Put them in a large jar and pour over the...

I'm going to go against the floor and say that you should make your liebig longer. Mine is about the same diameter (14mm ID) and has about 900mm cooled (maybe a little more depending on the flow rate and eddy currents in the tees!). I max out at about 3kW. I can push 3.5kW but the distillate starts...

I'm going to go against the floor and say that you should make your liebig longer. Mine is about the same diameter (14mm ID) and has about 900mm cooled (maybe a little more depending on the flow rate and eddy currents in the tees!). I max out at about 3kW. I can push 3.5kW but the distillate starts ...

I worked on getting my continuous stilll to run on ethanol but couldn't figure out the burner. It doesn't need external cooling other than the beer going in. I run my 500ml glass lab still (gin experiments mostly) on the provided ethanol burner filled with fores / heads from my reflux runs. Power r...

I'm aware that there's a delete button. But I'm an argumentative bugger and on those occasions that I should have used it, by the time I've become aware that I should have used it, the damage is done.

With regard to the steam wand you talked about in the last video, I would start with one or two holes, and then add them as necessary. My first attempt at such a device had too many and so there wasn't enough pressure behind the steam to force it into the gloop that I was steaming. Coupled with the ...

Soaking oats may well lead to them leaving some starch in solution. Especially if they're rolled oats.

I find the safety net as presented to be a little badly designed. In the worst case you get zero conversion and the sugar provides all the alcohol (possibly less than you would have got from the grains) and you've made UJSSM (without the generational souring). Best case you get really good conversio...

Just briefly back to glass aging: a coffee filter does a great job as a gasket in clip-top jars (y’know, wire and glass tops). In a 5L jar over two years I lost exactly 10% of the alcohol to the angels. Acceptable loss and very clear product change - for the better. Over and out. Thanks for that. I...

I've been having a think about power control and the possibility of spitting a single heating element into two unequal parts for more control options. It's definitely overkill, and could be plain wrong, but it has some potential advantages: 1) 2 independantly switchable 'elements' that are still un...

Bonjour et bienvenue.

You should be well placed to explain the difference between rhum agricole and rum from molasses.

Yeah I would imagine that in the sort of apocalyptic, long term power outage being discussed there would be a shift towards seasonal production of brandy. Scaling up grain production with traditional methods would take a while... a lot of people would need to relearn how to use horses and a lot of d...

The gelling thing is a heat vs time thing... at least to some degree. At room temp, you'll possibly die of old age before your corn finishes gelling, but you can get a lot done by allowing it to cool slowly, over a long time. A good solid boil at the start will help kill most of the things that migh...

Some thoughts from a non-expert. If you're adding the HT enzymes as the temperature drops, then you're not staying in the sweet spot for those enzymes for very long. You've got a nice 1h20 for corn starch gelling, but then you only give the enzyme about 5 minutes to do it's thing. Put the enzymes in...

Yep. Android mobile.

Edit: Interestingly, even on mobile if i force chrome to load it as a desktop site it works! Web development is just as shitty and random as it was when I was playing with it in the late 90s. (Try getting Netscape and MS explorer to display the same page identically!).

My BOP is 18L to the brim so I tend to brew 13L batches. That puts about 15L max into the pot for boiling. My mash tun is a keg with the top cut out and for the minute I just do single temperature rests at a target of 67C. I mash with a BIAB setup and depending on the energy I have for tinkering I e...

I get NaN. Which is Not a Number. Meaning there's a divide by zero error somewhere or worse. I like the idea. I know I couldn't afford the upfront costs of that but I could well imagine that there are folks out there with the cash to play. The question would be whether they'll prefer to get in at th...

Yeah. My ferments tend to run closer to 2 months!

According to the manufacturers, fairly. They recommend that the temp be held at 32C (IIRC). That being said, I've had great success with starting it out at 32C and letting it drop naturally to around 20C (takes about 2-3 days in our house which generally sits at 20C +/- 1C). I let the ferments run t...

I've started a whisky project making sugarheads on my spent beer grains. I add the same volume of liquid as I lautered, with enough sugar to get the same SG. Then I chuck in some baker's yeast and let it run. Steam stripped on the grain when it's done. Got low wines from two batches of stout sat in ...

Hello / bonjour.

Intriguing title. Are you going to be distilling on a ship because I can see that adding it's own set of challenges? Welcome to the club. I'd be very interested in what fruit brandies you've been making.

Also just a side note, but having been looking at the silicone tips in the hope of replicating the great successes here, the only ones I can find that are rated high-temp and fit the description are not listed anywhere as food-grade. Which is normal seeing as powder coating is not generally a food s...

I guess this would technically fit here… I was recently daydreaming about what it would take to make an off grid electric still. I came up with roughly $1,000 of more for the parts. Lithium batteries with enough capacity to do a single run, with reserve. For me, that means roughly 18kWhrs, or 1,500...

Spirit run on a batch or HBB made with YLAY. Very interesting to compare the white with the little bit of white left over from 2 years ago when I last made it. My cuts are definitely better.

Anyway, I have always thought that the traveling distillers of France would make for an interesting end of the world profession. A lot of them run column stills so they can do one-and-done runs. I can't speak for the quality of the spirits they produce, but it'll come down to individual experience ...