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Hey Salty-

Not to hijack too much, stripping as above adds half an hour (2.5 hours total). The strips from gumbalhead/cereal sugar head will be combined with feints and a 10 gallon batch of all grain for a cheaters whiskey.


End derail, carry on. Will enjoy seeing this project continue to develop.

I still think the boka is the most versatile-you can get by with just the reflux condenser. My current project is using the ccvm to strip sugar heads. With a plate and 12" of packing product is coming out pretty high proof (getting 1 gallon low wines out of a ten gallon batch). Takes 3 hours in...

The best knife is the one you have when you need to use it...

An under-appreciated application for a large plate is under a column.

I use a keg outside on a propane burner. A 10 gallon stripping run takes 2.5 hours...

Collected thousands of apricots, had a lovely wild ferment, was getting amazing smells from my first strip, scorched at the very end and missed it... :cry: Remembered that I was going to build a steam rig for this very purpose. Not an awful scorch, will restrip with the other 5 gallons and then spir...

Keep in mind when sizing a boiler for gin making that you can add up to 4 times the botanicals, and then dilute with neutral. Allows for a bigger batch in a smaller boiler...My gin still is just about a gallon.

Depending on the type of packing, about 9 centimeters per floor (plate)....

I prefer lava rocks as a packing.

Heh. That's the thread- here's the specific quote I was thinking of. "Flames then turned to minimum, here comes the fun part: the fresh ripe apricot skin and the almond seed sensation (sopranos) comes with the head, so it is collected in different numbered glasses. The body (tenor+baritones) is...

You might review the palinka thread, or read through some of Odin's posts about conceptualizing the different layers of flavor. Some good ways of thinking about flavor. Floral/fruity being high notes and root, nutty and grainy notes being low. Another analogy: when I make a tomato basil sauce I like...

Crenellations may provide a "nucleation" point?

Here's the best overview of why a plate below a column can be so effective.

In this instance, Larry suggests that a deeper liquid bed (ie shifting all the alcohol into the apparatus) is more ideal?

Hmmmmmmmm. (Food for thought)

I also had trouble tracking down a solid breakdown of the wheres and whys of caps. Thus I remain ignorant still. At the moment I conceptualize the balance as being less about vapor speed, than vapor to condensate contact area. A bunch of small caps provides more contact area for the phase change int...

Here's some relevant discussions. Pfshine advocates for a larger single cap for what it's worth.

Fabricating caps is a fair bit of work.



(1/2 downcomer didn't work for another plate project I built)

Had a little birthday sample at year two, was surprised at how many coffee notes were present. Definitely going to get another year...

The power of this tree compels me.

Right now I mostly run the ccvm for stripping, so I just leave the RC in a fully open position. The RR is probably between 1:1 and 2:1 based on where the reducer is in the vapor path. With the setup pictured (plate plus 12ish" inches scrubbies (yuck)) it produced 85% from a wash plus .5 gallons...

Hey, hi!

This one has been with me for a while. Chemically peach watermelons. Pretty much all comes out in the heads. I view it as a hedge against acetobacter.

Finally got this thing cleaned and had a chance to run it.
Worked fine? Distillate was cold the whole time and didn't use very much water, even run in series.

It was a "stripping" run but through the ccvm so not a full test...

Shiso would fit the theme, but have no idea about how it fits flavor wise.

Lava rocks is an effective packing that's less expensive than spp.

More height will give a faster takeoff at your desired purity....

I have a 46" x 3" column that gives pretty good results, but I also run a big plate under it.

This thread, jonnys_spirit blue agave thread , and 8 ball's Gringo slide have all been really useful! I'm just not as sophisticated in my fermentations, but thought I'd mention I put down a fermentation using leafy greens as nutrients and some oyster shells. It's been about a week and continues to f...

Jeebus I could have used an editor last night. Ancedata: low wines stored for around 7 months, spirit run produced a very smooth result. (I could easily drink the jug after only a week) Heads section seemed most effected, with negative attributes seemingly diminished. Hypothesis: low wine aging can ...

I don't keep good notes, but I'm pretty sure it took me 7 months to finally run (pot still) some wheated bourbon low wines. Recipe was Jimbo's to which I added 2 lbs of rye flour. Ran pretty slow and ended up pulling the plug a bit early, before cloudy tails. Selected the first hearts cut, and then ...

Can throw some copper pieces into stainless boiler-like some cut up copper pipe ifn you want some more copper contact.

Now I'm no expert, but I think you need some oyster shells up in that server to keep the ph from crashing the system.

I used a two inch riser reduced to 3/4 based on Samohon's design and then a 3/4 over 1/2" liebig. All things flavored, and stripping with a pot still. Many will recommend a ccvm, but a boka can be a really great tool (you can get away with just a reflux condenser) too. Ccvm is pretty easy to pi...