Home Distiller

Do you actually need the silicone? I've got two bolts (S/S of course) in my boiler without any kind of gasket. Bolt head on the inside of the kettle, nut & what it's holding on the outside.

Never leaked even a drop, and no plastic to worry about.

What is the pH & hardness of your water? The citric acid should only be added if you have hard water. If you have soft water, add some calcium carbonate instead. The point of both ingredients is to keep the pH at a level where the yeast are happy. Add citric acid to soft water and pH drops throu...

shaggyinoz wrote:although im thinking around the 48" length (4 feet in Aussie speak!!)

We're metric over here -- so it's 1200mm in Aussie speak. (Well, technically 1219.2mm, but what's 3/4" between friends?)

well, the kidney does the RO part, I'm not sure where the DI resins get put though

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purified_water#Deionization Deionized water, also known as demineralized water[2] (DI water, DIW or de-ionized water; can also be spelled deionised water), is water that has had its mineral ions removed, such as cations from sodium, calcium, iron, copper and anions such...

deionized is passed through a pair of resin beads (ionic & anionic) to remove various minerals. nothing to do with electricity at all.

rob.

Oh - the ec1118 is fine too. That's what I use for mine.

I think the only thing baking yeast has for it is price. ec1118 is fairly neutral and very tough. you can get 500g bricks of it too for ~$30

what is the alkalinity/hardness of your water? pH doesn't really mean much without it. in australia we tend to have much softer water than in much of the US. If I put acid in mine part way into the ferment i'd get a pH of about 2 and a nice stalled ferment. Instead of acid I add a table spoon of cal...

It's not just the pH that you need to worry about, there's also the buffering capacity of the water to consider. If you have rock hard water (from a well for example) you'll probably need some acid to remove some of the alkalinity. If you have soft water (e.g. rainwater) you probably need to add a b...

It also depends on the flux - I have some that says to clean up with hot caustic. You'd want to be careful doing that of course though.

Bentonite is clay which as you said is used to clear wine, whereas DAP is a free nitrogen source for the yeasties.

Grain and grape in melbourne sell DAP for 19.95/kg http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/product ... ts_id=8195

HTH,
Rob.

I am not a computer programmer, I think I mentioned that it is rough, but it worked. Yes, that is an arduino board. Although overkill it worked well, just ask LWTCS, he owns it now. I am not here to get into the guts of computer programming, nor do I claim to be an expert programmer (as I stated in...

I understand about complexity of building a circuit, but not about danger or cost. The single most expensive component form that would be the SSR at ~$20. The timer circuit itself should cost less than $10. The PCB I used was just prototype board (i.e. a grid of holes with a pad underneath. connecti...

Waaaay overkill. A simple 555 multivibrator would have been easier & cheaper. A circuit such as: http://www.dprg.org/tutorials/2005-11a/2005-10a-004.gif (from http://www.dprg.org/tutorials/2005-11a/index.html ) Would do the job fine. If you want discrete control rather than continuous, replace t...

I'd just like to add my bit, as one of those with a diminutive post count. For demographics -- I'm almost 30 (8 months left :( ), have a Bachelor's degree and have been stilling for about 3 years. I'm running a crappy CM still purchased for way too much money. In the process of acquiring bits and pi...

ScottishBoy wrote: If you look closely, you will also see that there are a lot of people here from NZ and AUS, where it is legal to distill alcohol for personal use.

It is legal to distill in NZ, but unfortunately, it is not legal in AUS

My boiler looks suspiciously like that. Don't need gloves at all. Take the lid off, leave it for ten minutes and just pick it up from the top. Any bit of metal below the water line will be scalding hot, but above it no problems.

It seems a lot of people have not had a lot of success with distilling home made beer mainly due to the hops, but what about wheat beer? i assume the hops have been replaced with wheat. Has anybody tried this? Cheers In a wheat beer some of the barley has been replaced with wheat. Hops are still th...

For essences - i recommend Samuel Willards gin.

For 1 700mL bottle use 16 2/3 essence (i.e. the recommended dose). Fill with neutral. Then add 6 dried juniper berries and let it sit for a couple of weeks.

I don't have a pot still as yet and this makes a pretty decent gin.

for the essencia chunks I use 125g (i.e. 1/4 of the 500g bag) for 4L of 40% neutral. At 1 month it tastes ok, after 2 months it tastes pretty good. Leaving it longer makes it taste better. I have around 40L bourbon (all from various oak chips) sitting on the shelf. I drink them in rotation so they g...

also if you blend them, if it tastes like crap the most you lose is one glass worth.

it will also give you an idea of ratios and stuff. e.g. it might taste best with 1/2 lemoncello & 1/2 neutral or something.

I agree. but if the mans looking for an essence for gin, essencia would be my pick. Really? I tried that once and it tasted like soap. My pick is Samuel Willards. They're my favourite brand of essences. I've found Essentia to be crap, Edwards to be fairly flavourless and Still Spirits to be wildly ...