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When shutting down at the tail end of the run i’d thing they will soak up whatever’s left in the column. Next run up to temp with full reflux will wash all that back down into the boiler until it comes back up again. I see your point. Why even use something porous - what benefit? If it self cleans w...

I’m pretty sure that as it comes up to temp and equilibrium that the higher volatiles evaporate.

Cheers,
-jonny

cg81, Try this. Make a 1 or 2 gallon stove top mash using 2# of the grain to a gallon of water. It will be easier to monitor the progress of the conversion while you control the temperature. Ensure you have full conversion with iodine test. Crash the temp, and check you gravity. You should be 1.060...

Threw a couple gerbils into the treadmill to keep the wheel spinning. Happy holidays to the four corners!

Cheers,
Jonny

Good luck Sampvt! I’d recommend not using the parrot. I’ve got two and don’t use either. I bought one and it was a waste of $$ but i did learn that I don’t need it or want it either so not a complete waste because i learned and moved on. I wanted it to be useful so i then made another and well it’s ...

recommend running it at 40 and not watering it down. Your hearts cut will probably end up higher ABV and you'll need to cut it with water anyway for drinking strength so 6/ 0.5doz...

Or dilute it / top up boiler with UJ wash instead of water if you have some - even better...

Cheers!
-Jonny

Looks nice!

Do you have any additional info on it like vendor, part #, pricing, delivery times, these kind of things.

Thanks for the info!

Cheers,
Jonny

I want one too but haven't spent the $$ because the product is already quite good without it for one thing. I think it'd be worthwhile for the looks and feel of having the helmet and riser. My copper riser is already about that tall which is straight pipe. I try to estimate some ranges of how much b...

Nice toaster! Can it do coffee beans as well?

Cheers,
jonny

Very interesting double liebig! Keeps it short and sweet..

What kind of seal do you use for your boiler lid?

Cheers,
jonny

I'd think that early heads and fores would clean out anything in the path and certainly early heads would.

Do you have copper in the path or SS?

Does time or oak or anything seem to clear out or diminish/change the smell in product?

Cheers!
-jonny

I strip with my boiler fuller than 3/4. Probably too full. Heat up at full power (5k5W) and as it comes up to temp dial it way way back till i get only very slow drops out. This is really very low power. Close to or under 1/4 on the knob. Take 150-200 ml fores almost as slow as i can. Might take 45m...

That’s how clearing works. It takes time for all the suspended sediment to settle. Degassing, racking off trub, and finings would make it go faster but it only needs to be so clear depending on your approach. If you were making beer you might want it to fully clear. I’ve done it both ways and for me...

For large batch I'm considering using a large blue HDPE barrel wrapped in reflectix as the mash tun and recirculating sparge wort through my boiler with a high temp mash pump or two for moving hot wort between the two vessels. Manual temp control for step mashing would be easy enough with a power co...

Welcome to the rabbit hole and hope to see you in an adjoining tunnel as we search for the exit lol.

Cheers,
jonny

Thanks for this thread and I've got a 10g round igloo cooler mash tun setup that I've use for malts off-grain but it's been a minute. I'd like to figure out how to go bigger-on-a-budget for a full spirit runs worth of AG lautered and maybe step-mashed even. Say about 40-50 gallons or so to run three...

Welcome to the rabbit hole and good luck! Let us know what you;re looking at getting.

Cheers,
jonny

If the tubing is absorbing or holding onto tails and releasing it into other parts of the run what other plastics are leaching into the high abv solvents and into the drinking likker? Best advice is to to ditch the suspect dangerous plastics and go with copper which is beneficial.

Cheers,
-jonny

For whiskies I typically run my strips out as close to 0%ABV as I can and usually even a bit further off the PC. That way I don't need to add any water to dilute the low wines and the spirit run hearts cut from those low-wines pretty much always ends up in the 125-130pf range so I also don't need to...

I also used one of those dryer hookup cables and wire-nutted it inside a nema box clamped into the knockout holes to connect up my controller tail. It was way cheaper than a connector i could source. Just can’t run the dryer while stillin.

Cheers!
-jonny

That does sound like it would be good white and aged. I like the step mash too but am only set up for starting with boiling water for corn and adding grains as the temp drops. What kind of setup do you have for mashing your batches like this? Large batch for a 15g sized boiler would be a significant...

Welcome to HD and look forward to your distilling experiences! Please post some pics of your still and setup in another thread when you get a sec. It's recommended to do the vinegar cleaning run and sacrificial alcohol run before running any keeper product and purchase a fermenter at least 3x the si...

It's not wasted - The ethanol gods will be extra happy and shine good spirits down on you in the future. Some might say they prefer a nice AG over a sugar wash? I know I do!

Cheers,
jonny

A little bit of explanation: Corn mashes can also produce a thick oily substance that some folks say looks like drops of mercury or a metallic kind of substance - Depends on the corn. Lot's of stillers put a cotton ball in the funnel to catch that and prevent it from getting into the low wines but I...

I did an an apple grain mash and also added honey. Heated apple cider/juice to mash temp and mashed the barley with it then topped up with honey & water to get SG to about 1.070. Apple cider by itself was 1.050 so mashing the barley with it made it a bit higher that I wanted so I used water/honey bl...

Is this the first alcohol run? If so that's a sacrificial run and you should chuck it. That's why it's called a sacrificial run.

Cheers,
jonny

To get a good reading of grape or fruit chemistry (including SG) I'll take a 1 cup sample of the must and run it through a mixer to best integrate all the liquids then strain out and/or squeeze any solids with a series of sieves and cheese cloth then warm up to room temp (microwave), degas by shakin...

Welcome to HD! I swear i licked for ten yrs before i joined up.

*lurked lol

Cheers,
Jonny

It might be smearing? Can you post some photos of your setup? How are you running it and doing your cuts?

Cheers,
Jonny

Did you add it to the low wines or the must/wash? Did you follow a strip/spirit protocol? Low wines can be pretty nasty but they clean up real nice in the spirit run.

Cheers,
Jonny