New distiller from the great PNW

[Wild Bill]

Howdy all! I come to this hobby with many years of all grain brewing experience and knew someday it would lead to this. I am finding my brewing experience quite helpful but also finding some things just don’t transfer to making higher spirits. I have been lurking and reading all I can and hope to accelerate my learning curve a bit. So far my only hands on is a small run of cheap white wine through a small borrowed pot still. I only ran it one time through and tried to cut out the hearts only. The taste after oaking for a week is decent but the sulphur smell from the wine carried through and is a bit off putting. I have 8 more bottles of this wine and may try treating with hydrogen peroxide this time. I will also probably try a stripping run and then a spirit run throwing in the heads and tails from the last run.
Moving forward my goals are for a nice sippin whiskey around 40%. With my brew rig I plan on making a 13 gal all grain mash comprised of 40/40/20 % malted pale barley/flaked corn/malted rye. I will step mash this grist with my recirc mash beer rig ultimately stopping at 149-150 for an hour. I plan on lautering out 13 gallons ( shooting for 1.090 sg) and possibly boiling the wort for 15-20 minutes so I can run it through a counterflow chiller to get it down to pitching temp. I also will try and lauter grains further to get 5 gallons of wort at a lower sg to make a whiskey rye ipa beer to help with the cost of the grain bill. I am on the fence on what yeast to use for the whiskey I am considering S-04, S-05 and plain bakers yeast.
As far as distilling goes I have a 2” elbow still/leibig cond kit coming that will sit on top a 15.5 gallon keg for a boiler. I am hoping to have it all soldered together and test ran before the ag wash is ready to run. I will run the ag wash through on a stripping run and then maybe do a spirit run on the smaller pot still I borrowed. I also have plans to do the sweetfeed mash to make a more economical product as the all grain route is a bit spendy but hopefully worth it. Looking forward to learning and making some good hooch. Any comments or advice is definitely welcome. Hope this finds you all in fine Spirits!

[Bushman]

Welcome to HD, we have many members from the PNW. You sound like you have a good game plan. Nothing more satisfying than that first successful run, keep us posted.

[fizzix]

Hey, Wild Bill, I'm working in reverse going to brewing.
Distilling doesn't need the sanitizing at all, and you'll see enzymes used more often. You can expect your fermentations to go a little higher in gravity and finish drier, too.
Different yeasts are considered in distilling, but often just bakers yeast is the choice.
Have fun with the new still, and good wishes to you. Welcome!

[OtisT]

Hi Wild Bill. Welcome to HD from your PNW Neighbor.

Otis

[amdamgraham]

Just a quick note, it sounds like you are expecting your still to be ready just in time for your mash to be ready to do a stripping run. You don't mention a sacrificial run first. No matter how much you clean after a build you need to do a sacrificial run to clean it out under distilling conditions.

[Wild Bill]

Just a quick note, it sounds like you are expecting your still to be ready just in time for your mash to be ready to do a stripping run. You don't mention a sacrificial run first. No matter how much you clean after a build you need to do a sacrificial run to clean it out under distilling conditions.

Thanks for the heads up. I am hoping to get my still together and do a vinegar run and then a sacrificial cheap wine run before I do a Wikey run. I have also decided to do a sweet feed recipe and get the hang of my new equipment before moving on to an all grain wash. Here is a pic of my 30 gallon beer rig I put together several years back that will be instrumental in creating my all grain spirit concoctions.

[MM-Brew]

Welcome. There's lots of good people here eillimg to help. Theres a lot of us here from the Greate PNW.

[sltm1]

Another welcome....have fun and stay safe !!

[Oldvine Zin]

And yet another welcome from another from the PNW _ lots of us here

Be safe

OVZ