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wet mountain shiner
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Hello Everyone

Post by wet mountain shiner »

I am new to distilling but have had a go at brewing beer. I am an aerospace engineer by trade will retire in a few years. Hoping to make distilling a good hobby in my retired life (but want to start now while I have money). I live high in the Mountains of Colorado at an elevation of 9500 ft. I been doing my research and will be asking some pointed questions as to get advice on how to address some of the problems/issue that I foresee given my elevation and hash environment (we just got 30" of wet snow a week ago). I've done a fair amount of reading and watched a number of good you-tube videos so I think I understand the basics....problem is that there no substitute for doing it. Hopefully you guys who do can help me out.

Nice to meet everyone. :mrgreen:
Jstroke
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Re: Hello Everyone

Post by Jstroke »

Welcome aboard,

Lots to learn. Just be careful with YT. Lots of misinformation out there presented as truth by the inexperienced and misinformed.

Have fun and be safe.
If in doubt leave it out.
Wobbegong
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Re: Hello Everyone

Post by Wobbegong »

G'day mate, aero engineer! Gonna be cool to see you build something, what kind of still are you looking at ?
wet mountain shiner
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Re: Hello Everyone

Post by wet mountain shiner »

Wobbegong.... I think building a still will be sometime down the road. For now I have had my eye on what Steven Stilz's make. He has a nice 30 gallon still with a great whisky head perfect for distilling whisky and Scotch. I will have to do some engineering with regards to recycling my condenser water supply for my worm....(no running water in quonset)...So that should be interesting.

https://stillzstore.com/product/25-gallon-traditional/
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Tummydoc
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Re: Hello Everyone

Post by Tummydoc »

You might want to chat with Bluefish_dist or at least search his posts on this site. He ran a commercial distillery at elevation in Colorado, and I think was an engineer originally.

I just looked at that still.....Ouch! My boiler is only 15 gallon, with a 15 gallon thumper, but the 2 kegs cost me $50 each on Craigslist. Silver soldering isn't that difficult. Stainless spools and elbows from aliexpress or copper pieces from a recycling center (I've done both) would be way cheaper. Under $500 total for a pot still with thumper and electric controller if you are handy.
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Saltbush Bill
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Re: Hello Everyone

Post by Saltbush Bill »

Welcome aboard WMS.
As Tummy has pointed out , thats quite a bit of money for what you get.
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Bushman
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Re: Hello Everyone

Post by Bushman »

Welcome, I retired in 2005 and also started the hobby before retiring.
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Twisted Brick
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Re: Hello Everyone

Post by Twisted Brick »

Welcome WMS!

I always wondered what it would be like living high in the mountains in a hash environment, mainly because I've lived in the city my entire life. Maybe you can try distilling using collected mountain water and report your results.

Always practice safety and patience.
“Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite, and furthermore, always carry a small snake.”

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Wobbegong
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Re: Hello Everyone

Post by Wobbegong »

Recycling your water shouldn't be difficult , some sort of container with a circ/sump pump, bit of a strainer in case you got any nasty solids that could potentially get stuck in the condenser :sick: ..

Atleast that's what I'm planning which should be fine for most of the year where I am.
wet mountain shiner
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Re: Hello Everyone

Post by wet mountain shiner »

Wobbegong wrote: Sat May 28, 2022 7:19 pm Recycling your water shouldn't be difficult , some sort of container with a circ/sump pump, bit of a strainer in case you got any nasty solids that could potentially get stuck in the condenser :sick: ..
Yea, my main water supply is a well; plan on getting it analyzed. Definitely got some iron in it, it clear and doesn't have any oder. Something to work with for sure. I've set up a filtering system: 100 uM -> 25 uM ->5 uM ->Iron/Mag filter -> carbon. What ever I get out of that I'll get it tested but I think it should be fairly clean that I'll use in my mash. Outside of the Mag/Iron filter the filters are relatively cheap ( > $20.00).

Recycling of water will be used specifically for the worm. I've got a cheap Harbor Freight 1 hp shallow well pump combined with a tractor radiator should do the trick as we have very little humiditiy. I'm hoping the radiator with 250 gallons of recycling water should keep the worm cool enough for 3 or 4 hour runs. I'll post my plans for comments when I get ready to build this.

I'll just have to transport water from cabin down to quonset. Another tote will work.
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