What'd ya'll make today?

Production methods from starch to sugars.

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Down_Home52
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Down_Home52 »

I am totally jacked up about running my first AG this weekend. I have everything here except the brewing bag and it is coming Friday. 10 pounds of 2 row malted barley and 10 pounds of peated malted barley. Going to grind the grain directly into the bag in a Bayou Classic SS kettle and do the conversion and sparging there before fermenting in carboys. Just finished my boil pot with a 220v element and it brings water to temp quick. Using der woo method. Hope things go well. Interested in what the first whiskey will taste like as far as smokiness. Will buy once used bourbon barrel when I see how much product I will have to age. Waiting will not be easy.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Bvritr »

My first "big batch" 32g of TPW finished the other day so while the wife is at work and the kid is asleep im outside running a stripping run. waiting for the first drops as i type
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fizzix
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by fizzix »

Bvritr wrote:My first "big batch" 32g of TPW finished the other day so while the wife is at work and the kid is asleep im outside running a stripping run. waiting for the first drops as i type
Have fun brother!
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by jonnys_spirit »

I’ve been working on strips of hbb and now have about 11gallons hbb low wines i started the spirit run on this morning. I’ve got about that same amount to ferment and strip. I’m expecting enough on this batch for a barrell so I better order that balcones.

Cheers!
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Bushman
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Bushman »

Doing a rye run hope I can get it done to at least watch the second half of the Super Bowl.
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dieselduo
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by dieselduo »

Running an all grain prayed malt
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by durty_dunderpants »

dieselduo wrote:Running an all grain prayed malt
i been a prayin to my malt today n all :lol:

just finished a coupla strips on a peated mash myself and now running the backset into the tun to mash the other half a sack. figure i can get this knocked out around the superbowl. kegs secured, gonna be a late one over here.. :D
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by hpby98 »

Couple days late, but a 50 gallon batch of TPW is progressing right along - looks like it may ferment out in about 4 days so far


From my last post in the Birdwatchers Thread:

link to calculator / estimator

Looks like it will take ~ 4 days at 30°c to ferment thru, although i estimate it will slow down as it progresses. So I added in more rows for data collection points

imgur link:

Image

https://i.imgur.com/qsUaY1q.png
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by cdd »

I made my first drinkable product. Very happy how my new still performs :D
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acfixer69
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by acfixer69 »

I hope it wasn't the stuff in the picture if it is you are violating rule 8

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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by cdd »

I don't see rule 8 as an issue in this case because this is a mass-produced homebrew shop unit. Literally, every homebrew shop has this still on sale.
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acfixer69
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by acfixer69 »

We don't tell them what to sell so leave it there and don't bring it here.
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raketemensch
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by raketemensch »

Basically, people are concerned about the plastic.

Some of us can be more gruff than others, but it’s all out of concern for your wellbeing.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by DSM Loki »

Literally every Homebrew shop sells starsan, doesn't mean I'm going to open the bottle and take a drink.
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jon1163
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by jon1163 »

DSM Loki wrote:Literally every Homebrew shop sells starsan, doesn't mean I'm going to open the bottle and take a drink.
Lol. Reminds me of a guy in basic training that drank half a gallon of Simple Green cleaner because he wanted out. Another boot ran and told the drill instructor. The meanest man I ever knew came walking back, real slow like, and stood over the kid. He said "simple greens biodegradable you dumbass" and walked away.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by jonnys_spirit »

They’re talking about the product takeoff tube coming off the condenser. It’s plastic and high proof ethanol is a solvent which dissolves that plastic and mixes it in with your product then you drink it and are then ingesting liquefied plastic. Around here there is a big problem with supporting or in any way recommending using plastics in the ethanol path because it’s quite dangerous and extremely unhealthy. No one on this site is going to say “yeah a little plastic in your drink is fine”. That’s all.

Best luck and cheers! (Replace that plastic with eg; copper and also then redo your cleaning protocol). If you already did that then yay!

-j
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Hilltop »

I ran out of malted wheat, so I have been working on that. I've ground to meal 50lbs of cracked corn and 30 pounds of Elbon rye, to this I will add 10 pounds of cracked corn and around ten pounds wheat malt with some enzymes to boot.

I will steep my corn in the fermenter with backset a couple days to sour a tad. My next project is a walk in smokehouse as i find it to be easier than dryers or ovens.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by RedwoodHillBilly »

2 x 50 gal 6:1:1 rye bourbon. 75% corn, 12.5% barley malt, 12.,5% rye malt.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Shinerfortyniner »

Started my second batch of HBB. Added the malted grains and wrapped it up right for bed. Will add yeast in the morning.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by dieselduo »

In the process of making a goose island ipa clone
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Shinerfortyniner »

Stripped a gumball head from my first batch of hbb. Got my second bath of job under an airlock. Need a way to grind the corn.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by jonnys_spirit »

I had an HBB spirit run these past weeks and locked in my cuts - split about 2.5 gallons across three gallon jugs which had used oak already in. I added a couple fingers of med to heavy toast for a nice laying down. I have about that much more of the same to mash and ferment yet and xfer all of it into a dedicated barrel...

Cheers!
-j
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Shinerfortyniner »

Obviously, I need to up my batch size.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Kareltje »

Ran a spirit run of rum. 9 L of 34 %abv in the boiler, empty thumper. Mostly to try running an empty thumper.
Results more or less according to expectations. About 3 L of 80 %ABV. Small head and especially short tails.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by durty_dunderpants »

sent home early for snow so finally got round to that peated malt spirit run. trialling some new gear (mainly including reflux) so it's interesting and unexpected. i think the heads are nicely compressed but hell knows how i'm gonna be able to keep the tails cut sensible.. is it dirt or is it lovely earthy peat.. ???
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by OtisT »

durty_dunderpants wrote:sent home early for snow so finally got round to that peated malt spirit run. trialling some new gear (mainly including reflux) so it's interesting and unexpected. i think the heads are nicely compressed but hell knows how i'm gonna be able to keep the tails cut sensible.. is it dirt or is it lovely earthy peat.. ???
Sweet! Would you mind sharing a bit of info about your compression operation? Mainly I am interested in knowing the type and height of your packing and the approx reflux ratio you are using for heads compression. I'm also somewhat curious how you decide it's time to revert back to pot stilling? I've always wondered if I was doing it right. Maybe right is not the correct word. Am I doing it similar to the way others do it.

Since this is your trial run, of course I'll want to know how it turns out for you too. ;-)

Thanks. Otis
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by durty_dunderpants »

hey otis. yeah it's an interesting new development for me... this specific run was really a breaking in gently, not straying too far immediately! it's based on a comment made by Odin, where he suggested refluxing 15-20min (i did 30 messing around) before opening up full and running as a pot still (so essentially 100% reflux then 0%). it's meant to compress heads while still giving a nice transition into hearts. i only used half a metre of packing (2", marbles) but with the jars airing in front of me the early signs are that the heads/hearts cut will come earlier with just that, so i'll certainly try more when i get the rest of the tower set up.

proof will be in the tasting/blending in a few days!
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by OtisT »

durty_dunderpants wrote:hey otis. yeah it's an interesting new development for me... this specific run was really a breaking in gently, not straying too far immediately! it's based on a comment made by Odin, where he suggested refluxing 15-20min (i did 30 messing around) before opening up full and running as a pot still (so essentially 100% reflux then 0%). it's meant to compress heads while still giving a nice transition into hearts. i only used half a metre of packing (2", marbles) but with the jars airing in front of me the early signs are that the heads/hearts cut will come earlier with just that, so i'll certainly try more when i get the rest of the tower set up.

proof will be in the tasting/blending in a few days!
Well good luck. Since your new to it, I'll share what I do to compress heads on a pot still run for a comparison. Don't know if what I do it right/wrong but it's what I do currently when I compress heads. If you see something in here that don't sound right, or is wasting my time, please let me know.

For packing I use from 5" to 10" (height) of rolled copper mesh in my 2" short column. I pull foreshots slow with lots of reflux for one hour. My power is probably 25% higher than where i typically run it to pot still. I try for 1 drop/sec which nets me around 100-150ml of foreshots. Next I speed things up by opening my VM port to about a 4:1 reflux and I collect 10% of my total expected volume. When I near the end of my heads collection I reduce power to where I want it for pot stilling as I slowly open the VM port to full and turn down/off reflux. When I start collecting late heads into my first collection jar I am in full pot still mode at my desired collection rate.

I thought 10% of total volume for heads compression would be safe because I have never kept anything in a cut below 13% of total volume. I still end up with late heads jars for my cut process, but not a lot. I think I keep a bigger cut when I do this, but that is anecdotal because I have not done a side by side test to verify.

Otis
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by jon1163 »

I modified my Birdwatchers recipe. I am however not sure if while using dextrose monohydrate if I need to add lemons. Do lemons just convert the sugar?

25 gallons water
65 lbs dextrose monohydrate
30 oz tomato paste
4 lemons (juiced)

Starting gravity was 1.09. Pitched 5 packs of CBC - 1 Lallemand yeast at 85 degrees. Put my 30 gallon fish tank heater in it to keep it right at 79 degrees . Used the dextrose because I got it for free as well as the yeast packs.

Bubbling nicely right now. Any thoughts?
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by durty_dunderpants »

nice one otis that's interesting to see, that's my next logical progression though i was thinking a full column would be most efficient. is there a reason you only go 10"? for me it was just all i have so far! are you capping or just running 1:1 reflux?

jon, the lemon juice or acid is added usually just to lower pH into a range more suitable for the yeast (and in winemaking has a few more benefits i don't know if are relevant to a tpw). perhaps you are mixing it up with sugar inversion which is relevant to the topic but a different process/objective?

on topic... snowed off again, so stripping some rum :D
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