Tell us about your mistakes.

[dixiedrifter]

Fired up my still to do a cleaning run wiht some sodium percarbonate.

After a couple of minutes, the fuse shot.

Ok no problem, replace fuse.

Few minutes later, fuse blows again.

Checked the element, had a 2000W 120V elment in there and was pumping 240V current thru it.

Whoops.

[Husker]

Checked the element, had a 2000W 120V elment in there and was pumping 240V current thru it.
Whoops.

I could be wrong on this, but from 240 -> 120 is 1/4 power, so I bet 120 -> 240 is 4x power. You mean, your breaker can't handle 8Kw? Good thing you had a breaker, you you certainly could have had a wire failure (and fire?) with that much current flowing down the wire.

H.

[Centimeter]

That would indeed equate to 8000W. That would have been one hell of a fast run! In order to prevent stuff like this, I run my elements on a power strip with surge protection. That way, if I over do it, it just trips the power strip and not the circuit breaker. Much easier than running downstairs and figuring out what's what on the panel.

I do label my jugs, but I had a stripping jug overflowing and I rushed into my room and grabbed the first jug I saw. I thought it was a half full stripping jug from the previous strip. Now I only strip into brown jugs and keep all my finished spirits in clear jugs.

[BW Redneck]

Having spirit in different colored containers helps me a lot. I once made the mistake of mixing the low wines of two different kinds of whiskeys together. One was all grain, the other UJSM style. It still tasted all right, but it was disappointing because I couldn't tell people that it was all grain. I now keep one in green bottles, the other in clear.

[punkin]

I once made the mistake of thinking i'd like to try my hand at making grappa.

I still haven't tried making grappa, but now all my thoughts, energy, time and money is devoted to stillin...

I must spend at least two hours a day, just ine the wee hours of the morning, tossing and turning and thinking about stillin problems or new ideas...

I'm like a 15 year old thinking about sex, it just pops into my head all day, i'm talking to my kith and kin about it all the time, planning new ideas, just coming out with my mates in the middle of conversations about fishing, and saying..'Yeah, that's just like when i was mashing some peaches in the shed the other day...' ....







Couldn'tStopIfIWantedTooPunkin

[Rudi]

now all my thoughts, energy, time and money is devoted to stillin...

Wish I had more time ,bastard boss.

I'm like a 15 year old thinking about sex, it just pops into my head all day, i'm talking to my kith and kin about it all the time, planning new ideas, just coming out with my mates in the middle of conversations about fishing, and saying..'Yeah, that's just like when i was mashing some peaches in the shed the other day...' .... ...

The Mrs and my mates just love talking about stillin

Couldn'tStopIfIWantedTooPunkin

I hear ya it certanly grabs ya its like a beast that keeps on growing

[Enlikil]

Pulling off my column in my garage after a 10 gallon rum run.
It smelled so bad like tails IT went up through the entire house through the airconditioner and to this day everyone in my house knows what tails smell like and all hate it. Now i put a cover over the hole before i clean up.

PS: My column has about a 14 inch diameter hole (almost the entire top of a keg) i will have to post pictures.

[ja'makinrum]

i was doing a vodka run with my still, and i wanted to get it done really bad because it was very late
so i cranked up the heat and before lonq my short worm ''no pun intended'' was blowing out steam
and that be came a 3 inche blow torch that melt part of my counter top. thats before i took safty first
and found this site

[trthskr4]

i was doing a vodka run with my still, and i wanted to get it done really bad because it was very late
so i cranked up the heat and before lonq my short worm ''no pun intended'' was blowing out steam
and that be came a 3 inche blow torch that melt part of my counter top. thats before i took safty first
and found this site

That and breaking a glass container of distillate around the still scares the crap out of me.

[Victoryrider]

If you store your equipment outside, make sure to seal it up. Wasps like to make nests in things like your 3/8" condenser and your outtake line.

When using flour paste, more is not better. If you glob it on, it can be to thick to cook completly before you come up to temp.

[Rocketman]

The golden rule about " NO PLASTICS IN STILLS " is one of the commandments and should not be questioned by any one.
After reading all of the different right ways to build a still, I made a plan and dived into it. The boiler, column and condenser were built from 304 and 316 stainless steel. The joints were all TIG welded and purged with argon on the inside to give a smooth hygienic weld, valves were all plated brass with Teflon seats. In fact I thought everything was perfect until I used a piece of non-toxic plastic tubing in the reflux return line. The tubing was 10mm dia and the length in contact with the distillate was only 13mm long. This piece of tube was intended as a sight glass to see what was happening in the reflux department. I thought such a small piece of tube wouldn't matter and besides I'm special and I can break the golden rule. The result was 16 liters of 40% abv that no man could drink.
The condensate returning to the column is at 96% abv and hot vapor was taking a short cut to the condenser over the top of the condensate. The sight glass didn't stay transparent for very long and the plastic went all crispy .
No amount of polishing would remove the foul plastic taste from my booze.

SO : BE WARNED AGAIN - NO PLASTICS IN STILLS

[trthskr4]

Been slaving for almost a month now on all grain bourbon mashes and doing strips and saving low wines for a sho nuff spirit run. In the mean time I did a couple of rum test runs and was gonna do the bourbon first and then a spirit run on the rum for next winter. Loaded up the still this morning with all my low wines and a freshly fermented corn mash and after the fores started tasting for smoothness or harshness and got a hint of rum/molasses...WTF, got to looking around and had accidentally put a gallon of rum strip with my corn strips and tossed it all in together, so I just tainted my all grain bourbon run with a gallon of brown sugar/ molasses. Now I'm out of malt barley and gonna have to do this crap all over again to say I've done an all grain whiskey.

Moral of the story...write on the containers what the hell is in there, every time no exceptions!

[punkin]

Ohhh dearrr...

What a terrible, saddening story

I jus wanna go and get a cuddle of the bourbon girl just from reading it.........................................
Back in a minute.....................

[punkin]

Feel a little better now

Just goes to show the impotrance of note taking and labbelling, like you Thr, i couldn't keep up with this stuff anyother way. My brains just not big enough or organised enough.


Might make an interesting drink, but you still have to go back and do it again...

[trthskr4]

I usually write on the container what is in it, that one slipped by me. Not again.

[evilpsych]

haven't posted in awhile (been happy with what i've made thus far) cause i've been too busy with other sh*t. Probably the biggest mistake i've made was burning a small portion of corn in a batch of my bourbonish, and then continuing to use that batch (well it was a 40gallon batch) in a ferment instead of starting over. The burned smell really came through in the clear (i had to re-run that distillate with some other batches with salt and baking soda to get it nice) but the aged stuff i made from it was freakin awesome. Something of a fluke i'm afraid. The thing i like about this hobby is if you screw up on flavoring a whiskey or liquer, you can just rerun it into a neutral and blend with it. finally got my crankenstein mill mounted, the next big batch I start will be the cheapest batch yet!

The only other big screwup i've had in recent memory, was saving too much of my backset for 'future' use. As i brew in my basement, the whole house reeked of vinegar soon after. Makes a nice weed killer tho.

[ohio posse]

I understand its possible to have your temperatures off depending on where your thermometer is. I have a reflux still without about a 2 ft column and my thermometer is at the top of the column shoved in a rubber plug. I could not get any steady temp or drippage (after heads) until my thermometer said 182 F. Also, it said here on the site you will know when to shut er down when the temp climbs a bunch. Now if this is the case, I only had about 2 -3 minutes of steady temp (182 F). My still will only hold 2.5 gallons. Also, not sure if its just me but it seems like every time i get myself a little horn out of the jar, i get a head ache? I guess thats about it. So if you guys that have made a few passes could lend any help it would be appreciated. Thanks fellas

btw, i think i messed it all up !!!

[Hawke]

First and foremost: get rid of the rubber plug and replace it with a cork. High ABV alcohol will eat the rubber and make everything nasty.

A 2.5 gallon charge of 10 to 12% ABV wash is only going to contain around 1 litre total alcohol. Depending on the efficiancy of your rig, I would guess about 1.75 litre of output. Of that, there will only be about .5 or .6 litre of good hearts.

How are you heating your still? If you are using a hotplate or stovetop, you will never get anywhere. Any electric heat needs to be regulated with a voltage controler and not a thermostat. ( A thermostat cycles on and off, each time it shuts off, your reflux collapses. Therefor, the column can't ever reach equalibrium)

[TexianPatriot]

I got one that could have ended up very bad. I ran up the heat on the cooker to try and get the wash to distilling temp, left the still unattended for a short time, and came back to find alcohol running down the side of the still and onto the burner. luckily most of the stuff coming out of the still was vapor from running at such a high temp, so the vast majority of it didn't make it back to the burner. I quickly turned off the burner, started running water through the column, and things got back under control. I thought I was at a much lower temp because the thermometer hadn't been placed all the way down to where it was reading the temperature of the vapors in the column. It was only about half way into the stopper which is why it was 15*C cooler than the temp in the column.

[BillHoo]

I just learned a painful lesson last night.

I had purchased a reflux still over 8 years ago and just dug it out of the garage this week.

Can't find the original setup instructions, so I figured I'd wing it.

I'd already flushed out the column with hot water the other night and got most of the "greasy welding smell" out of it.

I filled the 5 gallon pot to about 4 gallons and set it on a 1100 Watt electric hotplate (yea I know, it took forever - 4.5 hours to be exact before steam came out of it)

The main water hose I had hooked up to my shower which has to maintain a certain pressure, otherwise it switches back to the bathtub spigot.

So the main water hose goes into the bottom of the condensor.

At the top of the condensor, I have a short hose going from the outflow down to the top of a U-shaped pipe at the base of the reflux column.

I have a longer hose from the bottom reflux outflow going to the bathtub.

That's how I thought it was to be hooked up.

Using clear vinyl hoses held on with hose clamps.

At 4.5 hours, I see the first steam coming out of the condensor, so I turn on the cooling water as low as I can so the shower doesn't shut off. It immediately cools the condesor, but it also cools the lower U-shaped thing in the relux column that no more steam comes out. So I turn it off for a spell an the column heats up again and steam starts coming out again.

But without cooling water going to the condensor, it just steams out!

After waiting a while, I decide to turn the water back on.

Now, the water that was sitting in the U-shaped device has gotten superheated, the sudden introduction of water pressure and the fact that the heat has also softened up the vinyl hose was a recipe for disaster.

At the top of the U-intake, the hose popped out. I'm sitting about two feet from the still, wearing shorts.

Ultra-high temerature water shoots out. Luckily, none got me in the eyes or face.

But a good dollop of it lands on my thigh just above the knee. I feel the sharp whip of pain and look down at my knee. It's not even wet, the water was so hot, it instantly vaporized!

I rub the spot because it hurts and a hunk of skin falls off. My skin had liquified and the area now had a big red area. I dab some cold water on it and put on a piece of dry gauze.

I have a second degree burn, and a patch of skin missing the size of a half dollar. the fact that it hurts indicates the nerves are still intact and when I looked at it this morning, it looks like it didn't hit the fat and muscle layer, otherwise that would be a 3rd degree burn and require a hospital visit.

I'm hoping it won't leave a scar.

I think I'm going to use safety glasses around the still from now on and maybe a welders apron.

I also need a better heat source and to figure out a better hose configuration.

[I-GOR]

BillHoo : Buy a little pond pump from a building supply store - they're not that expensive You don't need fire hydrant water flow for the condenser to work. Fill the bathtub w/ cold water and put the pump in it. Let the water exiting from the condenser go back into the tub. Wen the water starts warming up, drain & refill the tub.

My mistake was using common zinc-coated bolts to attach my column flange to the pot lid. The acids & heat quickly corrode the zinc and the distillate tasted metallic. Replaced with stainless steel bolts - problem solved.

[BillHoo]

Thanks! I was actually considering a similar setup using an aquarium pump and some ice in the tub.

[boingk]

Mistake on my first run: being impatient with heat-up time on an electric stove. [Damn you, latent heat!]

Result: Turning down heat only to find a minute later the worm is making weird clicking noises and all of a sudden wash SCREAMS out of the end and into the collecting jar. Rinse time. The next run heated at half-power and stayed there throughout the run. Turned out well that way...gosh darn it.

Also when brewing beer, my brother came over to help me bottle. He's sitting there while I turn the valve on the fermenter tap, not holding onto its base. Immediately it unscrews and spurts beer everywhere. I screw it back in. Bro says: "Ah, was that suppsoed to happen?" Me: "Er...no." Hahaha...

[violentblue]

on my 6 litre copper potstill, making gin
started with nice clean neutral watered down to 60% and the botanicals in the head, so nothing to scorch.
got greedy and tried to pull as much off, ran it dry and de-soldered the bottom of the pot.
luckily I wasn't running it that hot so it just poped off, nbothing got burn or wrecked.

[lawnman 2]

this didnt happen to me ut a mate of mine he forgot to water things done had a good night on the brew
nxt day felt a it under the weather so he got to thinking ...........
i didnt drink all that much surely checked things out forgot to water it down he was drinking 70 % not 40% as he norm drinks it at
gee i had to laugh at him sucker .

[Uncle Jesse]

OK here are a couple of photos of my partner's leg after he made a serious blunder with hot backset. I'm showing these as a reminder to all - be careful! Safety first. Nothing is worth this amount of pain.

"Best" distillery wound so far.

I'm linking them with the warning that if you're faint of heart or stomach, take a pass on these. One shows the amount of skin he lost and the other shows the very bottom part of a serious blister he got. The gauze is covering most of it.

http://tinyurl.com/5qsdmj" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

http://tinyurl.com/5fc386" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[tracker0945]

Nice blister UJ.
If you are going to get a war wound, at least make it a good one.


Hope your partner soon gets better, a timely warning to us all.


Cheers

[HookLine]

Ouch! That's gotta hurt.

[seravitae]

Adding multivitamin when sleepy into wash for nutrients - and not realising the tablets were hot pink. Distilled my hot pink bourboun was this week. *prances around the room*

lucky the color came out, but a shame it tastes like fruit salad.

[vajravarahi]

Sorry to hear about your partner's injury. I hope he gets well soon. Totally right about safety first.