Sure am glad I found this place!

[kook04]

I have experience brewing, but have been thinking about building a still for quite some time. There's plenty of information scattered around the internet on doing so. Simply following a guide on some random site is clearly an inferior path to take now that I've discovered Home Distiller! It looks like I'm in for some good old fashioned reading and research to plan my course of action in this endeavour. Thank you all for your knowledge and passion, it will certainly help me along the way.

I'm looking forward to the process!

Kook04

[Bushman]

Welcome Kook4, lots of other brewers have crossed over to the darkside. Building your own takes minimal to a lot of skill depending on the design. Once you decide what you like to drink and the still that will produce it then if you have questions give us a shout!

[heartcut]

Welcome. Happy stilling.

[kook04]

Well, thought I'd add a little to my first post here as I'm getting closer to having my still ready to go. My favorite beverage...bourbon. I tend to buy Evan Williams cuz it's a good deal. I may just go ahead and start with some UJSSM once my still is ready.

Speaking of which, I got the last of my copper today. I've cut all my pipe and have dry fit everything just to see how it might look. Next is the soldering. I have a keg on the way, but that'll probably be another week til I have it. I'm going to do an easy flange at the base of my 2" still head, I'm a little intimidated by that task. Don't want to mess anything up. I've done a few test solders on scraps, and I think I'm getting the hang of it, definitely water tight, although I think I need to be more careful not to overheat the copper before I apply the solder.

I'm psyched, though. Looking forward to having a working still!

[Richard7]

Just be sure to do your cleaning run and toss that alcohol out or use it for charcoal starter or something other than drinking! Water and vinegar first run. Do you have a ferment started yet? If you don't you can run a cheap box of wine or two depending on the size of your still for your alcohol cleaning run.

Welcome to HD! keep it safe...

[2495robert]

WElcome to HD

[Oxbo Rene]

It's pretty basic, let the yeast ferment the wash/mash, then run it,
pulling off the vapors (alcohol vapors = lighter than water vapors= they come off first)...........
But, foreshot/heads vapors = lighter than "desired" alcohol (hearts) vapors = keep reading ..........

[kook04]

No ferment started, yet. I plan on taking it pretty slow, don't want to start fermenting until I have all my hardware together, and I'm still waiting on a keg. So, cleaning a new still involves soaking/scrubbing, a vingear/water run, and then a throw away alcohol run? Want to make sure I get the order of events right. I got this from http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 6#p6835986.

So, I'm going to scrub and soak in a 50/50 vinegar water solution, and then run 5 or so gallons of that solution through the still. Next is the ethanol cleaning run. I could use boxed wine, but I'll do a cost analysis and probably end up doing a cheap sugar wash to save for future cleaning runs.

[Richard7]

No ferment started, yet. I plan on taking it pretty slow, don't want to start fermenting until I have all my hardware together, and I'm still waiting on a keg. So, cleaning a new still involves soaking/scrubbing, a vingear/water run, and then a throw away alcohol run? Want to make sure I get the order of events right. I got this from http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 6#p6835986.

So, I'm going to scrub and soak in a 50/50 vinegar water solution, and then run 5 or so gallons of that solution through the still. Next is the ethanol cleaning run. I could use boxed wine, but I'll do a cost analysis and probably end up doing a cheap sugar wash to save for future cleaning runs.

Sounds like you got it!