My first still etc...

[PsYc0TiC]

Hello all,

I have successfully built my still (pic attached). It is a 20 gallon stainless pot with a 5 gallon stainless pot for the thumper. I did my pressure test without anything significant needing attention. I did my cleaning run. Success!

Okay... I made my first batch... I used sweet feed and distillers yeast fermented it and when it was done it smelled like pure D vomit soaked in a bar dumpster! Cooked it up and threw away the first cup (I know I only needed to throw away the first 4 ounces). I then collected about 3/4 of a quart and did the shake test for proof and it looked promising. It tested at 150. I then ran off about a gallon and a half and tossed it. I then collected a test tube and it tested at 140. I then shut it down since aparently you don't keep the first on a new still run no matter what. What was left in the pot now smelled nice and sweet like molasses and not the afore mentioned vomit. By the way I sipped the early collection and the latter and they both tasted and smelled like high proof tequila.

Now here is where I might have messed up and I need advice. I keep reading how you can run this stuff up to eight times but I didn't see any real clear details so I took what was in the pot and mixed it back into the 5 gallon buckets with the previous sweet feed I fermented, added more sugar and yeast (the same way the instructions said to in the beginning) and started it to fermenting again.

Should I have not put it back in the feed buckets and fermented again? Should I have just heated it back up in the pot and added sugar and run it again? I am unsure what to do here and I hope I haven't ruined that fine mash I had.

Please advise and thank you in advance for your help.

[PsYc0TiC]

65 views and no advice on whether or not I have screwed up?

[midcarolina]

Did the sweet feed have pellets in it or is it all grain? If all grain with no pellets I suspect it got an infection........
If it had pellets thats the reason for the smell and looking like something from fido's ass.......dont use pellets

everything else sounds ok to me.........

[jholmz]

if that was your sacraficial run then the backset should have been tossed too as even in a pot still you will get a little natural reflux which falls back into the pot and could contaminate the product in your boiler. this is why we use a cheap boxed wine or a sugar wash for sacrificial run not loosing much. as for your feed you could have started it over using fresh water but now that you added backset in i would say it all needs to get tossed. someone else with better knowledge than i have may override this but thats the way i read what you were saying

[PsYc0TiC]

Thank you for the responses. The question was actually about the refermenting. Steps and you answered indirectly. I understand about the throwing out the entire first batch and starting fresh.
Thank you again

[Durace11]

The recipe calls for the backset(stuff left over in the boiler after your run the still) to be used hot to melt the sugar, then the sugar and small amount of backset is put back into the fermentor(after cooling down) to start fermenting again on the yeast bed left over from the previous ferment you completed before you charged(loaded) your still. It must ferment to create alcohol so you can't just add sugar to the still and run again. The remainder of the backset in the still should be dumped unless you are doing multiple ferments, then you can take out portions of backset to use for each fermentor and dump the rest when you are done putting together new ferments. Don't worry, you will always have fresh backset after every run.

Not really sure about the vomit smell but without knowing your exact ferment process I can't really help there.

Thetypical pitfalls here are using too much backset can cause the PH to drop so low the yeast stop working, this is bad but not the end of the ferment. You can use bi-carbonnate or carbonate or baking soda to raise the PH to a level the yeast will start working again.

As for the initial run being a "cleaning" run, you probably should have just tossed everything. The suggestion is one vinegar run followed by one alcohol run and all of the results should be tossed or saved only for future cleaning runs. The first alcohol run will sometimes remove some leftover crap from welding that can't be removed from the inside of the piping. This is why it is suggested that it all be tossed, product & backset.

[PsYc0TiC]

thank you Durace11, that was very informative and helpful. I have indeed discarded the entire mess and am fermenting a whole new batch

[PsYc0TiC]

okay,

After starting all over with guaranteed no pellet all grain sweetfeed and totally cleaned up still... the smell of the fermented material was not what I thought it was... didn't smell like vomit and was the resulting beer-like smell of the distillers yeast I used. now the final product was just under 2 gallons of tequila smelling and tasting 150 proof product. The smell and taste of the finished (distilled) product was the same as the first with a totally different sweetfeed. is this smell and taste normal for this recipe?

Do I now need to filter it through charcoal to rid it of this taste? if so... is there something from Lowes I can buy to do this?

[PsYc0TiC]

Anybody?

[jholmz]

okay,

After starting all over with guaranteed no pellet all grain sweetfeed and totally cleaned up still... the smell of the fermented material was not what I thought it was... didn't smell like vomit and was the resulting beer-like smell of the distillers yeast I used. now the final product was just under 2 gallons of tequila smelling and tasting 150 proof product. The smell and taste of the finished (distilled) product was the same as the first with a totally different sweetfeed. is this smell and taste normal for this recipe?

Do I now need to filter it through charcoal to rid it of this taste? if so... is there something from Lowes I can buy to do this?

How did you run the still fast or slow ? may be smearing
How did you do your cuts ? there is no mention of what cuts you made or size of collection per cut =could be just in the blending of your spirit if you did cuts
i dont use charcoal or filters so cant really comment on them.

basically my anylization with the info i have would be that you ran it too fast basically a stripping run which smeared your product and you collected all together without making cuts which means you have heads and tails mixed with the hearts . this could be wrong but you will have to post more info

[WalkingWolf]

okay,

After starting all over with guaranteed no pellet all grain sweetfeed and totally cleaned up still... the smell of the fermented material was not what I thought it was... didn't smell like vomit and was the resulting beer-like smell of the distillers yeast I used. now the final product was just under 2 gallons of tequila smelling and tasting 150 proof product. The smell and taste of the finished (distilled) product was the same as the first with a totally different sweetfeed. is this smell and taste normal for this recipe?

Do I now need to filter it through charcoal to rid it of this taste? if so... is there something from Lowes I can buy to do this?

Welllll -- depends on what you're looking for (far, four, etc. depending on your accent). It sorta sounds like your interpretation of what you are supposed to end up with after you run a sweet feed ferment. Just know that the taste will be significantly changed if you were to give it a few months on some charred oak.

Now, on to the second question -- if you are want'n to get rid of the taste then you started with the wrong recipe. You can go to the race track with a tractor but folks gonna ask what fer'. You have, what appears to be a nice looking, well-made, starter rig. Without the obvious foibles present on many "first" rigs. I'd think most folks gave you the benefit of the doubt and figured you was "2nd tier". All the reading in the world will only get you so far and at some point the rubber got to meet the road. I think that's where you now find yourself (I have taken great liberties in my interpretation of your said progress and development and being an artist of the highest order am stoically unapoligetic ). My recommendation to you would be to find one of the cereal washes in the tried and true section -- (a birdwatcher's or other plain sugar wash if NO flavor is your goal -- but not with that still ) and familiarize yourself with it. They are easy, cheap, consistent and great canvas in which to learn the high art of distillation. Run this several times and you will learn (a whole lot) what it takes to produce a rudimentary product. From this beginning you will develop your skill set and will be producing top notch whiskey in short order. Keep us posted on your progress. You appear to be a student of the game (a bit impatient -- we see the type quite often) and I feel your learning curve may be quite sharp.

best of luck

[PsYc0TiC]

Okay I see there is no simple question so I will elaborate in great detail.

Sweetfeed Recipe:
# 5 gallon bucket of sweet feed
# one package of yeast (using distillers yeast will increase quality and quantity)
# 5 pounds sugar
# water Put enough feed to cover bottom of 5 gallon bucket a good 4 inches deep Add 5 pounds of sugar. Fill 1/2 full with boiling water. Mix until sugar is dissolved. Let it set for 90 minutes and then finish filling with cool water. Add the yeast after it has cooled to the recommended temperature on the yeast label. Cover with lid--our lid has a little cap that screws on, leave it loose to breathe. 4-5 days later it's ready to run! I don't recommend this for pot stills unless you filter it by pouring it through a pillow case into a 5 gallon bucket after it has finished fermenting. Otherwise the meal will settle and burn in the bottom of your still. Some folks leave the solids in the pillow case and tie it off where it will not touch the bottom of the still.

I did in fact filter it through a pillow case but I did not put it in the pot to cook... just the liquid.

Okay... the first run I did (I mentioned it above) and I cooked it low and slow and I threw out the first 5 ounces to be rid of any methanol (I have read 1 ounce per 5 gallons so I threw out 5 just to be sure). I got 140 proof right off the bat but I didn't run it too long since it was a sacrificial run and I was tossing it all out. The end proof after a gallon and a half was 130 proof.

I threw away everything and cleaned out the still real good and set up my second batch. All instructions are the same other than I used distillers yeast from the beginning. Fermented until it quit bubbling in my bottles (this took 4 days) and I ran it on the 5th day.

Once again cooked it low and slow and it took about 5.5 hours but the first quart came out 145 proof and I checked the proof with every quart that came out and it gradually came down until about 105 on the7th quart. The 8th quart was about 3/4 full when it started to come out a little milky white at which time I shut it off and did not keep that jar.

I am confident I have done nothing wrong and this is the expected outcome of the recipe... I was just asking to see if anyone else used this and got the same result.

As for "cuts" and things like that.... I don't know what that is and I wonder why people insist on developing a new language for things like this when normal words would suffice. I assume that cuts means checking the proof in small batches like I already did but it matters not as I have read many many MANY MANY pages on many sites determining what directions I want to go in. I chose the sweetfeed one because it didn't have any hoops to jump through to get started. After I am done with my 7 or 8 re-runs or whatever until i run out of my ingredients... I am going to try a cornmeal recipe as it also doesn't have too many hoops to jump through... I will gradually work through the recipe's in this manor stepping up to the more labor intensive ones until I get my feet real good under me and I will then have graduated to a pure corn whiskey.

as for the charcoal.... When I read that the sweetfeed recipe had a flavor, I didn't expect it to be tequila so I was just going to try to filter it out. Maybe I could just try to make apple pie from it and that might do the trick.

[jholmz]

Okay I see there is no simple question so I will elaborate in great detail.


As for "cuts" and things like that.... I don't know what that is and I wonder why people insist on developing a new language for things like this when normal words would suffice. I assume that cuts means checking the proof in small batches like I already did but it matters not as I have read many many MANY MANY pages on many sites determining what directions I want to go in. I chose the sweetfeed one because it didn't have any hoops to jump through to get started. After I am done with my 7 or 8 re-runs or whatever until i run out of my ingredients... I am going to try a cornmeal recipe as it also doesn't have too many hoops to jump through... I will gradually work through the recipe's in this manor stepping up to the more labor intensive ones until I get my feet real good under me and I will then have graduated to a pure corn whiskey.

as for the charcoal.... When I read that the sweetfeed recipe had a flavor, I didn't expect it to be tequila so I was just going to try to filter it out. Maybe I could just try to make apple pie from it and that might do the trick.

cuts is not a new language its actually in the new distilleras required reading here is the link http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 46&t=13261 i believe the reason you are getting the off taste is because your not doing the cuts and you have the heads which can give you a chemical smell and taste and tales which can add fusils in a little of each can be good depending on your tastes you just have to play with the blend untill you find your liking

[WalkingWolf]

Okay I see there is no simple question so I will elaborate in great detail.

I am confident I have done nothing wrong and this is the expected outcome of the recipe... I was just asking to see if anyone else used this and got the same result.

[PsYc0TiC]

okay... so now the morons come out to play.

get a life idiots

[PsYc0TiC]

cuts is not a new language its actually in the new distilleras required reading here is the link http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 46&t=13261 i believe the reason you are getting the off taste is because your not doing the cuts and you have the heads which can give you a chemical smell and taste and tales which can add fusils in a little of each can be good depending on your tastes you just have to play with the blend untill you find your liking

no shit sherlock... I read all that and don't care.. it is still a new language. If you have nothing constructive to say... stuff it up your ass and keep it to yourself

sheesh!

[jholmz]

then drink your fucked up shit and be happy with it just tryin to help your question was fucked up taste its because your not makin cuts

[PsYc0TiC]

then drink your fucked up shit and be happy with it just tryin to help your question was fucked up taste its because your not makin cuts

too bad you don't know what the fuck you are talking about since I never said I combined all the jars and you aren't trying to help... you are trying to insult while having no information.

[steve2md]

at the risk of feeding fuel to an angry looking fire..........

Although you collected in separate jars, didn't mix them, tossed the fores (that 5 oz), that's still not actually making "cuts". Although proof and temp can be important, taste has more to do with it than anything else. After the fores, there are 3 more "stages" Heads, which will be strong, and taste somewhat like chemical and rubbing alcohol mixed, Hearts, Which will taste and smell much sweeter and smoother, this is the best part of your run, and Tails, weaker still and getting some funky smells/flavors(ie cardboard) You might try pint jars instead of quarts. It will take more of them, but fractions a little more accurately. Put a coffee filter and a rubber band over the mouth of each jar and leave them in a cool, dark place for 24-36 hours. This lets the alcohol oxidize slightly, letting the flavors come through a little better, and making it easier to make cuts.

Sweet feed tastes NOTHING like tequila. Teq is made with agave, and sometimes sugar. Sweet feed is a sugar head whiskey. The sugar used does change the flavor a bit from an all grain, but shouldn't taste like tequila

[Jersey John]

Officially the most ignorant poster I have found in 4 weeks of researching this forum...

+1 jholmz
+1 steve2md

I hope you guys will be around to give me advice when my wash is ready to run... not all new members are this bad

[Richard7]

Jersey John, I agree, look at the O.P. user name, maybe that sums it up!

[PsYc0TiC]

at the risk of feeding fuel to an angry looking fire..........

Although you collected in separate jars, didn't mix them, tossed the fores (that 5 oz), that's still not actually making "cuts". Although proof and temp can be important, taste has more to do with it than anything else. After the fores, there are 3 more "stages" Heads, which will be strong, and taste somewhat like chemical and rubbing alcohol mixed, Hearts, Which will taste and smell much sweeter and smoother, this is the best part of your run, and Tails, weaker still and getting some funky smells/flavors(ie cardboard) You might try pint jars instead of quarts. It will take more of them, but fractions a little more accurately. Put a coffee filter and a rubber band over the mouth of each jar and leave them in a cool, dark place for 24-36 hours. This lets the alcohol oxidize slightly, letting the flavors come through a little better, and making it easier to make cuts.

Sweet feed tastes NOTHING like tequila. Teq is made with agave, and sometimes sugar. Sweet feed is a sugar head whiskey. The sugar used does change the flavor a bit from an all grain, but shouldn't taste like tequila

I think you have good advice there regarding the smaller jars. As well as proof each jar I tasted them too... the first ones didn't have a "chemical" smell or taste... surprisingly they all smelled and tasted the same. And after all... I may just not remember what tequila tastes like as I haven't had any in many years

[tbilliax]

I didnt really see anyone pick up on this so ill give it a shot, in the picture your lynn arm from the main pot over the burner exits at what would appear to be a 45 degree upward angle, then does the funny question mark move back to the thump or filter pot, fromthe research i have dont the lynn arm from the main pot after leaving the 45 angle should immeadiately level or slope downward, the angle of the lynn arm actual has a large effect on taste due to the angle specifying the type of vapors that can escape it. mainly that is to an upward arching lynn arm tends to have a small amount of reflux allowing certain flavors to never leave the pot to counter the more harsh volital flavors that collect faster and more abundantly in your final product.

Have you tried to triple carbon filter it? Brita filters work great for small batches. Aquarium carbon pantie hose 3 sponges and a pvc pipe work best for big batches.

I would redesign your lynn arm, somewhere on the net there is a PDF file that has all of the lynn arm specifications in degrees of an angle for all of the major distillers in the us. or close to it. its been a while since i seen it.

also if you only have a 20 gallon boiler your coolant system may be over kill, some of the vapors that escape the cooling process can lead to a foul taste, if you over cool you dont allow the extra nasty vapors to escape, they just end up in your product.

Like i say, I would redesign your out feed from your lynn arm and perhaps put a -20 degree slope on your out feed to your coil, this will minimize secondary reflux and shoudl make a good product more fool proof, < not saying your a fool but sometimes easy is nice!

[PsYc0TiC]

You know... I designed that to copy a still I saw for sale where they used the glass thumpers and omitted the glass for obvious reasons... but I also looked at many designs and didn't see any data one way or the other regarding downward angles ans so forth.

You make perfect sense on the suggestions you have and I am going to work on them right away.

Are you saying that my cooling coil is too long?

[Durace11]

Have you tried to triple carbon filter it? Brita filters work great for small batches. Aquarium carbon pantie hose 3 sponges and a pvc pipe work best for big batches.

Before you suggest using PVC pipe or plastic water filters, please read the "Rules we live by". Also, if you are carbon filtering your product through plastic, you are doing it wrong IMO.

also if you only have a 20 gallon boiler your coolant system may be over kill, some of the vapors that escape the cooling process can lead to a foul taste, if you over cool you dont allow the extra nasty vapors to escape, they just end up in your product.

I'm fairly certain you can't over cool with a flake stand & worm, unless you are using ice. Having an extra large flake stand just ensures you don't have to exchange water. The condensed vapor will all make it to the bottom of the worm if it is angled down throughout the entire length of the worm. If you have vapors escaping the cooling process you have a dangerous leak and, once again, you are doing it wrong.

[tbilliax]

Before you suggest using PVC pipe or plastic water filters, please read the "Rules we live by". Also, if you are carbon filtering your product through plastic, you are doing it wrong IMO.

SO in your opinion a distiller that is a national house hold brand that makes sells more than 6.5 million cases worldwide per year and is the seventh most-popular spirits brand in the world. makes 93.8M USD profit per year is doing it wrong? "Jack Daniel's whiskey is filtered through sugar maple charcoal in large wooden vats prior to aging, which is an extra step that is not used in making most Bourbon whiskey,[13] and the company claims that this makes the product different than Bourbon." good job doing your research! Ill read them rules to live by, but no forum contains and infinite wisdom on all processes, my momma tought me read, learn and know berfore one speaks, not saying nothing against you but well just saying

as for the angle of the lyne arm pardon my last misspelling "Moreover, the design and angle of the lyne arm more or less determines the quality and intenseness of each distillate" real good starting reading is this PDF >> http://www.malt-whisky.eu/Daten_englisch/Pot_Still.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow which covers a psuedo basic version, more over it describes the quality of liquer youll have, if you break this down into an organic chemistry problem well you would be looking into the vapor point of all the different ingredients in your original wash, if you have somthing that has a low vapor point it will not have to fight to rise up through your lyne arm and will be cooled into your thump keg, in a thump keg the boiling point is actually raised due to pressure (provided you used a decent deal of pipe in your condensor) and you have higher tempuratures provided which allow more things to rapidly vapor off your thump keg, causing nasty tastes, IN A graham style condensor as you obviously have a pseudo to (before you argue please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_con ... _condenser" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow) you can use way less cooling to achieve the same result as if you had a liebig condensor, more specificly...

if something with a nasty taste has a low vapor point, then heating it way past its vapor point will essentially super heat it causing it to furiously rush out of your still,(good) when you over cool the system you actually cause this to condensate, back into what is comming out of your "worm", because it does not keep enought of its own tempurature to escape your super long condensor, i always recommend some knowledge of the basic gas law when sizing a condensor, becasue there is something called over cooling the mixture if there wasnt no one would waste there time with things like this: http://homedistiller.org/calcs/cond_calc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow which is an internal link, if you can undersize something you can oversize it.

this is a link to information about airconditioning and while you may think it has nothing to do it in effect teaches basic gas law (sorta, or enought to get the idea), http://www.industrialcontrolsonline.com ... ndamentals" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow with a chiller and barrel cooling system, which is again cruedly what you have, iff all you want in your product is alcohol you need to know concisely what you want and the FILTER, the rest, you can use a freezer filtering method or you can use a mechanical method like a centrifuge or a CHEMICAL FILTERING like CHARCOAL... so know thy foe! here ya go this is the MSDS for what you are trying to make, read it know it >>>www.nafaa.org/ethanol.pdf it states that the Boiling Point: 78 deg C so from there if you know the amount of alcohol vapor in your charge you can determine bothe the degrees it would take to cool over the distance needed, if you only have enough condensor to perfectly cool the alcohol you significantly reduce recondensing things that change the taste.

in lieu of the document that i referenced earlier here is a study that includes specific angles of lyne arm and quality etc etc http://www.wsetglobal.com/documents/isl ... tour_07.pd" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Further more you can shorten your condenser farther if your application can take 1 to 2 psi of prssure or more, in the pipe that goes to your condensor you put a restrictor of about 50% the size of your output from the thump keg then you ave wat is considered an orifice tube. not that ull do this but here is the info on it, I had a prototype and i can cool to touch in 2 feet of copper.... well dinner time, so maybe ill come back to that, but google orifice tube its in a car ac most often they work the same here allowing you to super heat the vapor push it through a small hole where it can cool faster and with less ambient temp... BRB L8R

ok back from dinner... here is a good link for orfice tubes which are the fixed version of a thermal exspansion valve http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_expansion_valve" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow and before you say it wont work the original refirdgerators used this technology and where filled with ethanol...

As for this >>>

These forums take a very strong negative view on the usage of plastics and synthetics in distilling. It simply is not safe to use in any area of hobby distilling (however HPDE buckets are acceptable for fermentation.) There simply are too many types of plastics and lack of reliable information about plastics, for us to reliably advocate their use anywhere in the distillation apparatus. Also, from past posting history, this topic seems to quickly boil down into an almost religious flame war. Thus we simply will not put up with it, and posts about any form of plastic use will be edited, deleted or locked. There is a forum for proven info for or against any material (material/safety.)

"There simply are too many types of plastics and lack of reliable information about plastics, for us to reliably advocate their use anywhere in the distillation apparatus."
well i dont think i mentioned anwhere in my response where you would use it in a distillation apparatus i said post filtration, perhaps reading skills aint strong round here. and if you want to edit or delete knowledge then you and whoever eidts the post will be and remain ignorant together, the man asked for help and we want to quibble over plastic. plastic that is infact used for cold drinking water and hot water prooving its tempurature range and inert qualities. instead of putting a disclaimer up perhaps the people who use and embrace plastic should be put in a seperate forum on this site. embrace not ban... its Ignorant to ban conversation that mentions plastic,which by the way is a distillate itself. so its kind of like using a distilled product to distill... heres the msds FOR PVC PIPE >>> http://www.northamericanpipe.com/downlo ... vcPipe.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow in the first page "This product is non-hazardous under Hazard Communication Standard 29 CFR 1910.1200." if your dumb enough to chomp on it or even had significant trace elements it says "No adverse health effects expected from ingestion." its non soluble in water or alcohol. i understant not using it in a still because its deflection is a degree or two less than the vapor point of alcohol, but alcohol wont be hot when it contacts the plastic. the epa even lists it as non hazardous, i mean seriously if i had suggested he boil it in plastic then by all means jump my case, but we use plastic day to day and some after school activities with it are more dangerous than others but using it as a column filter, not a dangerous endeavor. furthermore i use pvc in my filter unis for aquariums and the conditions in the tank is much more hostile than the distilled alc. that comes from a still... like i say do what you will take the information or censor and be ignorant. its dont bother me either way...

[Richard7]

I didnt really see anyone pick up on this so ill give it a shot, in the picture your lynn arm from the main pot over the burner exits at what would appear to be a 45 degree upward angle, then does the funny question mark move back to the thump or filter pot, fromthe research i have dont the lynn arm from the main pot after leaving the 45 angle should immeadiately level or slope downward, the angle of the lynn arm actual has a large effect on taste due to the angle specifying the type of vapors that can escape it. mainly that is to an upward arching lynn arm tends to have a small amount of reflux allowing certain flavors to never leave the pot to counter the more harsh volital flavors that collect faster and more abundantly in your final product. OK

Have you tried to triple carbon filter it? Brita filters work great for small batches.NO PLASTIC! Aquarium carbon pantie hose 3 sponges and a pvc pipeNO PLASTIC work best for big batches.

I would redesign your lynn arm, somewhere on the net there is a PDF file that has all of the lynn arm specifications in degrees of an angle for all of the major distillers in the us. or close to it. its been a while since i seen it.OK

also if you only have a 20 gallon boiler your coolant system may be over kill, some of the vapors that escape the cooling process can lead to a foul taste, if you over cool you dont allow the extra nasty vapors to escape, they just end up in your product.????

Like i say, I would redesign your out feed from your lynn arm and perhaps put a -20 degree slope on your out feed to your coil, this will minimize secondary reflux and shoudl make a good product more fool proof, < not saying your a fool but sometimes easy is nice!

[Tater]

You guys play nice.

[Richard7]

Before you suggest using PVC pipe or plastic water filters, please read the "Rules we live by". Also, if you are carbon filtering your product through plastic, you are doing it wrong IMO.

SO in your opinion a distiller that is a national house hold brand that makes sells more than 6.5 million cases worldwide per year and is the seventh most-popular spirits brand in the world. makes 93.8M USD profit per year is doing it wrong? "Jack Daniel's whiskey is filtered through sugar maple charcoal in large wooden vats prior to aging, which is an extra step that is not used in making most Bourbon whiskey,[13] and the company claims that this makes the product different than Bourbon." good job doing your research!
I have done the tour at JD and I missed the part where they ran it through a plastic Brita filter and the PVC pipes! And I do feel they are doing it wrong, but that is just an opinion (Not the filtering just the no cuts part that they get with continuous distillation) .

Ill read them rules to live by, but no forum contains and infinite wisdom on all processes, my momma tought me read, learn and know berfore one speaks, not saying nothing against you but well just saying

as for the angle of the lyne arm pardon my last misspelling "Moreover, the design and angle of the lyne arm more or less determines the quality and intenseness of each distillate" real good starting reading is this PDF >> http://www.malt-whisky.eu/Daten_englisch/Pot_Still.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow which covers a psuedo basic version, more over it describes the quality of liquer youll have, if you break this down into an organic chemistry problem well you would be looking into the vapor point of all the different ingredients in your original wash, if you have somthing that has a low vapor point it will not have to fight to rise up through your lyne arm and will be cooled into your thump keg, in a thump keg the boiling point is actually raised due to pressure (provided you used a decent deal of pipe in your condensor) and you have higher tempuratures provided which allow more things to rapidly vapor off your thump keg, causing nasty tastes, IN A graham style condensor as you obviously have a pseudo to (before you argue please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_con ... _condenser" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow) you can use way less cooling to achieve the same result as if you had a liebig condensor, more specificly...

if something with a nasty taste has a low vapor point, then heating it way past its vapor point will essentially super heat it causing it to furiously rush out of your still,(good) when you over cool the system you actually cause this to condensate, back into what is comming out of your "worm", because it does not keep enought of its own tempurature to escape your super long condensor, i always recommend some knowledge of the basic gas law when sizing a condensor, becasue there is something called over cooling the mixture if there wasnt no one would waste there time with things like this: http://homedistiller.org/calcs/cond_calc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow which is an internal link, if you can undersize something you can oversize it.

I think a lab would have a hard time hitting the temps to exclude the good from the bad! I say catch all the vapor and do your cuts right!

this is a link to information about airconditioning and while you may think it has nothing to do it in effect teaches basic gas law (sorta, or enought to get the idea), http://www.industrialcontrolsonline.com ... ndamentals" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow with a chiller and barrel cooling system, which is again cruedly what you have, iff all you want in your product is alcohol you need to know concisely what you want and the FILTER, the rest, you can use a freezer filtering method or you can use a mechanical method like a centrifuge or a CHEMICAL FILTERING like CHARCOAL... so know thy foe! here ya go this is the MSDS for what you are trying to make, read it know it >>>www.nafaa.org/ethanol.pdf it states that the Boiling Point: 78 deg C so from there if you know the amount of alcohol vapor in your charge you can determine bothe the degrees it would take to cool over the distance needed, if you only have enough condensor to perfectly cool the alcohol you significantly reduce recondensing things that change the taste.

in lieu of the document that i referenced earlier here is a study that includes specific angles of lyne arm and quality etc etc http://www.wsetglobal.com/documents/isl ... tour_07.pd" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Further more you can shorten your condenser farther if your application can take 1 to 2 psi of prssure or more, in the pipe that goes to your condensor you put a restrictor of about 50% the size of your output from the thump keg then you ave wat is considered an orifice tube. not that ull do this but here is the info on it, I had a prototype and i can cool to touch in 2 feet of copper.... well dinner time, so maybe ill come back to that, but google orifice tube its in a car ac most often they work the same here allowing you to super heat the vapor push it through a small hole where it can cool faster and with less ambient temp... BRB L8R

[Stilly]

Geez, If Jack Daniels is the standard of quality we should all strive for I guess that Bud lite, Miller Lite, and Coors lite are the top of the heap in beer. I didn't realize that being a large seller and quality had anything to do with each other when in comes to the American consumer. Thank you for clearing that up, I'm gonna go chuck all my stuff and buy a bottle of Jack and be happy, maybe chase it with some Bud lite.

cheers
stilly