Much odor/smell?

[Smokee]

Hello,

This is my first post so I wanted to say hi and aska quick question. I did attempt to search the answer first but kept getting that my question wording was "too common".

I'd like to give distilling a shot. I own my own single-family house with a wife and kids. I cannot do it outside as I live in a relatively populated place. I was just wondering how much smell is given off throughout the process. I could get away with some but if it's a really "smelly" process I'd not do it.

Btw, the wife said she didn't care if I did it so that's not a problem and I'd probably do it late at night when most "normal" people are asleep. I planned on making a still with a capacity of 16-20 quarts and would like to do two runs of 2.5 gallons - I would do one 5 gallon bucket of mash and split it.

Anyways, great site! I'm really hoping I can do this as I'm looking forward to running mash from other materials like grapes and strawberries.

Thanks.

[MitchyBourbon]

I don't have young kids but my house situation is similar. I have an internal electric element for heating and a controller. I don't find strong smells in fermenting which I do inside. I don't f kind distilling produces strong smells either. Mashing on the other hand produces the strongest smells. My wife loves it, she says it reminds her of the smell of porridge or home made bread. I do everything in my garage except for fermenting.

You might want to look into using a keg or 1/2 keg for a boiler and a water heating element for heating. You will also need to build or buy a controller so you can control the power to the element.

Good luck and be safe.

[humbledore]

One thought would be to become a beer brewer. home brew is legal. Yes mashing smells, you can do it outside, ferment inside, and run your still indoors on electric as Mitchy says. When neighbors ask, tell them it's beer. Set said aside to drink as beer. It's good!

[humbledore]

Or if you are looking to dip your toe in it, just do some sugar washes to start with. Not much smell to it.

[Doubler]

I ferment inside and my grain mashes smell up the kitchen good, I love the smell, the wife tolerates it. The rum washes are pleasing to all. I live in a populated place as well and do my runs outdoors as I heat on propane (I have 6' fences on either side and tall thick pines directly behind) but that is changing soon. I recently built a bigger still and the burner sounds like a jet taking off ...for 4 hours, so I'm converting to electric and goin into the garage. The actual distillation process will not produce any more smell than an open liquor bottle would.

[pfshine]

I wouldn't be worried about the smell. Electric is the way to go to hide it in the neighborhood. The only thing to worry about is your neighbor's seeing you bring in all the large bore pipe.

[Smokee]

First, I'd like to thank all u good folks for your help without the usual arrogance that is pervasive on a lot of forums. I was raised to appreciate others help so thank you.

My idea was to start out relatively small. Like I mentioned, I would like to use a stainless pot in the neighborhood of 16 quarts to keep things small and easy to store. I'd like to use an electric hot plate for distilling and could use my gas stove to heat the water for the mash. Also, I figured that what the mash was made of would dictate the smell. I live in a big farming area and have a few people I know that grow various things I could use. One has a strawberry farm and another has a winery that grows some kind of high falutin French grapes. I'm going to start out simple then move on to different ingredients for my mash when I get more experience.

Thanks again for the advice!

[jarheadshiner]

First, I'd like to thank all u good folks for your help without the usual arrogance that is pervasive on a lot of forums. I was raised to appreciate others help so thank you.

My idea was to start out relatively small. Like I mentioned, I would like to use a stainless pot in the neighborhood of 16 quarts to keep things small and easy to store. I'd like to use an electric hot plate for distilling and could use my gas stove to heat the water for the mash. Also, I figured that what the mash was made of would dictate the smell. I live in a big farming area and have a few people I know that grow various things I could use. One has a strawberry farm and another has a winery that grows some kind of high falutin French grapes. I'm going to start out simple then move on to different ingredients for my mash when I get more experience.

Thanks again for the advice!

One thing I would suggest is to use the gas stove for your still. It will give a much more constant and controllable heat than the hot plate. Just start your build from the condenser and work backwards to the boiler. That way you will have everything the right height and proximity to things such as your water supply (kitchen sink) Welcome aboard.

[friendly1uk]

It really depends on who's nose we are talking about. Some people drink strong tasting stuff like whiskey while having a smoke and frankly can't smell a thing. Others don't smoke and have a full set of taste buds (only 15% of men) and can smell perfectly well. I can smell a small sugar wash indoors as I get out of my car outside on some days. When running 1.2L (yes, 1200ml pot) I opened the door to the electric man and he stepped back. It bloody stinks. He couldn't get out the house quick enough.

I smoke most days so although my sense of smell of good, it is in no way outstanding. I can't understand how these threads generally paint the picture that nobody can smell anything. Only one or two posters have drawn parallels to my own findings, So it really is a matter of who your trying to hide the smell from. If they smoke and drink tap water they're probably congested and desensitised.


I would stick to electric if your indoors with kids. You don't want to blow the place up.

[jarheadshiner]

I would stick to electric if your indoors with kids. You don't want to blow the place up.

I know you mean well with this statement but plenty of people run stove top stills on natural gas. If proper safety steps are taken I do not think he will be blowing the place up. I agree that internal electric heating elements are safer but an electric hot plate is not a very good option indoors or outdoors.

@Smokee. If you run outdoors then a propane burner will be much better than an electric hot plate. If you want to go electric then internal heating elements need to be installed into the boiler with a proper controller and you can run indoors or outdoors. Good luck with whatever you decide and be safe.

[MadMasher]

+1 on the use of gas for the still, I'm using an electric stove and the cycling and slow heat up time suck. I find the worst smell to be when dumping out backset, it stinks up the house pretty good.

[aj2456]

the smell from fermenting i find can be reduced by using an airlock and keeping the yeast happy- ie sensible temps and nutrients- otherwise that can get a bit bad

[Smokee]

I'd love to go gas but have to go electric, at least to start.

[ledyard]

I don't see why once must go electric if inside the house? Unless of course you choose that option purposely. I will be using the big unused room in my basement and using my propane turkey fryer base for heat. I have a tri clamp fitting from keg to column and the only other connection will be where my 1" portion of my lyne arm turns into the 1/2" condenser which will be pasted on the 1" side. Will have a fire extinguisher close by of for some unbelievable reason the burner fell over. But especially running slow and low I don't see the problem. (not that anyone said there was.....just saying)
Using an internal element scares the hell out of me as far as burning, shorting out ect. Having to put a hole in my stainless keg ect.

I just had the "I wonder about smell" conversation with my wife earlier today being as I deemed it too much of a pain in the ass to divert people from the garage constantly and decided to go in house. I cant see it being an issue.
The one thing my wife brought up was if I put a fan in the window for ventilation she wondered how much smell might get drawn outside while running. Don't want the stupid busy body neighbor smelling something off and think I'm cooking something you make with Sudafed (cough cough).
But I suppose I could start a scrap wood fire in my yard between our houses to create a nice smoke aroma. its rural where we live. only two neighbors. One is probably 150 yards (house to house). the other next door is maybe 50 yards from the side of my house. Or I could just light my smoker while running with no meat in it and make everyone smell BBQ. But honestly I cannot see any of that being necessary.

[jarheadshiner]

I'd love to go gas but have to go electric, at least to start.

Any particular reason that you cannot use the gas stove (I'm assuming it's your kitchen stove) that you are gonna use to mash your grains to run your still? If you are gonna be doing everything indoors I would highly recommend using it instead of a hot plate. It will give you much better results. I'm not trying to be nosy so if it's for personal reasons i.e. don't want the kids to see it, wife said hell no, or some other reason, then I understand and apologize for asking.

[bellybuster]

I will be using the big unused room in my basement and using my propane turkey fryer base for heat.

ensure you have enough makeup air when using high btu propane burners indoors. An open window isn't enough. Carbon monoxide kills and it does it silently and painlessly.
Totally serious on this one, you need forced ventilation.

As far as smell is concerned, During the run itself there is little to no smell at all. I ferment in the basement and folks always comment on how our house always smells like fresh bread. Wines however smell the worst in my opinion. Someone else mentioned the remaining liquid in the still, this to me is the worst of all the smells from making a wash/mash, all the way through until distilled.

Starting small??? Sure, but, you'll upsize very soon. Just keep that in mind.

[ledyard]

I will be using the big unused room in my basement and using my propane turkey fryer base for heat.

ensure you have enough makeup air when using high btu propane burners indoors. An open window isn't enough. Carbon monoxide kills and it does it silently and painlessly.
Totally serious on this one, you need forced ventilation.

As far as smell is concerned, During the run itself there is little to no smell at all. I ferment in the basement and folks always comment on how our house always smells like fresh bread. Wines however smell the worst in my opinion. Someone else mentioned the remaining liquid in the still, this to me is the worst of all the smells from making a wash/mash, all the way through until distilled.

Starting small??? Sure, but, you'll upsize very soon. Just keep that in mind.

I dunno where my mind went. Wife just said hey dumbass what about carbon monoxide? I guess I'm setting up in the garage and tearing down and sticking it in the basement when done.

[bellybuster]

glad to hear that... the high BTU burners use up allot of O2, more than most folks realize

[Smokee]

Hey guys,

I went to WalMart today, finally, and started to pick up some of the supplies I'm going to need to get started building. First up was the pot. I picked up a $12 stainless, 16 qt with lid. While driving home and after looking the pot I was thinking of the suggestions to use gas and not electric due to the uneven heating. I'm not going to use this el'cheapo pot I decided. I do a lot of cooking. Years ago I had similar el'cheapo pots and pans and my apartment had an electric stove. I saw first hand how the switching on and off to control heat sucked. To work-around this I bought a good set of All-clad cookware. These have a heavy, thick bottom which really did a good job of smoothing out these ups and downs in heat. The WalMart pot is the same thinness all the way around.

To the guys that commented on how you didn't like the uneven heat, did the pot you used have a heavy bottom? I'm sure the one I just bought will not heat evenly with the thin bottom so I'm opting for a commercial pot with a 5mm clad bottom.

Just curious. Like I mentioned, I'd love to use gas but the room I'm doing this in is tight with no way of venting the CO (carbon monoxide).

Thanks,
Smokee

[MadMasher]

Got the same pot. It is my cook pot as well as boiler. The the bottom of it is raised a little to help with scorching as it doesn't touch directly on a glass top electric range. Its ok to cook in, but not great. Obviously don't stop stirring with a long spatula or heat it slow. As a boiler is works fine, never scorched anything but does heat unevenly especially with electric. I'm planning to get a cast iron skillet to put underneath to help maintain temps. The first one started to crack around the rim so I bought another one. Also, it leaked sometimes where the handles are riveted in until it got used more.
You get what you pay for on cook ware. An aluminum clad stainless pot would be best if you were going with a pot. Keg with internal element might be another route to research.

[Truckinbutch]

I will be using the big unused room in my basement and using my propane turkey fryer base for heat.

ensure you have enough makeup air when using high btu propane burners indoors. An open window isn't enough. Carbon monoxide kills and it does it silently and painlessly.
Totally serious on this one, you need forced ventilation.

As far as smell is concerned, During the run itself there is little to no smell at all. I ferment in the basement and folks always comment on how our house always smells like fresh bread. Wines however smell the worst in my opinion. Someone else mentioned the remaining liquid in the still, this to me is the worst of all the smells from making a wash/mash, all the way through until distilled.

Starting small??? Sure, but, you'll upsize very soon. Just keep that in mind.

I dunno where my mind went. Wife just said hey dumbass what about carbon monoxide? I guess I'm setting up in the garage and tearing down and sticking it in the basement when done.

I run a high btu burner in my basement . I did do a ventilation study before construction and layout of my still . Installed an inline duct fan evacuation system through an unused chimney for positive co and alcohol vapor evacuation . Back that up by switching my forced air furnace fan to continuous running for further fresh air mix . Most indispensable piece of equipment I have is my co monitor ($30 or so) located at the operator's chair . Has never gone off while I was stilling . As a test I fired up the burner with all vent systems turned off . Alarm started beeping (screeching) within 5 minutes . An open window is definitely not adequate ventilation .
CO is an insidious toxin that sneaks into your system so subtly that you never know that you just gradually went to sleep and never woke up . (Google 'Sago Mine Disaster' and read my nephew Tom Anderson's last letter to his family before he and 11 other miners succumbed to co )
Sorry to be so long winded . Ventilation safety is a BIG issue with me .

[mmmmmm]

I use the 16 quart stainless pot from Walmart and it does just fine so far. And I use electric (stove in my kitchen) and I don't really have any gripes about it at all. Simple, small pot still like this, I don't see how someone could be having problems with an electric burner. With a larger pot and/or a different kind of still maybe.

Anyway, as for the smell, if you've got your own little room for this, you should be good. I ferment in a room that we don't use and there is a noticeable odor in that room, but if it seeps into the rest of the house, I can't smell it. My wife's pretty big on those plug-in air fresheners though, so there's that.

I run mine right on the kitchen stove and the only time during the whole process that I get complaints about the smell is right after I pop the lid off after a run and dump the backset down the kitchen sink. That's the stuff that really stinks. I have to do some airing out after that. In theory, I could just take it outside before I pop the lid off and dump it out there, but that's a lot of work, and I'm pretty well used to low-medium level complaining no matter what I do, so.... yeah.

[rager]

id have to say there is some "smell" in fermenting and distilling. first ive usually got 3 ferment buckets going at a time. plus I do a run a few days, added to the products airing out on the counter all adds up to a smell of alcohol. I live in a 800 sf condo. ive come home from work before and said to myself " it smells like a rum factory in here"

that's cuz it is

gl. I don't have to worry about gfs or kids so that makes my life a lot easier

[Smokee]

On the pot issue, I'd love to hear more feedback. I'm holding onto the walmart pot for now but would think a higher-end commercial pot would be more consistent with a heavier, clad bottom. I thought about setting the pot on my cast-iron skillet too. I guess we're all on the same "wave length" on here.

[MadMasher]

This pot has worked out well for me. If I had to do it over, I might buy something a little bigger but the quality of it isn't a concern. I don't have any choice at the moment as far as heat source so whatever pot I have will be heated by an electric range, so there might not be much difference in a better pot. The thing that sucks most about this pot is trying to cook in it, every time there is at least one little spot of scorching. eventually the first one I bought started to split around the rim but still works to cook inside. It was only 12 bucks to replace
My design- I took the lid and cut a hole in it. I welded a bowl upside down on top of the lid. I cut a hole in the bowl. I bought a fitting that is steel with copper pipe inside it and welded that on top of the hole in the bowl. I then used 1/2" copper pipe to go up to a little greater than a right angle over to the worm which is reduced to 3/8in copper coil in a 5 gallon bucket. simple but works well, kinda wish I had used bigger pipe but it at high it pushes the limits of my worm. Oh, I use a big cardboard circle covered in PTFE tape as a gasket around the rim and clamp the lid down. Hope this can aid in your decision.

[Smokee]

This pot has worked out well for me. If I had to do it over, I might buy something a little bigger but the quality of it isn't a concern. I don't have any choice at the moment as far as heat source so whatever pot I have will be heated by an electric range, so there might not be much difference in a better pot. The thing that sucks most about this pot is trying to cook in it, every time there is at least one little spot of scorching. eventually the first one I bought started to split around the rim but still works to cook inside. It was only 12 bucks to replace
My design- I took the lid and cut a hole in it. I welded a bowl upside down on top of the lid. I cut a hole in the bowl. I bought a fitting that is steel with copper pipe inside it and welded that on top of the hole in the bowl. I then used 1/2" copper pipe to go up to a little greater than a right angle over to the worm which is reduced to 3/8in copper coil in a 5 gallon bucket. simple but works well, kinda wish I had used bigger pipe but it at high it pushes the limits of my worm. Oh, I use a big cardboard circle covered in PTFE tape as a gasket around the rim and clamp the lid down. Hope this can aid in your decision.

It does, thank you very much! I was wondering about some sort of gasket too. I can cut some thin cardboard and put it between the lid and pot then clamp. Is that how u did it?

Sounds like I might use this Walmart pot to give it a try. I guess for $12, if it doesn't work or I decide to upgrade I'm only out $12. I keep stuff like that anyways. I can always use the stainless for some kind of repair around the house.

I can't wait to do this bit I'm not very inclined to go out into single-digit weather. Lol.

[MadMasher]

We were just talking about this on another thread http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 16&t=44472

Cutting the stainless lid is the hard part. I had my buddy who works in a metal shop plasma cut it for a bit of cash. Good Luck

Edit- I just remembered reading of someone recently saying they just found a bowl the same size as the rim of the pot so they didn't have to cut the lid.

[What He Said]

There's not much odor fermenting, just about the smell of a spilled beer. There is no odor distilling. The worst odor comes from pouring out the mash from the pot after the run. Do it at night and the smell is gone with the rising sun.
What he said.

[NZChris]

If you can find a stand alone hot plate of around 750W and use 1/2 " tube for a liebig, my guess is that you would seldom need to use the simmerstat as the condenser will handle the output at it's full 750W. There is a thread here somewhere that will tell if that is correct, so use it to check.

I don't know what internal elements you have available in the US, but you could look out for 750W elements that can be mounted low in your pot. Alternatively, use two 1500W elements, which can then be wired, or switched, to give 750W, 1500W, or 3000W.

Regarding smell, for a few days after putting down a large brew of anything but a sugar wash, Her Indoors would be giving me trouble if I was fermenting in the house. I just posted some info you might find useful at http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =3&t=44561