Tell us about your mistakes.

[Jimbo]

Jimbo how much your stuff it take to defungicide yourself?

A lot. Regularly.

[JBAR9]

I know most folks take the route of using silver solder or something of the like when building components of their still, but I'm more a fan of brazing. Stronger, efficient, but more complicated. The mistake here is not using solder instead of brazing, but is of using MAPP gas instead of oxy/acetylene setup. If going to braze dont waste the time with MAPP. I had a cheap setup without a good regulator, but it left a dirty ass bind and was a pain in the ass getting the correct flame and heat on my copper. Once I went and picked up my pa's old oxy/acetylene torch setup, the rest of the build was smooth sailing. Just a cautionary tale of mine.

[Horsecreek shine]

Well I suppose my worst one of last year was right before Xmas I made a 10 gal all grain batch of bourbon barrel porter and I had made my yeast starter 3 days before my og was 1095 ish well I finnished that evening and pitched the starter in my speidel fermentor and sealed her up well my wife kids an I went to my folks to work cattle for a sale the next morning it was fermenting well we got back that night and as my wife walks through the door and the kitchen I hear the infamous WTF!!! I new at that point shit hit the fan earlier was nothing about to come I slowly walk in the kitchen and wifey had the towls and the mop out for me the fermentation ever increased and the aftermath was what appeard to be a micro volcanic eruption in the kitchen it was on the floor the cabinets counter tops and of course the sealing a few hrs later of cleaning I ask my wife did you find the air lock she said no and to this point it's still missing lol

[Truckinbutch]

Well I suppose my worst one of last year was right before Xmas I made a 10 gal all grain batch of bourbon barrel porter and I had made my yeast starter 3 days before my og was 1095 ish well I finnished that evening and pitched the starter in my speidel fermentor and sealed her up well my wife kids an I went to my folks to work cattle for a sale the next morning it was fermenting well we got back that night and as my wife walks through the door and the kitchen I hear the infamous WTF!!! I new at that point shit hit the fan earlier was nothing about to come I slowly walk in the kitchen and wifey had the towls and the mop out for me the fermentation ever increased and the aftermath was what appeard to be a micro volcanic eruption in the kitchen it was on the floor the cabinets counter tops and of course the sealing a few hrs later of cleaning I ask my wife did you find the air lock she said no and to this point it's still missing lol

Betcha I know who the most unpopular sob in that household was at that time ......... I feel for ya .

[S-Cackalacky]

I don't like hearin' stories like that because I know most certainly it's bound to happen to me one day. The ole woman aint none too forgivin'. I can see days of grief in my future.

Just sayin',
S-C

[shadylane]

I've learned from my mistakes most of the time.
"The Safety and Related Issues" section lets me and others learn from everybody's mistakes.
Some of the posts have been entertaining, some educational, a few have made my blood run cold.
As a group we are getting safer and more educated.
This forum and others like it are the reason.

[harry houtin]

I started with A.G. method first 2 times worked just fine, then the next 2 whent down the drain the last one pluged the sewer,
1 1/2 hrs. later we got it unpluged.!! thats when I found unjssm. recipe, thank god for that. I am going to run my second run tomarrow!!! god willing and the creak don't rise,!? I will have sour mash whiskey ! wish me luck and thank you for this site.

[Jimbo]

Here's a dumbass mistake that I made Monday making a batch of bourbon. Visualize this..... 55gal barrel full of bourbon mash, a drill with a big ass paint stirrer mounted in it. A large wortchiller 50 foot coiled copper and a thermocouple mounted to my expensive fluke multimeter. All crammed in the barrel, water streaming through the chiller, drill whizzing away, mash splashin around in a whirtling vortex. Life is good.

Well, then it gets interesting. End of the thermocouple wire caught the drill paddle, immediately flash fast wrapped around the stirrer shaft and yanked my expensive fluke meter into the barrel and under water. Did I mention that was an expensive meter? It gets better, in all the commotion the tubing on the wort chiller gets yanked off and water is streaming all over and getting me soaking wet.

Son of a green eyed red headed stepchild. Yank the drill out splashing mash down my pants, turn the water off and reach in the barrel and fetch my expensive fluke which by this time was about a foot deep.

The end.

PS: Meter lives, I spent an hour tearing it apart and washing sticky sweet mash out of every crevice.

[Halfbaked]

Jimbo I was hoping for a full dive in for an expensive fluke meter rescue. You got your pants a little damp. You are a lucky SOB, if that would have happened to me my meter would have beat me in the face after wrapping around the drill and then caught on something and broken my wrist, then all you would have seen is my feet sticking out of a blue 55 gal barrel. I am so glad you were drunk when you were doing this or you might have seen a trip to the horsespital. I can't even get my craftsman meter to work most of the time without knocking the shit out of me. You lucky SOB! Pass me an easy gumball head please for my drinking pleasure.

[corene1]

At least nothing was lost. I was foreseeing the copper getting caught up in the wires of the tester and breaking it filling the mash with fresh water while wrapping up on the stirring shaft. I would love to see you and my son working together. I could sell tickets.

[Truckinbutch]

Sounds like I got off lucky when all I did was coat me and my shop with hot water and molasses with my (now retired) runaway paddle mixer .

[shizam]

My biggest mistake was on my second spirit run. I had been warned on running my still to fast. So I was running it slow on my stove top. I started running it at around 8pm thinking it would be done around 11:30. Well at 4am it was just finishing up the hart of the run.The last thing I remember thinking was, "just another 20 min." Next thing I know I wake up and it's 7am. I run over to find alcohol all over the floor.

Now I run my still faster and it only takes about 3 and a half hours. Talk about scary though.

[jedneck]

Not letting my first ag mash clear well enuf. Scorched the run and now have wheat flavered fire starter.

[drunk-pat100]

Well today was my first shine run outa my 20 gallon copper pot still with thumper and 20 ft condenser. I used 3/8 line to make all the connections. I have a 5000 Watt electric heating element built in my pot. I was heating the still and it went up to about 165 and I put the top on and sealed it with wheat flour paste. The temp kept going up and up with no product coming out. Finally it got up to about 205 and started producing. It seemed to b coming out to fast but I have no way of turning it down. So I just kept running this was a big mistake cause the god damn thing started shaking, and not long after that the damn top BLEW OFF and I almost got burnt. The shit blew off with so much velocity it was spewing off the roof! I went running and it just missed me. The whole basement filled with this dense sugar wash fog and took me hours to clean up Does anyone have any idea what went wrong? Any advice would b greatly appreciated and, I aint gona try and run again till I get my controller hopefully by next week.

[Tater]

3/8 is way to small on that size still .ya probably puked in to it and caused a pressure build up or over boiled for capacity of worm that size .Why its so important to get as much knowledge as possible before trying something like stillin. Glad ya wasn't hurt.

[pfshine]

Yep..... not enough reading. A 5000 watt element with no controll and no test or cleaning runs. Read read read before you run again and burn your house down.

[shizam]

Well I'm no engineer, but lets look at this with some common sense. A new controller will help control heat. But heat isn't what caused it to blow up. To much pressure caused it to blow up. The pressure was caused by two things. The first being heat. Th second being that not enough of the fums could escape. The controller will help with the heat. But I would definitely think of getting a wider condenser that can control more fums being pushed through it.

[T-Pee]

Didn't realize a bucket of UJ had like 8 inches of corn in it (for some reason). Put normal amount of sugar in it and after a few days, the SG was still high (1.04) while other buckets from that time were done. Just poured half the liquid and a pot full of the trub into another bucket and added water to both. Should turn out fine. Hopefully the yeasties didn't get too stressed and shit in my drink.

Did exactly the same thing two weeks ago. SG was 1.120 before I transferred half of it to another fermenter and diluted to 1.070.

It turned out fine.

tp

[Chroi]

I recently overfilled a 5 gallon glass carboy with sweetfeed mash. The head rose overnight, and clogged the airlock.

Next morning, the guest bedroom was decorated Jackson Pollock Granola style. I was just thanking my lucky stars there wasn't shrapnel in the walls. The airlock left an indentation in the ceiling. It was an, ahem, fairly active mash...

I was so embarrassed and pissed I didn't even think to take pics. Just started cleaning in my underware at 7am. Now I wish I had pics to post (of the room, not me in my underware) The mess was impressive.

The wife-to-be was a great sport about it. She only busted my chops for about a week

[T-Pee]

The wife-to-be was a great sport about it. She only busted my chops for about a week

Well then, you're in business!

tp

[yellowdog]

Left my wood barrel thumper full of beer to keep it swelled got a cold snap and it was in an unheated shed.... thought about it today went out to get it and put it in the house... top and side cracked solid ice block inside. .. expensive whoops and my wife's not so happy told her I would just order a new one... she informed me I am out of fun money for now

[bellybuster]

aww man!! thats brutal

[Theo]

My biggest mistake was not starting to distill 20 years ago! But I wouldn't have had help from the forum. But I could have some good age on some whiskey. I know, woulda, coulda shoulda.

[Ashton23L]

So I built a still, based on the turbo thumper design. Everything seems to be nicely sealed and no leaks, but I ran some water through it and it came out but smells like hose water, it has a slight green tinge to it. I just wanted to run water through it and use a ppm meter to check it. This is my first run so maybe I should run more? I have only run half a gallon maybe. So it's all fresh solder joints and new parts. Anyone have an idea? Thanks in advance.

[pfshine]

You just pullwd some of the crap out of your still. Now start reading before you do anything more. Read everything you can especially about cleaning runs.

[aquavita]

My biggest mistake was not starting to distill 20 years ago! But I wouldn't have had help from the forum. But I could have some good age on some whiskey. I know, woulda, coulda shoulda.

AMEN Theo !

I feel the same way.

Kinda funny - I was a "little" rebel when I was young... made a few HQ ids, few keg parties at the drive in etc...

This is my way of being a "little" rebel again... yeah - I'm older than most of you I think.

[Jimbo]

My biggest mistake was not starting to distill 20 years ago! But I wouldn't have had help from the forum. But I could have some good age on some whiskey. I know, woulda, coulda shoulda.

AMEN Theo !

I feel the same way.

Kinda funny - I was a "little" rebel when I was young... made a few HQ ids, few keg parties at the drive in etc...

This is my way of being a "little" rebel again... yeah - I'm older than most of you I think.

HAHAHA! No You wouldnt have anything old to drink. You woulda drank it all. I started 20 years ago, and dont have jack older than 16 months or so.

Well, I have half a fifth of pear brandy from 2000, but that dont count, I basically smell it once a year now cause I dont want it to be gone.

[Prairiepiss]

So I built a still, based on the turbo thumper design. Everything seems to be nicely sealed and no leaks, but I ran some water through it and it came out but smells like hose water, it has a slight green tinge to it. I just wanted to run water through it and use a ppm meter to check it. This is my first run so maybe I should run more? I have only run half a gallon maybe. So it's all fresh solder joints and new parts. Anyone have an idea? Thanks in advance.

I think your biggest mistake was building that design. It's not a good safe design. And has been documented many times why around here.

Please take the time to do some good research here. Before you proceed any further.

You mite also give us a intro in the welcome center. Along with starting a thread about your still. Sl we can help you get it lined out and safe.

[Uncle John]

Damn!
Ran out of pages!

[heartcut]

My old rig had a copper union connecting the liebeg to the lyne arm. It's a pain in the arse to get it just level, tightening it always seems to get it half a bubble off. I'm using the same PC and union with my new, triclamped together rig and just this morning realized I could tighten up the union and then adjust it with the triclamp. (slaps forehead) May be slow, but I am rough.