Hello from SW Washington

[chambersranch]

I am not a new member, but I have been lurking since Feb, 2011. I have been into this hobby since the spring of 2009.
I have read the parent site many times, and just about every thread in this forum, and the others, that is pertinent to the subject of mashing, fermentation, and distillation.

I am a journeyman carpenter by trade, but I have many skills. Structural, mechanical, electrical and welding.

I have many hobbies. My first and foremost is outdoor activities like fishing, hunting, camping, gold prospecting, metal detecting, mushroom picking (not the psychoactive kind either) lol. Then there's my home built RC airplanes, off-roading in my 1986 4runner.

I left out the hobby of distillation, as it's not a hobby it's an obsession! I'm not sure where I fall in as far as experience goes, but I do have a lot of successful ferments and distillation runs under my belt. I have done everything from AG to rum and fruit. The first wash I ever did, was a sugar wash. That was the only one, as I wasn't impressed!

I run a 15 gal keg boiler with a 2-1/2 inch copper boka that's 38" tall, packed with SPP. The condenser is a 1/2" copper, with double wound 3/8" copper. I have a 32gal mash tun from glacier tanks, and two 20 gal, two 15 gal, and four 6gal fermenters. I use a 55 gal pickle barrel for cooling water recirculation.

I never sell and I don't share. I'm kinda stingy that way.

I would like to let the senior members know how much I appreciate the help they have given me, through the help of others. Many thanks! I wouldn't be where I'm at without you.

Best Regards,
Fahrenheit 172

[bearriver]

Welcome to the boards. Sounds like you are well settled into the hobby.

I wasn't even the legal drinking age in 09

[chambersranch]

I have photo's and video's I'm afraid to post them! I'm afraid of the data that iPhone and iPads photo's contain.

[bearriver]

Take new pictures. Most modern phones have a setting somewhere inside the camera app that will allow/disallow picture gps tagging. Just remove those permissions from inside the app.

[Red Rim]

Like a long lost brother. Again, amazing how many of the same pursuits we all have in common. Modern day explorers.
Glad you came out of the shadows. I too, lurked for a long while before I joined.

[chambersranch]

I will take new pictures the next run then post them.

[rad14701]

Greetings, chambersranch...

Sounds like you've got a decent handle on things...

As far as posting pictures is concerned, Husker has scripting in place that strips GPS and other meta data from uploaded files for personal security reasons... Any uploads should be safe...

Good luck, stay safe, and enjoy the journey...

[Coyote]

Welcome!
I also come from the PNW although a bit south of
the big river and east of you a fair piece

Funny I started this journey early spring of 09'
and found this outfit in April, joined right up.

Play nice Be safe Enjoy the Ride

Coyote

[chambersranch]

This is a video of my rig in a double boiler setup doing a run of plum & blackberry on the pulp at about 80/20 respectively. It was in closed reflux for 30 minutes and ended up getting a little warmer than I wanted, but I turned the heat down an stabilized at 179 F pot temp. Took the fores of at 169 F slowly increasing to 172 F in 80ml at 1 drop a second. Stopped fores and increased takeoff rate to 3 drops second an started collecting in 100ml for the entire run. I increased burner input 3/4 of the way thru to maintain takeoff rate and increased coolant flow to the coil to compensate for the increase in coolant water temp. After airing for 36 hrs an strick cuts, I proofed at 194, diluted to 128, put on medium toast oak spiral 4 days for a light oaking, then diluted to 90 proof and bottled. Ended up with 2 1/2 liters aging in glass. I used no sugar In my must.https://vimeo.com/107767585

[rad14701]

Something is off with your readings because alcohol won't read 194 proof/97% ABV after airing... The alcohol will absorb H2O from the ambient air and drop back to ~95%/190 proof... Did you temperature correct your alcometer readings...???

[chambersranch]

I did not temperature correct and it was very warm out.

[chambersranch]

Also my alcoholometer has a correction for any thing between 50-200 so it was probably about 186

[HDNB]

welcome, interesting interests you bring to the table!
tell, do you get much fruit flavour coming through at that proof? i'm jus fermenting some plums and have been considering my take off rate and whether or not to use pot mode or reflux or just strip it and double distill.
i'm hoping for a traditional slivovitz...

[chambersranch]

I contemplated the same thing, but in the past I found with grains I got the result either way, so I tried it with straight blackberry and then a straight plum in potstill mode. I had to rerun them as it was undrinkable. Maybe with many years of aging it would have been ok, but I can't wait that long! So this last batch I tried it like I described and I am drinking as I type this. To me it has a lot of flavor. It has a sweet taste on the tongue with a hint of fruit and finishes with caramel like whiskey flavor. I like it straight and on ice, trying it with Pepsi tonight and love it! This is the first year I have tried plums and that is in part due to the Palinka thread and an abundance of plums this year. As far as it being a traditional Palinka I'm not sure as I have never tried it until now.