Tell us about your mistakes.

[jedneck]

I've read and believe that at about two months tannins or something come out of the oak and take a month or two to blend with other compounds to mellow or blend into a fine drink. I had uj that when from almost drinkable to tasting of straight fores in a week then mellow and smooth out two months later.

[Johnny6]

You guys are giving me some hope for this batch. It will be a good excuse to leave it alone and not take any more "samples" for a while. I'll focus my attention on some apple brandy and some Deathwish WG that I've got going. Thanks for the feedback.

[Jo Diesel]

I did 2 batches and did not like the flavor so I dumped 2 back into the wash of 3rd batch. And heads and tails into second batch with a 2 qt tails All were sweet feed with added wheat. Combined first 2 quarts of each batch at 120 proof then 1 gal hearts at 100 proof then 1 gal lower hearts at 70 proof and 2 qt tails from each batch..
Had the 120 and 100 aging on oak. Was drinkin the 100 proof after 6 weeks and it was getting really good. 120 was way to strong so I figured I would mix all 5 gal l together and even it out. WRONG! Killed the sweet flavor and any hint of aging. Toasted some more oak and re loaded my aging jars and after another month flavor is starting to get better.
LESSON, Blend small first.

[phillmystill]

My biggest mistake so far..............

My apple brandy.

First off my apple crop from my 3 trees was decimated in June with the worse hail-storm I've ever seen, so I was never going to make gallons. In the end I had about 30l of my own home-grown juice to ferment.

The fermentation went well, took about 4 days at ambient temperature to ferment out to dry, I let it sit a week, racked it, let it sit another week, racked it and ran it. On my spirit run I collected in small increments and aired for 36 hours as usual.

Now for the mistake - I had work that night, was pushed for time, wife was nagging me to "clear your shit away" so I made my cuts in a rush into 3 labelled demijohns and stashed them in my shed.

When I had finished my set of shifts I got the 3 demijohns out of the shed, uncorked the hearts one, had a sniff and realised I'd messed up and probably included some early heads and late tails in with my hearts. In my frustration I threw the contents of all 3 demijohns into 1 and left it in my shed to redistill at a later date.

Fast forward to last week when I was running some bird watchers to give me some pot stilled neutral for infusions. I put the low wines in demijohns in the shed and you guessed it, accidentally mixed my small quantity of precious apple brandy with birdwatchers low wines in my spirit run.

I realised what I'd done when making my cuts and noticed a decidedly apple note to my late heads and early hearts. After blending and proofing I have a very nice sipping product in the white, probably not as robustly apple flavoured as my brandy would have been and way too subtle to be aged on wood, but a nice white dog all the same.

[cranky]

I realised what I'd done when making my cuts and noticed a decidedly apple note to my late heads and early hearts. After blending and proofing I have a very nice sipping product in the white, probably not as robustly apple flavoured as my brandy would have been and way too subtle to be aged on wood, but a nice white dog all the same.

Funny thing you should mention that, not long ago I did a run of neutral for the wife which was mostly all-bran and a little bit of rice. When I was running I noticed a distinct apple smell too. After blending I noticed a slight fruitiness to the final product. When I checked the bottles I saved the low wines in I found one single 750ml bottle, out of 13 gallons of low wines, was labeled "apple". In early December I did the first run of apple brandy (12 gallons of juice) and saved the cuts in 750ml bottles then somehow got one bottle mixed with the all bran low wines. I actually find the final product not bad but am surprised at how much fruit flavor carried over.

[shadylane]

I decided to make some Apple Pie flavored Shine.
Here's the mistake, I used powdered cinnamon.
It wouldn't settle out and it's a pain to filter.
I'm still waiting for the cinnamon haze to clear up, the taste is good but it looks bad.

[jedneck]

I decided to make some Apple Pie flavored Shine.
Here's the mistake, I used powdered cinnamon.
It wouldn't settle out and it's a pain to filter.
I'm still waiting for the cinnamon haze to clear up, the taste is good but it looks bad.

I've heard that the liver and kidneys will filter it.

[phillmystill]

I decided to make some Apple Pie flavored Shine.
Here's the mistake, I used powdered cinnamon.
It wouldn't settle out and it's a pain to filter.
I'm still waiting for the cinnamon haze to clear up, the taste is good but it looks bad.

I've read that there could be some safety issues related to powered cinnamon as it is generally powdered cassia rather than true cinnamon that you get in the sticks.

I'm lead to believe it has a high coumarin content which is a toxin and also soluble in alcohol and water. Probably the potential quantities consumed would be negligible, but I thought I'd give you a heads up.

[shadylane]

Thanks for the heads-up phillmystill aka PMS
Sorry couldn't help myself.

[phillmystill]

Thanks for the heads-up phillmystill aka PMS
Sorry couldn't help myself.

My wife would probably agree with you when I'm in "one of my moods".

[shadylane]

A friend has a liebig condenser that he can't blow through anymore.
I asked him "did you drain the water out the last time you used it".
He said "does it make a difference"
It does when the temp falls below freezing.

[Jimbo]

haha thats funny. well not really, but I did laugh.

[dstaines]

I bet this is a classic mistake -

Stilling late late at night, way deep into the end of the run just trying to get the last couple drops out of a stripping- fell asleep in my chair. Guess it was later than I thought.

Woke up with a start, and the gallon jar I had been collecting in was just starting to over flow. Lost about a quarter cup I think. I run with a hot plate that has rubber feet, sits up about 1/2" off the floor, but... shit. That could have been real bad.

Turned it off, disconnected the power (except for the recirc pump), sopped everything up, left the clean up for the morning and crashed out.

[Odin]

The signs were on the wall, but I was to darn stuborn to see them. Temp at the botom of my column all of a sudden went up during heat-up. What? Yeah, sign of column flooding. After I poored just too much into the boiler. When the Fores came out brown (distilling a 9% molasses wine), I knew it to be true. So - in a hury - I decided to drain some. With a blocked column, draining does not work so well ...

... so I opened up the boiler.

Not a good idea.

Molasses everywhere. Including on the ceiling.

Cleaned most of it up by now.

Regards, Odin.

[T-Pee]

Whoa! Hope you didn't get scalded, Odin!

I blew a gasket a while back and fortunately the steam and boiling wash went sideways from me.
Scared the shiite outta me.

tp

[Odin]

It just missed me.

Odin.

[engunear]

Actually pintoshine was lucky it was not worse. Flour in air at the right proportion will explode as well, or any flammable dust.

This is a problem at grain silos when trucks are dumping grain, and the truck is charged with static electricity, and there is dust in the air, and boof! So they connect a conducting cable to the truck.

Personally, I'd never operate a gas-heated still indoors. I know many do. Their call.

[Jimbo]

speaking of dust explosions, its worth stating again,.,,, Ive never had a problem but I watch it like a hawk. I have a mill set up with a motor and pulley system on a milling stand. THe motor I use is not a sealed motor design. When Im going to town grinding 70 lbs of grain there's a fair amount of dust generated. I use a piece of plywood and fan it away from the motor if there's enough dust to notice. A fireball in the shed and an eyebrowless mug is not on my bucketlist.

[bentstick]

Actually pintoshine was lucky it was not worse. Flour in air at the right proportion will explode as well, or any flammable dust.

This is a problem at grain silos when trucks are dumping grain, and the truck is charged with static electricity, and there is dust in the air, and boof! So they connect a conducting cable to the truck.

Personally, I'd never operate a gas-heated still indoors. I know many do. Their call.

When grinding and loading trucks at Wifes family farm everything is grounded dust is every where,plus have a saw mill running 2 buildings over and is the same way! Dust is bad when it goes poof!

[HDNB]

30 years ago, it was not uncommon to walk by a prepper using a "featheredger" (a random orbit sander) in the bodyshop and flick your bic in the dust cloud. Made a really nice 3' ball of flame, right in his face.
on the slightly less dangerous side, taping a windhield washer bottle to the air hose and pushing it under the car from the far side of a bodyman on a fender. walk over to the wall and plug it into 120PSI.
and back to the more dangerous...same washer bottle filled with oxy/acetelyne mix and taped to a spark plug under the hood. (actually hyper-extended the hood hinges on a lincoln with that one)

mistakes now....shit your pants funny then. the OH and S guys would have a stroke just hearing the stories of practical jokes back then.

not trying to go too far off topic...just saying dust goes boom, easy. it's a good thing you are doing.... taking precautions.

[Due51]

I made some neutral, diluted to 50%, and ran it through my carbon-charcoal filter. Now my product is 35%. I'm guessing it's due to the initial boiled water I run through the carbon prior to filtering, and the residual ethanol bound up in it after it all runs through.

Damn.

[Jimbo]

I dont know if this goes in Mistakes, or Lessons Learned the F&^&in Hard Way.

In an attempt to avoid scorching my second batch of S3 Triple malt I rigged up this filter. I put a 1 micron spun filter on and was pretty happy with myself when it started flowing nicely at 30 PSI. Then at about half gallon it stopped. Shit. 50 PSI, nothing. Openned it up and put a 5 micron in. Filtered 5 gallons, success. Note this was the top 5 gallons from my fermenter, pretty clear to begin with. The next 5 gallons was squeezed slippery slimy gunk. The filter promptly clogged. Openned it up and put a 10 micron in there. Nothing.

The end.

Moral: Learn from my mistake and expense and dont try this.

[CR33G3R]

I just did a strawberry PD and to be honest it sucks not sure what happened I may have to throw it in with some feints or something for another birth though the still...oh well

[ga flatwoods]

I just did a strawberry PD and to be honest it sucks not sure what happened I may have to throw it in with some feints or something for another birth though the still...oh well

Did you use real dropped panties , or not? May be your problem!

[W Pappy]

Got to use a neutral for those PD's, at least I do or I cant stand em I don't waste good corn likker on that stuff bird watchers be a good un.
posting same time as flatwoods hahaha if ya did maybe next time use a smaller pair less flavor carry over.

[Jimbo]

Had the same problem with some Cherry Bourbon. Really didnt work out, like a fornicated up bourbon or fornicated up cherry something. But same damn thing done with Neutral and its delicious.

[rad14701]

I had a bonehead moment a week ago... I decided to whip up a quick batch of my modified Birdwatchers and promptly added 5 bags of sugar into my 6.5 gallon carboy for a 6 gallon wash... Only problem was I was using 4 pound bags of sugar for a total of 20 pounds instead of 10...!!! Took a hydrometer reading and the damned thing almost jumped right back out of the test cylinder... I now have two 6.5 gallon carboys slowing and clearing as I type this... Luckily, I had used 1.5 6oz cans of tomato paste as there was an unused half can sitting in the refrigerator so there were ample nutrients even after splitting... That should yield roughly 2 gallons of drinking proof vodka, give or take...

[CR33G3R]

Did you use real dropped panties , or not? May be your problem!

Ha that's funny right there. Yea the problem had to be I used some pretty good UJ. I guess that's what I get for thinking I had enough stock to give it a whirl

[Bigbob]

Welcome rad14701, please read the post spoon feeding, it sounds like you need to do more reserch....... Sorry, couldn't let that go!!!

[T-Pee]

Welcome rad14701, please read the post spoon feeding, it sounds like you need to do more reserch....... Sorry, couldn't let that go!!!

BOOM!

tp