Tell us about your mistakes.

[T-Pee]

If she'll freak over one, might as well go for a couple.

tp

[Truckinbutch]

If she'll freak over one, might as well go for a couple.

tp

Yup . In for the penny , in for the pound .

[Drunk-N-Smurf]

If she'll freak over one, might as well go for a couple.

tp

Yup . In for the penny , in for the pound .

I could always just leave them on the shelves and ferment in them? Then she'd never know I was using them until the next time we move!

[yakattack]

Ran the boka one last time last night before packing it away for my move. Condensor was not sitting properly and lost 90 % of my vodka to the atmosphere. (Well vented so no danger) one strip run that yielded 2 gallons at 40 % and 10 gallons of 10% and I recovered 1 litre of 95%. By the end of that jar temps were already at 80 degrees c. (Tails) couldn't figure it out and then I saw it. A small wisp coming out of the top. Distillate was cool to the touch, cooling water was warm. No secondary cooler for product.

Stupid mistake. (And yes I was with it the entire time) I'm thinking I need an etho detector now.

On the plus side, the jar I did get is pure neutral.

[aceswired]

Got my first stilling injury today. Took a pot full of hot backset out back to dump on the rocks behind the house as weed killer. Just as I was setting the pot down, some sloshed over the edge and onto my foot. DaaaaaaaaAmn. Icing it now. Hoping it's superficial, but sheesh did that hurt.

[rad14701]

Got my first stilling injury today. Took a pot full of hot backset out back to dump on the rocks behind the house as weed killer. Just as I was setting the pot down, some sloshed over the edge and onto my foot. DaaaaaaaaAmn. Icing it now. Hoping it's superficial, but sheesh did that hurt.

I've learned the hard way to carefully move my hot backset as short a distance as possible and then let it cool before dumping... You only need to splash hot backset down your man parts that are at counter height while dumping it into a sink once to learn your lesson... You can't tear your clothes off fast enough in the middle of the kitchen...

You're all welcome for my burning that vision into your head...

[aceswired]

I get it. My sock came off pretty quick. Dropped the pot (grass there's gonna be dead) and got to a hose. Lesson learned!

[Truckinbutch]

I empty my boiler and thumper into 5 gallon plastic buckets and gently move them to a place to cool before I try to dump them . I had the bail on one bucket fail from heat when I started this hobby . Fortunately the hot backset spilled away from me . I try to capitalize on life's easy lessons .

[skow69]

If she'll freak over one, might as well go for a couple.

tp

Yup . In for the penny , in for the pound .

I could always just leave them on the shelves and ferment in them? Then she'd never know I was using them until the next time we move!

Begging forgiveness is often less trouble than asking permission.

[bearriver]

You can have one, I'm saving the other minor infraction... Jimbo talked me into fessin up the biggun...

About a year ago I drank a damn mason jar lid!

You heard me correctly. I have no idea how, but some way a mason jar lid got inside my reflux column. Two crap runs later I am bewildered why the still won't respond properly. Plus the spirits tasted bad... To my horror I unpacked the column to find what was left of the lid. The vapor had almost completely disintegrated it. That includes the metal and the synthetics. Yummy! The needle valve for the takeoff was half full with what looked and acted like concrete after that...
Edit: I forgot add that the SS mesh packing was completely destroyed with rust. Top that.

Needless to say I cleaned the still to the 10th degree, and have took to regularly visually inspecting all the internals.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Jimbo's got us diggin up bones, so here is my worst f-up to date.
I had done two large batches of a corn based whiskey. Ground up the corn, gelatinized, mashed with barley and rye, fermented out and strained my arms off.
Stripped both batches and I ended up with about 4 gallons of low wines.
I dumped it all into the pot, set it up on the burner and lit up the propane.
Then I went out to get the still head / Liebig. I came back in and the phone was ringing, so I set the stuff down and went to answer the phone in the other room.
I honestly have no idea what happened for quite a while after that. I don't even remember who the call was. I probably made another call, checked my email, browsed a little youtube, checked out HD, maybe did some research for my next recipe....
I don't know, but whatever the hell I was doing, I did it for almost an hour. And then quite suddenly, and with all the alarm you would imagine, I remembered that I had put a still full of low wines to fire an hour ago.
I say "remembered" but it was a lot more like waking up on the highway with semi headlights in your windshield. In a panic I ran back to the still to find it sending a 6" diameter column of vapor straight up 12' to then spread out into the rest of the room. I shut off the fire.
Now, fortunately for my dumb ass, I was in a very large, open, well ventilated space. It took me quite a while to stop the shaking and try to get my wits back about me.
I did go back and start the boiler back up just to confirm that I had in fact boiled off most of a case of whiskey. I had. There was no alcohol left in the still worth going after. Straight to the angles. Just happy I wasn't delivering it in person.
This happened very early in my adventure. Might have even been before I joined up the forum here.
Lesson was learned, I never, not even for a moment walk away from the still anymore. I've had things come up since then when running, and I just shut off the gas, deal with whatever it is, and then go back and resume.
This one is more than embarrassing for me, but I'll put it out there to emphasize that my lack of respect for what I was doing could have been catastrophic, and distraction is as dangerous as anything else that can happen when the heat is on.

Edit: This one doesn't really belong in this thread because it wasn't a mistake, it was just stupidity.

[Jimbo]

Straight to the angles. Just happy I wasn't delivering it in person.

Us too. That there is a good'n. Similar to mine, with serious threat to house and home, and hide. But worse. I laughed reading that cause I know the 'dumb ass attack' well. I have them more often than I care to admit. Cant tell you how many times I walk into the shop or garage and stand there like an idiot wondering what the fuck I came out there for.

[apdb]

I might attach a surf board tether to the base of my column and the other to my ankle. Too often I'll be poaching eggs or making noodles on the stove only to get distracted by whatever shiny object catches my eye. I've ruined enough pots and pans in my adult life, I could only imagine what a boiler charge would do to my marriage. The SOH is already convinced that I'm gonna blow up the neighbourhood because she doesn't trust me.

Aaron

[still_stirrin]

OK, since we're "digging up bones"...I made a stupid mistake once! And I am (usually) very careful to be safe, but here goes...

I toast my wood in the oven, set the temperature to 380F and let it pre-heat. I wrap a bundle of wood chips in aluminum foil and then put it in the oven for 120 minutes. No problem, right? Well, one time I thought I'd reuse chips that had soaked already...you know...be more efficient..."green-minded"...save a tree and all that.

I prepared them just the same, in a few small bundles wrapped in foil and put them into the oven. They were in there probably 60-70 minutes and the kitchen smelled real nice...toasty with a sweet note of hearts in the air. I thought I'd check on the chips to see how they were coming along. Looking through the oven window, all looked fine (normal), so I pulled the oven door open.

Poof! Instant flash fire. I immediately closed the door and the fire extinguished. But I'd sustained some burned eyebrow hairs and the hairs on my hand and arm were singed too. I didn't get any severe burns, but it was an eye opener.

It made a perfect example of "the fire triangle"....fuel...heat/ignition source....and oxygen. With the alcohol evaporating off of the wood chips, the oven was filled with vapors (fuel). The oven's hot electric elements were well above the flash point temperature of alcohol at atmospheric pressure (ignition source). And all that was needed to burn/explode was a good dose of O2.

Bottomline...don't try to reuse chips by retoasting in the oven. Use them as charcoal starter instead...it'll start your grill easy and add a nice toasty flavor to your meats.

Lesson learned. Oh, and the SOH didn't even know about the accident. But she could smell the toasty smells in the kitchen afterwards, so I didn't actually get away with it.
ss

[Jimbo]

Here's a stupid one with a happy ending.

Few weeks ago I was brewin and making up a whsikey mash at the same time. Just generally runnin around with my head cut off. Its dicey doing multiple things, especially when you pass 50 apparently as the dumbassattacks are becoming far too frequent. Then the neighbors came over and started pouring back some beers sittin at the bar (they are brewers too, but only beer). Anyway, I got lit, while I was brewin, mashin and drinking with the neighbors. Long story short.... I was making a Bohemian Pilsner for summer, and I pitched the fucking 1272 ale yeast that was intended for the whiskey mash, in the inebriated madness, instead of the WLP802 bo pils lager yeast I had at the ready for it. Oh well, fuck, so its an ale lager. Great. When I racked it off to carboy for secondary I dry hopped it to give it a little more hops aroma and flavor. Its now kegged and, well, it tastes pretty fuckin good, for a light pale ale, if I may say so myself.

[Antler24]

On my first spirit runaim my electric setup I was running it pretty slow, with just enough cooling water to get the distillate close to room temp. Everything is running smoothly so I leave to take the trash to the curb. 2 minutes later a return to hot steaming water from the Liebig and steam spewing out of the condenser. I quickly cranked the water up and got it under control, then lowered water input until it was back to where I wanted it running, but I couldn't understand what was going on. It ran steady for an hour before that without any adjustments to heat or water flow. Then all of a sudden the cooling flow sped up and distillate temp started to drop, that's when it hit me. Turns out as i ran to the trash the wife started filling the tub to bath our daughter which took a great deal of my coolant water, and things got crazy.

Stripping runs aren't too bad because I run coolant flow much higher than really needed, and if I need to leave the room for a second I cut the heat way back as well, but I don't ever leave the room during a spirit run like that anymore. I'm just thankful I wasn't still using propane or it could have been a whole lot worse.

[Jimbo]

Antler, dont forget that steam rises in temp throughout the run as the alcohol boils off and the steam approaches H2O vapor temp. My flute runs for a long time at 174 vapor temp. THen it starts to rise into the 190's when Im into tails, where I shut the defleg water off and it continues well into the 200's to pull the last tails. Thats 35 degrees difference in vapor temp start to end.

[Antler24]

Antler, dont forget that steam rises in temp throughout the run as the alcohol boils off and the steam approaches H2O vapor temp. My flute runs for a long time at 174 vapor temp. THen it starts to rise into the 190's when Im into tails, where I shut the defleg water off and it continues well into the 200's to pull the last tails. Thats 35 degrees difference in vapor temp start to end.

Now you tell me lol I really new that. It was just a stupid moment. My first spirit run actually, so I was nervous and excited and wasnt sure what to expect, it just held great with that amount of coolant flow for ever so long. I constantly check the coolant temp and distillate temp with every 500ml jar, so if the wife hadn't stole my water (LOL) I'm sure in saying I'd have caught the temp rising. It was an eye opener and I learned my lesson!

[Jimbo]

Every time we do a run there's a lesson to learn

[Truckinbutch]

I'll repeat one of the first things I learned here . When I turn the heat on I am never more than 4 steps away from my rig until it is done .

[sltm1]

For all you old-fart gear/motor heads out there, anyone younger than 65 without verifiable CRS need not apply!! Being the 4th of July, I figured what better day to breathe new life into an old companion. So I decided today was the day to do my "bi-decade" , tune up on my riding mower. Got it all done and then went o change the oil filter....not remembering to do that before I changed the oil (CRS). Talk about your well planned mess....fortunately I had my tool pan handy and slid it under the offending leak saving about 3/4 of the oil and douching my tools with tools with enough 30 weight to keep them rust free for the next 66 years.

[bitter]

My wost mistake so far was not having enough small jars to collect in. This resulted in putting more into my feints that was needed for my first run. Still got 2l of really nice clean product.

B

[rad14701]

My wost mistake so far was not having enough small jars to collect in. This resulted in putting more into my feints that was needed for my first run. Still got 2l of really nice clean product.

B

The cure for that is taking a couple center hearts jars and pouring them into a bigger container... Been there... Done that...

[bitter]

My wost mistake so far was not having enough small jars to collect in. This resulted in putting more into my feints that was needed for my first run. Still got 2l of really nice clean product.

B

The cure for that is taking a couple center hearts jars and pouring them into a bigger container... Been there... Done that...

Thanks,

I collected the tail end in the feints jar.. so was not lost at least.. so from 2 10g of Ujssm got about 2L of 60% but have about 2.3l of feints for the next run. last jar I collected was starting to have the tails just start... still tasted good... but not as clean so in the end most likely just ended up with a cleaner product for my first set of cuts. Heads are easy (put them in the feints jar too after the 300ml of 95% was pulled for fores).. tails still having issues knowing what to keep and what to recycle... for now once I even get a small change in taste/smell from the heats.... into the tails it goes...

B

[skow69]

That's not a bad practice. You can always blend a little back in, in small samples to see if you like it.

[Brutal]

I guess I got a couple too.

First run I ever made was on my back porch. When cleaning up I managed to let my water hose touch the side of the skirt on the keg. It burned a hole in it in a second and started shooting water all over the place. good thing I was outside.

Here's a better one. I have one local friend that distils and that's it. I had never made a run with him, so I loaded up my stuff in the suv and drove over there nervously. I had a shitload of feints saved up, and a little uj mash. I showed up with my 15.5 keg, my modified metal trashcan to put over it, and my Brewhous EE2 ss still head. We used his burner and water hose.

The still hadn't been run in a month or so so we decided to do some cleaning runs first. I put in a half gallon of vinegar and let her eat. With no way to tell how much vinegar was left we just ran it till it was dry. We wanted to run water next, so when dry I had the great time saving idea to just put a funnel in the top opening of my column and pour a few gallons of water down it. The problem with that is the boiler was mush hotter than 212 f... so as the water hit the boiler it instantly turned to steam and tried to exit the same column I was pouring water into... With water chugging and splashing out the top I had to jump down off the ladder and regroup. Took us a few to figure out why that kept happening. The skirt on the keg was much hotter than the keg. We disassembled the whole thing and filled just the boiler with the funnel and everything was ok.

At least it was a wateruption, and not a likkeruption.

[gemcutter]

This scared me when I realized why it was acting up.....

keg with a boka....my new friend that lives remotely so has a very nice place to run a still has helped me a lot...but on this one thing it could have been ugly.
After cutting ties with a different person(long story of loose lips) and finding a more suitable friend to run what I have, a new keg was in order. We decided to save the spear and use it to keep bugs out of the keg between runs.He likes getting the keg full and ready for me to show up with the boka head early in the morning...good partner as he does way more work and a whole lot less talking then the old.I can't run at my home for various reasons.
So a date for a run was set and he filled the keg with our "beer" and at 5am I showed up with the still head.put it all together and got the heat going but it was acting strange....it has been a few weeks and can't describe all the details but since this was my 30th or so run with the same still head just a change in location i couldn't figure out why it was acting this way....all other runs had been very similar.
But the apparatus was working so we continued.
Poor results for a couple of reasons and decided to end the run with less then 50% of what it should have produced.

upon dismantling the head from the keg we discovered the reason and damn near scalded ourselves...the spear had been left in....holy shit....i had to hold the head down to prevent the liquid from spraying out any more then it was....thank god no one got anymore then first degree painful burns and thank god the spear didn't cause the whole thing to blow up.I usually heat slowly so when things were acting weird I turn the heat way down.
The spear was immediately thrown in the garbage and a rubber band and plastic bag was the new bug seal.....Took an hour or more to calm down enough to drive home.

[Rng4]

Ok this hurts. Tonight I'm running my second batch of panella rum. I'm moving stuff around in the shed, kill in time chatting with my daughter. I'm showing her how to run the still and explaining the difference between fores, heads, ect like a good daddy should. Well during this process I decide to pour the fores and early heads into the fuel jug. Well I no sooner get it all poured in then I realize that I grabbed the wrong jug. I managed to pour it into 3 quarts of 90% rum hearts from last week. That I was planning to drink this weekend when my daughter and grandson came to town. I know I can run it again but I have no more panella. I hate doing stupid stuff

[Brutal]

Ok this hurts. Tonight I'm running my second batch of panella rum. I'm moving stuff around in the shed, kill in time chatting with my daughter. I'm showing her how to run the still and explaining the difference between fores, heads, ect like a good daddy should. Well during this process I decide to pour the fores and early heads into the fuel jug. Well I no sooner get it all poured in then I realize that I grabbed the wrong jug. I managed to pour it into 3 quarts of 90% rum hearts from last week. That I was planning to drink this weekend when my daughter and grandson came to town. I know I can run it again but I have no more panella. I hate doing stupid stuff

Pour it all in with the backset from last nights run. Bam new rum.

[Snuffy-ga]

Didnt turn on the cooling water in time so vapour started comming out and because I use propane she caught fire. If I wasnt in the room it would have been a disaster.

This is exactly why I put my collection bottles in a 12 ltr pot to catch the vapors and any spilled product. a quart of water in the bottom also eliminated the fire hazard from spillage as it renders it not flammable any longer as soon as it hits the water.