my first run was kind of successful?

[steviesterno]

Obviously I'm new to all of this, but have been reading here and watching some videos. 6 days ago I used the simple sugar wash recipe from here with 13 pounds of sugar in 6.5 gallons of water. My Turbo yeast didn't show up and I wanted to do my first sacrificial run yesterday so I said screw it and used Fleichman's rapid yeast we had for bread.

the bubbles were crazy for 3 days and then started to slow down, but still pretty quick (every 10 seconds or so) all the way to yesterday. smelled like bread while that was happening.

I cracked open the brew pot since it's part of my still to get it ready, and the liquid was basically Zima. Clearly had alcohol but I haven't ordered any measuring equipment so I'm just gonna guess by taste it was about 15%.

Then I set everything up and ran it. Used really low heat so it took almost 75 minutes to get anything to come out, I'm going to up that next time. Ran for about a half hour/45 minutes and I made 10 cuts just for practice.

The first bit of the heads was really floral and harsh smelling. Didn't really bead at all but that might have been me doing it wrong. Jars 4-5 actually smelled really good. My final jar (where I mostly quit due to time) was still flamable with blue flame, so over 80% from what I was reading.

The whole collection was about a half gallon, maybe a little less.

At the end, I opened the wash bucket and holy hell it stank like something rotten! sour and gross. Stunk the house and made the wife pretty unhappy.

Positives: It worked, I made booze for the first time! It was about as straightforward as I imagined and worked well. I was ecstatic when i saw distillate

Failures: I'm working indoors (by an open door) so I can't reach the sink. Used a small cooler with ice and an aquarium pump to cool my coil. I didn't buy a valve so basically was controlling flow by hand and the pump was too powerful. Also that water gets Really hot! What can I do to keep that water cooler besides a bigger cooler and more ice? I'll add a valve so I'm more consistent.

[NormandieStill]

Failures: I'm working indoors (by an open door) so I can't reach the sink. Used a small cooler with ice and an aquarium pump to cool my coil. I didn't buy a valve so basically was controlling flow by hand and the pump was too powerful. Also that water gets Really hot! What can I do to keep that water cooler besides a bigger cooler and more ice? I'll add a valve so I'm more consistent.

I started out with the same idea and hit the same problem. The aquarium pump is just too powerful and it takes a large quantity of water to keep things cool. I'd planned on using ice packs, and figured I'd swap them out as needed, but after my vinegar run it became clear that it was never going to work. Which is really obvious when you think about the numbers. If you're putting 2000w in then you need close to 2000w of cooling coming out. That's quite a lot of ice cubes to prepare in advance.

Long term I intend to use a large (~120l) drum of rain water as my water source which can then be recycled. Since I'm not running continuously I can rely on the environment to cool it back down afterwards. For now I'm running off the mains with a long armed ball valve which I'm hoping will finally give me the fine-grained control I need.

[stevieg]

I have my coil in a 6 gal. plastic bucket. I installed a valve 1" below the top with a drain hose attached. I then put a valve on a garden hose, cracked the valve and put it in the bottom of the bucket. It's not the perfect solution but seems to keep the water on top at about 100 F with 65F on the bottom. It's working for me until I can come up with a better idea.

[steviesterno]

I have a pot of sugar was and super yeast cooling down now so I can try again in a week! I know turbo is cheating and not great but I wanna learn the ropes without ruining expensive ingredients.

[Oldvine Zin]

At the end, I opened the wash bucket and holy hell it stank like something rotten! sour and gross. Stunk the house and made the wife pretty unhappy.

Welcome to the glamors of stillin, and wait until you do a large boiler full of rum
Stay safe
OVZ

[Justinthunder]

What I do for water is I bought a 50 gallon plastic drum and filled it with water, I use a fish tank pump with a ball valve to adjust the flow of water, I also freeze a few old milk jugs full of water, I just put the jugs in the drum as needed and it helps keep it cool, I only have a 12 gallon still so I don’t need a ton of water to keep it cool.

[howie]

I have a pot of sugar was and super yeast cooling down now so I can try again in a week! I know turbo is cheating and not great but I wanna learn the ropes without ruining expensive ingredients.

4kg sugar + 250gms wheat bran +80gms of bakers yeast +23litres water
which bit of that is expensive?

[howie]

Obviously I'm new to all of this, but have been reading here and watching some videos. 6 days ago I used the simple sugar wash recipe from here with 13 pounds of sugar in 6.5 gallons of water. My Turbo yeast didn't show up and I wanted to do my first sacrificial run yesterday so I said screw it and used Fleichman's rapid yeast we had for bread.

the bubbles were crazy for 3 days and then started to slow down, but still pretty quick (every 10 seconds or so) all the way to yesterday. smelled like bread while that was happening.

I cracked open the brew pot since it's part of my still to get it ready, and the liquid was basically Zima. Clearly had alcohol but I haven't ordered any measuring equipment so I'm just gonna guess by taste it was about 15%.

Then I set everything up and ran it. Used really low heat so it took almost 75 minutes to get anything to come out, I'm going to up that next time. Ran for about a half hour/45 minutes and I made 10 cuts just for practice.

The first bit of the heads was really floral and harsh smelling. Didn't really bead at all but that might have been me doing it wrong. Jars 4-5 actually smelled really good. My final jar (where I mostly quit due to time) was still flamable with blue flame, so over 80% from what I was reading.

The whole collection was about a half gallon, maybe a little less.

At the end, I opened the wash bucket and holy hell it stank like something rotten! sour and gross. Stunk the house and made the wife pretty unhappy.

Positives: It worked, I made booze for the first time! It was about as straightforward as I imagined and worked well. I was ecstatic when i saw distillate

Failures: I'm working indoors (by an open door) so I can't reach the sink. Used a small cooler with ice and an aquarium pump to cool my coil. I didn't buy a valve so basically was controlling flow by hand and the pump was too powerful. Also that water gets Really hot! What can I do to keep that water cooler besides a bigger cooler and more ice? I'll add a valve so I'm more consistent.

you're having trouble keeping things cool, yet you're going to run things hotter next time?
positives- you are still alive and the house hasn't burnt down
coolant control is fairly important in regards flow and temp for quality and safety.
blue flame test v alcometer? (BTW how are you going know how much to dilute your distillate for tasting?)
but well done on producing your first distillate, i remember the feeling.
but from one novice to another, i feel as though you need to tighten up on quite a few things.
good luck

[Oldvine Zin]

I have a pot of sugar was and super yeast cooling down now so I can try again in a week! I know turbo is cheating and not great but I wanna learn the ropes without ruining expensive ingredients.

Turbo yeast is only cheating your final product. That statement reminds me when someone asked me what to do with this bad tasting wine, "should I cook with it?" she asked. My reply was only if you want bad tasting food.

Be safe
OVZ
Oh and yeast is not the expensive ingredient, your sugar and grains are, please don't waste them with the turbo crap

[steviesterno]

I have a pot of sugar was and super yeast cooling down now so I can try again in a week! I know turbo is cheating and not great but I wanna learn the ropes without ruining expensive ingredients.

4kg sugar + 250gms wheat bran +80gms of bakers yeast +23litres water
which bit of that is expensive?

I wanted to try simple, without wheat or anything first just to get a feel for the equipment. I certainly learned a bunch. I've never done this before (except probably in small scale in a college chemistry classroom) and don't have anyone local to show me the ropes.

[steviesterno]

Obviously I'm new to all of this, but have been reading here and watching some videos. 6 days ago I used the simple sugar wash recipe from here with 13 pounds of sugar in 6.5 gallons of water. My Turbo yeast didn't show up and I wanted to do my first sacrificial run yesterday so I said screw it and used Fleichman's rapid yeast we had for bread.

the bubbles were crazy for 3 days and then started to slow down, but still pretty quick (every 10 seconds or so) all the way to yesterday. smelled like bread while that was happening.

I cracked open the brew pot since it's part of my still to get it ready, and the liquid was basically Zima. Clearly had alcohol but I haven't ordered any measuring equipment so I'm just gonna guess by taste it was about 15%.

Then I set everything up and ran it. Used really low heat so it took almost 75 minutes to get anything to come out, I'm going to up that next time. Ran for about a half hour/45 minutes and I made 10 cuts just for practice.

The first bit of the heads was really floral and harsh smelling. Didn't really bead at all but that might have been me doing it wrong. Jars 4-5 actually smelled really good. My final jar (where I mostly quit due to time) was still flamable with blue flame, so over 80% from what I was reading.

The whole collection was about a half gallon, maybe a little less.

At the end, I opened the wash bucket and holy hell it stank like something rotten! sour and gross. Stunk the house and made the wife pretty unhappy.

Positives: It worked, I made booze for the first time! It was about as straightforward as I imagined and worked well. I was ecstatic when i saw distillate

Failures: I'm working indoors (by an open door) so I can't reach the sink. Used a small cooler with ice and an aquarium pump to cool my coil. I didn't buy a valve so basically was controlling flow by hand and the pump was too powerful. Also that water gets Really hot! What can I do to keep that water cooler besides a bigger cooler and more ice? I'll add a valve so I'm more consistent.

you're having trouble keeping things cool, yet you're going to run things hotter next time?
positives- you are still alive and the house hasn't burnt down
coolant control is fairly important in regards flow and temp for quality and safety.
blue flame test v alcometer? (BTW how are you going know how much to dilute your distillate for tasting?)
but well done on producing your first distillate, i remember the feeling.
but from one novice to another, i feel as though you need to tighten up on quite a few things.
good luck

Thanks for the review. I'm posting with the hopes of learning from others. My plan is to go from a tiny cooler that held just a bit of ice to a big one that will hold 40+ pounds or more. I think I'll also run the cooler outdoors so it stays cooler and I could more easily dump hot water if it gets that far. I will buy a ball valve for control too.

I didn't buy a hydrometer/alcometer but I know I need one. I will shop shortly but open to suggestions!

I know methanol doesn't burn the same color as ethanol, so that's what I was going with. Also was watching video of old-school proofing with fire in that if it lights blue to almost colorless it's high test. If you can get it to go after holding the flame for a second or 2 it's at least 80*.

I ordered turbo yeast because I had a scheduled day to do this and wanted to get something fast so I could try, especially since it was going to be a sacrificial run anyway. The shipment got delayed and that's how I ended up just grabbing whatever I could at the local walmart. I am using the turbo now with ~14 pounds of sugar and holy shit is it bubbling like a fiend! I'm glad I read the trick of making a bigger airlock by using a jar or this stuff would be volcano erupting all over the house.

[howie]

I have a pot of sugar was and super yeast cooling down now so I can try again in a week! I know turbo is cheating and not great but I wanna learn the ropes without ruining expensive ingredients.

4kg sugar + 250gms wheat bran +80gms of bakers yeast +23litres water
which bit of that is expensive?

I wanted to try simple, without wheat or anything first just to get a feel for the equipment. I certainly learned a bunch. I've never done this before (except probably in small scale in a college chemistry classroom) and don't have anyone local to show me the ropes.

the wheat bit isn't anything special or needs much work, it's just supermarket stuff from woolies.
should be able to get something similar over there.

woolies wheat bran.jpg (10.1 KiB) Viewed 1319 times

i personally use the popular FFV wash, so easy and 'almost' bullet proof
https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... 11&t=56998
no filtering needed or any other turbo stuff.

[Yummyrum]

Thats the stuff I use too Howie

[DSmith78]

At the end, I opened the wash bucket and holy hell it stank like something rotten! sour and gross. Stunk the house and made the wife pretty unhappy.

Welcome to the glamors of stillin, and wait until you do a large boiler full of rum
Stay safe
OVZ

+1. That shit is oily and stinky!

[Saltbush Bill]

Welcome to the glamors of stillin, and wait until you do a large boiler full of rum

+1. That shit is oily and stinky!

If its not you've done something wrong.