Information from Barley and Hops

[rickyaifd]

I wasn't sure where to place this question. I know that Barley and Hops are banned to a degree on the forum. My question is, How accurate IS their information. Another distilling group I am with has people all the time saying this or that about the video's they produce as the end-all, be-all of distillation. I know that is not the case. So I can be as accurate as possible, How misleading is their information?

[shadylane]

George is better at making videos than he is knowledgeable about home distilling.
There're several others on youtube I'd rather watch.
George is at the bottom of the list.
He doubles down on his mistakes and even worst deletes comments that could have corrected him.

[Saltbush Bill]

If you look at the forum rules there is a heading, that says "Links to these sites and videos are not welcome here and will be deleted"
The site mentioned above is included in that Category for good reason, much of the information from that site is misleading or completely wrong and in some cases quite dangerous.
From what Ive notice in my internet wanderings most of his loyal fans are very new to this hobby and know no better than to listen to his garbage.
There are many other much better choices, This fella is one. https://www.youtube.com/@StillBehindTheBench/videos
Here are a couple of examples.

[shadylane]

Still It, is also pretty good.
I don't agree with all of his opinions, but his info is honest and safe.

https://www.youtube.com/@StillIt/videos

[Saltbush Bill]

+1

[Wildcats]

Bad and unsafe information on his video is why we don't condone his video. I think he has past away tho.

[Siva283]

Its been a year but I last heard he was still alive but taking time off for personal reason's/ Some people think health some people think the AFT paid him a visit.

[PLAYMP]

Its been a year but I last heard he was still alive but taking time off for personal reason's/ Some people think health some people think the AFT paid him a visit.

Towards the end of when he started making videos he did a series where a couple of guys flew him out to give them advice on setting up their distillery. The videos are a little cringe. The two guys have no idea what they're doing and of course George has no idea what he's doing but thinks he does and the whole thing is a recipe for disaster. I may watch it again just for the entertainment value.

Anyway I think these two guys sunk thousands if not tens of thousands into this endeavor and at one point realized that George might have led them up a creek without a paddle. The videos are still up so I assume they didn't pursue legal action but I wouldn't put it past them to launch a harassment campaign that sent George into retirement.

[Siva283]

George is a hack no disagreement there. He is good for entertainment and occasionally idea's. However his instructions and how he does things are a joke. Most of us I am sure made alot of the same mistakes but we learned from them and got better and stopped or never gave people bad info where he just keeps putting garbage out there.
I think most of his video's were just long adverts for his PID controllers. Which everyone who has made a few runs knows there is information to temps but you cant run a still by them. For example I shut down at a 205 boiler temp. From there its just not worth the effort for me. And at the top of my flute it tells me if vapor is running or not. Thats the only use they have atleast for me and I dont need them and could run fine without them. They just confirm what I know
When I ran my pot temps were useless I didnt bother. But George no he wants to run everything but temps and you just cant every wash is different. Alltitudes hell even season. That all makes things change.

[LordL]

Its been a year but I last heard he was still alive but taking time off for personal reason's/ Some people think health some people think the AFT paid him a visit.

Towards the end of when he started making videos he did a series where a couple of guys flew him out to give them advice on setting up their distillery. The videos are a little cringe. The two guys have no idea what they're doing and of course George has no idea what he's doing but thinks he does and the whole thing is a recipe for disaster. I may watch it again just for the entertainment value.

Anyway I think these two guys sunk thousands if not tens of thousands into this endeavor and at one point realized that George might have led them up a creek without a paddle. The videos are still up so I assume they didn't pursue legal action but I wouldn't put it past them to launch a harassment campaign that sent George into retirement.

Rumours regarding legal charges is something I picked up somewhere as well.

Jessie is almost always a fun 10-60 min watch every Saturday.
Even though I'm not the biggest fan of meme spirits or sugar laced allgrains, his whisky, rum rice vodka and so on is really enjoyable.

It's a shame still behind the bench don't seem to produce anymore. Lots of good stuff!

[Tōtōchtin]

End the end I'll bet there will be people here that will praise George for what he helped in the industry. He along with the moonshiner crowd brought in a lot of people who started distilling after watching those shows. All these new distillers are going to push legalization forward much quicker.
Pids are useful in step fermentations, and slowly raising my temps for esterification. They could help with vapor speed if you could get a low expense vapor flow meter, this I'm guessing at but in my mind's eye I can see that working.
Tōtō

[LordL]

End the end I'll bet there will be people here that will praise George for what he helped in the industry. He along with the moonshiner crowd brought in a lot of people who started distilling after watching those shows. All these new distillers are going to push legalization forward much quicker.
Pids are useful in step fermentations, and slowly raising my temps for esterification. They could help with vapor speed if you could get a low expense vapor flow meter, this I'm guessing at but in my mind's eye I can see that working.
Tōtō

Very true in George building a crowd and awaking the interest. He may not always had right, but the spirit was in the right place I guess.

[NormandieStill]

Towards the end of when he started making videos he did a series where a couple of guys flew him out to give them advice on setting up their distillery. The videos are a little cringe. The two guys have no idea what they're doing and of course George has no idea what he's doing but thinks he does and the whole thing is a recipe for disaster. I may watch it again just for the entertainment value.

I hunted it down and took a look. At 2m57s in, George has explained that the vapour temp of ethanol varies depending on which textbook you read, and suggested that the head temp should equate to pure ethanol on what looks like a 1m 4" column with 3 cross-tubes providing the reflux. I don't think there's enough entertainment to justify the 1h20m of video time!

[PLAYMP]

Towards the end of when he started making videos he did a series where a couple of guys flew him out to give them advice on setting up their distillery. The videos are a little cringe. The two guys have no idea what they're doing and of course George has no idea what he's doing but thinks he does and the whole thing is a recipe for disaster. I may watch it again just for the entertainment value.

I hunted it down and took a look. At 2m57s in, George has explained that the vapour temp of ethanol varies depending on which textbook you read, and suggested that the head temp should equate to pure ethanol on what looks like a 1m 4" column with 3 cross-tubes providing the reflux. I don't think there's enough entertainment to justify the 1h20m of video time!

I forgot about that cross-tube still and had to go back and check it out. And you're right you probably don't need to spend all 1h20m when you can just randomly flip to a spot and find a gem. That's what I did and at 8:20 of the same video George says the boiling point of an ethanol/water mixture won't ever be higher than the boiling point of 100% ethanol. And then proceeds to double down on it. He does it so sneaky and starts talking in big words about positive azeotropes with enough confidence that any newbie would easily take at face value.

[Saltbush Bill]

All these new distillers are going to push legalization forward much quicker.

I've seen this theory posted up more than once , by more than one person.
Do you really think that encouraging thousands and thousands of newbies world wide, who mostly seem to own the cheapest stills that they can buy, and who have very little commitment to the hobby, is really going to be of benefit in helping Legalise the hobby ?
These same folk are being taught to break almost every safety rule of distilling by Youtubers, who in many cases don't seem to have any more idea about distilling than the folk that they claim to be teaching.
Other Social Media platforms , are also riddled with the same sorts of bullshit.
All that I see is accidents caused by things such as cheap shit stills catching fire on stove tops in peoples homes. The possibilities for accidents is endless
How this sort of thing is supposed to help the hobby's image and help with legalisation is beyond me.

[Tōtōchtin]

I know it's a no no here but that's exactly what happened with herbs. And there were a lot of fools doing that,blowing up houses or burning them down. So if a bunch of potheads could convert a bunch of redneck legislators who don't use the herb, I think it will be easier to convince those legislators who have alcohol on thier breath.
So yeah I do.
Tōtō

[Dougmatt]

I know it's a no no here but that's exactly what happened with herbs. And there were a lot of fools doing that,blowing up houses or burning them down. So if a bunch of potheads could convert a bunch of redneck legislators who don't use the herb, I think it will be easier to convince those legislators who have alcohol on thier breath.
So yeah I do.
Tōtō

Not sure about that. First herbs don’t blow anything up. . Further Herbs are still illegal at a federal level just like making alcohol…. At the local level, for herb it’s sell and we “collect the taxes” and for alcohol it’s basically don’t sell and we will look the other way mostly…. Seems like a similar arrangement to me.

I don’t think misinformation and poor advice in the interest of making a few dollars helps push anything forward. Just seems like another snake oil salesman giving things a bad name.

There’s no pressure on any legislator to legalize distillation. Until that happens, no change will occur. This cost of change must be outweighed by the cost of not changing.

[Yummyrum]

I think this topic has given George’s youtube even more hits than he deserves and now we are discussing Pot .

I think two breeches of forum rules in the one topic is enough to shut it down .