Home Distiller

Had a bunch of faints saved up...Added with some fresh wash and run that sucker ..
Did a single bubble plate run ..Basically kept everything from 178° to 182° ..64%-45%.
Angels keepn an eye on it now.

In the process of making around 300 litres of Black Currant wine today....and a long day it will be. My aim is to make enough for a 228 litre barrel and some surplus which will live in a carboy. Next month I will make around 110 litres of Elderberry wine. The two will be blended in about a year...makes a beautiful wine. My starting sg is 1090....gotta get back to it...cheers.

Tal wrote:In the process of making around 300 litres of Black Currant wine today....and a long day it will be. My aim is to make enough for a 228 litre barrel and some surplus which will live in a carboy. Next month I will make around 110 litres of Elderberry wine. The two will be blended in about a year...makes a beautiful wine. My starting sg is 1090....gotta get back to it...cheers.

Hot damn, you is a busy boy!

Must be thirsty too...

She's bloody nice when done and dusted....have a barrel of 2013 which I am drinking/sharing at the moment....got to be careful tho as its deceptively strong...around 15 pc..

Tal wrote:She's bloody nice when done and dusted....have a barrel of 2013 which I am drinking/sharing at the moment....got to be careful tho as its deceptively strong...around 15 pc..

Sounds like a good candidate for doing a sugar wash on the backset and pressings. That would make a great fortifying spirit for itself.

Don't have backset and the pressings are mush when ive finished...I squeeze the buggery out of them to get all that nice thick juice out.....cant be wasting nice juice like that...but I like the way youre thinkin!

Tal wrote:Don't have backset and the pressings are mush when ive finished...I squeeze the buggery out of them to get all that nice thick juice out.....cant be wasting nice juice like that...but I like the way youre thinkin!

I squeeze the buggery out of my grapes too, then chuck them back in the fermenter. Did a Jeropiga style 'wine' this year using fresh pressed juice from late harvest grapes fortified with grappa from the early harvest. Not my style, but people with a sweet tooth would like it.

I made a loaf of bread. Big deal for me, only the second time ever doing it. Turned out nice.

Ran stripping run #1 OF GEN #3 Hook Rum.
Collected a gallon of low wines.
Noticed a small leak where the handle is riveted to the pot (alembic potstill). Booooooooo. WIll have more flower dough on hand next stripping run to fix it. It happened during the last 20 min of the run as I turned the heat up.
All in all it was a great run! Just 3 more to go then I can do a spirit run.
Have ferment #2 going and managed to rack off 2 extra gallons from ferment #1 to push forward into ferment #2.
Smells like a rummery in here!

Ran a 6 gallon rum wash last night, today i started the malting process on 10 lbs of corn, started a 5 gallon batch of grape wine, & a 6 gallon batch of rum, im done for the day!

Just finished another strip run of some UJ.
Damn I really want to run my new rig! Just need to finish the base for the burner.

Racked 20 gallons of four grain.
35# deer bolagna
7 quarts canned deer meat
5# meat curing for dried venison
5# home made lye soap using venison tallow

Bottled these up tonight. Put the leftovers in mason jars.

You have quite a selection Bear. NICE!

bearriver wrote:Bottled these up tonight. Put the leftovers in mason jars.

Awesome variety.

Only so many things I can do with neutral...

Got way more other labeled bottles for rum and whiskey and such. However, they are empty at the moment.

Bars not 'quite' done, but beer is flowing finally. Still need to cut a few hundred corks in half for the backdrop to the labels, then encase the whole top in resin. But its close enough to done that its pouring beer finally. 6 corny kegs in the keezer in the middle underneath there. Top hinges up sideways, with the help of a gas strut. Room for 6 bar stools.

Cheers.

Jimbo, if you ever open your house to tours, I'd pay a dollar.

SC, youre always welcome! wont cost ya nuthin but your good company.

That is looking very nice Jimbo

Ha, a coupla ne're do wells both in one place? That could be somebody's considerable problem.

Very nice work, Jimbo. Maybe someday i'll have a bar like that.

Man that is awesome, Jimbo! Just a Lil jealous. Ok, a lot! Nice work!

Tater wrote:just had 21 gallons honey gave to me will have to figure something.

What the !! How the !!! Dang I need that honey . I wish I had that much in locust honey . That's about all I'll eat . Sometimes I can get it from a friend and it's as clear as shine almost , lol well not that clear but u got me

That is beautiful Jimbo. You bring tear to this grown man's eye.

Thanks guys. When I was thinking about what to do with the top it dawned on me to use my labels, like you see in the pic there. It occured to me after sorting out 35 labels of my favorite beverages, many of which Ive made multiple times, that I might have a drinking problem.

Today I made a $2000 guitar made in Tacoma WA into something probably substantially less $valuable$ but ideally sound much better, cause thats how I roll. I dont know what they were thinking but the coats of laquer on this thing were ridiculously thick. All that thick pretty clearcoat does little for the sound, choking off and damping the resonance and vibration of the top, which makes the sound! Its melting off as we speak. Then Ill work on the sides and back and rub a little tung oil in it.

Also workin on the last 5 gal of 100% wheat wash thats been settling for a few weeks. Wash smelled and tasted great, lucky I got no infection as Ive been stickin my snoot in there every few days keepin an eye on it. She's running now next my guitar strip job.

Dang, Jimbo, that bar looks great, you make the whole thing? That's some skills!

Thanks MC. Yes, its just a skirt and top. No big. Panelling with some trim pieces cut to trick it out a little. Was a fun project. Gonna finish the top this weekend, daughter and I will glue in 1200 half corks that I cut on the bandsaw. Bury those in resin, then place the labels and coat again with more bar top resin crap.

OK, I felt obligated to come back and share a warning after my earlier post below, in case any of y'all should land a similar stray hair up your arse and decide to strip the poly off your geetar. Zinser stipper (removes 4 coats of laquer, epoxy, poly, paint in one step) is bullshit and doesnt touch whatever epoxy or nitro finish they put on these things. The finish laughed at it and didnt budge an inch, not even softened after an hour. I then tried a heat gun and scraper. Nope. And resorted to sanding the nuclear proof shit off. Its workin but its not a whole assload of fun.

On a more positive note, the wheat strip is done and tasting really nice (thanks again Halfbaked for the wheat). Gonna dump her back in and do the spirit run now.