Home Distiller

Racking my wash off into smaller containers prior to a run this weekend, got distracted showing my still partner pics of some of the awesome stills here on HD. By the time I realized it, I had lost 5gal of wash to the garage floor.

DS

I bought 3 Carlo Rossi Chablis in the 1 gallon bottles just to get the bottles. I went ahead and ran the wine to make brandy. Did a stripping run, then proofed down what I stripped to 30% abv to do a spirit run. I had about 1.5 g of wash. On such a small amount of liquid I decided to collect in 1/2 cup increments. After tossing about 1 cup of foreshots/heads (smelled way nasty) I collected 9 - 1/2 cups (4.5 cups) at 72% abv. Then I used the calculator on parent site to see how much water to add to proof down to 63%. Since I had 9 "cups" in front of me, I entered 9 cups as the volume and ended up adding too much water.

Not a disaster, the likker ended up being around 116p according to the Tralle meter I have. The end product smelled and tasted pretty good. Its aging on some toasted, non-charred oak sticks now. I think it should be decent brandy for a noob like me.

Once again I have to tell myself, "Measure twice, cut once!"

Kwozzie

I wanted to put my still on a table ( I have a 20 litre pot still, so it's not so heavy) and went out and bought myself a used table with a thick (about one inch) marble top. Tested it with double the weight of my equipment when filled up, and everything seemed fine.

Started with a water cleaning run (thank God!). After about fifteen minutes, the marble split because of the heat from the propane burner. I didn't know this could happen, and the burner was about fifteen centimetres above the marble top. I was lucky that it was only water in the still, and double lucky that the still didn't fall over me or onto the floor. I could just shut it down, wait for it to cool, and throw the table out of the door.

Now, the still is placed on the floor, and I don't mind kneeling down in worship! (Reminds me of Frank Zappa's words of wisdom: -Remember, there is a great difference between kneeling down and bending over!)

I am completely hooked on this site. I read,read,and read some more. As a novice, these are very interesting to read and i'm hoping the mistakes made and the lessons learned will stick in my hard head cheers

KyRain wrote:I am completely hooked on this site. I read,read,and read some more. As a novice, these are very interesting to read and i'm hoping the mistakes made and the lessons learned will stick in my hard head cheers

Ky,

I see one BIG mistake. Your avatar is drinking a beer! The horror!

KyRain wrote:I am completely hooked on this site. I read,read,and read some more. As a novice, these are very interesting to read and i'm hoping the mistakes made and the lessons learned will stick in my hard head cheers

Don't forget to read through all of the new distiller's lounge..... lots of good stuff there. And introduce yourself too, http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=27

Theo wrote:

KyRain wrote:I am completely hooked on this site. I read,read,and read some more. As a novice, these are very interesting to read and i'm hoping the mistakes made and the lessons learned will stick in my hard head cheers

Ky,

I see one BIG mistake. Your avatar is drinking a beer! The horror!

Lol @ Theo. I will work on that

My first run didnt know how hot to turn up the heat ran it way to hott. Colum popped off splattered hot mess all over my kitchen. Another one was getmenting some oj as an expiriment in a 40 bottle. Well freinds came over with some rum and we needed a little orange juice so we used some. Well whe i woke up the next morning i realized i screwed the cap on all the way and went to unscrew it alittle to realese the pressure slowly and the lid popped of like a gunshot. Needles to say i was butt naked and covered in orange juice dripping from the ceiling.

Tried a rye mash.... 51% rye...flaked rye... now I have a fermenting oatmeal. Going to be a long day straining and pressing the mash...

I'm a very good multi tasker....well until yesterday. Was kegging 2 beers and bottle a third batch when my son asks if my corn is suppose to smoke like that. Needless to say I scorched the bottom with corn. Day number 2 soaking in pbw and 40" of scrubbing and 90% cleaned.

On another note before I starting distilling I bought a fire extinguisher as suggested here. Propane gas tank caught on fire 2 wks ago and it came in handy. If I didn't have this hobby, boy would I be in trouble. So if you don't have one get one.

Twaogs wrote:My first run didnt know how hot to turn up the heat ran it way to hott. Colum popped off splattered hot mess all over my kitchen. Another one was getmenting some oj as an expiriment in a 40 bottle. Well freinds came over with some rum and we needed a little orange juice so we used some. Well whe i woke up the next morning i realized i screwed the cap on all the way and went to unscrew it alittle to realese the pressure slowly and the lid popped of like a gunshot. Needles to say i was butt naked and covered in orange juice dripping from the ceiling.

Moral of the story..........no playing in the fridge naked?

I hadn't sealed the valve on my 45gallon converted Igloo cooler. I walked away to go get Saturday morning donuts with my daughter. I figured.....mashing 38lbs(24gallons water) of flaked maize.....I have 90 minutes to go get breakfast. I came back with a garage full of corn juice and a half full cooler with a leak. A bag of the corn moved the valve just enough on my first stir to leak.

A $2 fix.

What a waste.

I can some my novice mistake up in two words.....Turbo Yeast.....make some yucky tastin stuff.

hopkins21 wrote:I can some my novice mistake up in two words.....Turbo Yeast.....make some yucky tastin stuff.

Got fuel for your car though right?

I put up the last generation in a very nice rum series with some spices for the coming holiday season. Apparently I used turbo cinnamon bark- tasted it and at first I thought I'd mixed in some foreshots. Re-ran the stuff with minimal reflux and apparently the cinnamon comes over just fine, the spice taste is still overwhelming. Got a rum series coming up, gonna try using 1 jar per run as feints. Dammit.

Been doing this for about a year now and just had my first still fire!!, am always carefully and hoped I'd not experience this. i have my level 1 firefighting certificate from when i worked for the forestry, helped alot with clear thinking, always gets the blood pumping seeing fire though. Stripping tails on the bubbler from low wines and miss judged the speed it's coming out, it's bloody pumping out. Over flowed onto the keg and woof, what's that noise!?, look up from posting on here , oh shit!. Nice pretty flames arnt good!. Shut the gas off, assessed the situation, big flames on top of keg, let's address that first, couple of good blows from the mouth put that out, next is the collection jar on fire, lifted it up into the takeoff point to minimalize vapors, blew it out. All good now. Please be safe everyone, you never know what will happen even when you think everythings covered, were only.human and make.mistakes!.

Glad there was a happy ending, sounds hairy!

heartcut wrote:Glad there was a happy ending, sounds hairy!

Burned hair smells terrible.

Glad yer ok googe. Even if your hair does smell terrible now.

Here's a mistake thats easy to make and potentially deadly, scared the living hell out of me.

I was doing a spirit run, propane going, keg heating up, Im sitting there passing time. Did not turn on the leibig condenser water yet as things were cold still and heating up. Needed to take a piss, stepped around the corner for 1 minute to take a leak and came back to a 160 proof alcohol vapor fog SHOOTING out of the condenser. 3 feet from a propane flame.

I have a fire extinguisher at the ready always, I grabbed it and with my hand wrapped around the trigger and it pointed at the vapor cloud, I reached over, staying low and with the other hand turned off the burner. Then turned on the condenser water. Im guessing I was seconds from one hell of a fireworks show.

As a matter of course now I turn the condenser on when I turn the fire on. Waters cheap. A new house not so much.

Glad you didn't get hurt! Things seem to happen when you least expect it(pecker hanging out)

Those last 2 mistakes are part of the reason I went electric, I didn't want a fire. It seems that so much of the danger associated with our hobby is related to open flame and a flammable liquid/vapor coming off only a few feet away.

Last fall an acquaintance was watching me run off a batch of UJSSM and asked what I was going to do with the pint and a half of 160 proof heads I had in a quart jar. No big deal... right. He took them home and I assumed would use them to clean, washer fluid, charcoal lighter and that it wasn't fit to drink.. Today he comes in and tells me how everybody got a kick out of drinking the moonshine I gave him. How they poured in on the table and it burned real good.

Broke my rule of never letting anything over 80 proof leave the premises, won't happen again.

Thought I'd try Bread making yeast, instead of Turbo yeast.

After mixing my 7kgs of sugar, I realised that my "bread yeast" contained flour/eggpowder&baking powder.


"nother turbo yeat wash it is then I suppose"

Started my still, took almost a minute before I realized that the return hose going to my water reservoir (the bath) was pissing water all over the bathroom floor.

Last week stripped 25 gallons on UJSM in my 15 gal keg so it took 2 runs. I usually dump the backset from the first run, then keep it from the second run to melt my sugar and add back to the fermenter. Well wifey was on the way home and I was busting butt trying to get things cleaned up and dumped the backset from the second run too. Had no idea what I had done until about 3:30 the next morning when I was feeding the baby for the 3rd time that night. So now I had another 25 gal of sweet run USJM going , again.

A few screw ups in my time, had the same happen as frozenthunderbolt last time i ran, luckily the garage floor was dirty anyway and needed some cleaning . The one that got me most though was trying to remove the paper spacer i used in my perfectly wound first double coil that i was so proud of. Mangled the shit out of it, luckily i bought a whole roll of 1/4" just to be safe...time to roll another coil as i need one in my new build.

Jimbo wrote:Here's a mistake thats easy to make and potentially deadly, scared the living hell out of me.

I was doing a spirit run, propane going, keg heating up, Im sitting there passing time. Did not turn on the leibig condenser water yet as things were cold still and heating up. Needed to take a piss, stepped around the corner for 1 minute to take a leak and came back to a 160 proof alcohol vapor fog SHOOTING out of the condenser. 3 feet from a propane flame.

I have a fire extinguisher at the ready always, I grabbed it and with my hand wrapped around the trigger and it pointed at the vapor cloud, I reached over, staying low and with the other hand turned off the burner. Then turned on the condenser water. Im guessing I was seconds from one hell of a fireworks show.

As a matter of course now I turn the condenser on when I turn the fire on. Waters cheap. A new house not so much.

Coolant flow... Remember you need it before you need it... I have my coolant flowing before the heat is turned on, whether gas, electric, or coals...

Too many sampelings in company can lead to problems at times .
Several friends came to visit yesterday . They knew about my new hobby but hadn't been around to follow the progress . We had several samples from my progressive runs of aged sweet feed and different berry pantie dropper blends . They could all follow the improvements I've made in the craft and approved of all of it .
Then this sweet young thing with a Dolly Partonesque bosom and Daisey Dukes remarked that she thought shine was clear and she wanted to try that . I dug into the back of the cabinet and pulled out a jug of 80 proof white dog from my first run and poured her a shot over an ice cube . I knew it was pretty rough . But , hell !, she asked for it . She got most of it in one gulp and her eyes got big as saucers and she swallowed a couple more times without taking a drink . And then she shuddered and took a DEEP breath , which was impressive as hell to all us guys , and said as she exhaled ,
"DAMN! That took the hair off my chest !"
Don't call for what you don't want to come (or get a case of dumbass) like I did . My comment was ,
"I'd like to see that "
And she pulled off her halter top to allow us an inspection . And the speaker of my house was WAAAAY less than impressed . Party was over ! Dog is sleeping on my side of the bed and I got the dog's pallet on the living room floor .
An all I did was look . Betcha a hands on inspection woulda got me killed .

Damn TB, apparently she didn't understand that was just an expression and not a literal request. Was it worth it?

Be careful you don't really nail wifey good next time. Fluffers have a tendency to do that and damn women are wise to outside inspiration. Especially when they catch you lookin at her titties.

midwest shinner wrote:Damn TB, apparently she didn't understand that was just an expression and not a literal request. Was it worth it?

Any time you get to view a perfectly matched pair of 38's with high front sights in a cold room it is worth it Rodney Carrington is my hero with his song 'Show Them To Me'