Home Distiller

Specific gravity is 1.02 and PH 3.5. I am pitching in about 3/4 of an ounce of k1-v1116 because it's all I have and about .25 ounce of ec1118 at the same time.

I hate to mix them but k1-v1116 is best for some Esthers and aromas but I know ec1118 acts quickly and can do good in my hot weather.

Yesterday it stalled in the cold night. I pitched more ec1118 and mixed it in.

Gravity is 1.010 after 8 hours and I put the barrel in the sun to warm. Now after 2 hours in the sun the must is bubbling and making a new cap.

I believe it will be ready in 24 to 48 hours!

No wonder you're having trouble with it, your yeast probably hates you. Wrap a blanket or three around it to keep the temperature stable.

With 3 ounces of yeast in the must there wont be a grain of sugar remaining!

There will be if it's 3 oz of unhappy yeast.

I'm bringing the Barrel in the house tonight so it doesn't get cold. The house is at 74 degrees so he should maintain roughly the 75 degree Barrel temperature overnight. It's high density polyethylene plastic and it holds temperature pretty well.

I am keeping the Barrel in the house until I can process it. The gravity dropped a little bit but it has more or less stalled at 1.01. I suspect that the excessive heat here is the biggest problem. I should have just kept it in the house the whole time but my wife would not allow it.

The cap dropped today. I will distill it in two 10 gallon runs in 2 days then final spirit run this weekend.

The 2 gallon test run of the infected must was good. I got about 32 ounces after 2 hours. There was more to collect but I stopped at 20% when mosquitoes attacked me.

I am starting this year slivovitz posting now. The plums are in the barrel!

Slivovitz wrote: ↑Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:13 pm There was more to collect but I stopped at 20% when mosquitoes attacked me.

In my experience, most of the peach flavors come over early and late. Stopping a peach stripping run at 20% ABV at the spout is likely to leave desirable flavors in the backset. What was your Low Wines ABV?

I did not combine the stripping run yet I collected it in 7 jars to see where the flavors would be before I empty out the Big Barrel into my pot.

I collected 120 ml of 4 Shots forgetting that I only had two gallons in the pot not a full 10 gallon run. I decided not to discard the four shots instead I'll come by and everything for the final Spirit Run. Not what I wanted to do but I have no choice at this point.

I use a borosilicate glass proofing parrot so it does smear quite a bit. I have been quite satisfied with the results last year using the proofing parrot. I really like that I can see proof of the distillate as I go. This is only my second year so I think in the future I will test each jar have I go and make precise cuts without letting its mirror in a proofing parrot.

I left they must in my pot so I could add from Barrel into it and go lower into it tomorrow. I plan on going down to 12 to 15% as long as it doesn't taste bad.

I'm not sure if there's any negative repercussions from leaving a couple gallons of must in a sealed pot for two days Inn 100 degree Fahrenheit Heat. I took the top off the pot and took a look today and it smelled good and looked good.

I'll mix the jars tomorrow and let you know what the proof is. I'll be cooking late into the night the next 2 days.

Parrots, especially badly designed parrots, are just as bad as temperatures for deciding on cutoff points for stripping runs. What you should be aiming for, in my opinion, is the ideal ABV for the total Low Wines collection for the product you are making. That's why I put my alcometer and a thermometer in my Low Wines collection vessel, not in a parrot.

I only use vapor temperature so I know how quickly I'm warming the pot. It takes time to develop a rhythm over years of experience. I just got a new propane burner which is capable of 200,000 BTU. I got it because it's designed well and I can use it for other things. On the very lowest setting a warms evenly and fast.

Peach and apricot are similar fruits you can use this method.

Thank you Cik. I did apricot last year and it has been sitting in glass aging. I have not tasted it in 10 months, so I dont know if I did a good job yet!

Slivovitz wrote: ↑Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:38 pm I collected 120 ml of 4 Shots forgetting that I only had two gallons in the pot not a full 10 gallon run. I decided not to discard the four shots instead I'll come by and everything for the final Spirit Run. Not what I wanted to do but I have no choice at this point.

I know it's probably not the norm around here but if I'm certain I'm going to run something twice I never discard anything in the first run, I just don't see the benefit. Forshots are done in the second run based on smell.

I also run very deep into tails...probably to the point that it is beyond tails.

Well not the high starting proof I wanted but so far so good. First drops at 165 farenheit vapor temps. First 50ml smells bad tastes like jet fuel. First half jar is not running clear.
This new burner is too big and I can't run as slow as I want or the burner goes out. My old free one was better!

Looks like a somewhat broken stream at 200 degree vapor temp is as slow as I can go. The wind wants to blow out the burner!

It's a stripping run, a bit of puke doesn't matter. A lot of us do 1.5s and that adds a lot more wash than a hint of puke does.

I was tasting every few minutes below 20% and I ran it until Sweetwater was coming out.

I've got another 10 gallons to run tonight I'll do the same thing. This weekend put the finishing touches on it.

I got a lot of funky stuff in the pot after cooking it. I let the must it was left over sit about 24 hours. Now that I'm dumping it it's got big bluish patches on top and the onion head of the pot has some blue crystals that I had to scrub off with a scrubber sponge.

Have you seen this when doing a fruit run? I'm thinking it's volatile stuff cooking off from a funky must. I haven't researched anything yet but if I don't hear anything from you guys I certainly will.

Pot looks ok after washing
I like a nicely buttered bottom!

Here comes that cloudy likker! Jar 2 90 proof and it just started raining with 20 mile per hour wind. Yay!