Home Distiller

My fiance recently purchased a still and this is all new for us. I need some information. We live in a big converted barn and there is a room above the garage that is not insulated and infact has spaces you can actually see the outside. He wants to put the still in that room for alcohol making. My safety concern is using a propane tank indoors in fear of it blowing up (esp. since this is his first time and he really doesn't know what he is doing.) Please let me know your thoughts on doing this.

thanks!

Personaly I wouldn't do it there. Because you said you are living in this barn. I would encourage him to run it outside. Or in another outbuilding that has plenty of ventilation.
Best option would be to go electric. And heat the still with an electric element. It would be a lot safer in the location you described.

But many others may have a different opinion on this.

I would also suggest highly that he takes the time to do what many of us consider mandatory reading. Here on HD. Before he does any running. It can be a very safe hobby. If the proper research is done before jumping into it. Not to bad mouth any splace that sells stills. But a lot of people that buy stills are misinformed about a lot of things. And need to do some good research to correct that misinformation.

Step over to the welcome center. And give us a proper intro. Or have him do it.

I was running my reflux quite nicely and had everything nice and stable. I had to pee so I took a quick look at everything and was shocked, amazed and skeert squirt less when I saw my collection jar sitting in a cloud of of vapor. Since I run with propane (open flame) I knew I had to resolve this asap so I turned up the water flow to near max and immediately the vapor turned to a heavy drip. I opened the door to freshen the air.

I take the extra precaution of putting my collection jar in a large cooking pot to contain any spills or heavier than air vapor. And glad I did. As it turned out when I originally set this still up, I used both copper mesh and ceramic rasching beads. Some of the beads made their way into the liebig and halfway through the run managed to clog the water flow to the condenser, hence the vapor. When I turned up the water flow they moved enough to free the water flow again. Just a lesson, dont leave the thing to run itself. Monitor every few minutes at a minimum. By the way, I never did go pee, guess I reabsorbed it because the feeling just went away. I had a nice run in spite of the excitement.

Thanks for all the safety tips.

is it safe to use 94 abv in a spray bottle for cleaning?

Ask yourself - would you use petrol (Gasolene) in that way ?

cdd wrote:is it safe to use 94 abv in a spray bottle for cleaning?

I use methylated spirits for cleaning and killing cockroaches this way . Personally don’t see any issues Metho is basically 95 % ethanol with a bit of other shit in it so we won’t drink it.

Common sense ....Keep it away from flames .

Never solder in flip flops. Nuff said...

Pretty Interesting

Moral of the story being, do a heads cut, don't drink 2 liters of 80% heads in two hours, and if you do drink hearts for 54 hours to ensure the ethanol cancels out the methanol.

I drink small amounts of ethanol daily.
I't protects me from the methanol found in the fruit juice mixer

thats still a ridiculous amount of methanol in two litre of distillate from the fermentation of grain....so this novice stiller was banging out AG for his first batch? and managed to make 1.5% of the distillate as methanol?? (30 of the 2000mL drunk)
i drank a lot of booze in my day and 2 L of 80% sounds all but impossible to me. the guy is on a whole new level of stupid.

i'd sure like to know what his recipe was.

The whole video is just a pure bullsh..t.

Who sponsored this and who drinks 2L of 160pf in 2h and doesn’t expect a hospital visit. That four liters or a gallon of “regular” 80pf. That simply equals alcohol poisioning.

Cheers!
-jonny

* make a "pre-run check list" like an airplane pilot's pre-flight check list

* speaking of "pilots" - make sure ALL pilot flames are extinguished.
(in my case it's the stovetop burners, oven & household hot water heater)

* if you're using natural gas or liquid propane
- install a shut-off valve a safe distance from your still
- use quick-connects at the source

don't let yourself get lazy or sloppy on the pre-run safety check. I once (and only once) did a solo skydive (great fun). In the 6-hour ground school before the jump, the jump master/instructor said that eventually, skydivers' experience 'chute failures. Usually after their 75th successful jump. by then you're such an expert you're packing your own parachutes because you don't trust anyone else to do it right. you start to think you know everything, and you're going through the motions, it's routine. and that's exactly when you pack yourself a bag of junk. treat your still like a loaded gun.

Great advice!

4000 plus jumps not one failure from as high as 70.000 ft. To as low as 3000 ft. Flying like superman is addicting as crack. Would still be jumping today but my wife sold my chute on me when I hit 55 she said enough. That said triple check everything before you start then non stop until you get finished.

Well, shit, that happened. I set aside a full, relaxing day for my run.Even charged the still and thump the night before. Started early and all was fine. I’m sitting there about 45 min later, checking the progress and typing a note at my work bench 5 feet away when I heard a horrendous metal bang. Looked and two more, the damned boiler was imploding! Killed the breaker and opened the system but by that time my boiler was distinctly square.
I disassembled the controller and tested every component, all fine. Near as I can figure the damned element had failed right in middle of my heating cycle. The meter went nuts, reading well above normal but 0 amps.
I know it did that just to piss me off.

Jezzz , that fully sucks Yonder . At least you were OK . Damn , square boilers gonna be hard to straighten .

Yummyrum wrote: ↑Wed Sep 07, 2022 2:07 am Jezzz , that fully sucks Yonder . At least you were OK . Damn , square boilers gonna be hard to straighten .

Nah, it's an easy fix. Just put the spirits you produce into square bottles and you'll be fine

I took an air compressor to it set at 20 PSI. Mostly round again. But I love the square bottle idea. Saves space.

hmmmm...I have a 5 gal pot still that I use on my electric stove. I was thinking of getting one of those propane burners to use in the summer outside, but after reading all this...maybe I'll stick to the stove. no open flames.

sadie33 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 11:05 am hmmmm...I have a 5 gal pot still that I use on my electric stove. I was thinking of getting one of those propane burners to use in the summer outside, but after reading all this...maybe I'll stick to the stove. no open flames.

Not to worry, if you stick with it, it won't be long and you'll be running a converted keg or a milk can boiler with a 5500W internal element and power controller like so many here on the forums do.
But first, master the art of fermentation. Running the still is the easy part once you let go of the concept of trying to control the temperature.
Cuts gets easy pretty quick for some. Some struggle with where to cut for heads, others for tails. This is the part where you have to figure it out with practice.

Deplorable wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 11:22 am

sadie33 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 11:05 am hmmmm...I have a 5 gal pot still that I use on my electric stove. I was thinking of getting one of those propane burners to use in the summer outside, but after reading all this...maybe I'll stick to the stove. no open flames.

Not to worry, if you stick with it, it won't be long and you'll be running a converted keg or a milk can boiler with a 5500W internal element and power controller like so many here on the forums do.
But first, master the art of fermentation. Running the still is the easy part once you let go of the concept of trying to control the temperature.
Cuts gets easy pretty quick for some. Some struggle with where to cut for heads, others for tails. This is the part where you have to figure it out with practice.

That would be awesome. I like those milk can boilers (maybe because I had a milking cow and a milking goat).

I have a good start with fermenting and yeast, growing cultures. I ferment my pickles, I made yogurts and cheese when I milked the goats. That had a lot to do with cultures and I LOVE making all kinds of breads. It's amazing how using the same ingredients (flour, yeast, salt, oil) but depending on HOW you do the yeast, the kneading, the rising etc you get all different kinds of breads (italian, cuban rolls, brioche etc).

this is all so exciting and interesting...and a little scary

Can Evolved deer molasses be used in making rum. Is Propionic Acid safe for making rum?

Otternur51 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 5:34 am Can Evolved deer molasses be used in making rum. Is Propionic Acid safe for making rum?

Yes you can there a way to clean out the propionic acid if you choose. You gotta search the various feed grade molasses threads, there's a link in one of them to another post where the dude goes over the process. Try using the Google search for "evolved"

Otternur51 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 5:34 am Can Evolved deer molasses be used in making rum. Is Propionic Acid safe for making rum?

I made a rum with it. It has a very strong flavor, much more than blackstrap molasses. I had to triple distill it to reduce the “oily” character. The deer-lick molly has a lot of “raw” materials in it which will carry a ton of flavor. So, be prepared.

My ferment went off very fast too. The deer-lick molly has a lot of nutrients that feeds deer and your yeast. So, I suggest a big blowoff tube into a bucket of sterile water. Otherwise, you may need a mop to clean your floor.

The propionic acid absolute did not impede fermentation at all.

Oh, I did boil the wash for a few minutes to skim off some of the proteins in the molly. I think that helped to clean it a little. But, triple distillation was still needed.
ss

Here’s a recommendation for using the Evolved Habitats deer-lick molasses: —> 3 liters molly to 20 liters water.

But, you probably won’t be able to measure SG because it’ll be so “heavy”. Just use this ratio and it’ll give you plenty of fermentation potential.
ss

Otternur51 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 5:34 am Can Evolved deer molasses be used in making rum. Is Propionic Acid safe for making rum?

Yes, it makes good rum. Here is one of the ways I used it:

viewtopic.php?t=90455

Thanks for all the tips and help