Home Distiller

Well I finally managed to build with my first Still. Would like to thank Hawke, Rad14701, Plonker, Hookline and Kiwistiller for their help in pointing me in the right direction.

I got her up and running yesterday and did my strip run, was going to do my proper reflux run today but rain stopped play (as well as the footie). I burnt a little of the spirit after I finished just to see the colour of the flame and it was Blue with a little orange beard, as expected. One down side was that I believe I let my wash ferment to long and there was a good smell of cheap wine coming off it before I ran it though the still. What I now have smells like (excuse the wording) Italian Crappa schnapps. I am now just wondering if that smell will be there after my reflux run, and will I still be able to us it in my making of my liqueurs, such as Creme de Menthe, Amaretto Cherry Liqueur, etc.

Thanks again for all your help gang, it's well interesting and fun this new hobby of mine!!!!!.

Hi Doddsie, looks great! good work....

It looks like you are using plastic tubing on your output which is very bad.. But I assume it was only for your cleaning run?

Your right Plonker about the plastic pipe being on the end of the out let. I did not realise that the spirit would be coming out so warm and that a plastic pipe would cause any problems. I can change it to some let over piping and a coupler.

And you're also right with it being a cleaning run, should I then not use this at all ????.

Thanks for your comments, I'm well made up with how she came out!!!

Hey Doddsie, I would lose the plastic and just use copper, plastic leaches nasty things you don't want to drink. Copper and SS is always safe..

And yeah, don't use it at all.. a cleaning run is just for cleaning...

And BTW its a good looking still..

Thanks again Plonker,
I'll just use the spirit as a good cleaning agent and go shopping again for more turbo yeast and sugar. I can remove the plastic pipe and refit a copper pipe from the valve down, job done!!!.

With a reflux still virtually all of the wine smell and taste will be removed if you are maintaining adequate reflux and keeping the column temperature as close to 172F/78C as possible... The vapor temperature range for a reflux column is 172F/78C - 182F/83C but with my rig I never get to 176F/80C... If I can't maintain 1 drip per second at under 174F/79C there isn't enough alcohol worth chasing after... Using a parrot and alcoholmeter is the most accurate means of alcohol content measurement, however...

Nice looking rig... I hope it serves you well...

Scrap the turbo yeast and use some yeast nutrient with either a distillers yeast, EC1118, Premier Cuvee, or simple bakers yeast. Turbo yeast is a short cut and you will make a better product with other yeasts.

Thanks Rad and Bndfishing,
As always your input is most welcoming and helpfull. Thanks rad for the temperature run down. On my cleaning run I was around 83'c but hopefully I can sort it out so I hang around 78'-80'c.

Should I always perform a stripping run with every wash that I make ???.

As I'm talking about the wash Bndfishing you said.........

Scrap the turbo yeast and use some yeast nutrient with either a distillers yeast, EC1118, Premier Cuvee, or simple bakers yeast. Turbo yeast is a short cut and you will make a better product with other yeasts

.

If I'm not to use turbo yeast, what is then the best formula to use??, In what yeast and how much sugar should I us to fill my 25 ltr fermenting bucket. Plus how long would the new wash formula take to ferment and be ready to run though my still ???.

Thanks again Lads for all your help!!!!.

I ferment with 7 to 10 lbs of sugarper 20 liters with out incodent.

That "All Bran" ferments fast and steady.
Bet I could do an entire cycle (clearing too) in a week. Especially with the 7 lb quantity.

Thanks for your advise LWTCS,
But now you have my head spinning with this "All Bran" wash, are you actually saying that you can us All Bran to ferment a wash??. Incredible, you lads certainly know your stuff!!!, hopefully it won't take me too long to have half your knowledge.

My next question would be how do I go about making an All Bran wash. Aswell as the sugar are there any other ingredients that I should put into the mix, and what temperature should I be looking at, is 20-30'c good enough.

rad14701 wrote:All Bran Recipe

Thanks for the link Rad,
Makes very interesting reading. I'll be giving it a shot tomorrow.

Did you just let the wash ferment at room temperature 20-30'c ????. And what turned out better with or without lemon juice??.

I think I've commented in the topic several times that my fermentation closet maintains ~78F all year round...

I've never used lemon for any All Bran washes that I can recall... I used to use lemon juice or cream of tartar for my invert sugar but don't use it for that anymore either... With the invert sugar method I describe for the recipe it starts to take on a very light straw color with just sugar and water at a 1:1 ratio by volume... I don't do anything other than what the latest recipe describes... You'll see how easy it is if you follow the recipe exactly...

I don't take notes and can not remember if I've ever used lemon juice.

Turns out just fine (and pretty fast) without.

Thanks again Rad & LWTCS,

After writing that last reply I went through most of your "All Brann" link, and sort of now know where your both coming from and where I'll be going to.

Cheers, the pair of you are of great help!!!!.

Doddsie wrote:

If I'm not to use turbo yeast, what is then the best formula to use??, In what yeast and how much sugar should I us to fill my 25 ltr fermenting bucket. Plus how long would the new wash formula take to ferment and be ready to run though my still ???.

Thanks again Lads for all your help!!!!.

Not that hard, you just need some nutrient for the yeast, Gerber, tomato paste, or some commercial yeast nutrient (fermaid or something like that) I don't have a hard and fast rule on how much, but if I start to produce hydrogen sulfate (rotten egg smell) then I air the hell out of it and add a little more nutrient. When the yeast get stressed they will product that rotten egg smell. In a 15 gallon batch I start 4 packets of yeast and start with 7 TBS of fermaid K.