Home Distiller

Hello to you all out there on the site. I have been tinkering with a few things since I have started researching shine, whiskey and rums. I have a friend that brews beer. I must saw it is really good. So, I thought i would give this a try. I have a 3 1/2 gal. stock pot with a flat lid that I have converted to a still with a copper line wrapped around a frozen 2ltr. soda bottle. It works pretty good. I have tried the reg. sugar and water recipet and one with 7lbs. of brown sugar (black beards rum) and one with white and yellow corn meal. I must say, they all have been a hit. I am now trying the Gerber Barley cereal one now. I started a two gal. batch this morning and it is bubbling away already. I will let you all know how it is going soon. Anyone have a better idea on refining or stilling my mash. A better still. I do cook it outside on a large two burner coleman camp stove and useually takes 6-8 hours to get two pints. Happy stilling.
Cannonman

Welcome cannonman, Where'd ya get the name? I like cannons

MuleKicker wrote:I like cannons

Pyro

If it's taking that long to pull off product, I'd guess you need more fire.

As for refining your likker, experiment. Pretty much anything out to the Tried and True section is going to steer you right. (The wheat germ is a good one.) Pick a simple cheap one and use it till you get your still figured out. I'm playing around with faster take off rates, I increased my take off rate by half and doubled my drinkable likker output.

SuburbanStiller wrote:I'm playing around with faster take off rates, I increased my take off rate by half and doubled my drinkable likker output.

U potstillin ?

Welcome Cannonman. In my pre retired life as an archaeologist, during fieldwork I excavated some cannon that were from HMS Nelson. . Can't say too much cos it'll make me very identifiable.

Some pics would help, especially your condenser.

Stay Safe

blanikdog wrote:Welcome Cannonman. In my pre retired life as an archaeologist, during fieldwork I excavated some cannon that were from HMS Nelson. .

Wow blanik ,thats really cool.

[off topic]Very, very cool when one considers where they were MK, which again would make me very identifiable.

I spent days digging at five feet below the surface - at virgin soil level - onone job carefully exposing what looked to be a baby's skull. The entire team were kept in the dark about it because we didn't want cops coming in with back hoes, tasers, .38 Glock automatics, cayene sprays and hairy chests oozing adrenaline. After two days it was finally revealed to be a young dog dumped in a cesspit and had five feet of occupation on top of it. BUGGER!!!!

Anyway , we should get back on topic or I'll have the mods growling at me.[/off topic}

MuleKicker wrote:Welcome cannonman, Where'd ya get the name? I like cannons

MuleKicker - I do Civil War Reenacting and I am a Cpl. on a cannon with our group.

blanikdog wrote:Welcome Cannonman. In my pre retired life as an archaeologist, during fieldwork I excavated some cannon that were from HMS Nelson. . Can't say too much cos it'll make me very identifiable.

Some pics would help, especially your condenser.

Stay Safe

Way cool. We hope to go back for the 150 in Gettysburg in 2013.

Civil War?? We'ens from down south call that war, The War of Northern Agression. But we get to call it that cause we lost. LOL
Thank You for keeping American history alive.
ArkyJ

SuburbanStiller wrote:If it's taking that long to pull off product, I'd guess you need more fire.

As for refining your likker, experiment. Pretty much anything out to the Tried and True section is going to steer you right. (The wheat germ is a good one.) Pick a simple cheap one and use it till you get your still figured out. I'm playing around with faster take off rates, I increased my take off rate by half and doubled my drinkable likker output.

Thanks SuburbanStiller- How hot should it be? I have a temp. gage on the lid. Its been a couple of months since I ran one batch. I think I run it about 175, I think.
I will check out that section you mentioned.

cannonman wrote:

blanikdog wrote:Welcome Cannonman. In my pre retired life as an archaeologist, during fieldwork I excavated some cannon that were from HMS Nelson. . Can't say too much cos it'll make me very identifiable.

Some pics would help, especially your condenser.

Stay Safe

Way cool. We hope to go back for the 150 in Gettysburg in 2013.

My condenser is six ring 1/4" copper tubing wrapped around a frozen 2Ltr. soda bottle inside a bucket packed with ice around the coils and the frozen soda bottle.

cannonman wrote:

MuleKicker wrote:Welcome cannonman, Where'd ya get the name? I like cannons

MuleKicker - I do Civil War Reenacting and I am a Cpl. on a cannon with our group.

That sounds like fun.

SuburbanStiller wrote:If it's taking that long to pull off product, I'd guess you need more fire.

As for refining your likker, experiment. Pretty much anything out to the Tried and True section is going to steer you right. (The wheat germ is a good one.) Pick a simple cheap one and use it till you get your still figured out. I'm playing around with faster take off rates, I increased my take off rate by half and doubled my drinkable likker output.

SuburbanStiller- Where can I get a good and easy design for a still to use. Maybe with my 3 gal. stock pot as the bottom. I can solder. Have done soldering for copper water lines for new construction before. So this is not a problem for me.

cannonman wrote:

SuburbanStiller wrote:If it's taking that long to pull off product, I'd guess you need more fire.

As for refining your likker, experiment. Pretty much anything out to the Tried and True section is going to steer you right. (The wheat germ is a good one.) Pick a simple cheap one and use it till you get your still figured out. I'm playing around with faster take off rates, I increased my take off rate by half and doubled my drinkable likker output.

SuburbanStiller- Where can I get a good and easy design for a still to use. Maybe with my 3 gal. stock pot as the bottom. I can solder. Have done soldering for copper water lines for new construction before. So this is not a problem for me.

I have an 8 gal stainless turkey frier as my pot, came with a monster of a propane burner. I run 5 gal of wash at a time for plenty of headspace. Just a big ole bowl sits upside down on top of it, I attach it with flour paste and binder clips, and a 2" cap with a hole rough cut in it attached to the bowl with bolts and teflon tape. I have 5 feet of 3/4" copper running strait up out of the pot to the roof of my stillin shack to a couple of street ells and 4 feet of liebig condenser. Got the idea for all the little bits searching around here on the site. Don't worry too much about building just like somebody else.

It takes right on 50 mins to get my 5 gal wash up to a boil and heat my up pipe till the first few drops of foreshots come. I crank it way back to collect, and pull off 36 oz an hour (up from 24 oz/hr). Dunno how other guys run their rigs, but I use the time of the first pint of heads to get the likker stream dialed in just perfect and DO NOT TOUCH THE HEAT for the rest of the run. I stopped fiddling with the damn fire underneath and my likker got better by leaps and bounds.

Wow, I sure get long winded when I've had a few..

Welcome to the forum Cannonman, pretty cool discussion going on here... Blanik you sound like a pretty interesting guy... I am sure you have some awsome stories.
KS

cannonman wrote:Hello to you all out there on the site. I have been tinkering with a few things since I have started researching shine, whiskey and rums. I have a friend that brews beer. I must saw it is really good. So, I thought i would give this a try. I have a 3 1/2 gal. stock pot with a flat lid that I have converted to a still with a copper line wrapped around a frozen 2ltr. soda bottle. It works pretty good. I have tried the reg. sugar and water recipet and one with 7lbs. of brown sugar (black beards rum) and one with white and yellow corn meal. I must say, they all have been a hit. I am now trying the Gerber Barley cereal one now. I started a two gal. batch this morning and it is bubbling away already. I will let you all know how it is going soon. Anyone have a better idea on refining or stilling my mash. A better still. I do cook it outside on a large two burner coleman camp stove and useually takes 6-8 hours to get two pints. Happy stilling.
Cannonman

Welcome Aboard!

SuburbanStiller, Sounds great, I am still looking for the right small still for me to use in my back yard to use with my coleman camp stove as the heat sourse. How hot do you run your still??? Or do you just listen to it boil and rumble. I dont want to make something and end up putting someone in the hospitol... LOL. My little still does ok but it take a long time to get 2 pnts. about 6 hrs. on a 3 gal. batch. Maybe I should change the top to a rounded bowl like you said you had. May be this would force the vapour through the 1/4" tubing better. What do you think???
Cannonman

SuburbanStiller wrote:

cannonman wrote:

SuburbanStiller wrote:If it's taking that long to pull off product, I'd guess you need more fire.

As for refining your likker, experiment. Pretty much anything out to the Tried and True section is going to steer you right. (The wheat germ is a good one.) Pick a simple cheap one and use it till you get your still figured out. I'm playing around with faster take off rates, I increased my take off rate by half and doubled my drinkable likker output.

SuburbanStiller- Where can I get a good and easy design for a still to use. Maybe with my 3 gal. stock pot as the bottom. I can solder. Have done soldering for copper water lines for new construction before. So this is not a problem for me.

I have an 8 gal stainless turkey frier as my pot, came with a monster of a propane burner. I run 5 gal of wash at a time for plenty of headspace. Just a big ole bowl sits upside down on top of it, I attach it with flour paste and binder clips, and a 2" cap with a hole rough cut in it attached to the bowl with bolts and teflon tape. I have 5 feet of 3/4" copper running strait up out of the pot to the roof of my stillin shack to a couple of street ells and 4 feet of liebig condenser. Got the idea for all the little bits searching around here on the site. Don't worry too much about building just like somebody else.

It takes right on 50 mins to get my 5 gal wash up to a boil and heat my up pipe till the first few drops of foreshots come. I crank it way back to collect, and pull off 36 oz an hour (up from 24 oz/hr). Dunno how other guys run their rigs, but I use the time of the first pint of heads to get the likker stream dialed in just perfect and DO NOT TOUCH THE HEAT for the rest of the run. I stopped fiddling with the damn fire underneath and my likker got better by leaps and bounds.

Wow, I sure get long winded when I've had a few..

Thanks SuburbanStiller. Can you send me a picture of your Liebig Condensor? I know youe use a 3/4" pipe. The liebig has a coil around the pipe to cool the vapor. I am trying to think of how to cap it off and make it a closed unit. A picture might help or a posting that you know of to build one. I can solder as I had done some plumbing with copper before.
I am still reading for more info.
Cannonman

Kentucky shinner wrote:Welcome to the forum Cannonman, pretty cool discussion going on here... Blanik you sound like a pretty interesting guy... I am sure you have some awsome stories.
KS

Hay KS- Do you have any advice to a still for me to design as a better one that my stock pot still? I am pretty handy with a plumbers torch. I am hungry for a new project. And some new mashes.

LWTCS wrote:

SuburbanStiller wrote:I'm playing around with faster take off rates, I increased my take off rate by half and doubled my drinkable likker output.

U potstillin ?

Yep, if thats what you call a stock pot and coils. Coils wrap around a frozen 2ltr. bottle and then collect the DRIPPINGS, drip by drip by drip.
Cannonman

Just wanted to let you all know that I have put together a new still. You can see it under My Still- "This is my stock pot stll" by Cannonman. Posted a couple pictures too. Thanks for looking and I appreciate the comments. As I srtive to make a better still. Thanks for all you do.
Cannonman

Got to do a cleaning run on my new rig and it came out pretty cool. I was impressed how the coils knocked down all that steam running it wide open to get the vinager to boil. Sure melted my ice though. Going to run a gerber batch through it as a first run. What waste though. I have read that I need to toss it out as it may contain some bad stuff as i figure out how to run this thing. Cant wait to run the sweet feed through it. I will let you know how it all comes out later.

Welcome to HD cannonman...

The addiction only gets worst I'm afraid... Carrying a magnet, attending every boot/trunk/yard sale, hanging out at the DIY store...ect;

I come to HD for therapy, I soon realise I'm not alone... My Name is Samohon and I'm a, Distillation Addict'...

Have fun and Stay Safe my friend...

ps: Blanik, thats way cool buddy, just been reading about her a few days ago... Here a photo for ya...