Home Distiller

OK, so the way I set up my still is I charge the boiler, apply the flour paste, yada yada, and then lite the boiler and go for a walk while I wait for everything to start warming up ... after about 15 minutes, I always come back and look at everything I have done, check where the run is at by feeling the pipes, and turn on the condensor... after about 50-100 runs now, my silly "check again" method finally saved my ass ...

As I checked my still in preparation for the run, I checked my connections - and low and behold the clips I use to hold the lid on - the first one I installed seemed to have gone under the lip of the lid, not the lip of the pot - basically opening up the whole top - and creating a new vapor path right over the propane burner.

Moral - when you think everything is set up right, take a walk for a few minutes and then come back and review your work ... you may one day see something your eyes did not see the first time

A fine example of why we say. A still should always be manned. And you shouldn't walk away.

Glad it worked out for you this time.

I do a walkaround inspection every 20 minutes or so throughout the run . Any little problem , caught in time , never matures into a BIG problem . You did well .

@Prairie - Yes, but what kind of saved me was looking at it a second time ... sometimes our eyes tell us something but our brain does not listen ... I have found little minor issues before by simply walking away and then coming back in a few minutes and re-checking my setup again ... no doubt manning the still would have caught that issue also as I would have seen the vapor coming out if the sides, and it was just doing a low ABV stripping run, so I probably would have been OK, but had I been doing a spirit run the results may have been bad.

@Truckin - Ya, as stated, I found a few minor things once in a blue moon, but this was a biggie ... just wanted to share that even someone who has made a bunch of runs and knows his/her still can still set it up wrong, and double checking is important

Just like measure twice cut once in carpentry, check once, check twice (and of course watch your still)

I think the worst thing about being away from your still is, what can happen when your away from.it, how easy is it for accidents to happen, trip over somewhere, bang your head, lights out, mean while your stills.blasting away with no one.there, disaster!.

Worse yet someone could steal it googe!
GA Flatwoods

Didn't think of that ga, that would be cry worthy!!.

Ever hear about a critical pilot mechanic error, or a doctor leaving clamps inside a patient after surgery?

Things you do for the millionth time can get overlooked very easily. Checklists are always really nice for that sort of thing. The military uses them every chance they get for good reason.

I don't use clamps i also have the flour paste i love thast stuff what i do on my 25 gallon still is place 2 cap blocks right on top of the lid if the handle is in the way on your lid i place two wooden blocks one each side of handle high enough to go over lid handle i never had any problems out of it. just get ya a good bead of paste on that rim.

Any of you guys ever watched a show called Appalachian Outlaws? It's a "reality" show about ginseng hunting. The show is probably heavily scripted, but I don't know. Some nitwits in the show decided they were going to make ginseng liquor. They started their still up and then headed off into the woods to hunt for ginseng. They weren't in the woods very long when they heard a loud explosion. Sure enough their unattended still exploded. I think people tend to forget they are working with a flammable potentially explosive substance.

Bazil wrote:Any of you guys ever watched a show called Appalachian Outlaws? It's a "reality" show about ginseng hunting. The show is probably heavily scripted, but I don't know. Some nitwits in the show decided they were going to make ginseng liquor. They started their still up and then headed off into the woods to hunt for ginseng. They weren't in the woods very long when they heard a loud explosion. Sure enough their unattended still exploded. I think people tend to forget they are working with a flammable potentially explosive substance.

If Myth Busters couldn't get a still to explode without going to ridiculous lengths to make it happen, how do you suppose they got the Appalachian Outlaws still to explode?! I'd call it a load of "male-bovine feces" that was fabricated by, for the lack of a better phrase, the "creators" of yet another crap reality show under the guise of farcical artistic license.

I am always amazed at people who watch "reality" shows, and believe that it is for real. I've met and talked with people that are totally convinced that these types of shows are the real deal, as it happened events. ....baffling!!!!

I was watching a show about extinct species with someone, an adult no less, and there was a realistic movie scene of a herd of wooly mammoths stampeding down a lush, jungle-like valley. I'm paraphrasing, but she says something like, "Oh my, it's wonderful that they could get this footage of them!" I looked at her in disbelief, and said, "You realize, don't you, that this is a CGI re-creation?" "CGI, what's that?", she says. I say, "Computer Generated Imagery." She looked back at me with a blank stare, and I still don't think she got the gist of what I was telling her.

I, for one, can hardly wait until the reality TV fad goes the way of the Dodo Bird, and becomes extinct.

Soggy Bottom Boy wrote: "Oh my, it's wonderful that they could get this footage of them!"

hahahaha, I think I know her

bearriver wrote:Ever hear about ... a doctor leaving clamps inside a patient after surgery?

Things you do for the millionth time can get overlooked very easily.

This is why I dont use clamps on my still.

Soggy, as long as they can make those shows on the cheap and make a profit from them, they'll be around for awhile. I think the most ridiculous one I ever saw was "The Amish Mafia" - bunch of full-auto totin' Amish dudes upholding Amish rules and keepin' the riffraff out. I guess if the subjects of the show will never see it on TV, you got pretty much free reign on the content.

The one time I walk away is the time my still flooded. 3 minutes of that was a huge mess. I'm a freak about being present at all times now.

Soggy Bottom Boy wrote:she says something like, "Oh my, it's wonderful that they could get this footage of them!"

I think we know why you were together watching TV. Hint: Not for mental stimulation...

Back on topic - just to demonstrate how easy it is to miss the little things - I was once in some bullshit management skills class and one of the tasks was to read a paragraph and count the number of words in the paragraph that contained the letter "f". Well, 9 out of 10 people didn't count the 8, or so, times the word, "of", occurred in the paragraph. We tend to overlook the little details.

Posted while bearriver was posting.

Bottom line is that you can not get complacent . Last run I made , after nearly a year of running , I had a ss to copper solder joint just barely start to leak . I found it quick because I maintain a routine of vigilance . I never take anything for granted because 'it always worked before'.