It’s only 2 gallons of mash. This is just a trial run for XP. I’ll only keep the heart
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My neighbor whom is helping me with distilling. Said the blue water at the end is what you soften the hearts with also add flavor back into it.
My banana is still bubbling away at day 5.
So here’s the end result. I can find my hydrometer but the mash stopped bubbling two days ago so it should have been around 17-18%. Tossed the first 100ml and filled my jar. I didn’t expect a lot, at Max on paper I should have gotten close to a liter.
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You definitely went into the tails there, noticed how its cloudy, that’s fusel oils or the bigger alcohol groups. Its very distinctive in that it smells like wet cardboard “no joke”.
Personally id just run it again and capture the later end in small jars or glasses and then you can make your cuts with what you want to keep after letting it sit out a day or so. Will provide a way nice tasting spirit.
You can also watch your vapor temp to know when your getting close. 82-84 degrees c for me
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I did have it a tad bit over 80°. It doesn’t have a cardboard smell tho, it smells like shine. Tastes like Bacardi with a lot of sweet and a burn after its down.
Do you think that me mixing all the spices in before the ferment would make it a little cloudy like that?
yeah some of the oils would come over.
But i should clarify your picture could just be suspended air bubbles and or initial dilution with water to drinking strength if you did that. As that will cause cloudiness as well but those go goes away in time and you will have clear product in the end, if it doesn’t go away that,s the fusel oils
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Gotcha. I’ll leave it out at room temp for a couple days and see if it clears up any. If not I’ll rerun it. Thanks for the info.
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I’m still trying to decide the size of still I should make, I’ve got a bunch of biker friends that would kick me some side cheddar. I don’t wanna go full blown moonshiner but hey, side income helps.
Is it true you only get about 10% return on your total mash volume?
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if its been a hr or so and hasn’t gone away you definitely ran into your tails, the bubbles and cloudiness that it could also be usually clears up in under 2-15mins max.
Now something else if the liquid is Bluish that could mean you could of ran your still a bit too hard and had a dirty vapor path which could of caused some copper sulfate to form and push over.
Saying that its always best to do a cleaning run of new stills where you do a small run but just toss the distillate afterwards.
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Its whatever you make your wash out to be, but typically to run on the safe side 14% and under.
A typical 4-6 gal wash for a 5-7gal still will net you roughly 1.75-2.25 quarts worth of high proof, so 3-4.5 quarts at drinking strength, in a run. Not counting if you are doing stripping runs first.
I use to do multiple washes and stripping run that i collected till i had a decent amount “8-15+ liters of 40+%” to run through all together in one higher proof run to net me some 80-95.6%, would be set for a long time for my consumption.
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hey Dave your still looks really nice I had a lot of problems with stuff coming from my pot to my condenser until I built a doubler it’s kinda like a water pipe but it traps a lot of impurities & takes a lot of the guesswork out things it really improved the quality of my product I tried coffee filters & all that but this really works it’s known as a doubler or thumper
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Works for me I built mine out of odds & ends for almost zero investment & it took awhile but in spite of it’s Frankenstein appearance generates good product with pretty simple ingredients I trade it around all over especially around the holidays
I have a double but didn’t attach it. My plan was to make some small batches of rum and whiskey to age in small barrels. I read that running a doubler reduces the different flavors. In the end its not to sell, just Christmas presents and personal use like my wines.
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Here’s how it looks now. I don’t see and bluish color, but it’s possible it’s there. I severly underestimated the amount of ice I’d need and ran out, so I ended up having to drain and fill repeatedly.
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yeah you just went into your tails by the looks of it, just redistill if you want.
I typically go through two to two and half 5 gals pails of cold water just for my condenser when i do a 15-20liter stripping run.
my water is quite warm to hot when i change it out usually around 40-45 degrees C.
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Sampling the goods, rum time.
Just using my still head with no column, and i always run a secondary catch bowl, had too many over flow situations when taking cuts in small jars.
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Mr.Sparkle On your dist… head just below the needle valve, is there a plate inside to catch the droplets from the condenser coil? Just trying to understand how that type of head works.
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two plates actually one slants the distillate to the one side and the other catches it as you surmise.
Not my picture but a fellow over on homedistillers.org and take a look at this thread.
The 2" bokaob is one of the best and easiest still heads for small home distillers imo
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I’ve finally through trial & error got this thing producing good product I’m making this run & im gonna pull her down to fix a few things I’ve designed the condenser so I can freeze jugs & change them out as the condenser warms also have the option of draining the bucket & putting fresh cool water frozen jugs are easier
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