adamOVD

Column C is for imports, so unless you are importing spirits it will be blank. Column D is "Wine Gallons" packaged, which is different than 'Proof Gallons". "Wine gallons" will be the total amount of product packaged, stated in gallons, regardless of proof.

I'm finishing out at .5 Plato with the half hour rest, and with the grain bill I'm using it may not be possible to finish out to zero. I tried an hour rest and it finished the same, but there were some other variables at play as well. I'll continue to play with it, but I was asking more for the sake of theory. Thanks for the input.

Are talking about a final gin run with botanicals in it? To me earthness sounds like the root or spice botanicals. Is it more pronounced toward the end of the run? Copper is more for absorbing sulfer notes produced in the ferment. If youre making gin from ngs (looks like you are) those should already have been cleaned up, and you shouldnt need any copper interaction.

I was listening to an episode of @StillTalkingPodcast . They were talking to a guy from Lallemand yeast. He mentioned that Osmotic stress on the yeast is less when the grain is not yet fully converted, or that the long dextrin chains create less stress than short chain converted glucose, and is less prone to infection. That being said, do you think it is better to do a shorter rest on your dextrin conversion, and let more of conversion happen in the fermenter than in the mash tun? I do a half hour rest at 130-140F with giuco-amylase. I've heard others doing everything from basically no rest to over an hour.

@Blue Bolt Hes a stubborn madman. Loyal, sweet, and a ton of personality though. Pretty sure he'll be the best dog I ever own. Unfortunately he's getting up there in years.

I can't wait till these two put their differences aside, and become BFFs.😄

I get them on rare occasions.

I put a T and a valve on the bottom of whatever im pumping from and hook up a hose to the valve. Then close the valve from where i'm pumping as I open the water side so i can push the grain in the hose through with water, and only put water on the floor.

Malt contains plenty of both alpha and beta amylase. Typically brewers and distillers use the temperature they rest the grain at to determine which is more active. I believe Silk is recommending mashing in hotter to reduce phenols from the malt. However, if you mash them in hotter you lose some Diastatic Power, because the beta amylase is being denatured faster at that higher temperature, so he is also recommending using added enzymes to complete the conversion. I'm sure Silk is much smarter than me though so I could be misunderstanding, but maybe a simpler interpretation from a dummy will help. As far as Brett goes. The idea is to keep it from growing in the first place. With a healthy ferment and a high pitch rate, the yeast very quickly lower the Ph and sugar available, and raise the alcohol %, making it a much less hospitable environment for bacteria. I believe Silk and Steve are talking about 3 different possible sources of phenols, one from your grains, one from your yeast, and one from a Brett infection. They can correct me if I'm wrong. I really feel for you if you're still tackling this a year later though.

Any alchohol in the solution will throw off the refractometer reading. They are only good for checking OG. So it sounds like the ferment did finish, and I dont know why your yield was so low. Hopefully silk's advise above can get you dialed in.

Figured I could put him on the right track without doing all the legwork for him. Maybe youre right though, and I shouldve just answered the poor guys question without being a pretentious ass hole.

Your question is too vague. The amount of alcohol produced is determined by the amount of fermentables available to the yeast, and the health of your fermentation. Its typically inadvisable to go above 8-10% though. There are probably books based more on distilling, but if you pick up "Designing Great Beers" or "Malt" by John Mallet, they will teach you to formulate a mash bill. You will need to know any number of things you read in them to successfully operate a distillery.

Search BSG distilling.

Wasn't aware of that. Mixing and moving a gummy mash must have been a lot more complicated as well, adding to the importance of keeping things liquid.

Squarel guys will be so happy.