adamOVD

I'll ask the brewery if they use anti foam during their boil as well. Their beer might benefit from doing so, or boiling longer to remove more of those proteins.

I think you're on to something. If I do this again I'll try without the anti foam, and hopefully the beer won't be carbonated.

I did. The beer was carbonated so I thought it was necessary. I have heard it assists in more protein precipitation though.

The debate on still head shape and lyne arms goes back thousands of years. My personal thoughts are that unless you are using your still like a pot still for making whiskeys and whatnot it doesn't matter that much. For a gin i'm sure it makes a difference, but not as much your botanical selection and infusion method. Probably not even as much as your heat source. If you are only making gin from GNS there is no need for a column as your alcohol is already separated to over 95%. However, I've been thinking lately if you could increase your yield at the end of a gin run by using reflux just at the end of the botanical run to hold back the too earthy botanicals in your "tails" cut.

Sorry to hear that. Thanks for all your input on this forum. Hopefully you'll still be around.

Does the butyric acid not come through in the distillation? That stuff is seriously disgusting.

Thanks for the replies. I ran the rest of what I had with no real problems. The first run out of 5 runs was the worst for some reason.

Here's a pic. Looks more like protein than hops. Same stuff is always at the bottom of the kettle mixed with your hops after boiling beer, they call it the trub pile, or the hot break. Think it has something to do with hops making proteins precipitate out of the beer. I should know more about it as a former brewer. I do think I'm getting some hop particles puking up into the final spirit though. I was going to try to filter them out before I barrel.

I recently ran some ipa from the local brewery. It was fined and looks pretty clear, but wasn't filtered. I was pretty shocked how much trub was in the still after the run. From about 100 gallons there was maybe a total of a football sized chunk. It mostly looks like long strands of protein. The proteins seem seems to work it's way up the column while I'm running tails as well. I just have perforated plates in my column. I'm a little worried about then getting clogged somewhere. Anyone else have experience with this?

I'd try just adding heat and nutrient first to see what happens (as long as you pitched the recommended amount of yeast), then repitch yeast if nothing changes. That's just my opinion though, and I don't know your entire process.

That's pretty cold for any ferment. Id add more nutrient and try to warm it up, and see if it takes off. Aquarium heaters work well depending on your fermenter size.

What was your starting gravity, PH, and fermentation temp? A lot of people use bakers yeast for rum, and it likes it pretty warm. I use about twice the nutrient, along with DAP, but that will change depending on what kind of sugar or molasses you are using. I'd try to get the ferment to finish out before running it, and use it as an opportunity to figure out what needs to change to speed up future ferments by adding nutrient, heat, or repitching yeast.

How much yeast nutrient did you add?

We used an aliphatic urethane. It looks fantastic on the bare concrete and goes down easy. Only been a year, but it is holding up great. I did have an overnight slow dripping leak of peracetic acid once though, and it did not react well with the urethane.

What does alchohol made from taro root taste like by the way?