PeteB

I am leaving in a couple of days for my quick trip to US Troy, if you read this could you PM me your phone number so we can work out a suitable time. I will be in Sarasota 22-27 May and in Atlanta 23 May - 4 June. Chris, I am not sure what plans my Son has for me in Atlanta but I hope to get up to see you. (likewise PM me your cell) Anyone know of any other distilleries close to Atlanta or Sarasota?

I was there when you met Jimmy, if I recall correctly his answer to the grain question was "I have forgotten"

I know quite a few who get their fermented "beer" from breweries but I had not thought of the unfermented option, great idea. That would give you more "ownership" of your final product. Several of my fermenters are 270 g = 1,000 litre totes. If I was buying wort, one option could be pitch the yeast as it left the brewery and let it ferment in the same container. This option could be an option for a friend of mine, so I would be interested in a price guide. Pete

My juicer has a 4 inch radius. 1 gram out of balance at 13,000 rpm is equivalent to 190 Kg stationary weight on one side according to that calculator--wow. Please check my calculations anyone. That amount of centrifugal force explains why this type of filter works so well

I have been trialing that same type of juicer. The blades chop the mash up too fine and quite a bit ends up in the liquid as flour, but the solid component is quite dry = great I took the cutting blades off by removing 3 or 4 screws then the mash is not chopped up so finely, but the problem is that without blades the solids don't start spinning and so don't produce any centrifugal force to thrust the liquid through the sloping filter screen. The mash just slides up the slope and is still wet when it goes over the top. I plan to replace the blades with blunt fins that will get the mash spinning before it gets to the filter screen. Balancing could be a problem. If that works I will build a bigger one possibly with the remains of washing machine mentioned above This is a type of self cleaning centrifugal filter. It is designed to prevent any buildup of solids so it should never?? be able to build up 1-2 pounds.

A bit of bragging for our little island The International Whisky Competition Chicago has just announced the winners for 2014... World Whisky category- Lark Distillers Selection 46% GOLD MEDAL Lark Single Cask 43% GOLD MEDAL Cask Strength Whisky category- Lark Cask Strength 58% GOLD MEDAL And also this accolade that I posted in another thread Tasmania Distillery's Sullivans Cove takes world whisky title for single malthttp://www.abc.net.a...le-malt/5336498

A visitor to my distillery a few weeks ago gave me a clue to my yield problem. A grain is a living organism and it slowly consumes the starch to stay alive. It still germinates well but there is less starch. As I said earlier, I tried the grain from my newest harvest and found it no better, but this appears to be a different problem. The grain was quite a lot smaller because of a dry growing season. Smaller grain has a lower % starch per Kg. Mendodistilling, thanks for the suggestion but I doubt that humidity is the problem. The average humidity here is quite low and I have never seen any condensation in the containers. Also, you suggested to malt it all. Firstly that is a lot more work than doing 20% malt. Also I use the malt green so the roots and shoots go into the mash. With 100% green I suspect I could end up with whisky that smelt like boiled cabbage. Coop had a similar yield issue about 3 years ago that generated a lot of discussion. His problem turned out to be a poor quality batch of grain, same problem as mine. I have got my alcohol yield per batch back to where it was by increasing the quantity of grain per mash and adding some extra enzymes as well. Thankyou all for the suggestions, they help me work through the possibilities. Pete

Soaking inside, and loss of flavour. Pre-soaking with water is quite common as far as I am aware, it pretty well guarantees the barrel won't leak' But I agree with you that there will be some loss of flavour, I have tasted the water from reused barrels and it contains quite a bit of extraction. I have sometimes filled without pre-soaking, but I am nervous that I will lose spirit if the joints are not tight. Also a lot more spirit will initially be lost into the dryer wood, but maybe after a few years there will be no extra loss. D.R. when you say covered up do you mean to put water on the head then wrap the whole barrel in plastic?

It sounds as if you did not drive all the hoops tighter before you filled. This is always a good idea, and essential if the barrels have dried out at all. From your photos it looks as if the leak is between the staves, and not where the head seals. Make yourself a hoop driver, all you need is a piece of flat steel about 2 inches X 3/8 X 7 inch. Grind a concave in the edge so it matches the hoop. If you can hard face that edge it will last for years. Or buy a brickies chisel and grind off the sharp edge. Use a hammer quite a bit larger then a carpenters hammer. It will be a bit harder to drive the hoop now but you should still be able to move it. Give the flat side of the hoop a hit as well, especially in the leaky area. Using a smaller hammer, tap the wood at the joint where the leak is.

My reasonably educated assumption is that the silver solder in the shotgun has a lower % silver in it.

By far the quickest way I know to neatly cut metal braided hoses is with a sharp axe on a big block of wood. If the braid is on the outside then wrap it with tape as shnit says. The worst way is with a hacksaw.

When building your own hose the most critical thing is to measure the length of the inside as well as the outside. When you cut the hose it must be where these measurements are exactly equal. If the hole through the inside where the water flows, is shorter than the outside, then it is obvious that the water will not be able to get all the way through. And the opposite is also equally true, if the outside is shorter than the inside then the hose will leak. Sorry, but I don't understand your question. Surely you just buy the bulk hose and cut it to length then attach the fittings that are meant for that size hose. There must be many hundreds of types of hoses and fittings and combinations from your basic garden hose to high pressure hydraulic. You probably need to be more specific.

So is this apple JUICE or has it been fermented to a dry alcoholic beverage? I think Charles is implying it is just juice and $3.80 is about the same as I could pay here in Australia

Sorry I have taken so long Roger. In the post you queried I was answering the original question put by spiritofmaine After the second run in my pot still i got Heads 70% abv 11.1 litres, thrown out Fores 72.3% 12 litres kept to add to next run Heart (good spirit) at 63.5% 126 litres Feints 23.5% 112 litres kept to add to next run ( fores plus feints = 124 litres of 28.4%) That adds up to about 95% recovery of alcohol, less the 11.1 litres thrown out I assume you can convert litres to liters, but if you would like me to convert to proof gallons then let me know.

I am running apple and pear ciders all this week. The deal I have is when the local cideries produce anything that is not quite to their specification then they drop it at my distillery, I distil it and give them 1/3 of the spirit back. I think I recall Charles@AeppelTreow saying that most apple spirit is made from off spec cider

The Tasmanian Whisky Produces Association has put together a website to promote our industry For those who are interested in what is happening around the other side of the world, click here http://taswhiskytrail.com/ NEPA-still-chillin do you remember much of this or did you have too many free tastings?

I use a lauter tun so my grain is reasonably solid. I have about 3,000 sheep so there are plenty of mouths to eat it. I feed most of it to my rams and interestingly my ewes had the best lambing % in years, even though I used less rams than usual. I think the spent grain must have given them a boost. Good luck with the solar kiln, but in my opinion you are making a lot of work for little gain, but if you build it I will be interested to know how efficient it is. Pete

I saw an online video of a guy using a washing machine to make beer, mashing and lautering. It worked great but that was with crushed barley that has plenty of husk I have had a couple of goes with crushed rye but it just didn't work. The rye packed itself against the sides of the bowl and wouldn't let any wort through after a few seconds. Then tried to use it as a centrifuge and hoped the solids would pack against the sides and leave the liquid towards the centre where I could pump it out or let it run over the rim. Was starting to work when suddenly the liquid all went to one side and the whole machine did a 180 deg with a crash and that was the end of the machine and the experiment. I assume the problem with a washing machine is the water is normally reasonably stable within the clothes. It is not designed to spin free water at high speed.

I use 80% unmalted and 20% that I malt myself. From the malting process I can see that the germination is still very close to 100% so that part of the grain quality has not reduced. I said "silo" to save a bit of typing, it is stored in a shipping container that I can't auger it out any more because I am getting to the end, so I bucket it into bags. There should be no variation in the amount of dust etc.

My yield of alcohol per Kg of rye has never been great, but it was acceptable because I was producing a very nice Whisky But the yield has dropped about 30%!! I have almost exhausted every trial variation I can think of. Does anyone know if the alcohol yields will fall off as grain gets older? My silo of rye is now 2 years old.

I started a similar topic a couple of years ago see http://adiforums.com/index.php?showtopic=2115 In my case is not so much about building the distillery, but running it long term. It is much easier for me than most because the distillery is on my farm The start of the thread is "95 % of my energy comes from BIOFUEL made from WASTE fryer oil that I collect from a roadhouse next to my farm (renewable energy) and (minimal freight "food miles") The other 5% energy is Hydro electricity (renewable) I grow and harvest the grain within half a Km of my distillery (minimal freight) I grow ryecorn, which unlike most other grains, requires very little fertiliser or irrigation.(avoiding contamination of waterways) No insecticides or fungicides are used on the rye. (no chemical contamination) I use minimum tillage and trash retention. (sustainable farming)(locking up carbon in soil) Tractor and truck fuel is biodiesel from fryer. Spent mash is fed to my livestock (minimal freight) (nutrient recycling) I malt my own grain and use it "green". This saves a lot of energy because of no kilning.(reduced carbon emissions) All cooling water is recycled or used for irrigation.(don't waste precious water) All distillery water is captured on my farm. No government infrastructure.(no chemical additives, minimal pumping energy) Waste heat capture and reuse is gradually being improved. Except for my still and my tractor, most of my equipment is second hand. I believe it is generally accepted that most older second hand equipment has had its manufacturing carbon footprint already written off. (small carbon footprint) My distillery is in an abandoned horse stable that needed very little modification.(small carbon footprint for construction)"

Missing from that diagram appears to be the Foreshot cuts I think they may be done on both Intermediate and the Spirit still, but not certain.

That is a great diagram thanks Jedd, and it is pretty well how I imagined it would work. And I repeat - imagined- because I had never had the process fully described before. One variation I could envisage is the output from the spirit still could be split 3 ways, first to Spirit Receiver, then to Feints Receiver, then when it gets to 20% it could divert to the Feints Receiver.

I have got some numbers on a batch I recently did. A local Ciderhouse juiced 4,400 Kg apples yielded 2200 litres of juice. Sometimes a little higher juice yield The cidery did the fermentation and it came to me at approx 5.8%abv (I think it should have been higher, maybe that is why they gave it to me) Pot still stripping run gave 126.1 litres of pure alcohol in the "low wines" Spirit run with cuts 3 litres pure alc in the heads thrown out 24.6 litres of pure alc in the fore-shots that went into Fores and Feints to add to next run 72.3 litres pure alc in the Heart 22 litres in the Feints 121.9 litres pure alcohol recovered, ie still was 96.5% efficient at recovery.(about average) In this first complete run I got 72.3 litres from 4,400 Kg apples That is 1.7 litres per 100 Kg of fruit In future runs the Fores and Feints will be added to the next spirit run and I would expect to get about 2.3 litres per 100 Kg of apples "1. Brunner and Tanner claim that apples have a mean yield 5l pure ethanol / 100 kg raw fruit"

A nearby cidery rang me today and asked if I would be able to distill some cider and perry that has too much VA Has anyone had any experience with doing this? I recently had a batch of rye ferment that smelt like vinegar. I distilled it but the spirit was still vinegar like. I have put it aside for the moment, so I suspect the cider will be the same. Very basic chemistry suggests to me that if I add an alkaline compound such as calcium carbonate, this will react with the acid and knock out the smell. I have no idea if this is done in real life. Does anyone wish to put in their 2 cents worth, especially if you have been there / done that. Pete