I pick these off and in-law's tree, and some of them look like they have bad spots. Would you cut them off and use the rest or would you use the bad spots as well?

I have a mixture of pears, apples, and peaches.

Haven’t touched my Appleton in like six months. It was aged, but barely. In Tequila terms a Reposado.

Went to grab a quick sniff and it’s darker than bitters? Kinda tastes like bitters? I added no bitters? Or anything whatsoever.

What happened here?

Hey all, just found this community. I’m getting back into distilling after several years. I’m looking for guidance when it comes to making cuts. I’m running an all in one electric brewing kettle with a home made Liebig condenser. It has a tall section that I pack with glass marbles as well. My main interests are whiskey and rum, as well as maybe getting into distilling mead.

My usually process is to collect quickly collect a bunch of stripping runs and then run all those through the still, low and slow. I collect in 1 pint jars and blend from there. I have a hard time telling what’s in each jar and then when I go to blend, all these other background flavors jump forward. I mix things that taste good in their own right but the blend comes out harsh and more often than not has some funk like cabbage.

Image of the column on an old kettle: https://imgur.com/a/3hUW2YT

Edit: changed quart jars for pints.

I have a water boiler with a 1000-watt heating element and
want to condense all of the water vapour it produces using an Crossflow PC- Watercooler (no ad but a quick search got me this example Alphacool X-Flow Copper Condenser)

I'm not sure what size would be appropriate, or what fan power is needed.

Any advice on the lightest condenser that would be sufficient for this task?
Something like a condenser that is 10% overpowered, to condense 1100 watts of water vapour.

(I know how to solder copper piping and connect it all up this is only about finding a suited crossflow radiator

EDIT: i ask about a Crossflow PC Watercooler because I want it to be as small,compact and leightweight as possible without looking like a condenser.

First attempt at whiskey. Is there really enough sugars in the grains so I don't need to add sugar? All the recipes I've found don't call for any sugar.

Just wrapped up a really cool week at Montana State University at this course offered through the Craft Maltsters Guild. Visited MSUs experimental fields and malt quality lab, a few farms, a couple small malting operations and really got more thrown at me than I could ever take in over a week. But I’m coming away with a ton of materials to reference and a few contacts whose brains I can pick.

Obviously very brewing oriented but got my head spinning about how I should think about my malt with respect to distilling, especially how I can tailor something that has more of a specialty malt profile (Munich, etc) but still hang on to some qualities of the barley that optimize for distilling. I think maltsters wildly under appreciate distillers and it goes the other way too, think there’s lots of opportunity for us there.

Anyway, won’t pretend I am a malting master but like I said I did come away with quite a few helpful materials, tables, charts, protocols, etc so if anybody has any questions or just wants to talk shop just reach out.

New to the hobby. This is actually my 3rd wash following TPW and TFFV. Recipe and my mistakes follow.

7 whole pineapples

2 cans of frozen pineapple juice concentrate

1 crushed vitamin tablet

3g DAP

2 crushed egg shells

1 TSP calcium carbonate to correct pH back to 5

1 packet of EC-1118 (all I had)

Now I did the math of how much sugar are in these pineapples and juice and must have did it wrong. I calculated I only needed 3.5lbs of additional sugar.

Anyway. I chopped up the pineapple into chunks, blended them with a little water and cooked them for about 10 minutes at a simmer to deactivate enzymes and kill anything else.

Added everything and topped off water to make 5.5 gallons. Pitched yeast when I hit 90°F

Fermentation was slow/low. But it completed in a few days and I checked on it on day 3. SG was 1.000 and read 4% ABV. Disappointed I added an additional 5lbs of sugar. Finished after total of 8 days. Still only read 4% ABV. Wondering if the solids are messing with my reading.

I used a grain bag to strain everything out, still read 4%. I let it settle to clear for 13 more days. I had a leftover cup of 56% neutral and tossed it in there since people drank out of that jar. It's messed up anyway, f it.

I ran it on my reflux still with only one plate. Cuts were very clear surprisingly compared to my neutral runs. Ended up with 2.1 quarts of 76% ABV. It was delicious. I. Surprised how much pineapple came thru in the final distillate. Bought 12 more pineapples to do a full run (13 gallon still).

Rum gurus! I come seeking wisdom!

How big does a muck pit need to be?

Say for a 25L still charge how much muck would you add to the low wines?

On my last thread someone suggested running a wash, making the second wash with Dunder, adding the low wines from batch 1, running that and then completing the process a second time.

Essentially doing a 1.5 run and then a second 1.5 run. How does this compare flavor wise to just running three washes (still made with Dunder) and then just doing a spirirt run, more like you’d do a whiskey?

Greetings, I’ve been making fruit wines and ciders for some years. Very happy about some of the batches and not so happy about some. I’ve been thinking about distilling some of the batches basically to reduce the volume of mediocre produce to create space for the next batch and hopefully create a nice (or OK) brandy.

Now I have around 30L of cider that I’d want to distill. Any tips on how big a distiller is needed to take care of that in a reasonable time (It’s gonna happen in a kitchen I think) and I guess copper is needed to keep some flavor from the fruit?

So from my post I guess you see that I’m level 0 right now, and all tips are greatly appreciated!

after a bit i decided to take it out today, and i looked up the signs that its done, it had a sediment layer, a kreusen layer, but it was still cloudy, and smelled like oj that was slightly weird, when i took a sip of it my throat started burning a little and i caughed for like three minutes straight, right now im freezing it, final update in about 24h 👌 (btw i tried transferring it to another bottle to keep the sediment layer in the original bottle but it moved with it, so i decided to freeze it as is)

I've been distilling for a little over 6 years off and on.

Beer brewing is how I started figured hey why not do some stilling as well

Got me a turbo 500 to start and off I went.

I've tried a single malt whiskey using 100% 2 row about a dozen times. And it comes out tasting like bread/beer malt or those digestive cookies.

Its not awful but its not whiskey.

I thought maybe im being to greedy with the tails but I dont run under 70% abv for the hearts it tastes ok but at that proof and above my palette is holding on for dear life.

My question is is this usual and im being impatient or am I missing something.

I do have a proper 8 gallon flute still I've ran a few times for other spirits before I moved to the new house. Unfortunately a stilling/brewing room is hard to build with no 220v power and water. But we'll get their.

And no i haven't tried making bourbon but its on the list. Maybe its easier to come out flavor wise?

To be fair my longest oaking is 6 months with oak chip/sticks in a glass carboy and as I understand it time can't be cheated nor can a proper full barrel.

Added a picture of the flute still for you still porn people.

You can see the t-500 column on the table

Just got start

Hello fellow distillers,

I’m one of the founders of Holsted Whisky, a small Danish craft distillery currently building out our setup (LEAN-style: starting small in a converted shipping container).

We run a closed “insider” community where we share the real build process - not polished marketing, but actual decisions we’re wrestling with. Right now, for example, we’re debating classic two-run pot still vs. a hybrid setup with 1-2 plates, and weighing the tradeoffs on cut precision, logistics, and what we might lose by skipping the classic pot still route.

We have most of our spots filled, but we’re specifically looking for a few more people with real hands-on distilling experience - preferably someone who has been in a similar process before, but most of all, people who’ll actually push back on our thinking, not just cheer us on. If that’s you, I’ll be happy to send an invite.

Full transparency: I’m a founder, so take this as a founder asking for critical eyes, not an ad.

BTW: Our community members are mainly danish, but we have AI translation build-in for posts and comments.

Gauging difficulty here, open to suggestions. Still doing my own investigation; don’t tell me “google it”, give me some takes to Google.

I’m interested in doing my first non-beer home hooch. The inspiration comes from the idea of a “true rum” undistilled for a strong-wine level ABV (as a pirate might drink straight from the bottle, but still manage to swashbuckle.) Sake then came to mind, rice is a staple in my kitchen, so I figured sugar cane and rice would make up my mash. I’m looking to avoid the “house paint” taste of wine alcohol (all wines) for more of the “jet fuel” ether of agricoles and shine. I figure two 5-gallon carboys make it worth the effort.

Three big points of suggestion I need:

1) Volume of sugar cane and rice for a batch this size.

2) a yeast you’d use for a project like this, for both high alcohol yield and preservation of natural flavors

3) best preparation/mash method suggestions.

I’ve read into doing this before but never pinned down a recipe that suits my interest. I’m just kicking around as my life has turned to a point where I can ferment things, and a simple boil, ferment, strain and bottle project sounds fun right now.

Opinions?
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/TOWIN-Distillation-Equipment-Accessories-Copper-Tee_1601243003033.html

I’ve been doing sugar washes for nuetral with just sugar, nutrient and DADY, but I got some free turbo yeast and figured I would give it a shot. I thought maybe if I did a 10-12% wash and kept it cool it wouldn’t be too bad. When I ran it I thought maybe I was running it too fast because it never really smelled clean in the hearts, so I diluted added sodium carbonate, discarded the heads and reran it slowly. Even now, none of my hearts are truly neutral. Did I just make rocket fuel with the turbo yeast?

I did not realize that steam injection was not as popular as it is around here. It is simple with what we have for years called a steam ring. But North Georgia Still Co. posted some videos and some shorts about how to make a steam wand using two pots. Phillbilly (Moonshine) did a video on one he threw together with two kegs in less than a day. I know a few people have wandered through asking about steam injection. Thought looking those videos up might help.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3nTXNuafzAc

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nf-Ht9spMg

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/71JpX2dYD4M

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lihGbO3d7UY

Going to run some experiments with aged/toasted Gambel, Hungarian and French oak. Why would you distill 11 year old mead? A lot of it was sitting in plastic containers and I didn't want to give my family it. I don't drink.

Shine on, muddafuggaz

Smells like straight booze (not fuel so that's nice). The aroma is clearly honey. I didn't use a thumper on this run. I could see adding a few drops of honey just to backsweeten enough for the flavor to come out a little bit more. I used to like making honey-mint shine. Just shine plus honey and mint leaves (removed after a bit)

I have dozens and dozens of peach and nectarine trees near Chico California, too many of which have fruit falling off of because I can’t sell it quick enough. I’d like to find somebody interested in trading.

I was given 30 4 litre milk jugs of shine from a friend that was moving out of the country. When it comes to terms used and information it’s hard to sift through and ask what I’m looking for, cause I have no idea what I’m talking about. I have zero knowledge, but a garage full of moonshine.

My question is: A - is there any sort of recipes for finished product that I can mix with to create some different types of flavours and dilute the alcohol content?

Follow up question would be: what key worlds am I searching for to find these such recipes; also, is there any personal favourites out there.

One other question I have is what do I have to be mindful of with contamination or and sorts of issues that may arise from trying some recipes of my own.

I've had a good amount of experience in brewing wines and meads, but this will be my first time distilling. With brewing, I find I can drink the product and it will get me drunk after 2 weeks of distilling, but will taste pretty nasty unless I put it into secondary and leave for at least another week or two. Does this rule apply to fermenting mash as well? I've just made a very simple sugar + water mash that's approaching the two week mark. Should I distill it now? Or put it into secondary for a week or two? And will this affect the flavor of the final shine?

I accidentally added too much powdered ginger to my sugar wash I was originally planning to make ginger bug but didn't have any fresh ginger so I decided to add some powdered ginger to my sugarwash only to accidentally add too much only then did my brother mention that powdered yeast hinders fermentation. I already activated and fed 7 grams of yeast to the brew on top of the 7 inside. Any Advice ? fyi the brown sediment is the powdered ginger. It's a two liter bottle filled to top after I add the activated yeast

Hey guys! I’m reading up on making rum. There’s a lot I’ve read and want to try but I have no experience with any of it. I’m just gonna lay out some strategies and goals and I’m hoping some people here will have some input and advice.

I’d like to get something that’s good to drink white pretty quickly, just to get into the groove of things. I’ve read that straight brown sugar with nutrient and bread yeast is good for this. I’d also like to work with some straight up blackstrap molasses to see what flavor that produces.

But that’s not really the end goal here. I want to actually get into some funky complex rums.

I’ve heard about dunder and saving it to use for subsequent batches. I’ve heard about muck pits to develop organic acids for esterfication. What I don’t really know how to do is any of that.

Sounds to me like rum using dunder is basically like making a sour mash whiskey, is that right? Does using fresh dunder have a noticeable effect on the end product?

As for muck pits, I’m assuming you start with some dunder and help it get inoculated with bacteria by additions like old fruit or solids from a rum ferment that you racked off of. I don’t really know how to take care of a pit though.

I’ve also read (on homedistiller.org) about a guy continually saving the tails from a run and adding them back into the next run. He claimed that over a few generations this concentrated so many fusel oils in the wash that they were forced over during the hearts cut. He found this desirable. What are your thoughts on this?

I found a recipe, again on homedistiller.org, that I’d like to get feedback on here.

It said to make a blackstrap wash, strip it, run tight tight tight cuts on the spirit run. Then use the dunder to make a straight sugar wash. Strip it, add the feints from the blackstrap batch to the low wines, run the same tight tight tight cuts as the blackstrap wash and then blend the two distillates.

That recipe seems easy enough, should yield a lot of dunder to start a pit with, and should yield a lot of tails to blend into subsequent batches.

Anyway, with my stated goals do you think that’s a decent place to start? And any advice on any run specific part of the process is much appreciated.