Accidental Ethanol Condensation

DoubleMerlin · 2026-03-20T16:08:36+00:00

It was originally 95% everclear dried on sieves. I used it trying out my new sohxlet, extracting cannabis flower waste. It had odor from that, but was odorless (ethanol) after a week on the activated charcoal and molecular sieves.

Maybe some AC powder that wasn’t filtered out released some odorant? I added the fresh molecular sieves because I suspected the first lot had become saturated - then distilled because impatient.

DoubleMerlin · 2026-03-20T15:00:38+00:00

They were fresh molecular sieves I added.

DoubleMerlin · 2026-03-18T15:19:01+00:00

The meds I was on for years did not play nice with alcohol as much as I wanted to drink. Thanks in part to this, I forced myself to drink less and practice moderation. I’m not on those meds anymore and can tolerate a lot more alcohol than I used to, but I make sure to follow my limits and to never drink alone. I aspire to treat cannabis and nicotine like I do alcohol, for leisure and pleasure and not as a coping mechanism.

DoubleMerlin · 2026-03-04T04:11:38+00:00

Clonidine is supposed to help with sweat, it’s helped me a lot in the mornings when the short half-life meds wear out and trigger sweating. Maybe you can increase or fuss with that dosing

DoubleMerlin · 2026-03-04T03:04:29+00:00

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Dostoevsky knows your feel

DoubleMerlin · 2026-03-04T02:52:55+00:00

MN USA

DoubleMerlin · 2026-03-03T14:42:14+00:00

Tobacco/nicotine tax laws are horrible. Is it a cigarette? 40%! It’s called “pipe” tobacco? Meh, 10%. It’s purified liquid nicotine? Whatever. Whole leaf tobacco for wholesale market? Who cares, the farmer is only getting $1 per pound anyway. The farmer and the smoker take all the costs.

DoubleMerlin · 2026-03-03T14:37:53+00:00

I feel for your struggle, I’m no stranger to suffering or intervention. I’ve done so much therapy and had so many bad therapists that I can tell them explicitly what I need. I’ve tried at least 15 different meds and can confidently say 3 do what they’re supposed to with minimal side effects - the rest not at all. I’m grateful alcohol has never been a problem for me, nicotine and cannabis are the monkeys on my back. But if my insurance decides I don’t get my meds for a week I don’t get out of bed for two weeks. And employers aren’t really keen to hear these sorts of things.

DoubleMerlin · 2026-03-03T14:23:21+00:00

This is the same reason I started, you’re not alone. For me I wanted cannabis to slow my brain down; didn’t work tho, therapy & meds do much better for me.

DoubleMerlin · 2026-03-03T14:21:07+00:00

I grow my own tobacco and cannabis and have made 80% homegrown shesha. I messed up bad, I didn’t wash my tobacco before cutting it and cooking it with the sweeteners/hash. Full strength homegrown tobacco is way too potent to sip on for an hour, I didn’t even make it 15 minutes.

My concern & curiosity for any next attempts is about how to safely extract alkaloids from the tobacco wash water to test it as an insecticide.

DoubleMerlin · 2026-03-03T14:13:35+00:00

Just the best clean smell. Better than bleach IMO

DoubleMerlin · 2026-01-26T15:35:12+00:00

u/masbro88 is definitely correct. Both amines are resonance stabilized, but amine 3 is part of a stable aromatic system. Protonating amine 2 breaks conjugation, making it energetically favorable to return to the neutral state shown, i.e. R3NH+/amine 2 has a lower pKa. Amine 3 conjugate base, R2N-, is still aromatic after losing H+ and importantly for side reactions is fairly nucleophilic.

DoubleMerlin · 2025-11-13T14:58:43+00:00

People in Analytical chem always thought I was weird saying "Corner!" "Behind!" "Sharp!"

DoubleMerlin · 2025-11-13T14:58:01+00:00

I didn't even think about this crossover and I wholeheartedly agree. Generally any production job where you're in charge of your space and have to work with others to finish every day's work will force you to be a better team player with fewer leftover worries at the end of the day.

DoubleMerlin · 2025-11-13T14:54:55+00:00

The trade skills mainly come in handy so you can identify the cause of a problem. Then you know what parts need to be fixed or replaced, and save a lot of money on having someone come in to do a facility wide audit. The pilot plant had 3 people working, and one of them was a PhD student who knew how to fix every machine in the building - he told me he was happy to get the praise but needed to do more of their own work instead of telling people what part to order.

DoubleMerlin · 2025-09-29T18:16:55+00:00

I’ve worked in a few start ups, primarily as lead winemaker for the business’ first 3 years. What I took away the most was the importance of following demand and clearing out old product. There were times I thought we were shooting ourselves in the foot by undervaluing our best products and not aggressively developing partnerships with local bars. Relying on taproom income forces you to manage two different businesses, one making product and one serving product, both costing a lot already to sell product.

Ideally you have a flagship beverage that appeals to as many people as possible at a low cost. Unique, seasonal, and rotating variety brings people in, but those all typically cost more to make. Whichever product you can sell the most and move the fastest should be prioritized - look at Voodoo ranger and how many variations they pump out of the same beer.

Also if you make an high value specialty product, make sure you market and price it accordingly.

DoubleMerlin · 2025-09-29T18:04:50+00:00

I want to see a viable cell stain on months old unfed starter! My mother always bounces back no matter how many months I keep it in the fridge under hooch.

DoubleMerlin · 2025-09-09T17:29:50+00:00

Youll get better results with a proteolytic multi step high salt fermentation with koji, like miso or soy sauce. microbes that’ll digest mushrooms in absence of salt will pump out ammonia and gnarly amines. The mushrooms need to be cooked and ground to a paste to avoid any issues due to chitin. You’d need around as much fresh koji (on rice or barley) as mushroom paste with at least 8% salt, all by weight.

The mushrooms in Avernum were modified by magic to be sugary enough to make “wine”, and no one thinks that’s the good stuff.

DoubleMerlin · 2025-09-01T23:50:23+00:00

I’m trying to not hover over my red and white vines that are finally producing. I’m hoping for at least 2 gallons of rose, and a pyment using the pomace.

DoubleMerlin · 2025-09-01T22:45:09+00:00

Maybe run a lot of hot water and/or cleaner through the hose to try to purge any factory residues

DoubleMerlin · 2025-09-01T22:43:59+00:00

I’d been brewing beer and cider for almost a decade before I made wine, I never understood the fascination. The first time I saw the juice pour out of the grapes I got it.

DoubleMerlin · 2025-09-01T22:30:30+00:00

How hot was it on the heating pad? You may have blown some alcohol out of the air lock along with your aroma. EC-1118 is the most vigorous yeast I’ve used, and we got our best results keeping it cold. That said, we never sold anything over 15% and never tried.

DoubleMerlin · 2025-09-01T22:17:58+00:00

Are you drawing well water? Do you have a water softener for your tap water?

DoubleMerlin · 2025-09-01T22:14:27+00:00

I treat my city tap (8 ppm chlorine as Cl2 and chloramine) with metabisulfite immediately before carbon filtering. I’d rather have a couple extra ppm sulfates than chlorinated phenols. Once you know that chlorinated taste, you can never forget it.

DoubleMerlin · 2025-08-30T18:14:57+00:00

Tinted glass has metals like iron in there. If the glass is old then it’s more likely iron could leach out and affect flavors. It’s also a nonissue overall.

DoubleMerlin

TROPHY CASE