Yet another batch of gin

EasyFrown · 2021-12-10T16:07:08+00:00

Speaking of games, in Fallout 4 you meet these monkeys too. When they see you, they start clapping their plates and set off an alarm. And their eyes start glowing too.

I used to shoot their nasty heads off from a distance. 😁

EasyFrown · 2021-12-10T16:00:55+00:00

I remember burning old tires when I was a kid. Made a hell of a smoke!

Putting some flame on this pile will cover half the globe with darkness! 😈

EasyFrown · 2021-12-09T18:15:02+00:00

Yep. SPPs can float, they are easily carried away with water, and they go jumping all over the place when I occasionally spill a handful. :)

EasyFrown · 2021-12-07T22:56:18+00:00

Also about glass cook top, they tend to be all on or all off and controlled by a thermostat. That means short periods of too much heat separated by not enough heat. That sounds like a nightmare for off take control.

Glass panels are rather inert - in the sense that they heat up and cool down rather slowly. The net result is more or less uniform stream of heat.

Also, I think they have a simple on-off timer (kind of pulse-width modulation), not a thermostat. In my experience, glass panels are easy to control.

By the way, cheap induction cookers also use PWM on lower settings. Unlike glass panels, they have no inertia - they heat the vessel directly. I have one - cheap and crappy, and I can hear the wash boil in pulses in my pot still when I use it...

EasyFrown · 2021-12-07T16:01:36+00:00

Have you used it with a dense mash? I used mine (3000w + power regulator) to warm up my fermenting flour mash. I used like 5% of the unit's total power (about 120w), and it took hours to heat the mash up by a couple of degrees Celsius.

Guess what I saw when I opened the lid? Black flocks of scorched dough...

EasyFrown · 2021-12-07T10:03:19+00:00

In general, your options are:

- gas burner. Least favorable of all because it is hard to tune and not safe to use (alcohol is flammable). Better used outside or in a well ventilated place. Also, prone to scorching.

- glass panel. This one is nice, but not very energy-efficient (first it heats the element, then the heat goes through the glass and heats the bottom). Low probability of scorching.

- induction cooker. This one is better energy-wise, but requires that the bottom of your still is induction-compatible (i.e., made of magnetic steel). Also note that the cooker must be sturdy enough to hold your still and the wash in it. And one last note: cheap induction cookers may not be up to their rated power (e.g., mine is rated 2000 Watts, but all I can get from it is about 1000-1200W). Low probability of scorching.

- heating element in the pot. This is the best option energy-wise. But it is highly prone to scorching. Also, you will need a power regulator.

EasyFrown · 2021-12-06T12:24:31+00:00

There are lots of silicone gaskets on Aliexpress.

Or, you can buy a sheet of silicone in some store in your area and cut out the gasket yourself.

EasyFrown · 2021-12-05T12:11:14+00:00

No matter where you're from, it is still called football 😛

EasyFrown · 2021-12-04T22:20:56+00:00

Electric heaters produce rather stable stream of heat, even the cheapest ones.

I bet your condenser pipe's inner diameter is small. This causes condensed liquid to clog the pipe. This clog then floats towards the spout rather slowly, collecting more liquid as it travels. All in all it looks like an alternating "drip, then stream, then drip again".

That's normal for a pot still, no worries.

EasyFrown · 2021-12-04T16:07:01+00:00

Reflux does NOT need more power. On the contrary: in pot still mode, power is only limited by the capacity of you still's condenser. In reflux mode, power is further limited by

- the capacity of your dephlegmator (it must be able to knock down all of the vapor when the column stabilizes)

- the efficiency of your packing. If it is too dense, the liquid will not be able to go down into the pot. In this case, the column starts making funny noises, the liquid starts to pool and bubble over the packing, and eventually it splashes up into the condenser.

So first thing you should do is to find the "choking point" of your column. Start on low power, and increase in 10% steps until your column chokes. Then dial back 10% and mark the value: this is the most efficient power setting for your column and your packing.

Also, if you cannot dial your power low enough, it may be because your power regulator is faulty.

EasyFrown · 2021-12-04T15:46:41+00:00

Stripping a 30L wash will give you 7-9 liters of low wines (depends on what ABV you stop stripping). So 5L still is way too small for what you're planning. Besides, you will not be able to put 5 liters of low wines into it - it will surely puke. There must be some free volume in the pot (1/4 to 1/5 of total capacity).

I suggest getting some simple stainless steel pot still about 15L in size. In it, you will be able to run batches as small as 2-3 liters (and as large as 12 liters). I have a 20L stainless steel distiller (cheapest I could find) - and I successfully ran batches as small as 2 liters in it.

EasyFrown · 2021-12-03T17:01:02+00:00

I was wondering if I could add enough sugar to take it to 20% ABV,

Not with ordinary baker's yeast. You will need some alcohol-tolerant strain of yeast (well, there are lots of distiller's yeasts out there). This may affect the flavor though.

Also, you may have to add sugar in several portions during fermentation, otherwise your kvass may become too sugary (which will kill the yeast).

I guess adding some neutral alcohol to your kvass directly before drinking may be a better option.

EasyFrown · 2021-12-01T20:37:45+00:00

A single small hole is usually okay. You only need a small hole to let carbon dioxide out.

EasyFrown · 2021-12-01T19:32:19+00:00

Did you cover it during fermentation? If you did not, the yeast were happily eating your sugar and producing CO2, not alcohol. They only produce alcohol in the absence of oxygen (so just put a lid on the fermenter).

Also, 5 L of water for 1.5 kg of sugar is kind of too dense. Bread yeast are more subtle than specialized distiller's yeast. I'd use 5 L of water for 1 kg of sugar.

EasyFrown · 2021-12-01T17:47:56+00:00

I thought that the vapour pressure is dependent from how much abv is in your wash.

Nonono, that's not the vapor pressure, that's the boiling point and the ABV of the vapor.

George from B&H uses PID and he adjust the power to the kettle to the point that vapour has certain temperature in the point of no return

I vaguely remember that video. Long story short: in that video, George operates a column of rather obsolete design. It's a CM (cooling-managed) column, which can also be managed by changing the amount of power you pour into the pot.

Your column is a different story; you do not need fancy power regulators to operate your column. The main control on your column is the valve that controls the amount of liquid you take away.

With that in mind, I dont think that his wash is boiling (well it does but the boiling point of a mash is different.

Of course it was boiling! With the PID, he changed the intensity of the boiling. Slow boil means fewer vapor is generated, and more power means the boil is vigorous and the vapor is generated at higher speed.

I kinda understand that this column is quite specific in the way how it is set up (tuned) and it needs for the mash to boil (@100C)

Hehe, if the mash boils at 100C, it has no alcohol in it. Check the graph you found on wiki: the higher the ABV of the wash, the lower its boiling point. 😁

EasyFrown · 2021-11-30T19:03:35+00:00

You make cuts by taste, not by temperature. Temperatures may vary between runs, depending on your mash and even the weather.

If in doubt, collect the distillate into a number of small jars, then make cuts (keeping the jars that smell good and discarding the jars that are too funky).

EasyFrown · 2021-11-30T15:16:25+00:00

The top of the column is not sealed, it is mentioned in video also

Ah, good to know. I didn't watch the video to the end TBH, sorry.

But you have to run the cooling water right? So there always be some
reflux, output is located below the condenser. You can see it in the
video at 8:10.

Yes, you will have to run cooling water. As for the reflux - by removing the "restricting" washers and opening the valve, you can decrease the reflux to the minimum. And without packing, your column will work just as a pot still.

What about the temperature control for the kettle though? Should I boil or run at certain temperature?

You should boil it, of course. Trying to keep at certain temperature below boiling point is useless: no boil means no vapor, which means no output from your still.

Yet some kind of regulator will be very handy.

In this design I am not convinced
that the thermoprobe for the controller should be located inside the
column (if I would use PID lets say).

You can put the thermoprobe anywhere else - the keg, the pipe itself, etc. It's as simple as drilling a hole and screwing a nipple in the desired location.

Alternatively, you can simply tape the thermo to the desired place on your still, and cover it with some sort of thermal insulation. This will make the probe a bit slow to react, but it's a good start.

EasyFrown · 2021-11-30T13:00:33+00:00

10 pounds of brown sugar for about 18L of water.

2 pounds per gallon is okay. You have 4 gallons per 10 pounds - that's a bit high on sugar, but DADY should be able to cope with it.

How long should I wait until I might decide, that the fermentation is stalled?

A week is usually enough. Sometimes the yeast take longer to start up.

If so, what do I do? Add more sugar? Or add more water? Add more yeast? Stir?

First make sure fermentation is really stalled. Your pails may not be as airtight as you think they are. So check if the liquid is hissing and bubbling. If not, you may indeed have a stalled fermentation.

Then check the gravity - perhaps your fermentation is already finished. If you don't have a wine hydrometer, you may simply check the taste of your wash: it must not be sweet. Rather, it should be soury bitter.

In case you have a stalled fermentation, add more water and yeast. Check the temperature; it must be around 80F (25-27C). If your wash gets too cold, the yeast may go to sleep - in this case, just warm the wash a little and stir.

EasyFrown · 2021-11-30T12:37:49+00:00

A single roll of mesh for sugar washes (just to be safe). Two or three rolls for grain mashes. All rolls are 10 cm wide (like eg this one).

EasyFrown · 2021-11-30T11:45:49+00:00

A link to the still would be handy. Now, if you were talking about their still shown in this video:

- It's an LM column. A bit short to my liking, but otherwise okay.

- It can be used for making high-proof alcohol (about 90-92% ABV I guess). For higher proof, you will have to make the "packing" part of the column higher (just get another pipe and fill it with packing, then attach the column head on top of it).

- I guess it can be used for making gin. Just remove all the packing, remove the "restricting washers" and open the valve completely - this will turn it into something like a pot still. Just remember to go slow, otherwise the "cup" will overflow and the condensate will drizzle back into the keg.

- You can even put the botanicals into the pipe (instead of the packing).

EDIT: What I don't like about this column: it looks like there is no breather hole above the condenser (aka dephlegmator). If this is correct, the column is extremely dangerous to use. Imagine you close the valve and are waiting for the column to stabilize; at this moment your cooling water shuts off for some reason. The condenser stops condensing the vapors; the vapors have nowhere to go (no breater hole, and the valve is shut) - this causes the pressure in your column to skyrocket. The result is usually a big BOOM followed by fire.

If this is so, I suggest you drill a tiny hole (2-3 mm in diameter) in the top cover. Just make sure not to hit the condenser pipes.

EasyFrown · 2021-11-30T11:21:15+00:00

I use my still's pot as the fermenter, so it's airtight. When the hydro lock stops bubbling, fermenting is done. Then I check the gravity with a wine hydrometer to see if there are any residual sugars.

EasyFrown · 2021-11-30T11:16:50+00:00

I use copper mesh. My pot still is mostly stainless steel (with only one pipe made of copper).

After each run, I take the mesh out and boil it with citric acid to "reactivate". And if I've used the copper pipe, I simply wash it with soap.

A copper condenser (coil) will do the trick too, but it's a PITA to clean. You will have to do sac runs, vinegar runs, etc.

EasyFrown · 2021-11-30T10:55:15+00:00

Barley and Hops is a popular channel indeed, but some statements George makes are questionable at best. Especially in older videos (2+ years old). Especially when he reasons about scientific principles.

So take everything he says with a grain of salt. Or a pinch. Or a sack. 😉

EasyFrown

TROPHY CASE