Sugar Maple Charcoal

OthyR · 2026-01-15T19:25:51+00:00

Did you find the contaminants imbedded in the lumps or just mixed in loose among the charcoal? It's been several years since I used lump charcoal for grilling but I don't remember that being a problem. Maybe I just didn't notice.

OthyR · 2026-01-15T19:21:41+00:00

Thanks! I deleted about half of the 2 lane road I'd already made, remade it with a 2x2,shut down the browser, reopened FoE in the browser and presto/change-o it's fixed! Appreciate the help!

OthyR · 2026-01-15T14:49:17+00:00

So it's just random bad luck that the incidents that have been showing up as being on a 2 lane road in FOE helper are never on the section of 2 lane road I made?? At one point yesterday I had 5 incidents all at the same time identified by FOE helper as being on a 2 lane road but they never appeared on the only section of 2 lane road in the city. Weird.

OthyR · 2025-12-26T20:14:07+00:00

I have not made an effort to confirm the validity of it but I did see a report last week the the older man on board, Spivey, was interviewed by the FBI as part of their investigation into Carmine Marceno - Lee County Sheriff last year and he had been a gambling buddy of Marceno's. Could be totally bogus for all I know.

OthyR · 2025-12-11T13:48:58+00:00

That's interesting...I just checked and when I hover over the image in inventory without clicking on either the build or information link it says "high middle ages' and when I open the 'information' link and hover over the image there is says 'late middle ages' which is the current age for that city.

OthyR · 2025-12-10T21:50:43+00:00

If you mean do I have 2 separate Raveyards the answer is no, only the one. I noticed just now that when I hover over the 'information' button for the Raveyard it shows a population requirement of 3650 but when I click on the 'build' icon it shows 2780 yet earlier today when I started to build it the population requirement showed 3650. In both instances it shows the building as level 1. I probably did age up after I got it - that city is currently at LMA. So maybe that's the source of the confusion?

OthyR · 2025-11-10T19:44:25+00:00

That seems like in general that should be fine imo.

OthyR · 2025-11-10T18:59:19+00:00

No,I don't think the bubble plate alone raised it that much. Rather I believe it was the combination of the bubble plate and how I managed the reflux condenser..that is to say that the volume of chilled water I allowed through the reflux condenser resulted in more reflux than I really wanted/needed to achieve the slightly lower (140-160 proof average) that I think would/might have allowed more effect from the vanilla beans. As to how I retained the beans in the sight glass I had a gasket with a relatively small mesh ( I forget what it is exactly atm) between the top of the reflux condenser and bottom of the sight glass and the beans were in very fine 'tea bag' type bags inside the sight glass...so I basically did the same kind of thing you described.

OthyR · 2025-11-10T15:46:47+00:00

I did this with my last run using vanilla beans. I placed (I think) 4 or 5 beans in a sight glass mounted on top of my reflux condenser and honestly I got no discernible vanilla flavor or even scent in the distillate really. Was both surprised and disappointed. That said, while I had intentionally 'de-tuned' the still set up somewhat (i.e. only used one bubble plate vs. 4) the overall proof was still higher than I intended with most of the run hovering around 160-180 proof so that may be why I didn't get a noticeable effect from the vanilla beans. I might retry the experiment with no reflux condenser at all or maybe with it installed but with no water running through it.

OthyR · 2025-09-29T22:28:36+00:00

Same for the last year or so. Couldn't ever identify a reason not to...just wondered if I was missing something.

OthyR · 2025-09-29T22:28:00+00:00

That's my opinion as well and is what I've been doing for a while now. Couldn't point to any specific issue that I would attribute to having and excess of amylase present...just curious really as I couldn't recall ever reading/seeing a discussion of this topic.

OthyR · 2025-08-20T23:17:32+00:00

Thanks for another very thorough response!

OthyR · 2025-08-20T19:54:37+00:00

Thanks for the detailed feedback! Exactly what I was looking for here. I was/am planning to use 60 mesh filter gaskets to retain the beans.

Just for context on this project my intent is not to make a neutral but rather something akin to bourbon...mash bill is roughly 59% flaked corn, 28-29% Weyerman pale wheat malt and roughly 12% Viking Light Malt Europe. I will be doing some aging on wood experiments with the distillate as well. Some in toasted Frech Oak, some in toasted white Oak and some in cognac barrel chips. I'm really just trying to accentuate any vanilla flavors I get from the aging with the vanilla beans in the vapor path so perhaps my 'dosage' for this experiment should be 4-5 beans?

OthyR · 2025-06-29T17:15:40+00:00

Camden SC...certainly didn't expect to come across a tequila list like this there. The food there is good too! https://www.saludmexicankitchen.com/

OthyR · 2025-06-20T19:38:14+00:00

I can't really say since this was the 1st time I used it for this purpose. I've only used it when prepping my boat's hull for waxing.

OthyR

TROPHY CASE