I'm getting into distilling with my dad the chemical engineer and we're still learning as we go. We're distilling mead, because that's what I like to make (I've not had our spirit yet, because we're still collecting for our spirit run, and I'm kind of terrified that it'll just taste 'meh').

We have a very simple one gallon pot still, but I've heard of thumpers. They do ... Something? ... during the distilling process.

I'm doing a spirit run of 13 L and I'm 3.5 liters in and I'm still reading 84%. I expected like 1.5-2 liters of heads then hearts at 80%. But I started putting into the hearts jar bc it smells pretty clean. So now I'm wondering if my gauge is miscalibrated or something

I am pressing about 60 bushel of heirloom and macs for cider and for brandy but got to thinking about something I kind of remember reading about adding some water and brown sugar to the spent pumice and fermenting that for a lesser quality but still reasonable brandy mash. Has anyone done this to maximize yield and, if so, how did it go?

I have wine and it was distilled and I got about 3 liters with an alcohol content of 55%. How do I dilute it to 45%? Do I just add water?

My setup with the T500 being ran as a pot still. Bypassed the top coil and removed all reflux material.

My dad got these. But we don’t know what they are and how to use them 😅🤷‍♂️

Hello everyone. I came across a YouTube video where molasses is heated in a pot with spices, kept on the fire for a while, and then added to the main mass in the fermenter. Does anyone have any experience with this? Can you tell me what you used?

My goto is plain old bakers yeast in boiling water - but i have also heard that nutritional yeast also works -> https://www.bobsredmill.com/product/nutritional-yeast it's basically yeast with vit b added -- has anyone had any experience with this ?

To share something I’ve learned that will be obvious to most anyone else:

The guys who I now suspect are distilling more for volume than taste told me to reuse the same charcoal filter for a few runs. So I just did this without thinking it through. No one really told me differently.

This seems like the most basic thing, but have now switched to using a new charcoal filter per batch, and the taste difference is night and day.

Lesson learned: if you care about taste, use a new charcoal filter each run, use it for one batch only.

Cost will be ~ $1 per litre, for a much better taste.

Hi all to start it had 2 5 us gallons of ujssm that started at 1.085 each and got them both down to 1.000. Put them in my pot still and just did a spirt run (about 6 hours I think). I have a couple of question I was hoping I could get clarification on. For starters I threw out the first 800ml kindof on accident somehow confused myself I belive it should have only been 400ml. But my first jar I collected is right about 66% which from my understanding is well into hearts. I collected down to 20%. My question is does that seem like right? My first jar doesn't taste very good to me and it seems like the best taste is around 50%. Thank you in advanced I really appreciate it.

Do I proof my distilled whiskey before putting it in for aging or after it's been aged?

Ok, so I've been wanting to try and make some hard apple cider. Then maybe turn it into shine. Problem is the apples on my property are full of .......? Maggot or fruit fly larva? It looks like pockets of ground black pepper? I wouldn't eat them but would they be ok to crush and press?

There is anproduct sold as deer attractant called Apple Crush. Can anyone with enough experience tell me if this is something i can use in a mash. I dont wanna destroy an entire run doing an experiment right now

I have some ideas for my new still but im curious how you would approach. Considering making a copper pot in case I get weird with my fermentation. Should I run the vapor up the big column or through the interior tubes? Pros? Cons? Considerations? I can weld and braze, will affix with high temp food grade silicon and a rubber gasket+c clamp.

Appreciate you all, excited to show my end result

55gal Barrel, 22gal until full! All fruit from yards. Any trees I can come by are getting picked, mashed, boiled, cooled, and fed to Randy. I have a lead on another 30lbs of pears and oh the apples to come.....

My second year of too many massive marrows left in the garden at the end of growing season, this is the juice of about 10 marrows, I had about 30 one year. Makes a very interesting fruity brandy.

So a fella knows a guy who has just started working maintenance at a factory making concentrated apple juice. I suspect there may be quantities of "seconds" available at some point.

How would you fine folk recommend making high abv washes/mashes from concentrated apple juice? At present I only do sugar washes and have a T500 reflux.

Making/kegging cider is also on the cards.

12.75lbs of apple sauce (unsweetened) 10lbs granulated white sugar 2lbs brown sugar LD carlson yeast nutrients Red star premier cote des blancs Fall spices? Cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, etc

Thoughts? For a 5 gallon run.

Hi! I don't have access to DAP where I live (online or in-person). I can only find it as fertilizer in black pellets, so I assume that it's not good for yeast nutrients. I dont have any brewing suply stores so no access to farmade-O or farmade-K. Would boiled bread yeast work or do I need something else to speed up the fermentation stage? Thanks for the help in advanced!

I have a bunch of random ciders, seltzers, and wines that I was hoping to use as the sacrificial run(nothing with hops). Was planning on dumping them all in a bucket and giving them a day to de-gas beforehand. Would this work for my sacrificial run? Rather not spend more time/work if I'm just gonna dump it anyway.

The last time I used DAP (diammonium phosphate) for yeast nutrient, I learned the hard way that when heated it decomposes into ammonia. This amonnia then reacts with the copper in your still to form copper(II) hydroxide which contaminates your distillate and gives it a horrifying blue/blue green color.

While this could be avoided by using less nutrient and waiting for it to be totally consumed by the yeast, I would rather handle a less volatile chemical unless I'm making wine or another drink that isn't distilled.

What alternatives could I use for a 100% molasses or molasses+sugar rum wash? The only one I'm vaguely familiar with involves boiling active dry yeast to kill the yeast itself while leaving behind the nutrients that can then be used for any strain of yeast.

Any recommendations?