The amount of people who probably paused video and read the comments after x.40. Were cranking it to 11 and giving a 120% effort. Outside of that, fantastic series George
Hi, George I just saw your first video on building an Electric still with the Enameled pot and that was one great Idea so I subscribed, and your channel is Awesome! thank you, George. LDL
George, I would love to see a parts list of everything you used. It looks like a great rig and I have debated getting myself one but dont know what to start with or what I can afford. Knowing what you use would be helpful. Thank you for bringing us along and sharing your vast experience and knowledge.
Please correct me if I'm wrong George but at the 25 minute mark you state that you need to multiply 76.8 by .40 to account for the amount of water. Shouldn't that be by .20 since we are collecting approximately .80 alcohol?
Yeah, probably so. My mind works slow sometimes. This is just a method to determine a ball park figure of collection volume. It is fairly accurate if you use the right numbers (smile)
Hey George Thanks for the awesome videos. 👍 Still haven't gotten my still yet but doing my research whit videos like yours. But what troubles me most is the poisonous part at first, I had a little trouble seeing the difference in the flames to identify the methanol from the ethanol. And thanks for doing the math both in Fahrenheit and Celsius 👌
if you are doing a fruit wash then discard the first few hundred mls.... if you are doing a sugar wash... then you can discard a little less... just catch your distillate into wee jars... (i use 200ml) and then make careful cuts... too much heads and you will get a headache the next morn... too much tails and you will find the stools a little loose the next morn. cut hard and redistill the cut bits for vodka... once again cut hard and dump the cuts from this run.
As long as you raise your still temperature to about 166°F , and hold it about 15 minutes, and discard what you have caught to that point, you will have removed the foreshots and heads and take the temperature up into the 170's F . Catch everything until the tails start coming off. You will be able to tell relatively easy, as the smell and taste will start to change noticeably. Usually I catch up to 200° F and toss anything after that. Hope that helps
If George was less chatty it would make the video down to around 15 minutes ... Thanks anyway for sharing your experience. Sometimes, your statements are a bit questionable though. A professional column with different plates, sight glasses and a dephlegmator will produce tasteful spirits like the famous German Williams pear while a 3 inches packed column can make a neutral vodka. Best material, according to experts, remains copper, but myself, I'm using stainless steel too. A matter of budget and availability of parts. I have a 70 litres boiler with a 3 inches column, height can be adjusted by adding more modules, ceiling is the limit, a Reflux coil (vapour management) plus a Liebig condenser, and a parrot (copper). I can add a gin basket too, use it as a pot still... Packing material, stainless steel pot scrubbers and like you, some copper mesh. My next project, a six-inch column with plates, bubblers and sight glasses, also stainless steel (in 2022).
awesome video. I should really get my fuel alcohol permit. I don't drink anymore but I love the science and dabble in hobby chemistry. Ethanol is invaluable as a solvent and fuel. I loved your explanation on column packing. spot on.
Fun fact, I made a sugar mash and didn't get around it to process it further for almost a year and half later (didn't had a distiller) , it was still in the fermenting vessel and I did keep the seal topped off most of the time. I didn't turn to vinegar, did have to remove a lot of the heads and tails to make it drinkable though.
Hi George, learning alot watching the videos. I have another question for you, I have 3 gallons of product. quarts ranging from 110 to 90 proof. If I throw them back in with a couple of gallons of distilled water 1 , do I have to worry about methanol and 2 should I expect a higher proof? Thanks in advance for all your help.
Calculating Expected Output From Still Gal = Gallons of Wash WABV = Wash ABV as a decimal, for example 15% = 0.15 DABV = Distilled ABV as a decimal, for example 90% = 0.90 Formula Gallons of 90% Alcohol = (Gal)(WABV)(DABV)+(1-DABV)(Gal)(WABV)(DABV) Example: For 5 Gallon Wash at 15% ABV and a Distilled output of 90% ABV. Gal of 90% Alcohol = (5 Gal)(0.15 WABV)(0.90 DABV)+(1 - 0.90DABV)(Gal)(0.15 WABV)(0.90 DABV) = 0.7425 Gallons
Sir, Thank you for sharing your knowledge, experience,and enthusiasm! What you are giving away is worth years of trial and error! You are the BEST!! Thank you!!
Shouldnt you take tails into consideration first, as its 10% of wash lost? Then get the % efficiency from that remaining amount (80% alc, 20% water), and then take off methanol from that to get final product before cuts. So 20L-10% tails = 18L x 15%ABV= 2.7L alcohol . Distillate efficiency = 80% ABV so 2.7L / .8 = 3.375L total. Minus methanol = 3.2L or so
I am a first time distiller. I would like to start off with a 3" Reflux still. I am from Alberta Canada, where would a good company to buy from be? Anything I should be looking for?
Unless I am missundrrstanding what your after your math is off. First you said 76.8ozvand you plan for 160 proof. 160 proof is 80% not 60%. I think you got confused between proof and % there as your using .40. but thats wrong regardless as 76.8×.40 is getting you 40% OF the 76.8oz. Here is what I think you meant to do: If 76.8oz is the projected 100% alcohol that you will extract And you expect to get that 76.8oz of alcohol in the form of a 160 proof or 80% alcohol in solution. You actually already had the answer as you already pulled that from total alcohol in the solution as you could only get 80% of it extracted. But here the math anyways. Meaning 20% of the solution is other liquid. Then 76.8 is 80% of the total liquid volume. Thus its 8 /10th or 80/100th of the solution or 8 parts of 10.. To keep it simple we can use basic math vs algebraic formula. 76.8÷8= 9.6 which is 10% or 1/10 the total. 9.6×10= 96oz or 100%. of the solution. To check this 96oz × .80= 76.8oz. 20% of the total solution or the part not alcohol would be 19.2oz. If you use that formula its fairly easy as long ss you always plan to pull @160 proof / 80% and work at 80% extraction effiecency. Whatever is the total alcohol content of the mash solution will be the total extract solution @80% or 160 proof. Your math does not reverse proof correct. You can up with total 160 proof vol of 107.52 oz. You stated total pure alcohol extracted would be 76.8oz. 107.52 @160 proof should be 80% alcohol and equal the 76.8 oz But it equals 86.01oz. Math does not add up. Look I had to do it all on paper you were doing it in your head back while teaching while filming. LOL I coukd not do two of those thing well at the same time.
Hi, as you said the first 2_5 Oz can contain methanol, right, so is it depends on the still capacity or in all cases are the same? Example, if I use 20gallons with 20% ABV, do I need to be careful about the same first amount (2_5 Oz) or what? Thanks
If I New what I no now I would have bought a 3inch, but my 2inch does a great job.. I would sale, lots of accessories sight glass and it take me about 5 hrs for run
8/5 23 hi George, I have a sugar mash I made about 3 months ago, it's been air locked . I've used all but 10 gals. I think it's still OK. But it's in a 50 gal plastic drum maybe ok ??
Hey buddy.... I say buddy because after watching all the videos I feel like we are buddies... I live in Cascade locks Oregon home of the bridge of the gods.. a few months ago I I just happened to tell my wife that I wouldn't mind getting a steal and playing around with it and by a mistake she accidentally bought me two off the internet one with a thumper cake one without both pot stills.."you gotta start somewhere". But knowing absolutely nothing about the craft or hobby I turn to RU-vid watch the variety a videos from all over as I'm sure you're aware of. It's Christmas night and the family is gone to bed and I'm going to make a second run on some liquor I made with 30 lb of honeycrisp apples... And as I'm watching your video for some last minute tips and pointers,
Love your videos George thanks for all you share I'm retire myself and use spirits to make tintures for my pain i have from a bone degenerative condition I live with ✌️🙏❤️💯
Reflux if often associated with a specific type of still but it is happens in all stills once vapor pressure is achieved. Copper packing, rachig rings, or water jackets, all induce more reflux. The vapor condenses on the surface, trickles back down, then re-vaporizes over and over. It is not just for vodka and gin. One high reflux run through a packed collumn is equivalent to 1.5 or 2 runs on a pure vapor pot still. A plated collumn with proper vapor management is optimum since the reflux is completely controlled and thus flavor vs. purity is easier to control. The key with a reflux collumn is to run slow for flavor and fast for proof. A pot still has reflux too, just very limited since it is primarily vapor flow. Reflux happens on any still, it's just the level of separation the substrate gives. A plated collumn gives the best separation because levels of reflux is happening on each plate to such precision that commercial distilleries with huge collumns will actually choose the plate and valve it to get the desired purity at a specific level of reflux, and of course they can control where that happens based on real-time sampling so they can quickly adjust to the optimum take-off plate. Dealing with 5,000 gallons hot wash coming from a large stripping collumn is, by necessity, a highly controlled situation where the correct plate is not only important for flavor, but crucial to not waste thousands of gallons that are full of heads. This even gets down to such highly calibrated reflux and separation that it can actually be heads coming off of lower plates, hearts off mid to higher plates, and tails coming off of the higher vapor plates, all at the same time. That has to happen in that quantity of heated wash. That's why small batch distilling allows so much better separation. On a plated collumn still the higher plates are doing to give you the higher percentages. Even home plated collumn systems can have take-off valves to run that particular vapor up to take off.
Hey George I bought a Vevor 9.6 gallon 3 pot still set up and I have tried 2 runs and have failed. one potaot vodka and one strawberry mash. I made and fermented the mash as directed in the book I got with the still and looking at your videos. I did not use what they call a thump keg because by watching your videos I see it is really a slobber box and I do not think I need it. I used a distillers cheat sheet that I found online. It says foreshots start at 175 degrees, heads start at 176 to 196 degrees, hearts start at 196 to 203 degrees, and tails start at 204 to 208 degrees. I use the themometer that came with the still and is screwed into the lid. I see you call out differenr tempertures than I have been using. Both runs was at about 30 proof and would not burn in the spoon test. Do you think if I use your tempertures I will get better results? This set up the cook pot will sit on my kitchen stove and I get cooling water from my sink, so this is easy to use. I also wash everything that touches the mash with Star San. I am a green as grass rookie at this and need all the help I can get.
The term you keep trying to explan using the words circumference etc is internal surface area or volume. If you are speaking of the ebtire air vol area thats volume if you are speaking of the total amount of the steel internal surface thats surface area.
Can one use copper BB's?? It would seem they would fill the tubes in a dephlegmator and be easy to remove, of corse using a screen at the bottom or top. I only ask this as an option if you do not want to add/or do not have an empty tube with added copper mesh in it. Thanks for you time George, learning so much.
I have tried to run this only once but still yet to get anything out of the worm, I think I broke a leg on the 3 legged stool. I got no spike at all, the temperature on both gauges raised like i was heating up water. From 120 to 173 no spike. I think I stuffed up the mash.
George I would like to take this opportunity to thank you on changing the way i distill from this important video. I got the mile high 8 gallon 2 inch column sent here to Australia 10 years ago, and for 10 years I used it as a reflux still.
I would love to take up this hobby but I am very uncertain about the law. I see where it ask for a license but that's to manufacture. Is it legal to do as a hobby though? Living in upstate NY
All your info has been so helpful. I have ave been watching your videos since last night. At least a few hours worth. The fact you are willing to help people answer phone and emails is amazing.
Great videos & intuitive insight into calculations for a final volume of product expected! It appears to be a miscalculation, however, by expecting to have gained more than .2 water of the 76.8oz that you'd just acknowledged was 160 proof (80% alcohol)... which added together would be 2.88 qts or 92.16 oz instead of 107.52... If, unless I missed the idea completely!
You can not run a fractionating run in call it triple distilled it's against the law. A standard distilled Spirit has two runs a stripping run any Spirit run please don't give your opinion as if it were fact it is not fact unless laws of change that I am not aware about
Hi George I'm a little confused. Help mate! You say based on 5 gallons of 15% Mash will make 1.8 gallons total ethanol minus about 2 to 5 oz of foreshots....minus 0.2 gallons of tails... how come you're only left with 0.8 gallons from 1.8 total?.... also if tales are at around the last 10%, why do you need to check for them so early at around 0.5 gallons? Rather than say later on at 1.5 gallons? Won't the tails kick in at around 1.6 gallons of production? Or is it because there's a significant amount under 90 proof you will throw away...
Just trying to satisfy and serve everyone. We often forget that the metric system is used throughout the world as opposed to the imperial system the US is stuck on.
George, thanks for the videos. Question about filtering, does running a flavored spirit such as bourbon through a filter strip the flavor? I've read it both ways. Thanks
George, can you make us a video giving data points for an 8 gal vs 15 gal, 2" vs 3", pot vs reflux? I'm thinking a 3" running reflux on a 15 gal with 10 -11 gal of wash would run in about the same time as a 2" 6 gal batch... How wrong am I? Since you should have the data points in your head, I'd be interested in you thoughts on the subject. Might influence my future purchases... Just looking for the best bang for my buck!
Would this be considered a blueberry brandy since your distilling a mead? I’ve got some mixed berry wine and banana wine that I plan on running through a still next spring
not using copper, = lots of hangover producing cogeners . you should make a video, and discus cogeners, what they are and how to remove them. you should discuss the chemical properties of copper, and how it naturally removes cogeners. using all stainless , with no charcoal filtering, makes for the best hangover liquer there is. on a side note, cheap store bought liquer also has little regard for removing cogeners, which is why you get such a bad hangover from it. the highest quality liqueur has no cogeners.
This sounds crazy to a semi-pro beer brewer....I will take the mash and keep it at 115 degrees F for 48 hours, totally void of fresh air, get the pH down to 4.3, and this is a great Berliner Weisse. What was your pH after 2-3 months? I assume you kept ALL oxygen away from your mash? Maybe this is how a wonderful Sour-Mash whiskey is made! I did not get there in distilling yet....
I’m running a all copper still with a 3 gallon thumper tonight. So far I have ran two gallons of 170 proof. Doing a spirit run for clarification purposes lol iv done stripping runs all week to make enough for Christmas lol. Merry Christmas George hope the weather is nice down in Texas, cold as shit up in Nebraska here same as usual.
so isn't distilling whiskey at home strictly illegal? against Fed law? like fines and jail time? are revenue agents still busting folks or is this like marihuana now, not really enforced in serious volume?
Usually I distil the fruit, without adding sugar, it has a low alcohol content. I have a self-built column that I can use as pot-still and reflux. What do you think is the best way to proceed? Double distillation with "pot-still", column with packaging without reflux? With a low ABV I can not get enough products from a single run, and I do not see for the maximum flavor from the fruit. I accept your advice!
Yes. Cryptoponics has a system he has perfected using something very similar to what you describe on a small scale. He reports that it works very efficiently.
Love all the videos! Just one point of clarification - the Yeast does not 'eat' the sugar, it 'breathes' the sugar (or more particularly the oxygen molecules off of the Sugar) and it exhales CO2(the bubbles during fermentation). By stealing the Oxygen off the sugar it is turned into Ethyl Alcohol. C6H12O6 → 2 C2H5OH + 2 CO. That is why we use airlocks, to force the yeast to find another source of oxygen once the environment turns aerobic. Thanks again for all the videos - very well put together!
George, your videos are always great. Very informative, interesting and full of useful tips along the way. What you do is save me making the mistakes by trial and error. Keep em coming! Thank you, from England Uk 👍
Yeah I though it was somewhere in that neighborhood. I did a video about 2 years ago on this also. I was trying to remember and couldn't get the date right. Thanks
George, thanks for sharing all your knowledge, I love your episodes, all the way from South Africa. I am busy with your rum mash, can't wait for the end result, thanks, Ben Roos.
you can always distil out the water after you've made the final cut then use the remaining liquid as a flavour for the high proof alcohol when you use a reflux still. if the concentrated remains in the still taste any good that is
Thank you for these great videos. This is a hobby I got into during a tough part of my life to help me keep my sanity as well to just give me something to look forward to and learn. Now I cant stop doing it, since i enjoy it so much!
Any pennies older than 1982 are 95% copper and 5% zinc. George, I have watched many of your videos and today I subscribed. I have never distilled but have been wanting to for awhile. I have learned a lot from your videos and will be saving the ones that I can learn the basics. I do have one question, how much grain or fruit do I use to make 5 gallon of beer?
Hi George, thank you so much for the education, I'm playing catch up man so I'm going through all of your videos.. this is like a 4 credit hour course, I just started this thing called a hobby, and I am so very thank that you are here to explain in explicit detail the entire operation from start to finish! After viewing an assortment of your lesson sessions (in no certain order) I'm feeling pretty confident! I've started out with a very small Pot Still of my own creation but i will be reviewing all other videos before i run. thank you David D.
What's your take on induction burner I find I have more control with temperature . Can adjust it fast up or down. And it's a very precise. Heat. Have you tried it
George sorry for the late question, my column is 4" and 22 inches high from the bottom to the top of the 90 degree turn.Do you think I can add 2 rolls of copper and will it be double distilled? The reason I ask is because of the height, I only have 22" to the top of the turn.
Question about calculation: if i have 12 gallons of mash at 10% abv and i collect at 91-94% ABV how much water will i be getting in there? How much product should i keep?
Your videos are great! I have been learning a lot, and am excited about giving it a go. I am going to tell my friends about you so they can understand my enthusiasm. Thank you sincerely perry potter " shine on"
Hi George started following you today lots of questions but first is do you have a Facebook Page? And is there a continuation video to the diy keggle video you made
and reflux distilling is kind of boring but now I am making up different mashes and making nice brandy. thanks so so much for that one piece in this good video about doing the one run and its distilled twice. :)
Do I need to run a vinegar wash through a new stainless steel reflux still before I can make a real run? Thank you so much for any info I am just learning your channel has been very informative.
