I always learn a bit more everytime I watch George's videos. Lead free vs Zero Lead % and identification ring on brass fittings. I did not know this but now part of my knowledge database. Thanks George!🥃
That's what i use mine for after i open a few of those moisture packs that they put into everything now days to draw out any water that comes over then you just strain them out and into your gas tank. Btw Mike do you ever get over to the East Coast
Chuck Naturale no, I stay pretty much over here in Southwest Florida and that’s about it. I used to travel a lot more back when I was doing things for the Florida Council of the blind; before I had to go back on dialysis. Hey, give George a call and he’ll give you my phone number, and give me a call sometime; let’s talk shop. Take care and keep safe!
im learning more and more every video i watch of yours thanks and my question is . i have a two inch column no refux yet!! . how well or better would a sight glass with 4 bubble plates help me
So I Just purchased a still off amazon (yes I know but I am a beginner....) I have no doubt it was made in China.... Will the brass fittings still comply with the US Code or will imports be exempt. And if they are exempt am I better off going to my local big box and purchasing all new fittings and copper lines? I suppose they could be much higher in lead content than our lead free pieces.
Hi george good vid as always I've got one question when you say 2oz per 5 gallons is that out of 5 gallons from a stripping or just a one time run . Many thanks
As usual an informative video but my attention kept on wandering to those electrical components on your work desk and what you were cooking up with them.
I find it funny with out watching any other fore shot and heads videos, I've dumping them. I run a 6 gallon still for now but I've been tossing well about the 1st cup of my runs. I have a pint jar marked half way, and that's my weed killer. After that I get 2 quarts to drink/use. Then a pint i call my tails.
I have a 4lt electric distiller ,I calculated that the amount of forshots and heads I should throw away from each 4lt distillation batch is 25 cc .Would appreciate your comments.Thanks
Go by smell. The foreshots stink and are easy to identify. You'll notice an acetone smell that's similar to fingernail polish remover coming over late in the foreshots. Right after that smell is your heads which you'll likely want to set aside as well but collect them in smaller jars and compare them to the center of the run which will be your solid hearts. That's an easy way to identify is compare a jar to a center jar. Late heads/early tails are needed for flavored spirits like rum, brandy, whiskey but are usually not wanted at all for a vodka or neutral.
@@omidification No, because contrary to what a lot of people think methanol comes out the WHOLE RUN. It's bonded to the ethanol in a way that home distillation can't totally remove it. The largest portion will come out at the start however. Here's the rub, sugar washes have very little methanol to being with, same with rum. Grain based spirits have more and fruit based spirits have the most. But now think about this. Methanol poisoning is way over blown. If you don't add it you will never have enough to worry about causing you harm (besides a hangover). Distillation doesn't create methanol but can remove some of it. So if you don't have a problem with the methanol in a 6 pack of beer you definitely won't have a problem drinking the alcohol (6 shots) made from the beer. Same with wine. If the methanol in a bottle of wine isn't enough to hurt you then the brandy made from the wine won't either drinking a similar proportion of alcohol. Methanol got a bad rap in prohibition times when people "altered" or "spiked" the hooch with other things trying to make more alcohol. Now with that said, you can usually remove about 1/2 the total methanol during foreshots and you can remove other nasty volatile alcohols that cause headaches and just smell bad. Once you get past the acetone (fingernail polish remover smell) you are done foreshots. Take more then you think as those early heads are nasty anyway so it's not like you are going to miss them. If you take 50ml per 25L of wash you're in good shape. Just smell it and when the acetone is gone a little taste will tell you. Not going to hurt you especially if you spit it out. It's usually pretty strong so mix it 50% with water.
@@carloayars2175 would that mean the amount of methanol left after removing the 25 cc from a 4 lt batch would ensure the spirit to be safe to consume ?
@@omidification Unless you do something wacky to begin with besides a grain or sugar wash the spirit would be safe to drink without removing any. So any foreshots you pull off just make it better and better tasting and remove non ethanol portions. Keep in mind if you had a 6 pack of beer you distilled down to 6 shot glasses worth of alcohol and removed fores the spirit would be "safer". So if you don't have a problem or worry about the amount of ethanol in the beer or wine you produce FIRST then the distilled spirit won't have more.
I’m new to the distilling process and recently watched one of your videos on making rum. I noticed you did not heat your mash. Other recipes call for heating while others don’t. Why is this? All my searches on heating vs not heating mash talk about distillation temperatures not the mash itself. Maybe a video on various ways to make and ferment mashes would be helpful. Thanks!
Rum would really be called a wash as it doesn’t contain any grains or fruits . Heating a rum wash is manly needed to melt the molasses and sugars together and bring the mix up to a good yeast pitching temp . You will also need to add Fermax as there is not much food in the sugars to get the yeast started . Also be sure to whip in a bunch of air to get the yeast going .
In making a rum, I heat 4 gallons of spring water to 130° F, soak my molasses jars in a pan of hot tap water with several changes to really liquify the molasses. Add 3 gallons of the hot (130°F) spring water to the fermentation bucket and add the Molasses and stir each QT of molasses ( I use 3 qts for a 5-6 gallon wash) in one at a time and rinse the jars with some of the remaining hot spring water. Then add the remaining hot water after rinsing jars to the fermentation bucket and add the raw sugar ( 12-16# in a 5-6 gallon wash) and stir in well. Top off with cool spring water to bring the temperature down towards yeast pitching temperature. I've had really good fermentation and less mess. It is absolutely well worth using a rum specific yeast/ turbo yeast and my rum has been praised for being very tasty.
The only mashes l heat have ether fruit to kill the nasties or grain to convert the starch into sugar when i do fruit l use a boil bag get a big pot of boiling water going then dip the bags of fruits for just a minute when I'm done i add the water in the pot because it will have sugar from the fruit in it l just let it cool a bit first
Hi George. Thank's for all of your videos. I have come across a barrel of 70% alcohol(140 proof), and it tastes bad( oak taste is bitter), and is not drinkable, so I was wondering, if it is possible to re-destill it and improve the taste?
Hi George, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your passion, I am a retired engineer and watched every one of your videos and have built "Big Bertha" my still, and she is producing the most incredible stuff I can make during the lockdown in South Africa! without your teaching, I would have taken twice as long to get the results!!!
Thanks George for the information. My smell ability really sucks. I’m always looking for a good method to make cuts. I will start concentrating on proof.
First of all thank you Sir for yet another much appreciated knowledgeable show. Please do continue with all the valuable information Sir. I'm trying to learning the process of brewing actually and you are my mentor. Thanks once again Sir .
George, I have been wondering this for a bit and have watched many of your videos. I certainly appreciate they way you explain things in a way anyone can understand. I'm looking forward to getting started distilling soon. I have been doing cider and wine for a few years now and your videos have helped me perfect my technique there as well.
@@Stachebilly Just remember that you have to remove the water before you can use it i use those packs that come in everything now days to draw it out l have a friend who owns a shoe store save them for me but you're taking a much larger scale then the bit i use to keep my jets clean
George, hope all is well. 1 We miss you and 2 Thank you for all your hard work on these videos. you really take the mysticism out of the home brew lore and make it easy for us.
@@ivotheg2397 George is running his business and spending time with his family is what I’ve been told. You Tube was taking a lot of time away from him. Too many phone calls and emails.
Just wanted to update everyone on my build since I now have several runs under my belt. I changed my water lines to two separate systems one for deflaglanator one for shotgun condenser water from the deflaglanator is straight tap water with the inlet tube running through a bucket of ice since my tap water runs pretty warm l used a T-500 pump since I had one on hand and the needle value lets me make tiny adjustments which is perfect for the deflaglanator. Temperature on the outlet side runs at 162° F on the condenser I use a 180 gallon pond pump in my cooler with 15 pounds of ice and three gallons of water and it keeps everything ice cold through the whole run now. Your pid controller is the best I set it to 120°F to balance my column then to 155°F for my foreshots and heads once it stops I go to 180°F for my hearts and run until I hit 200°F and I'm done. #HappyDistilling everyone l hope this helps you on your application.
i guess i'm way on the safe side collecting 100ml of foreshots from a sugar wash, but compared to the cost and actual yield otherwise from 5 gallons, its a drop in the bucket. i save it for cleaning things, so it's not really wasted.
Using my 1 gallon Mr. Distiller, I save the 1st 10 drops in a steel spoon and set them on fire. I've never gotten a yellow flame, like I get from bottled acetone (nail polish remover). That said, I STILL keep the 1st 1/2 oz - 1 oz in a separate jar. It sure smells like acetone and even tho it burns blue, I discard it... Thanks George. #HAPPYDISTILLING 👍👍
Color of flame is a bad indication. First methanol burn clear to very light blue. The color your flame burns is going to depend on type of still and how hard it's ran taking off the early drops. Alcohols with single carbon molecules is going to burn cleaner than alcohols like Ethanol with 2 carbon atoms. These do NOT come out in a specific order contrary to what many people think and anyone who has looked a gas spectro reports will intimately know this. Methanol comes out the WHOLE RUN. So stop setting your liquor on fire as it's a useless indicator and will burn differently depending on what you used for the mash, ie fruit, grains, cane sugar, molasses, etc. Some flames are hard to see and are an accident waiting to happen. If you don't set you gas can on fire to test it, don't set your liquor on fire either. At least stop doing it in the house.
@@carloayars2175 Thanks for the advice, which I followed before I got it. I admit to being fairly new to distillation, and have gone about it slowly. 1 of George's uploads showed a burn of bright yellow, according to him, as I recall, being mainly methanol. I DO understand that methanol isn't just the first few drops, and will continue throughout the run. I have been making wine for close to 6 years, and beer for around 3 years. As George has said repeatedly we don't worry about the amount of methanol in these fermentations. I ferment corn (flaked and pre-gelatinized) and barley, all barley, and have done a few experimental runs adding wheat, red or white, and smaller amounts of Rye. Using the Mr. Distiller Air Still, a 1 gallon "plug and play", it is nearly an automatic process. I collect 200 ML at a time thru the run and store all separate. I usually ferment 6 + gallons, and never reach 7. The still runs at it's preset temp, so that is out of user control. I have read several books on distillation and watch (ed) many videos concerning higher end distillates, methanol, acetone etc.... As is obvious from me being here. And yes, I am very much away from other flammables when I ignite those 1st 5-10 drops. I do so to give my own mind a line of similarity or difference, between subsequent runs. I am doing all this, probably OVERDOING it, as kind of a base line, just for my own knowledge...or peace of mind....maybe ? If I were to get a major difference in flame, I would probably do my collection a bit different, for that complete run. So far that has not been a problem as all have been very similar. I ignite in a large spoon, in near darkness, WITH GREAT CARE. BTW, the instructions that came with the air still makes no mention of collecting fore shots or heads at all. It says to simply collect the 1st 700 ML and stop at that point. I DO appreciate your input, 100% ! I am here to learn and have learned a lot. I admit to still being basically a beginner, got this still a year ago and have kept it going at a pretty good clip, lol. I am purposely holding off on taking the next step, still wise, as a way of NOT getting ahead of myself and making stupid mistakes. I know that when I do get my next ( and probably last) still, it will be like starting from scratch. The learning process will begin again and be a whole new ball game... But, with what I have learned in the last year, and the previous year of researching how to actually get started in distillation, I will be a step ahead of where I would have been had I bought a "real" still to start. Thanks again for the advice and sharing of knowledge. Happy Distilling 👍👍
@@wldtrky38 I've read a lot about that little still but never owned one. But distillation is distillation more or less. I don't know how you run it but to make a bit cleaner spirit you can do 3 or 4 strip runs. Just run it from your wash. During the strip run maybe dump the first 50 ml as foreshots and then collect it until it's mostly water coming out. Do that 3 to 4 times until you now have roughly a gallon of these "low wines" to put back in the Air Still. Now reload it with the low wines and run it again. The advantage of doing that is instead of an 8 to 10% wash you'll have a boiler of 35% wash so 3.5 to 4 times the alcohol to start with for the spirit run. Now during this run throw out the first 50 ml as foreshots and save each 100 ml after that into separate jars. You'll end up with roughly 7 to 8 jars. You could also save 50 ml to each jar and have roughly 15 of them. Leave jars open and covered with a tower for a day to air out. Now you can start with the middle jars which should be hearts and work down, then up to see which jars have a good taste and which are to "pungent" to make your keep jar. Those that don't make the keep jar put into a rerun jar you'll call feints. Feints still have a lot of useful alcohol that can be reran with the next spirit run or saved until you have enough feints to rerun by themselves. Remember most alcohols ran in a pot still are double distilled (rum, brandy, whiskey) and some are even triple distilled. Oh yea unless you are trying to make pot stilled vodka remove the carbon block/filter for "flavored" spirits and you don't want the carbon in it for them. I've thought about picking up an Airstill to use for making gin in from my GNS. I think it would compliments my other stills ranging from 20 to 120 liters. I think it would be a nice little "development" still.
I have been watching your videos, and each and every one so far are really educational , and lets not forget all your humor, keep the good work up, and thank you for a GR8T channel George
Great to hear from you again. If you can't learn something from this guy, well then your just ##@$$#@&%. Make a trip to Cooperstown NY and we can do a run by the Baseball Hall of Fame. Thank you for the education.
Thank you sooo very much for being such a phenomenal teacher!! I have filled half a notebook already with info from your videos!! Thank you George!! Your videos are priceless!! Happy brewing!!🍷🌷
Hey George love what your doing. Just wish you could do close ups on different parts of your presentation. I would trade you camera work for a first hand look at distilling. Got a still being made never made a drop of mash. Always wanted a still since Iwas a kid when Roger Miller sang Chug . A... lug. I was a cameraman in Hollywood for years. I want to be the most creative distiller in the Hollar. Okay Newport Beach California. But I am moving to Virginia.
If Alexa was not biased she would have said "Do you refer to US gallons or imperial gallons?" The correct answer would have been 22.7 litres, or 23 litres as is the norm ;-).
Its amazing at how many of these so called moon shiners think they know some sort of recipe george doesnt already know 😂😂😂😂 what a joke .The man is as n expert at distilling , we are not ! He has tried every possible combination known to man . If he tells you something, listen to him because he knows ..
So let me make sure I get this right in a 5-gallon batch; the first 2 oz at the 145 degrees is methanol (trash it); the next 4 oz would be considered heads at 168 - 173; degrees?
Hi I am new at brewing sugar mash, I throw away the first 150ml of a 40% 25lt mash and produce just on or some times just over 4lt, I stop my distillation at 94c is this to high? if so what have I got
I have a 10 gallon still from north Georgia still, it doesn't start producing until around 200° and I was under the impression it should start around 145 or so. Why is this? Even north Georgia still says their stills do this.
so let me see if i have this right, so if using a 5 gallon sugar wash to make my vodka, i dont really need to throw any heads away, but to be on the safe side, i should discard 2oz and then let it get up to temp and keep everything until it starts to have a wet cardbord/burnt type of smell? thanks, much love from the uk xxx
Thanks for your kind words my friend and not just any pid control that's a George Ducan Made in the USA. by God Texas pid control that brought it all together for me the boiler is 17 gallons and I made a large vapor chamber by welding half of a t500 to the lid and cutting the hole larger which I covered with stainless steel screening so I can add fruit when I'm running in pot mode then a copper amblec top from there it's a 32 x 3 inch glass column filled with stainless steel rings and copper mesh then a 12 inch deflaglanator above that are two elbows one with temperature probe then down to a 24 x3 inch shotgun condenser finally a half inch port with high temperature chemical resistant tubing that goes to my parrot. As always thanks for your help and great videos and #HappyDistilling to all
With methanol legend is the same like in cooking ,the frying the meat before roasting it, it will seal the layer and keep the juice in!! B.ll sh.t ,does not work.like.that
As a 69 year old Englishman I am so glad to have discovered your channel 2 or 3 years ago I had run out of people to look up to.Thank you George and Happy Distilling!
People on www.reddit.com/r/firewater and /r/distilling don't believe methanol comes off first. You should do a video experiment to prove it does. Distill a premixed mixture of water, ehthanol and methanol and show the resukts.
I may do that. Methanol has no azeotrope with water as ethanol does. I agree that expelling 100% of methanol in the beginning is a tall task and probably not possible. That being said, the amount left to smear/mix with the remaining wash would be almost impossible to isolate without a laboratory of maybe a gas spectrometer. Good idea but probably not a worthwhile endeavor. George
@@BarleyandHopsBrewing I don't think anyone cares about the tiny amount left after the heads cut. Buy 1L of pure methanol from a hardware store. Make a 5 gallon batch of water/ 90 proof/ methanol. Distill it. Show you get 1L of methanol back out if you hold the column temp to 147F until it stops running. This would really prove a lot of things to a lot of people. Once and for all people would see you can remove methanol separately if you hold the column temp to 147ish.
@@BarleyandHopsBrewing You rock, George. I like how you explain the science and debunk the myths. You help us bring distilling out of the backwoods and into our homes.
@@BarleyandHopsBrewing You really need to do this experiment and demonstrate how a PID can separate out methanol before the ethanol. Some people don't understand how this works. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-q44nsf3h2oo.html
You are on a roll. A few days ago I thought I should get a ph meter and bam video. I was at a re-store (sells recovered or not needed building materials for charity) looking through the pluming odds and ends. Saw a bunch of brass wondered if I could utilize it. Bam video about brass. Thank you sir.
Help, I broke the alcohol test in the jar with 2 gallons of brandy. Can I consume it after filtration? Or should it be thrown away. Does it contain nasty stuff? Please help me.
Once again, I have learned something new about foreshots and heads!!! I have a better understanding of what to watch for on my hydrometer!! Thank you George!!! Happy Distilling
A old man told me that he'd put a little die/food coloring in the first jar and he'd heat it to 150 or when it would stop, then throw out the 1st oz. After that, who wants the 1st shot... The die is a safety tool to help anyone mistaking... it is good to know what mashes will have the most.
It's good for gun cleaning and removing glue residue from when you change your mind politically and have to get rid of a Beto for Pres bumper sticker. Just keep that stuff OFF OF THE PAINT!!!
I think part of the problem is that there are many people, like me, that understood that the acetone smelling harsh tasting distillate that comes off for the 1st 20% was heads. (after the fores are taken off) Maybe that is part of where the confusion comes from ?
George, thanks for the videos. Keep up the good work. I recently purchased a Chinese pot still that has a few brass fittings. Through about 5 runs and my end product has a slight gold tint, could they be related?
Yet another great video ! I love how you review what you are saying so that ANYONE should be able to understand it. You have gave me the knowledge and confidence to move forward with distilling and I can't thank you enough!! Your rock George ! Cheers Buddy ;-)
George, I see your guitar in the background sometimes. It would be interesting to hear your take on the bumper music you have used in your videos through the years and where we might find it. BTW, the beard makes you look smarter! ;-)
We have the same poison potential problem here in New Zealand with poison in honey from Tutin. When the season is just right in the areas where the Tutu plant grows the bees can make honey that is poison enough to kill. That is why comb honey is only offered to the market at specific times as if you ate a spoonful of comb that contained Tutin you could die. But if that honey is spun from the comb the poison is diluted to the point it is only just detectable and IS SAFE. The distillers myth is that you can go blind from home made alcohol. I would say, "Yeah Right", only if you wanted to, Drink the first 200ml. It would seem just that simple. It is all about TRAINING just like NZ Beekeeping.
Hello :) I love your videos. I have a question "am I collecting so much heads"? Or can I drink heads? I have an airstill (4lt). I do sugar washes about %10 with bakers yeast/dap/citric acid. 1. In first run I collect everyting down to %20. 2. Dilute it %35 for second run. 3. In second run I slowly (with pid) collect 50ml foreshot, 250ml head, 1000ml heart, tails down to %30... Am I collecting so much head? Now I have lots of heads but I don't know what can I do with them or even I can drink them or not. Thanks a lot! I learned much from you.
Hello my og was 1.090 and its been 25 days I have pinched it with baking yeast only and my hydrometer shows 1.100 but my wash is still bubbles and my wash is made out of 2 lbs suger and 1 gallon of water and 500ml of raw juice of peach and when do I start my distilling my wash I bit confused with my maths and when to distill my wash
When fermenting, how dangerous is the carbon dioxide from lets say two 3 gallon jugs. For example in a studio apartment/one room scenario. Can that amount create up to 5,000ppm where it is dangerous.....in a 150sq room?
I have a very small chemical stilt if i have a 600ml in my 1000ml, how much of head i should disposal? also, i use bread yeast and they have a smell+tast! why is that? thank you very much,i'm a big fan
