This channel is the greatest channel on RU-vid with the best teacher in the world at its helm. Thanks for the info George. Love the videos from South Africa 🇿🇦
i know Im asking randomly but does anyone know a trick to get back into an Instagram account? I was dumb lost my login password. I love any assistance you can give me.
@Ali Arturo i really appreciate your reply. I got to the site through google and im waiting for the hacking stuff now. Takes a while so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
Everything I learned was from you George. I do have to say ....thank you very very much. Today I'm making my own moonshine and Whiskey (not the best one but... not bad at all...) and I'm still learning. I'so glad to be part of this channel and have the opportunity to keep learning from you. You are always welcome in Switzerland... ..
I'm the guy in the back of the room who you may think has drifted off. No way Jose'. Sometimes I close my eyes just to listen. You are a marvelous story teller and it's great to hear the facts based on your experience actually experimenting. I like to tune in and turn on.
Good stuff George. Please don't ever dumb it down because you can find that kind of information all over the web. I come to your channel for real information that is useful in the process.
Forgive me for asking a dumb question. I thought the AFT ruled against making distilled sprits for personal use. I dont know I am asking because the whole subject of distillation is so very interesting to me. And I surely would want to run afoul of the law
The best explanation of head temperature I've heard yet! Running 2 returns is better than one. Having only 1 will cause a siphon effect on the reflux line.
Hello George Peter from Australia? You are the most intelligent Man on RU-vid right now and you are not greedy. Thank you for helping me with beer spirits and wine..
I used those same scrubbing pads you said to not use in my first go at a still. I didn’t read fine print on the label. Ruined the whole batch, tasted like rust.
Did you read the comments? George, you are really helping Us newbies. Once I get balanced and my fore shots are gone, I back fill my Reflux jacket with fairly warm water. When I crack that valve it doesn't cold water shock my reflux. It helps me dial it in a little faster.
I am just getting started with brewing and distilling, my hardware and supplies are in the mail. Your videos are awesome. I appreciate your attention to detail and thorough explanations.
I run two water supplies the one for reflux always runs hot so l use tap water with a needle value and collect the hot water to use in my next mash after it cools for my condenser l use a pump and 15lb of ice in a cooler with 3 gallons of water which last for my 6 hour run. As always great stuff my friend thanks for all your help and #HappyDistilling
Always enjoy and am motivated by the “why”. If I understand something I can respond to a variance. George, you are a gifted person when it comes to transferring knowledge. To me that is a true definition. If a “Teacher”, to transfer knowledge. I wish you had been my math, Englsh; science, and well, philosophy teacher throughout my school years. I appreciate your openness and transparency to help us all understand the science to equip us to produce a better outcome, whatever it is they we are doing. Please keep it up!
Your water temperature in your reflux coming out should only be between 0 and about 10 degrees centigrade at maximum to partially condense the column vapours, happy distilling. In other words if your column temperature is 79 degrees centigrade your water exit your reflux condenser on the column shouldn't be lower than about 69 degrees centigrade. Cheers
Hey George ... I've must have watched 20-30+ of your videos. I KNOW I saw a video where you talked about reflux temperature control using PID and how you had a temperature / exit ABV ratio that you used as guideline/rule for hitting tails. I've been digging back through you videos and can't find that one. Can you or anyone else steer me to the video?
Man I bought 18 yards of mesh because a buddy told me to roll it tight and stuff the whole column so I was able to cut it in half and roll both up tight to shove up my 18” colum I still had room so I bought some of those scotch brite copper pads because I googled it and it said made from 99.7% pure copper. I’m glad I watched this so now I will remove scotch brite and pull the copper mesh out and roll it loosely!!!!! Thank you George you probably just save me my first 12 gallons of wash!!!
George, love the channel. When putting copper mesh in the column, how many runs before the mesh should be changed out. Can I just clean it and put it back? Thanks
Subscribed for $0! anyway, the scrubbing pads are fine so long as you 1) do not care about the sulphur dioxide being catalysed or 2) the underlying material is stainless steel. The copper coating won't end up in your distillate as it can't be entrained or vaporised. It will stay in pot (what you do with that is up to you).
Do not change a thing. Although I may not understand everything you say, but you give all the information which often completes my circuit to make my little light shine. 🤣🤣
Been watching your videos and really enjoying them and learning a lot. Are the stills in this video and a few others sold by your store or how can I buy one? About and 8gal or larger 15 max.
Another here from RSA. Very sound information man. Just was wondering if your outlets on the condensers are a larger diameter than the inlet? I work in breweries and distilleries as a pipe fitter, and the outlet is always larger than the inlet ie. shell and tube exchangers. Was told its more efficient in heat transfer, and less strain on the pumps🤷♂️
Those copper scubbing pads turn a grey blue colour and yes the alcohol stannins and in turn the stannins eat the copper. Thr copper lso removes the sulfides that also eat the copper turning it a blue colour over time. Just wash it all after each run with boiling water or a cleaning run and it may be used a few times again. The packing is well below your coil so none should get into your collection jar.
George i know youll probably never see this , but your videos are very enjoyable, and youre a natural teacher, im thinking in the service you no doubt taught many.
The internal condenser at the top of the reflux column is pretty much a Dephlegmator. It requires a fine water adjustment valve (needle valve) since it takes only a tiny amount of water flow to drop water back into the boiler whereas the final condenser can use much more water flow. As George noted, too much water flow to the top condenser and you will never reach the vaporization set temperature. Cut the flow back to a trickle and adjust till set and perceived temps become balanced. This is the sweet spot.
At timestamp 8:00 ish why do you not just slide the too long temp probe up to the proper desired height? You could easily seal it with a small dab of clear silicone on the outside of the rubber stopper.
I say thanks for going so in depth into the process. It has made my results much better k owing that much more about how it should work. Thanks again George
When I run in reflux mode I run my water in the bottom of the condenser out of the top condenser. in the reflux then out of the reflux back in the cooler works great for me and the water is warm already in the reflux its easier to control great video though.
George love the channel i recently got a t500 I now know what you mean with that water valve😂 little tip i found putting a clothesline peg on the valve helps with them fine adjustments😉
So true so true George you are the best put your theories to the test never let down I have learned so much thank you for all your time and massive effort can not thank you enough
Thanks again George, ran mine today and had good results as always! Many thanks for all your teaching! refluxing is so much more fun than pot stilling!
I'm not a believer in copper for the column since after many side by side tests, I see absolutely no difference in taste compared to stainless steel. I found 1/2" diameter glass marbles are overall the best choice. They are cheap, easy to clean, and provide great surface area.
George i found that the partial temperature is about 10 degrees Celsius lower than the 78 degrees Celsius vapour temps just enough to re condense the water back to a liquid
i have the same machine but the mash burns in it,if I filter the mash and add distilled water, it loses the aroma of the soul of the mash .if i just add the juice to the pot so that the fruit is removed from it, then my brandy has no taste.what can i do to be good.
Running mine and wondering why the temp is fluctuating so much, sometimes I think we over think things. Pulled some copper out and I’m back on track, thanks George!
Hi George, So using a PWM and a pre condenser needle valve, have you thought of automating the needle valve with water output temperature? The water output temperature will be a few degrees different to the point of no return. So controlling this would give a good product flow?!?! Just a though. Thanks
I read an article about adding Bentonite at the begging of the fermentation process. (2 tbls spoons per 5 gallons) The article said the co2 bubbles would keep the clay circulating throughout the process to remove junk and eventually settle to the bottom. My question is would that mess up the yeast's ability to eat the sugars? BTW still a big fan of the channel.....
I have a digiboil with a still head kit, the pressure needed to move water though it to cool is higher than the 800gph pump can deliver, do you have a pump suggestion?
Thx. Learned a lot in this vid. Just a Q.. instead of a fully reflux on your still, will it work if you wrap a thin copper pipe around the top of your tower on the outside and push a controlled waterflow through it? Its then on the outside instead of the inside of the tower.
Thanks George for another informative lesson. I for one hope that your comment that you may do a run will come to fruition including some of the nuances of managing the still and the subtle nuances involved. Thanks for everything you do.
When done right there shouldn't be a smell strong enough for you neighbors to detect if there is you stand a strong chance of turning your house into toothpicks.
George, question: isn't the minute trace of water where the assents of the flavor are coming from in a pot still? Is this why a pot still gives just a hint of the assent over reflux still?
Frank Graham I believe many of the flavorings come from volatile oils which get carried off along with the extra water in a pot still. So while yes, it is because the extra water, it’s not the water itself
You really need to let it finish out if it stopped try adding champagne yeast and let it finish if there is to much sugar left your still will surge and may puke.
George, had some issues with my homemade PID controller tonight. Temperature read fine, but no power to my heating element plug. Didn't know exactly how to identify if it was the solid state relay or the PID, but checked all the wires and everything seemed to be still intact. As a result, I just plugged my heating element in and tried to control temp through my reflux by adjusting water flow through the pre-condensor and keeping the cooling water as cold as possible. Ironically, I found this made controlling the temperature pretty easy. I had multiple rolls of copper too, but when all was said and done, I had a solid gallon of 160 proof with no tails or cloudiness. I'm still finishing the last bit waiting for the tails to appear and the proof to start dropping. Already at a level of yield which is typical for my 3 inch column and 24 liters of mash and it's still producing, albeit much slower. I was wondering how to troubleshoot my PID Controller. I tried using my voltmeter to identify where flow was and was not, but I'm not an electrician and it was a bit confusing. Do you mind if I give you a call this week? Love the details in this video. Confirmed I've been doing several things right. :-)
Sure. Give me a call. Try it again and check that the set temp is above the perceived temp. Look at the front of the PID to see if the output light comes on. If it does look at the SSR to see of the light comes on. If it does, your SSR is energized. If it does not check that you have the wires to pin 3 and 4 correct,. These are polarity specific and if they are backwards it will not work. Switch them and it should correct the problem.
@@BarleyandHopsBrewing George. I went back and followed your PID settings video step by step and that seems to have done the trick. Not sure how the settings got off or what, but it did restore the proper functionality and everything is working again. You are the bomb and I can't thank you enough. Rick. This is the video I used: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-En5Ewow4_tU.html