This is SOOOO Stupid

[FatManDancing]

"Finally, this is working, Finally this is right"

Or so sang Big Black but they were talking about steelworkers

I'm talking about my misadventures in stillin'

I think I have made every dumb rookie mistake. The last being a scorched run on a four inch glasser. What a pain to clean up that mess

Tonight I am finally running my rum and... everything is working. I followed the easy guide to running a plated column, and it worked

Me reassembling the tower...worked

Having all the clamps and gaskets easily and readily at hand...worked

OK, I have a slight leak in a water line but nothing a paper towel can't fix



I know I jumped in the deep end and expected to make mistakes but probably not on the scale I did but hey, it is all part of the learning experience


And when it works.... oh man is it beautiful

[bluc]

Dont be hard on yourself. Its a complex process regardless how simple it looks.
I scorched twice in about 2mnths 5 years into the hobby. Shit happens. Change ya element clean ya boiler and go again. Learn from ya mistake strain all grain mash through a filter/cheesecloth.
You will get there :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[FatManDancing]

Gettin' My S#!T Together

On the weekend I went to the big green warehouse and bought a racking system. My brew and stillin' gear was a jumbled mess, that is the only way I could describe it

Chaos may be a better way

Put it together tonight and got my stuff organised. Bought some tubs as well as a coupla storage boxes with dividers. I still need to get some jars or something to store some mash salts and nutrients

I freaken love it. The cats freaken love it. New shelves to climb and things to smell. I mean it was all over the place and they could smell it at any time but now it in a different place. For me though I have reclaimed about six square meters of space and I can get stuff when I want and I know where it is

I found the missing clamp too. It had fallen behind the blow mould table I have my fermenters on and got caught up in the old curtains I use to cover it.

I can't stop staring at how neat and organised everything is. Oh, proofed down my MacRum to 55% in one demijohn and added two medium toasted dominoes to age for six -eight months. The other demijohn I added four dominoes at 55% and plan to drink that ASAP

I should also add that the job I did today was so good that the client not only paid me but gifted a six pack of beer. There may be about two drops left

[wynnum1]

The only problem getting good storage is when you run out of space there is no way to solve the problem where if just scattered can find space by doing a little cleaning up.

[FatManDancing]

You take the good, you take the bad
You take them both and there you have
The facts of life, the facts of life

Fact one- Rye is gonna puke. Not actually a fact, just my experience

Fact two- Just because your cheap glasser worked last time, and you did nothing and made no adjustments, does not mean it will work this time :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:

I totally upped my straining game though

I added gelatin finings 48 hours before planning to run this mash. Although I am not really sure if this was a benefit, it was still really cloudy

I placed my newly purchased hop spider in the fermenter and siphoned through that into quadruple layered cheesecloth in my sieve

No scorching. Puking but no scorching so I am guessing this is an improvement... :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[bluc]

Welcome to all grain :D

[Clickeral]

Everyone has bad days, I did a strip of some stuff I had laying around and some fermented mash tun deadspace liquid. Turned around for 1 seconds and my shot gun condenser had heated up and puffed a tiny bit if alcohol vapour out. Upped the water and all good. But was slightly scary good thing I run electric.

4" pot still mode with some plates for copper contact and passive reflux (2 plates didn't even have bubble caps on them)


Also had a mild puke when using 4800w for heat up

[Clickeral]

Pics from last post

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[FatManDancing]

On the weekend I did a stripping run on a rum wash, I also had a corn whiskey mash ready to run. Do my strip and let backset cool overnight and drain in the morning

Open the valve to drain rum backset, wash and clean up element and then add my corn whiskey

Do any of you know the sound of an emptying boiler? It makes a slurping-sucking sound as it runs out of liquid and starts sucking air and that is the sound it made as 20L of my mash ran literally down the drain. I never closed the drain...

I never want to hear that sound again but I am kinda OK with it. This was a corn grits mash and it has nowhere near the flavour of corn malt and now I am asking myself, why am I even making corn whiskey

I like rye whiskey

I think I convinced myself you need to learn to make corn to better understand how to mash,ferment and still. While I am making something I will drink, it is not what I want to drink


I am pretty sure though rye malt will find a way to kick my ass and make me look stupid all over again....

[Wellsy]

Hang in there fatman
Definitely stick with what you like drinking mate, once you get a stockpile you can experiment more because your next most favourite drink is only a taste test away :)

[iOnaBender]

Vasoline is the go for me.
Anytime I open up a tub/bottle of either nickel or copper anti-sieze I get it from arsehole to breakfast time :angry-banghead:

[Dude]

Vasoline is the go for me.
Anytime I open up a tub/bottle of either nickel or copper anti-sieze I get it from arsehole to breakfast time :angry-banghead:

That is the nature of anti seize. :laughing-rolling:

[Amberale]

Vasoline is the go for me.
Anytime I open up a tub/bottle of either nickel or copper anti-sieze I get it from arsehole to breakfast time :angry-banghead:

I now use the tube version and an old toothbrush.
Just like a little squiggle of toothpaste.
Only on the bolts on the T-clamps on my still.

[Lowie]

Are you doing a 100% Rye mash? I would be suprised if you are, and if you are, what conversion are you getting. I was talking with a pro vodka guy and he says 36% max rye in a wash for maximum conversion or you get stalled ferments and a shit outcome.

[RC Al]

Got a 50/25/25 rye oat wheat ready to run now... mines done with angel, but its a proven recipie.

Turkey 101 rye is 65%
George washington rye is 60%
100% has been done and is/was a commercial product, its at the higher end of tricky, infections, low yields, scorching, foaming.

The rye mashes ive done have been quite active. I did do 100% rye on angel with no dramas

[FatManDancing]

Are you doing a 100% Rye mash? I would be suprised if you are, and if you are, what conversion are you getting. I was talking with a pro vodka guy and he says 36% max rye in a wash for maximum conversion or you get stalled ferments and a shit outcome.

I think you are asking me this question and yes I am doing 100% rye

I am mashing five kg of rye malt with one kg of black forest rye malt @ 66 deg for 60 mins

I am super happy with my conversion and got 1055 but this is not the first time I have done the same mash and fermented dry

I dunno, I like rye whiskey and a 100% rye grain bill works for me but then again I am certainly not a pro



To that point, I typed out a response to Wellsy thanking him for his continued encouragement after I posted yet another one of my follies. It was lucid, cogent, erudite, humorous and poignant


Then my computer had an absolute fucking freakout and all tabs I had open are now lost and that would be post is lost to the ether

The biggest takeaway though and the best lesson I have learned after about a year of stillin is buy stools. Stools are great. They are a convenient place to plonk your arse when stillin but just uncomfortable enough that you do not lose focus or concentration on what you are doing

[Wellsy]

Lol great lesson fatman lol

[RuddyCrazy]

The biggest takeaway though and the best lesson I have learned after about a year of stillin is buy stools. Stools are great

This quote should be put on the facebook thread :laughing-rolling: when you buy off the facebook wankers no matter how much you polish those stools they are still stools :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Anyway Fatman welcome to high's and lows of this hobby and while getting distracted typing this post I just missed a close disaster, the 400mm beaker was just about to spill over and I'm using my BD burner @ 5psi so that would of been a huge fuckup so yea pay close attention at all times eh

[FatManDancing]

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Excuse me, one of my cats clearly had something she desperately wanted to share here and now she has that off her chest (and jumped down from the keyboard to continue eating), I will try again


Stupid HECS/HELP debt

I thought I nearly paid it off and my last employer was garnishing my wage to cover the repayments but my new employer wasn't and I totally under estimated how much I had left to pay


Hot tip. Do not do a degree to appease your (soon to be ex) partner. Debt now paid in full and at least that biggest stupid mistake of my life is now over


Rant over


I will not get as much of a tax return as I hoped and am left with a dilemma


Do I buy a new mattress I really need


Do I buy stillin stuff I really want


I hope to have a good nights sleep soon. Guess I will have to save the old fashioned way for some new stillin stuff

To those who may be wonderin why I want to upgrade. I bought a four inch, four plate glass tower on another website and quickly learned why 5 Star do not sell them. They are an extreme pain to assemble as each glass piece sits on top of a silicone seal while each plate needs to be inserted into a tiny groove of that seal. Then you need to tighten each of the four rods down perfectly to assure none of the glass pieces or plates move.

I am not perfect. I have the dexterity and patience to keep putting this stupid thing together of a brain damaged monkey and the degree I did was not engineering


Maybe I can flog some of this stuff, maybe I should join facebook

[RC Al]

Why do you take it apart?

I have a 3 plate version of that and I just sit the whole thing in some dunder if I want to clean the plates (pretty much never)