StillSmart

If that little lot doesn't help the festive spirit I unsure what will!
Have a good festive season.

Robert.

Ground grain for grist,mashed ,cooled and pitched,cleaned and recharged brewmeister for tomorrow,more grain ground ,rucks of bottles cleaned several filled or mixed, full spirit run with the new kit, product diluted and set up for filtering......knackered ! feet killing.... must be time for a pint.

After such a productive day's labour you deserve at least one, and have one on me while your at it, just tell the barkeep I'll fix him up later

As it's Saturday I was on a mind to take it easy today. In the morning I made the cuts to the distillate from the spirit run I did the other day and got the collection jars cleaned and ready for the next spirit run tomorrow. After lunch I finished the build of a VM type head with a double coil to fit on top of my new hybrid still to add a little reflux and keep the plates charged. It's been cobbled together from bits from my copper salvage bag and was easier than I expected. The only bit I had to buy was the 8mm pipe to wind the coil, which I was dreading, in the end it only took 45 minutes.

Boy was I ever glad of keeping scraps when I found the two pieces of stainless steel I used as mandrells when I wound my first coil.

I think that's enough for any man of leisure to get done in one day. Nice going AT

AM

Had a meeting yesterday with a Frenchman who wants a 100L (122 bottles) batch of rhum agricole (cachaca). Planning on his own label and will smuggle into Hong Kong. Apparently there is a huge community of Frenchmen there.

So today I need to source fresh sugar cane. Where I will crush the cane I have no idea. Probably in the street in front of my house.

Today, or at least in the last 24hrs our baby boy has been born, he's a little poorly and needs to stay on special care for a few days but both mum and baby will be good to go home in a few days

One day soon I'll get to make some booze, I'm gonna grab a 25kg sac of Marris otter or Golden Promise if I'm feeling organic and go for my first non neutral spirit.

Congratulations and here's hoping the next few days will be uneventful till your wife and baby are home safe and happy. What a Christmas Present!

Best Wishes to you all.

AM

@Anavrin: Congratulation. I will open a bottle of rum and drink to his health. Cheers - John

Thanks guys, he's doing well, I'll be able to have a bottle of rum myself soon to wet the babies head :-)

Congratulation to you and your lady mate sounds like you've got a brilliant early Xmas present there
Hope all goes well and I'll raise a glass in Geordieland

I dug out the Floyd last night,(actually,the night before,now)just to listen to "Have a Cigar".
Totally inappropriate lyrics,but the sentiment was there.
ATB ,Anavrin and yours.

Robert.

Released a new version of "Apple Pie". The old version was still my biggest mover by far, but I have always been of the opinion that it is fine to change horses in mid stream as long as its onto a better horse.

Last night at the release, the new version which is not as sweet and of a clearer color, went over very well and the diehards accepted the new version without hesitation.

Also made a big batch of Apple pie (Yesterday now).
Didn't think my version was sweet anyway,but by mistake cut down on sugar.
In my opinion it is even better.
I would have to change the Apple juice to make it less cloudy though,and haven't yet found a clear,good one.
This research is such hard work.
It's a dirty job,but someone's gotta do it!

Robert.

This evening I got my worst critic and best friend to try my Apple pie.
He wants to take two days off work and drink it,so I think I can call it a hit.
He claims it is the best thing that I have so far produced.
A bit of a pisser,as it is so easy to make.
I think I make lots of good stuff; He want's to put my OEG up against a few commercial ones in a blind test,for unsuspecting folk,over the festive season.So I guess that he liked that too.
The Bootleg Bailey's that I plied his wife with the night before was also a hit,all she wants for Christmas,now seems to be a bottle of that.
Trying something different,today I sliced four bananas and poured a litre of 45% over them.
If the result is anywhere near the stuff that I tasted 30 years ago,then I will be happy.

Robert..

Actually my first taste of Banana liquor was possibly nearer 40 years ago.
And it was green in colour,why?

Robert.

I've just finished a day of work with my new SD hybrid Pot Still, above, with a Twin Coil VM type head and take off – no valve naturally – to provide enough reflux to keep the plates charged.



Absolutely gobsmacked at the result of this first test drive with the condenser fitted. The VM head provided lots of charge for the plates and once past the Heads I lifted the coil away from the take-off outlet. Take-off rate was approx 2.25LPH

Started the run with 40lt of Low Wines from Lentil Washes @ 40%ABV. Because it was all from stripped sugar head washes I decided to run it at this strength.

With 16lt of pure Ethanol in the boiler I had no real idea what output or final volume to expect from the new setup.

I discarded 500ml as Fores followed by 1.2lt of Heads at 91% (20oC) and the following is how the rest of the run went.

Jar No-----Start--------Vol-----------%ABV
Jar 1-----13.45----------500ml----------90
Jar 2-----14.04----------500ml----------89
Jar 3-----14.24----------750ml----------89
Jar 4-----14.42----------750ml----------89
Jar 5-----15.00----------750ml----------89
Jar 6-----15.15----------750ml----------89
Jar 7-----15.31----------750ml----------89
Jar 8-----15.48----------750ml----------89
Jar 9-----16.06----------750ml----------89
Jar 10-----16.23---------750ml----------89
Jar 11-----16.41---------750ml----------88
Jar 12-----17.00---------750ml----------88
Jar 13-----17.19---------750ml----------88
Jar 14-----17.39---------750ml----------88
Jar 15-----18.00---------750ml----------87
Jar 16-----18.21---------750ml----------87
Jar 17-----18.41---------750ml----------87
Jar 18-----19.04---------750ml----------86

Changed to Tails collection vessel after detecting Tails at 450ml in Jar 19. I turned the boiler off at 21.00 having collected 4lt of Tails and the ABV had dropped from 70% to 30% in the space of the last 10 minutes before power down.

All jars are now airing and will be assessed for cuts on Tuesday.

Very happy camper indeed. Next run out will be all grain wash from scratch – single run to see how that goes.

AM