StillSmart

I have to give a little more credit to the intelligence and sense of humour of the members here than I have before now.
I fell into that bear pit!

Robert.

Good job Bob. Glad to see you aren't too old to learn new tricks. A bear pit ? Maybe if it's one full of Koalas. Cute drunk and grunting

That I would love to see...

Robert.

Live long enough ED it all comes around

Hey Guys

All the best..Actually forgot i set this thread up and just started reading and having a laugh...still never got round to trying it out....will now tho...

And Santa kindly dropped a t500 off for me.

Happy Days

Cheers Paul

PJB wrote:Hey Guys

All the best..Actually forgot i set this thread up and just started reading and having a laugh...still never got round to trying it out....will now tho...

And Santa kindly dropped a t500 off for me.

Happy Days

Cheers Paul

Well, once you get your head round its workings, you won't look back.

With mine, I run it till the distillate is measuring about 5%. Then I measure the total spirit strength and make sure that it's below 40% - any reduction required is done with reverse osmosis water (because the tap water is very hard but also because I want it free of any chlorine/chloramine - 25 litres of RO is about £3.50 so not too painful), then it's run again.

I then let the spirit down to as close to 40% as I can (not faffing around, so it's invariably about 41 or 42%) with RO water, then I carbon filter it.

This means I get a very clean tasting neutral (and once I add my fave essence, all I can taste is the intended flavour.

Oh and for my ferments, I always use cane sugar (Tate and Lyle or Whitworths) and Vodka Star yeast.

The only thing you may find you need is a pressure reduction valve (if you have it attached directly to the mains), that prevents big temp fluctuations with tiny movements of the needle valve........

Cheers Phantom

I was considering buying the water flow regulator, however having looked at it I can make one for around 10-15 pound..When you say you run it down to 5% is that with a copper dome on....then reflux the second run.

PJB wrote:Cheers Phantom

I was considering buying the water flow regulator, however having looked at it I can make one for around 10-15 pound..When you say you run it down to 5% is that with a copper dome on....then reflux the second run.

No, mine is the original version with just the reflux column (I don't do flavoured spirits other then striping any wines made that don't come up to scratch).

So yes, that's a double refluxing - which may not be necessary per se, but it gets me the cleanest tasting neutral for me to work with.........

The copper dome and liebig may eventually be added to my collection of junk and bits, but not needed at the moment........

So using Vodka star wash, asuming you have 25lts....how much are you getting from your first run down to 5%....and then how much from your second run.....hoping to get going this weekend.

PJB wrote:So using Vodka star wash, asuming you have 25lts....how much are you getting from your first run down to 5%....and then how much from your second run.....hoping to get going this weekend.

About the 5 to 6 litres sort of area. I get about the 3.5litres at 94% ABV then just leave it running. I don't aim to be exact with any numbers or readings, I just take occasional readings and when it's about there, I just switch off, cool for a while and then empty, clean and refill, letting down any distillate to below 40% for safety.

I get about 3.5 litres of finished spirit at about the 92 to 94% ABV area, let it back down to as close to 40% (with RO) without being OCD then Chuck it through my Z filter......

Sounds good enough to me....what temp are you running at

55 to 60 so a run takes me about 4.5 hours from switch on...

I haven't had any luck getting hold of Ghost Chillies so far this season so for now this Habenero will have to do. About 1 million scoville units for a Ghost Chilli versus 100,000 SU for a Habenero so let's see how this works out.

I'll keep you posted ...

Not sure how much capsaicin will be absorbed like that. The skin being waxy and from the look the chilli being whole.

I chop mine up i.e. chop the green bit off the top, then roughly chop the rest carefully as I don't want any bitterness from damaged seeds, then the lot goes into vodka.

Most of the capsaicin is in the umbilical tissue, so the vodka needs to get to it to dissolve it out the veg tissue......

I have only did Chilli once.

I used one of my home grown Apache's, removed the green bits, opened up and removed the seeds and white bits. then chopped it up and added the vodka.

Not overly powerful but still had a kick and a bit of flavour.