StillSmart

..and I wouldn't bother with the airlocks. I have not used them for years - just a loose cover/lid. If you have enough headspace the brew is protected by the CO2 blanket.

I have had the problem in the past and now anything with solids gets 1/3 headspace.

The airlocks are a habit, I guess. I've only been doing this since September / October.

They lost a little volume, but the buckets are cleaned up and under control. The airlocks are back in and bubbling furiously.

http://imgur.com/UREFnm8

There's sort of a multilevel thing going on with the buckets now. It looks like the clear liquid is hovering in the middle. Interesting. They're still bubbling every once in a while.

I'm hoping to have time to run these in maybe a week and a half. The weekend after this coming weekend.

Looks like it is timefor bigger fermenters

Yeah. I have 8 8 gallon fermenters at the moment. I need to upgrade. I've been thinking of buying a fleet of Rubbermade Brute trash cans, 20 or 44 gallons each.

I need to upgrade to a bigger boiler too. I was going to try making my own keg still, but it turns out I'll be in this little apartment for another year. I don't have space for soldering here with the smoke alarms. I should just buy a bigger still now and learn how to build one next year when I have more space.

I mostly use 160 litre HDPE drums but I have some nice 120 litre screw top drums. Just bought some 45 litre screw top drums.

I like the screw top drums for fermenters because they are strong, have full size openings, and you can just loosely screw on the lids for fermentation.

Something like this?

http://m.alibaba.com/product/107770760/ ... 9.7.daTIYs

Or something like this

http://m.uline.com/h5/r/www.uline.com/P ... ber=S-9945

Honesty, I need a bigger still before I get bigger fermenters. Fermenting 32 gallons of something now takes 5 stripping runs and 1 spirit run to get the final product.

Are you using a still that's commercially available? Or something you built yourself.

I use a range of food grade drums.

160 litre coke syrup concentrate drums


Plus these 120s



Stills are made with either 100 litre keg boilers or made copper boilers.

Will soon have a strip boiler tha is made from 2 stainless drums. 115 litre inner inside 205 litre.

m314 wrote:Something like this?

http://m.alibaba.com/product/107770760/ ... 9.7.daTIYs

Or something like this

http://m.uline.com/h5/r/www.uline.com/P ... ber=S-9945

Yes they are the ones. Food grade. I like the full opening. If you take the rubber seal out of the lid you don't need an air lock.

I'm finally getting around to distilling this. It has been done fermenting for weeks now.

It turns out I'll only get maybe 9 gallons of liquid after straining out the oats. I'm still working on the last gallon. I'm distilling the first 6 gallons now. I'm thinking of taking the first distillation (minus the foreshots) and adding it the 3 gallons of leftover mash for the second distillation.

Please do let us know how it turns out. Those last gallons... are a patience testing thing.

I'm working on the 10th gallon now. I ran the oatmeal through a paint strainer bag in a 6 gallon bucket. It went quickly at first. The last part would be faster if I had a way to squeeze the bag other than by hand. 28 pounds of dry oats is a lot more than 28 pounds when it's wet.

I'm getting towards the end of the first distillation now. 5 quarts collected so far. I might or might not do the second distillation tonight.

My friend,all grainy type washes can be a bitch to filter/strain, they all become bigger once wet.
Cloudy wash land follows.

Patience grass hopper.

Robert.

I finally got around to the second distillation tonight. 4 gallon jugs of the wash strained out last weekend plus 6 quarts from the first distillation. I just took the clear part of the wash and left out the cloudy part at the bottom of the jugs.

I got 7 quarts with the last jar obviously tails. Mild flavor, NOT. This has a powerful oat flavor. It's hard to describe. It reminds me of my first try with oats when I added sugar.

It's a little rough. It will improve with aging. My first batch seemed rough at first. With 5 months on oak it seemed like one of the most interesting whiskeys I've tasted.

Thanks. I might have a go at this later in the year.