Other Side of the Fence...Where the Grass is Always Greener

[Pinworm]

I think he means me Pin,if you don't mind I would like to pick a knowledgeable brain on the subject.....mainly any info that would help me in constructing a personal size diy 2g still that i can use on my stove or a digital hotplate.I'm only looking to make a gallon or less at anytime,as that would last me a year:eyesmoke.A couple???real quick.....stainless or copper?whats the best corn?I heard any cracked corn.I'd appreciate anyones comments.peace

Ok, so, I would suggest a combination of the two if you're going to be building your own. Stainless for mash boiling, and copper for your condenser coil. I use $20 bags of Cracked corn from our feed store. Medium quality stuff. Produces decent results.

I would recommend a pressure cooker still. Easy. Cheapest. Quick. Least amount of "fail-points".



Get a pressure cooker you feel good about (preferably one with a male threaded valve on top). If you can't find one, you can modify an existing one with plyers and your favorite industrial metal glue. I use JB Weld.



Attach a size appropriate female end to your condenser material. A soldering iron will get the job done. Then it's just as simple as winding your condenser coil inside a separate container (if you use a plastic bucket, make sure your coil isn't touching the sides - keep it an inch or so in). Fill the container with ice water. And voila!

I usually ferment a mixture of cracked corn and sugar (2:1 ratio) for about 2 weeks. You will need a 5 gallon bucket of mash minimum to get a gallon return.

Try and get yourself a "Krausen" (fermentation bucket) with an airlock, so you can better gauge how your batch is coming along. No more bubbles? Time to cook. Make sure you leave behind as much of the "trub" (gnarly corn particles) as you can.



Start your temps low, and work your wau up. 30-40 degree intervals should prevent the mash from burning. Keep a close eye on that bad-boy. Treat the shit like rocket fuel.

Of course, this is just a suggestion to keep things as simple as possible during the learning curve. Do a little homework, find a system that sparks your interest, and go for it, brother! They're are tons of different methods for home-distillation, and they all work!



Here's a look at my current setup. Last batch, I ran 30 gallons of mash, and got 7 gallons of 180 proof Popskull back. I like to soak it in oak chips for a month after I filter through charcoal. I dicked around with my ingredients, and logged everything until I got a taste that I liked. Gimme a shout anytime if you have any more questions, boss. Hope this helps.

"Be drinkable." - Rollins

 

[B166ER420]

That's some good info,I appreciate your time...I'm gonna go ahead and ask a couple more questions here.

What's better a coilless still or one with a worm?Which would produce more?What's the best water to use distilled? or i can get natural spring water.
I get what your saying about the pressure cooker still.It would be easier to make,less points of failure for sure and my wife would be a little more accepting of that without the hoses hooked up in my kitchen.I'm gonna order me a couple airlocks from Amazon and make a fermenter outta a 5g bucket.I will set it in my grow areaI like your idea about soaking in oak chips.
How do you filter through charcoal?Is it a system you bought or made?
I gotta go for now be back l8r.peace

 

[prosperian]

Nice info Pin, thanks for posting it!

I decided to go with an indoor electric brewery system for my sunroom. Make it myself, but following proven blueprints.
This is what it looks like...



Website for those that are interested in my next adventure... http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/

Maybe one day I will merge my hobbies: Marijuana beer, now that would be wicked good!
Some have tried...https://www.rollitup.org/cooking-cannabis/8644-cannabis-beer.html

 

[Slipon]

use closed stainless steel rivets for the handle on the pot/lid

then its just some copper tube, the low budget way




not hard, just be careful and take your time, and make sure the copper tube is clean and you have the right tin and grease for copper (google it, a lot of guides out there)

 

[Pinworm]

I run a coilless system with a reflux tower. Stuffed with copper mesh. Hose cooled. Definitely better efficiency wise. It's tough to get 180 proof using coil. The pic you posted looks like an excellent way to go. As long as you keep good pressure you shouldn't run into any problems.

I've used R/O water, Distilled (Crystal Gyeser), and regular old tap water @ 70ppm. All work. For best tasting results I would say either R/O or Distilled.

You caught onto the free Co2 trick for your grow room faster than I did Took me a whole 6 months to "puzzle out". Haha.

Oh, and the charcoal filter I'm using is just 4ft of 1 1/12 inch PVC capped at the bottom (with a drainage hole) filled with 3ft of fine charcoal. Just pour through, and collect. You can get the charcoal and the oak chips @ milehidistilling.com

His website has tons of stuff that can help you with your build.

That's some good info,I appreciate your time...I'm gonna go ahead and ask a couple more questions here.

What's better a coilless still or one with a worm?Which would produce more?What's the best water to use distilled? or i can get natural spring water.
I get what your saying about the pressure cooker still.It would be easier to make,less points of failure for sure and my wife would be a little more accepting of that without the hoses hooked up in my kitchen.I'm gonna order me a couple airlocks from Amazon and make a fermenter outta a 5g bucket.I will set it in my grow areaI like your idea about soaking in oak chips.
How do you filter through charcoal?Is it a system you bought or made?
I gotta go for now be back l8r.peace

 

[Pinworm]

Nice info Pin, thanks for posting it!

I decided to go with an indoor electric brewery system for my sunroom. Make it myself, but following proven blueprints.
This is what it looks like...

View attachment 2810877 View attachment 2810878 View attachment 2810880

Website for those that are interested in my next adventure... http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/

Maybe one day I will merge my hobbies: Marijuana beer, now that would be wicked good!
Some have tried...https://www.rollitup.org/cooking-cannabis/8644-cannabis-beer.html

You sure know how to pick 'em Pros. That setup is as big as my house. Lol. Beautiful Design. Do you have an installation ETA?

 

[prosperian]

You sure know how to pick 'em Pros. That setup is as big as my house. Lol. Beautiful Design. Do you have an installation ETA?

Lucky for me I have about 400 sq. ft. of space to work with, more like a man cave with bar. I have 12 months to get it done and a decent budget to work with. I will keep you guys posted and maybe wrap some cannabis beer recipes to keep it relevant to this forum.

I just came back from a local brew pub in town that runs 50% local craft breweries on tap, 30 taps total. Went through 18 beer flights to establish some profiles that I would like to play with, got nice and toasty in the process. I'd like to come up with some parings of brew and bud that work well together.

Bartender was hot and that always helps. I'm going to visit a brewery later this week and volunteer my services for some experience. I think I can prove myself beneficial to their business model and pick up some skills with a faster learning curve than doing it on my own.

 

[Slipon]

my picture of the day (day 34)

View attachment 2812042

 

[Pinworm]

Buds look excellent Slip. They look so cool under that LED. Glowing purple. They look like they would emit a low frequency hum that would melt my brain if I got too close.

 

[Slipon]

Ooh thats why Im all out then

 

[Slipon]

but yea the LEDs are cool, both to look at and to use, Im really happy with em, will not go back to HID

 

[prosperian]

but yea the LEDs are cool, both to look at and to use, Im really happy with em, will not go back to HID

That's good to know. I feel the same way. I will keep the HID as a backup, bought it so cheap doesn't make sense to sell.

I also have a backup ventilation system too. Might use that to evacuate the steam from the brewery.

Great shot of the plant Slip! Give or take a couple days, what's the day count for chopping those LSDs?

 

[mycomaster]

I'll see if I can find my pictures of the Jim Beam distillery when I went, and post em up for you guys. I still have a bung from there if you know what that is. I've seen many a still in my day, but only 2 or 3 that were legal, LOL. What kind of whiskey are you interested in Pros cause i can give you some old family mash recipes that have been around the Kentucky area since before the Hatfields & McCoys were at each others necks. I'm not from down yonder, but I have some relatives that unfortunately are, LOL. I don't think a season has passed that they haven't ran some kind of still. Funny thing about going to the Jim Beam distillery though, you can't buy a drop of whiskey there because it's in a dry county. Oh yeah, one of the Beams got busted during prohibition shining, LOL. Happens to the best of us I guess. Peace out guys.

 

[prosperian]

Hey Everybody!

 

[Slipon]

That's good to know. I feel the same way. I will keep the HID as a backup, bought it so cheap doesn't make sense to sell.

I also have a backup ventilation system too. Might use that to evacuate the steam from the brewery.

Great shot of the plant Slip! Give or take a couple days, what's the day count for chopping those LSDs?

same here, paid about 100$ for my 600W so no point in selling it, I also have bad experience doing stuff like that, some how you always end up needing the thing not long after

the LSD have a 60-65 days flowering time according to Barney`s
but IME thats only true with the Sativa Pheno`s and its still a bit long unless you start counting at day one of 12/12 and not when they actually begin to flower


IME they take around 55 day`s to finish from first sign of pistil/flowers maybe 60 if its a sativa pheno and you want it really mature, I chopped both at day 52 and 70 and all in between, and IME they don't do much after day 50-55 so letting them go until Etc. day 70 is just a wast of time/space/power/money

 

[prosperian]

Thanks. I updated my seed notes with that info above for future reference. This white lavender is done. Checked trichs this morning, all milky from screen up. Pistils are all receded and about 60% are brown. All my signs point to a plant that's ready to harvest. Oh and most important, I tested with the vape this morning, yeah, it's ready

White Lavender 7 weeks.

 

[Slipon]

damn it, thats a lot of trichomes look about ready, +/- a week depending on how you like it and nice green colors still look good thinking about you had all the nutrients in your organic soil mix

 

[prosperian]

Yeah, I agree. Parts of the lavender plant, especially in the middle, are ready to selectively be harvested. I will let the bigger top colas (I have four of them on this plant) go longer by about a week. For me, it's the look of the bud, smell, scope, and vape test that determine the time. Because there are four different plant strains I knew harvesting would take a couple weeks.

 

[Slipon]

no worry, its more fun to do a plant at the time then to use a hole day harvesting, trimming, cleaning aso

 

[sheldonblack]

Thanks man. Sorry I didn't get to comment earlier on your posts. You've been busy on the veg cab I see.

I've been playing around with craft beer and designs for my new brewery. Just have to make up my mind on direction for my setup.

Definitely need an upgrade and I have some extra cash to throw at it. Won't fit in my closet!

Like the way this one looks...

Or something like this...

[video=youtube_share;RemqcNBvZBY]http://youtu.be/RemqcNBvZBY[/video]

Do you also make bombs at home? hahaha I love enthusiast growers, they usually look into making/producing other stuff, I also grew shrooms, bred show dogs and work on computers in spare time...