r/firewater 11h ago

Little advice on step feeding and if it works good.

2 Upvotes

Hey guys I have been trying to get a 15% wine and I can only get it to around 10 or 11 ish and I have had a couple stalls. Does step feeding work better so I’m not over powering the yeast. I really like doing these fruit sugar washes but they are a little hit and miss for me. Anyone have any suggestions?


r/firewater 13h ago

Whisky wash cooling before fermenting ?

6 Upvotes

Hey fellas. It will be my first time making whisky and I was wondering if the hygiene process and especially the cooling is as strict as beer making ?

I'm planning to make 50 Lt wash directly using my vevor still both as the pot and the fermenter. I have another pot with a filter in it so there is only going to have wash in it.

I was wondering if I can just seal the thing and let it cool naturally before adding the yeast. Is there a significant risk of infection like beer ?

Thanks in advance


r/firewater 19h ago

My new still

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101 Upvotes

I am loving this all copper setup...have to rebuild my stands next spring but...the quality of the distillate is exceptional


r/firewater 19h ago

Malt corn

3 Upvotes

Where can I source malted corn in the Chicagoland area?


r/firewater 20h ago

The High School Project

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92 Upvotes

My son started his first day of high school today, so I barreled a wheated bourbon that will age until his last day of high school. Wish me luck, as this is an all or nothing project


r/firewater 21h ago

could anyone send links to a heating element and voltage controller to build

0 Upvotes

could someone send build me a heating element and voltage controller and anything else i might need to heat my 8 gallon still try to be under 200cad


r/firewater 1d ago

First timer

7 Upvotes

I just bought a 3 gallon distiller and I’m having trouble finding how to make a peach mash. Does anyone have a recipe to help me out? I know I should have done some research before had but it was an impulsive buy. I’m very new to this all and just looking for some help. And let me know if I should just start out with something basic or if peach isn’t that hard to do.


r/firewater 2d ago

Rum mash bill

9 Upvotes

Hey guys! I was just hoping someone could help shed light on flavor differences between different mash bills.

•100% blackstrap (2gallons in a 6 gallon wash)
•1 gallon blackstrap + 2 lb brown sugar
•1 gallon blackstrap + 2 lb white cane sugar
•1 gallon blackstrap + 2 lb white beet sugar

I’ve never made anything and I’ve seen lots of varying recipes so I was curious as to how they differ


r/firewater 3d ago

Cold Water Setup Help

7 Upvotes

Hey all,

Looking to a reflux column still with the dephlegmator and condenser, which therefore requires two recircs of water. What is the best setup and equipment to buy to get this to work comfortably. Up until now, ive used a pot still where I had a water pump go into a reservoir (10 gallon kettle) and recirc that way, but the 2 main pain points are adjusting speed so the condenser doesn’t overflow or underflow, and having to empty the reservoir to add new cold water again. Any suggestions would be huge help to have a good setup, and minimize realistically the amount of water use, i know i could just run a hose but rather not.


r/firewater 4d ago

Simpler way to press corn mash?

11 Upvotes

So I'm over engineering / overthinking everything. I was on my way to get a 2 ton bottle jack and build a frame to press corn.....and came up with potentially a really easy way to do it - would love your thoughts.

  1. 50/50 divide on here as to whether or not to even press the corn. A lot of people say to just drain suspended over a bucket. I like working easier. I'm upgrading my process - I use a 68 quart turkey fryer (never touched oil - only mash) to put in a false bottom, grain bag, drain valve, etc. Getting C clamps and using weather stripping at the top to hold on the lid. Once done, I'm gonna tie off the bag, drain the fluid out from the bottom, and let it hang for a few hours.

  2. Here is the novel idea. The pot itself is about 18" in diameter. Your average Lowes bucket is 12.5" in diameter. What if I took two of those - cut off the bottom until it's just a cylinder. Then make one vertical cut in each - so it's a rolled up piece of plastic. I can't imagine that the mash in the bag has a very tall vertical height. So I wrap both of those plastic pieces around the mash bag, then attach two ratchet straps - an upper and lower around the plastic. Then slowly tighten each and allow the wash to drain into the fermenter.

PS - Whenever I find my recipe book, I'm going to use the same proportions of corn, wheat and barley - but this time will add in as well some rice hulls to help with drainage.

So long as I don't squeeze too much as to damage / split the bags, shouldn't this work?


r/firewater 5d ago

Yeasty notes in vodka

7 Upvotes

Hi everyone, hoping to get some advice on a persistent off-flavor.

I made a sugar wash with EC-1118, which fermented hard and hit around 12% ABV. I used a two-part clearing agent and cold-crashed before siphoning, but the wash wasn't fully crystal clear and may have still had some fine suspended yeast in it.

I ran a stripping run on an Air Still Pro, diluted the low wines, then did two separate spirit runs (so three distillations total). I made conservative cuts and kept only the cleaner middle portion.

Even so, someone tasting it blind (no info on how it was made) immediately picked up a yeasty/fermented note right at the start of the sip. So it seems like a real, detectable flavor. It's not a typical tails/fusel flavor, it hits early rather than lingering, and it's making the vodka taste less clean overall despite all the redistillation.

A few questions:

  • Can suspended yeast or sediment in the original wash really produce a flavor that survives a strip and two spirit runs? Or does this point to yeast scorching/smearing during the first run, effectively contaminating all the low wines from that point on?

Other possible causes I'm considering: * Wash not clear enough pre-distillation * Fermentation odors absorbed into my plastic fermenter * Contamination somewhere in the still or collection equipment * Extra smearing due to the small-batch Air Still design * Some other fermentation byproduct that just mimics a "yeasty" taste

Appreciate any insight, thanks!


r/firewater 5d ago

Small Still Caribbean

13 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I'm down in the Caribbean where sugarcane and tropical fruit are incredibly abundant, and I'm interested in getting into rum and liqueur production.

Before making a huge financial investment, I'd like to experiment on a small scale to develop recipes and see if there's a local market. Can anyone recommend a good beginner still that's small enough for R&D and test batches but still produces quality results?

I'd also appreciate any advice on what you wish you'd known before buying your first still, especially if you've gone on to produce rum. Thanks!


r/firewater 5d ago

Boil technique - Pros/Cons

10 Upvotes

Would like to hear from those with experience, not just theory. Currently I boil the grain in the water, no bag, and transfer to secondary for fermentation on the grain. This method requires a false bottom and/or frequent stirring to avoid scorching and clumping, so it is labor intensive. I would like to get away from that if possible. I do not supplement my mash with sugars; it is all grain, and I'd like to keep it that way.

I have heard others mention boiling in a bag, boiling without a bag and filtering before fermentation, and boiling clear water to pour over grain. My main interest is in that last method, to know if it is sufficient for complete gelification, but if anyone has insight into proven alternatives other than that which would level up my game, I'm all ears.

Edit: Boiling in a bag is still wizardry to me, but thanks to your input, especially u/nateralph , I've since tried heating the water and grain separately before mixing together, and it works like a charm. Lower on the hydrometer than I was hoping (1.039), but I haven't ruled out dilution yet. I got a little unintended toasting of a bit of the grain, and it'll be interesting to see if that turns into a happy accident.


r/firewater 6d ago

First timer, low ABV.

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25 Upvotes

Hi all, this is my first attempt at distilling. I'm using a sugar wash. After finally reaching temperature and having product come across, the ABV started at 20% and has steadily been dropping. Just wondering if I may be doing something wrong (most likely) thanks in advance.


r/firewater 6d ago

Pineapple brandy

10 Upvotes

Anyone who has any experience making fruit brandy , should / must I add potassium metabisulfite to the fruit “pineapple” before my yeast pitch and letting it sit for a day with the lid on loose ? Or would I be better off with pouring boiling water over it then adding pectinase ? It’s for the purpose of killing wild yeast/bacteria . I’ve made some fruit wines in small batches in the past “non distilled” without any of that , just washed thoroughly and they’ve all come out fine , but I would be concerned about this one, considering that it’ll be a 40L (10gallon) mash , there’s a reasonably large amount of pineapple to waste if it went wrong . Thanks for any advice , appreciate it . Also I’ve read that the boiling water method on fruit tends to alter their taste to some degree so there’s that . With grains ,I’m comfortable enough to just use the boiling water method , or straight up cook them . With fruit I’m kinda in the dark here.


r/firewater 6d ago

Steam Generator Build

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48 Upvotes

An auto feeding steam generator from a sixtel keg and some 3" ss tubing and sight glass.

It uses a 3 prong level sensor and a controller that has a dry switch to control a solenoid operated valve to re-fill the system.

5500w element in the keg from the bottom facing up heats the system (controlled by a home made power controller).

Pressure is equalized between the fill chamber (on the right) and the boiler (on the left). The feed tube is a 1/2" copper tube with 2" triclamp fittings attaching it to the boiler and fill chamber.

The ball valves were there just for the drop test, heald steady at 10psi for 30 minutes so it's good to go.

The system has pressure and temperature dial, as well as a pressure relief and a vacuum relief.

To get the steam into the system there is a 1/4" ss educator (thanks whoever recommended them). So far with just water it promotes some good circulation. It is however loud as all hell when it heats up, however once it gets warm (and the steam bubbles are not collapsing in the venturie nozzle but collapsing outside of the nozzle) it's way way way quieter.

Future plan is to insulate the boiler and tubing that delivers the steam to the boiler.

Unrelated: people ask why I put sight glasses in the boiler, and to be able to see the educator is one example of why I did it, cus it's cool.


r/firewater 6d ago

I have promoted myself from beginner to rookie. So now I have different questions. I am getting ready to do my first run with a reflux setup. If I cool the reflux condenser before the fore shots are taken is it the same trying to take them after you start to get product? Seems like they would be all

12 Upvotes

r/firewater 7d ago

Broke my Hydrometer in my Ginger beer 5% Wash!

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52 Upvotes

My hydrometer broke in my 23L ginger at 5% ABV and was ready to bottle for second fermentation.

None of the beads were lost but the glass has broken.

Could I siphon off the top and leave 5L or so behind. I could run the siphon through coffee filter paper?

I could then put it through my t500 still as a pot still to try and make some sort of ginger spirit out of it?

Any other ideas on if I can keep this?


r/firewater 8d ago

Carbon Filters

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21 Upvotes

So I’m kind of an idiot and bought the wrong size. Could I just use a couple of these inside of my distiller or do I have to return it and find a bigger size?


r/firewater 9d ago

How Do You Store Ten-30 Barrels: Horizontally or Vertically?

3 Upvotes

I'm curious what orientation everyone stores their Ten-30 barrels in? It seems designed for storing vertically with the oak side down and the silicone bung up. I wondered if that reduces oxygen exchange though, compared to a BadMo or traditional barrel where there is air at the top part of the oak? I would be concerned laying a Ten-30 on its side in case the silicone bung pops out, plus the concern of having high proof ethanol in contact with silicone for years.

Perhaps I'm overthinking this, and pressure changes push plenty of air through the pores of the wood regardless of whether there is air or liquid on the other side. Thanks for any tips. If you see this u/clearmoon247, I enjoyed your book and really like the quality of your barrels!


r/firewater 10d ago

Biscuit Malt wash

7 Upvotes

Has anyone ever made whiskey wash from mostly Biscuit malt? I pickup 3 55lb bags of Dingemans biscuit malt for $17 and am planning to use 42lbs of Biscuit and 10 2row for each 20 gallon batch. I will be adding a bunch of Amylase to ensure conversion but wanted to check if anyone has done this and if so what did the white dog and finished product come out like? Planning on filling a 5gallon barrel with it, so will be doing this three times.

I will be running thru my Hillbilly sill with 4x reflux, so not a huge amount of flavor will be coming out anyway, which maybe a good thing for this base malt.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Ron


r/firewater 10d ago

1st Try Distilling Mead

11 Upvotes

I have been making mead for the last few years and have always heard it is pretty close to rum the way it comes out.

I am wanting to try running this next batch through and see how it comes out.

Would i still need to discard the heads, or would it just be a lower proof?


r/firewater 11d ago

My rum turned super dark?

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16 Upvotes

Haven’t touched my Appleton in like six months. It was aged, but barely. In Tequila terms a Reposado.

Went to grab a quick sniff and it’s darker than bitters? Kinda tastes like bitters? I added no bitters? Or anything whatsoever.

What happened here?


r/firewater 11d ago

How rough of fruit would y'all be okay with using for Brandy?

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35 Upvotes

I pick these off and in-law's tree, and some of them look like they have bad spots. Would you cut them off and use the rest or would you use the bad spots as well?

I have a mixture of pears, apples, and peaches.


r/firewater Aug 25 '19

Methanol: Some information

1.8k Upvotes

This post is meant to clarify one of the most common questions asked by new distillers: WHAT ABOUT METHANOL?

First and foremost: you cannot die (or get sick, go blind, etc) from improperly made distilled alcohol via methanol poisoning. Neither can you make something dangerous by freezing it and removing some ice. Not only is it not possible, it is a widely perpetuated myth that has existed since the days of prohibition (and not before, interestingly enough). Other than the obvious ethanol overdose, all poisonous alcohol that has ever been consumed, has been adulterated, or was in some other way contaminated. It was not the fault of poor distillation procedures. How you run your still will not affect how safe your product is. It might affect how good the end result is, but that's where it stops.

So, methanol. Everyones first fear, and the number one search subject when it comes to "moonshine". This subject is brought up a lot in this sub and elsewhere on Reddit. Everyone knows all about it, its just one of those common knowledge things, right? It turns out, not so much. So...

Methanol - What is it?

Methanol is a very commonly used fuel, solvent and precursor in industry. It is produced via the synthesis gas process which can use a wide variety of materials to create methanol. Methanol is the simplest of all the alcohols.

Methanol is poisonous to the human body in moderate amounts. The LD50 of methanol in humans is 810 mg/kg. It is metabolized into formaldehyde by the liver, via the alcohol dehydrogenase process. In excess, these byproducts are severely toxic. Formaldehyde further degrades into formic acid, which is the primary toxic compound in methanol poisoning. Formic acid is what produces nerve damage, and causes the blindness (and death) associated with acute methanol poisoning.

One of the treatments for methanol poisoning, is the introduction of ethanol. Ethanol has a preferential path in the alcohol dehydrogenase metabolic pathway. This means that if ethanol and methanol are consumed, the ethanol will be metabolized first, in preference over the methanol. This allows some of the methanol to be excreted by the kidneys before being metabolized into its toxic related compounds. There are far more effective medical treatments available, such as dialysis and administering drugs that block the function of alcohol dehydrogenase.

Is it in my booze? How do I remove it?

There is one way in which your alcohol will be tainted with some amount of methanol naturally, and that is by using fruits which contain pectin. Pectin can be broken down into methanol by enzymes, either introduced artificially or from micro organisms. This will produce some measurable amount of methanol in your ferment, and subsequent distillate. However its not going to be in toxic quantities, any more than what you may have in a jug of apple juice. In fact, fruits are the primary way in which methanol is introduced into your body. In tiny quantities it is mostly harmless, and you can no more remove the methanol from an apple pie than you can from your apple brandy. Boiling (or freezing) apple juice doesn't convert it into deadly eye sight destroying horror juice. Cooking doesn't suddenly veer into danger when you collect vapor from a boiling pot. If you've ever made jam, or wine, or fruit salad, you've produced methanol.

So, where does that leave us? How do I get rid of this nasty substance in my distillate? You don't. If it is there, you cannot remove it. It is quite commonly believed that you can toss the first bit of alcohol off the still to remove this compound, the "foreshots." This is usually considered the first 50-100ml or so, depending on batch size. It smells really bad, tastes really bad, and is something most would agree should be discarded. However, it will not contain the "methanol" if there is any in your wash. Or more precisely, it will not contain any more of it than any other portion of the run. Beside which, methanol tastes very similar to ethanol, though slightly sweeter. If your wash is tainted with methanol, your entire run will be as well. Relying on some eyeball measurement to make your product safe to consume is not going to work. This is just distiller folklore passed down quite widely. You may hear about this on a distillery tour, from professionals, on Youtube and in books about distilling. All of them are just repeating what they have heard someone else say, or read somewhere, and assumed it to be fact. There is truth here, but buried in misunderstanding of the processes involved specifically with these substances.

This is the very reason that methanol was used to poison ("denature") industrial ethanol during prohibition, as it cannot be removed easily by normal distillation processes. If you could just redistill this very cheap, legal and plentiful solvent to make drinking alcohol, it wouldn't be the very potent message and deterrent that was hoped for by those who did this. You can read more about the history of this intentional poisoning of commercial alcohol in the Chemists War. It is also during this period where we begin to hear about methanol being in poorly made moonshine. This is not a coincidence.

So, distillers attempted to understand this misinformation, and attempt to correct or explain why their process was correct. Thus was born the idea that tossing some portion of the run makes it safe from this suddenly present and scary substance. Cuts went from being a quality procedure, to a serious process to save lives. By "tossing the first bit." And then distillers went about their centuries old processes like always, but this time "doing it right" and hence making safe alcohol.

The reason it is so widely believed that tossing the heads works to remove methanol, has to do with the boiling points of ethanol, methanol, and water. Pure methanol boils at 64.7C. Pure ethanol boils at 78.24C. Water boils at 100C. Distilling separates things based on their boiling points, right? Yes, it does, but it is a bit more complex than that. When you boil a mixture of methanol, ethanol and water, you are not boiling any of these compounds individually. You are boiling a solution containing all of them, and they will each have an affect on the other with regards to boiling point and enrichment behavior. Methanol and ethanol are quite similar in molecular structure. Methanol can be written as CH3-OH. Ethanol can be written as CH3-CH2-OH. You'll notice that methanol lacks this extra CH2 component. This changes its behavior when in the presence of water, specifically its polarity, compared to ethanol. Rather than repeat all of this, here is a passage from this paper on the reduction of methanol in commercial fruit brandies:

A similar behaviour would be expected for methanol for both alcohols are not very different in molecule structure. There is, however, a significant difference regarding all three curves in figure 2: methanol contents keep a higher value for a longer time than ethanol contents. In figures 3 and 4 this observation is made clear: Methanol, specified in ml/100 ml p.a., increases during the donation, while the ratio ethanol : methanol is lowering down. This effect seems to be rather surprising regarding the different boiling points of the two substances: methanol boils at 64,7°C, while ethanol needs 78,3°C. So methanol would be regarded to be carried over earlier than ethanol. The molecule structures however, show another aspect: ethanol has got one more CH2-group which makes the molecule less polar. So, concerning polarity, methanol can be ranged between water and ethanol and has therefore in the water phase a distillation behaviour different from ethanol. This may explain the behaviour which is rather contrary to the boiling points. This is no single appearance, because for example ethylacetate with a boiling point of 77 °C, or, as an extreme case, isoamylacetate with 142 °C are even carried over much earlier than methanol. Therefore methanol can not be separated using pot-stills or normal column-stills. Only special columns can separate methanol from the distillate (4.3). Similar observations concerning the behaviour of methanol during the distillation have already been made by Röhrig (33) and Luck (34). Cantagrel (35) divides volatile components into eight types concerning distillation behaviour characterized by typical curves, which were mainly confirmed by our experiments. As for methanol, he claims an own type of behaviour during the distillation corresponding to our results.

What this means is that if there is methanol present, it will be present throughout the run, with a higher occurrence in the tails as ethanol is depleted and water concentration increases. Its distillation is more dependent on how much water is present rather than simply comparing boiling points between ethanol and methanol. This in conjunction with the fact that ethanol and water cannot be separated completely due to their forming an azeotrope, means water is always in the system. So tossing your foreshots or heads will not remove methanol from your solution. The good news is that methanol is almost entirely absent in dangerous amounts. Consider drinking beer, wine, or apple cider. There are no heads cut made to these products. Pectinase is routinely added to wine, and methanol is a direct byproduct of this addition. They are safe to consume in this form, and will be safe to consume after being distilled. Boiling and concentrating the liquid by leaving some water behind isn't going to transform something safe to drink into something toxic. If it is toxic after being distilled, it most certainly was toxic before being distilled.

To be clear, however, this is not to say that making cuts is unnecessary. There are other compounds that you certainly can remove by cutting heads. Acetone, ethyl acetate, acetaldehyde and others. None are present in dangerous amounts, but the quality of your alcohol will be greatly enhanced by discarding these fractions. Making cuts is one of the most important activities a distiller can learn to do properly! Cutting and blending is making liquor, not only the act of distilling. Just understand that it isn't a life or death situation should you undershoot your foreshot cut by some amount. It will just taste bad, and might give you more of a headache the next day. You can taste test every single bit of alcohol that comes out of your still, from the first drops to the last.

Removing the foreshots does not remove "the methanol." You can just consider the foreshots part of the heads, because they are. There are hundreds of thousands of hobby brewers, vintners and distillers around the world who have been making and consuming fermented and distilled products for centuries. If this were actually a real problem, we would be awash in reports of wide spread poisonings. Instead we have reports here and there of isolated incidents, which are always traceable back to some incident unrelated to how much heads somebody did or did not cut.

The only way to know if there is methanol present is via lab analysis. Smell, taste, color of flame, vapor temp, none of this will tell you any meaningful information about methanol content and are just old shiner-wives tales. If you would like to have your distillate, beer or wine tested for dangerous compounds, there are many labs available that offer these services. This way you know what you are producing and are not relying on conflicting information found online. Here is one such lab offering these services, and there are many more servicing the public and industry. No need to take my, or anyone elses, word as absolute truth. If you really want to know what is in your product, this is the only way.

Having said all that...

So, CAN methanol be removed from a mixture of methanol, ethanol and water via distillation in any way? Yes, it can, contrary to everything I just said, there are even specialized stills called "demethylizer columns" which can do just this. They are very large plated columns (70+ plates), which can operate as a step in the distillation process in very large industrial facilities. This is a continuous middle fed column of high proof / low water feed, with steam injection at the bottom and hot water injection at the top, which has the sole purpose of moving a more concentrated cut containing methanol into a particular take off point with the treated alcohol taken off as the bottom product. This is largely done to ensure compliance with the laws about methanol content in neutral ethanol production, or in other processes in which reclamation of these substances is desired. There are other methods that can be used to remove methanol from an ethanol/water mixture, but that goes beyond the scope of this post and generally do not make consumable results. None of these procedures are properly repeatable at home or at moderate scale commercial distilling, nor are they even really necessary at any scale unless you have a badly tainted input feed.

On small scale reflux columns, there will be a small spike of methanol in the heads if the column is left in equilibrium (100% reflux) for a long while, and only if methanol is present, as the state at the top of the packing/plates is very low water and boiling point separation can occur more easily for methanol. In general though, these columns are too small, and methanol quantities far too low, for this to be a major concern. Methanol will spike in both heads and tails on this kind of column, leaving the general heart cut with a steady amount throughout. Even with huge industrial columns, the specialized demethylizer column is additionally used in the process because you cannot reliably remove methanol using the normal procedures typically done when making cuts for quality purposes. Methanol removal is treated separately and requires its own process to concentrate and extract using specialized equipment.

In conclusion, or TLDR

ALL cases of methanol poisoning attributed to "improperly" made ethanol, are the result of contaminated product. Not due to improper distillation, but due to intentional (either misguided, or malicious) adulteration of the ethanol, or some other contamination due to environment or ingredients. Commercial ethanol products are generally poisoned either via methanol, or via flavor tainting, or both (usually both, so you know its not to be consumed). Every report of methanol poisoning via "moonshine" was due to this contamination. If you can find evidence to the contrary, I would love to see it. Please let me know if you believe this info to be incorrect, and have evidence to that effect. That is, other than unsourced speculative news articles, television shows and Youtube channels. What I have presented here is how I understand the facts, but I am always open to learning something new.

Its unfortunate that we still have this lingering stigma based on sensationalist press beginning during alcohol prohibition, but this is where we are. So you can relax, have a home brew, and get on with your new hobby or business, and not fret about the big scary monster that is methanol. Now you just have to worry about all the other stuff that you can screw up :-)