Distilling forum

[Andreas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Andreas]

Hi,

Does anyone know whether there is a South African distilling forum somewhere?

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

not that i'm aware of, any reason for it to be safrican? heaps of info online though

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

Why not start a section here? ... It's still related to the name of the site

[Andreas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Andreas]

I'm a member of Homedistiller.org, but the stuff they use/talk about often don't make as much sense in our context

not that i'm aware of, any reason for it to be safrican? heaps of info online though

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

I'm a member of Homedistiller.org, but the stuff they use/talk about often don't make as much sense in our context

apart from the imperial system, which is a pita. what else? i find distillers an odd bunch some weird thoughts on things :-)

[Andreas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Andreas]

they seem to have access to enzymes more easily, tend to use products that are not available here (switch to starsan to sanitise, why not use clariferm, yeast is super cheap), not as friendly, kinda secretive

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

What yeast are you using currently? A cold crash does the same as any clarifier, keep in mind the stillage is a great medium for a subsequent sugarwash ferments. I dont filter my wash, only neutral. Boil conditioner on grain runs

Sent from my SM-N970F using Tapatalk

[Andreas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Andreas]

sparkling wine yeast for fruit/sugar washes, Belgian ale yeast for grains.
I do cold crash. currently busy with a brown sugar wash.
why conditioner?

What yeast are you using currently? A cold crash does the same as any clarifier, keep in mind the stillage is a great medium for a subsequent sugarwash ferments. I dont filter my wash, only neutral. Boil conditioner on grain runs

Sent from my SM-N970F using Tapatalk

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Boil conditioner prevents puking if your mash wasn't cleared. I use plain old bread yeast for sugarwashes and kveik for grains

Sent from my SM-N970F using Tapatalk

[Andreas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Andreas]

Will give bread yeast a go, I bought a bid (in my terms) pack from distillque when I started. will also probably start using kveik now that I have a colony.

Boil conditioner prevents puking if your mash wasn't cleared. I use plain old bread yeast for sugarwashes and kveik for grains

Sent from my SM-N970F using Tapatalk

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Check out tpw (tomato paste wash) or birdwatchers method. I did some research and came across an interesting article wrt bakers yeast. Bottom line, it's cheap and works pretty well. I run mine through the column, without cold crash or clarifier or conditioner. I do filter my neutral through carbon twice and when making gin, run it through the potstill with great result. I used essence once and didn't like it, so that was the end of that. I made a rum recently and its damn good, currently on french oak

Sent from my SM-N970F using Tapatalk

[Andreas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Andreas]

tpw can't be worse that the beetroot wine I made. I'll give it a go.
I use potstills, in the house a 8 liter and outside a 80 liter.

Check out tpw (tomato paste wash) or birdwatchers method. I did some research and came across an interesting article wrt bakers yeast. Bottom line, it's cheap and works pretty well. I run mine through the column, without cold crash or clarifier or conditioner. I do filter my neutral through carbon twice and when making gin, run it through the potstill with great result. I used essence once and didn't like it, so that was the end of that. I made a rum recently and its damn good, currently on french oak

Sent from my SM-N970F using Tapatalk

[jakeslouw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jakeslouw]

I'd be happy if we can get the admins to start a distilling section, I have a variety of stills and the urge to use them properly.

As for using beer yeast: be careful, they aren't very aggressive, and don't like high ABV so often you won't get a proper alcohol conversion. Use Turbo yeast or even champagne yeast.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Would love to get my hands on a basic still, or even convert the pressure cooker I have in the cupboard into a still. Will have to be post-lockdown though. Want to try my hand at quick spirits, like rum and gin, and put a bottle on oak as well to give it some time.

[Andreas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Andreas]

If you want to start as basic as possible. SS pot wil lid, drill a hole in the lid. bendable copper pipe and make a worm that you place in a bucket. use plumbers tape on both the lid and the ss pot itself. use crocodile clips to keeps the lid on the pot. make dough to keep the copper pipe in the hole.
If you do that you have what can crudely be called a pot still.
not pretty but it should work.

Would love to get my hands on a basic still, or even convert the pressure cooker I have in the cupboard into a still. Will have to be post-lockdown though. Want to try my hand at quick spirits, like rum and gin, and put a bottle on oak as well to give it some time.