12 Common Distilling Questions Answered

[@TheGermanboy07]

Would be interesting to hear more about effect of condenser length and copper contact on spirit. Appreciate the work you put into this hobby

[@nzlemming]

Agree. Are we talking physical (i.e. thermodynamic) impact or chemical or catalytical impact?

[@grottyboots]

A cool thing about PID control is how the same algorithms can control something as slow as heating massive boilers to as fast as hard drive voice-coil head drives. I used to fine-tune motion controllers for large CNCs, and the same PID principles apply. Love your videos. Keep up the great work!

[@scottclay4253]

Great Q&A Jesse! You have moved from newb to expert quickly (relative term). I remember your earliest post on the old HD forum, you have come so far. Congratulations Sir! Well done.

[@hick-a-rican1260]

To me, my first run was RUM! I was born in PR and rum is the No. 1 spirit there. It turned out GREAT Salud!

[@Rubberduck-tx2bh]

Hey Jesse, would you consider doing a vid on thumpers? I may be playing around with a double-thumper for flavored spirits, a la some Jamaican rum distilleries. Thanks!

[@stillworksandbrewing]

lot of great tips Jesse thanks we all love to talk about this stuff

[@jamesspinks716]

I watched this while doing my second ever run. I think I’ll watch it again! I may not have been listening 😊

[@maxpowervidmaster]

Well done! I love this kind of summary.

[@klatlap]

One of the best videos you have done is the effect using a parot, i see so many pics of stills with parots yet i will never use one after see your video.

[@god910]

My OG still it shirt is easily the nicest printed shirt I’ve ever bought. Still looks brand new, and gets more comments from strangers than all my other shirts combined (I wear some funny stuff)

[@MultiTut69]

I find that the “shortened” answers (compared to the Patreon version) allows for a lot of information in a short time although not quite as in-depth. Great work.

[@nigelwhite1483]

Thanks very much great idea I'm extremely interested in what you said about condensers I run my lebic at full wack that now sounds wrong so a video about that would be very interesting Thanks Nigel from England

[@peternilsson8436]

In your very interesting interview with the barrel crafter, he mentioned that the charcoal inside the barrels have the same effect as charcoal filtering. Doesn't that imply that a little bit of filtering could be useful for all kind of fast aged spirits?

[@yoguimasterof69]

Niiiiice abstract of all the QA! I have my thoughts on the amount of energy on the pot still... increasing the amount of energy makes the boiling stronger...which throws less volatile compounds on to the vapor making them to distill earlier than in a more quite boiling. It is very clear when I make my gin...it just get "smoother" when I do it slowly.

[@yoguimasterof69]

It's late around here...my english is not in it best :)

[@jeffcox8750]

On quick aging, I have had some success with putting spirits on heavy toast oak chips for a couple of days to get the color and some flavor and then putting the spirit into a small barrel for 1 to 3 months to finish it out. I start tasting it after the first month to see where it is and then bottle when I feel the flavors have gotten where I was aiming.

[@jjemery77]

Great vid Jesse. Even though I've been doing this hobby for a while you still learn something new.

[@mattgreening]

I really value your advice regarding vodkas

[@Njennings42]

I've been using the same bag of DADY for like 4 years now. Sits on the shelf in the kitchen, so it gets pretty warm. Yeast is pretty hardy.

[@itatane]

I appreciate the Q and A. I wish home distilling were legal here in Ohio (it ain't). I have to be content with using a still for making tinctures and extracting essential oils for the time being. (Land of the Free, my achin' ass.)

[@Jake_B74]

Great video, as always, Jessie. I am new to all grain (I have a George Washington Rye on as my 3rd mash in). One trouble I have had is getting the gravity I want, without making a thick mess of grain in my fermentor. Some in the group I am in suggest going as low as 1.050, but I have been very happy with 1.070 as my SG. Anyway, I wanted to applaud your idea of re sparging your grain and using that as your strike water. Once I figure out a regular recipe (so far, my favorite is 60% corn, 24% malted barley, 16% malted rye), I'm going to try that but maybe even take it a bit further by making the spent grain as a small beer mash to use as part of my strike water. Anyway, Jessie, thank you do much for the great suggestion, I think I will run with it.

[@lukejosselyn7706]

Another fantastic video as always. Love learning from you Jesse 🤘🏻

[@narcsurvivor6969]

Great content as always Jesse. Thank you for all you do

[@vtcrafter6626]

If you’re new to the hobby and want a simple to run electric set up opt for a scr. Super easy. Start higher and when you start to run dial it back and run as slow or fast as you want

[@captainplacard9666]

Wow, Jesse...I didn't know you were from Appalachia, USA with the 6 fingers on each hand....lol...great channel, keep cranking them out

[@Miata822]

good info throughout, but what was new to me wis the condenser/time vapor is in contact with copper. Copper condensers influence flavor? Yes, tell us more.

[@denisdendrinos4538]

Found that fascinating too and what he said makes sense. I've gotten that peper taste a few times and that's cos I have a long compensate and was using 3 2l bottles to cool my water. It was ice as hell. My more recent stuff has used warmer water.

[@mattgreening]

Thanks Jesse, as always, a great vid!

[@denisdendrinos4538]

No 2. If you HAVE done a tpw but the grains seems too intimidating try a rum to wet your feet. Same idea as a tpw but instead of sugar it's molasses. Or.... fruit brandy. Not technically difficult and great results if you can get fruit cheap enough. Apples have high sugar content, ferment fairly easily (as it has nutrients in the juice) and taste great. Juicing takes time but one bucket full and you're good to go, no need to additional steps or processing.

[@samuelweiss9584]

Got some new information from this video. I am still not quite sure if re-distilling creates more methanol production.

[@daverees986]

Hey Jesse. I made a corn and malted barley mash late last year, it fermented out after 14 day's. Because the weather went wet and cold to set up my still out side so I strained the mash of the wash stored them in sealed plastic barrels. This will be my first run at making moonshine. Do think the wash & mash will still be ok!

[@klatlap]

Because i am not in to aging and oak i am just happy to make a spirit with TFFV and mix with SS Classic range i find if i put the bottle in the freezer for a week before drinking it tastes much better in flavour.

[@shotgunfringe]

My first spirit was distilled mead. My second was a brandy rum hybrid (came out with a pink bubble gum nose and palate), and my third is my first whisky. It was a bourbon attempt but I biffed it and had to add sugar to save the run. I’m still trying to finish that distillation. I’ve got a rum fermentation going on now.

[@PoolNoodle33]

Do you have any interest in making various schnapps recipes? Love the content and channel.

[@colwk]

For non brewer I'd suggest yellow label angel yeast over ujssm and the biggest question I see on the forums is about different plastics and metals.

[@movieedits5725]

must be a different type of yeast to the UK, i had basic cheapy yeast that i opened 7 years ago, kept in the cupboard and it still works fine

[@tony_younes]

hello Jesse , great video as always in the fast aging technique u mentioned the go-for is to do hot cycles at the begining and then put it on oak for a year or two, does that mean u do the hot cycles without oak ? just the spirit solo? thx

[@adamparisi745]

From what I understand, you want to hot cycle it with oak, it's supposed to simulate seasonal variations in temperature. So if you age in a traditional way, in a hot summer, you have expansion in the wood, it soaks in more product, in winter the opposite. I think I have that the right way round🙂 So you essentially give it a kick to get it the flavour cycling started, then age in a more traditional way. If it's just the spirit solo, you're not really doing anything other than heating the product up then cooling it. As a side note, I did a cheat batch of corn flake mash, and fast aged it with charred french oak staves used to age red wine, and it came out tasting remarkably like white label Jim Beam.

[@tony_younes]

@@adamparisi745 thanks, i thought so...

[@stefanielepage1287]

Wow that was great info thanks

[@pacman10182]

Suggestion for an Easter video: brandy made from sacramental wine, call it holly spirits

[@kjdevault]

Jesse… I posted on the FB page the other day asking if anyone has played with thiolized yeasts. Rocking them out on a single malt, like a Scotch, OMg could be amazeballs!! Then how much will carry with aging…

[@Cairns74]

Can I ask please, do I add water, to a re-run of spirits, into a wash. For example, I’ve got an under proof cock up. 7.5 litres of Rum, had plantation rum barrel chips soaked for a month. Tasted flat and week, watery. So Re-tested, and yep, its 28% ABV.. complete error, I have figured out root cause. Anyway, I’m going to run it through T500 and Alembic Pot Still. But, with how much water? Or none?

[@wychelmbrew]

As a new distiller I was very shocked at the amount of liquid left over after distillation. Any uses for all of this? Must be full of nutrients and flavour.

[@tommygun83]

As someone getting into distillation, i get confused about heads and tails on secondary runs like vodkas, gins, triple pot distillation etc. Say you do a gin, obviously you'd get rid of foreshots and some heads on the spirit run. But after masceration, is it still entirely necessary to cut down your product again? Will you still get foreshots on the third or fourth runs, or is all potential methanol gone by then?

[@thomas3811]

great video. just one question though. I did my first destillation runs with my dad. (one based on apples and one based on honey). with both distillate runs the distilled sollution starts running crystal clear, but the sollution gets brown and clowdy pretty fast. Does somebody know what we can do to prevent that? could it be the dead yeast that runs trough?

[@rocketsroc]

Vacuum sealing whole grains will greatly extend the storage time.

[@skepticfucker280]

Throw in oxygen absorber, if u use mylar bags it will be good for easy 10years possibly 50....

[@peternilsson8436]

From what I have read about ultrasonic ageing, it speeds up the esterification process between amino acids and alcohol. So for it to do any good, you need to add the acids before you ultrasonicate it. Since the most common acid is the tannins from the oak, the oaking should precede the ultrasonoicification. No?

[@allanmyers4988]

Would adding a coil of copper pipe to the output end of the condenser make any difference?

[@Azflyboardrental]

I have noticed on my copper dome with t-500 copper reflux unit all my runs taste like a kink of fruity hint is it because of the copper?

[@scottbeattie9766]

Hey Jesse, show us some FPV footage please, would really enjoy it.

[@jbwagonmaker8887]

A very good video... I shared it to my 5 groups.. my newbies will learn from this one.. Moonshine Life Groups

[@wouldntyouliketokno1631]

Brandy brandy brandy here's a great starter recipe 50% apple juice white sugar shoot for 12% abv...dady yeast or lavlin ec1118 yeast nutrient works off fast 5/7 days its cheap and tastes great

[@matthewcaruso7555]

Does anyone have any experience with a electric jacketed still? I am wondering what I should use in the jacket (steam is not an option) I have seen cooking oil, distilled water and propylene glycol. Some engineer friends of mine suggested Mobiltherm or therminol 66 and mentioned ethylene glycol is more efficient for heat transfer than propylene but I know it is poisonous. Any suggestions? I will probably have to weight cost vs. efficiency.

[@FoodPortal42]

I was thinking about doing one with Pineapple but can't choose between pineapple wine or a whiskey

[@Whisky_in_the_loops]

When talking a out a 50l pot still and the take off speed you mentions a pencil lead sized streem, does this change if you have say a 3" pot still head on that size of boiler?

[@joshuagoodsell9330]

Others can correct me if I'm wrong, but reflux ratio is what determines the takeoff speed you can get away with. When running a pot still, passive reflux is not as significant and doesn't matter as much as it does with active reflux. With active reflux, cross sectional area is proportional to the speed you can get away with to achieve the ABV you want.

[@StirlingLighthouse]

Now that you have been exposed as the Six Fingered Man… “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die”. 😂 Love your work Jess ❤ 👍

[@Daniel-zq3wq]

Single pot, just enough packing to average 120pf for the run. We get rowdy 😤

[@russellhoyte617]

Hi Jesse, thank you for your amazing videos! I have tried to find away to to P.M. you , is there a way to message you? These Q&A sessions are awesome!

[@the_whiskeyshaman]

❤

[@jonathanhatch7033]

Tumblers have work not bad.

[@Roan0ke]

Is there a community discord?

[@dopie_fpv]

Do you have a fpv KZbin channel?? Asking one home distiller and fpv pilot to a master home distiller and fpv pilot?😅

[@chucku.farley3927]

it sounds like tour explaining this to people that already know what their doing , words like sparge, spike , pitch and mash, Websters has a different definition than the context your using. is there a distillers dictionary?

[@scottclay4253]

“Hello, my name Is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!” Just noticed you are the six fingered man and on both side. Nice one Jesse!

[@BeerWineandShine]

You have 6 fingers on each hand... now thats interesting

[@JoshLawn]

An unchaptered video, great...

[@HebrewHammerArmsCo]

Words at 1-30 am in the morning..... Hmmmmmmmmm nope......

[@littlehills739]

i know its alot work for you just every time u say whisky distilled on grain means nothing to me anaertations or pic of group of bottle ur talking about would be nice. not saying stick with 1 company but pic of what ever or name of xxx* ruffly matches this

[@MrMedic00451]

Whiskey distilled "On Grain" simply means leaving the grain in the still when you run it. Most of us strain the grains out of the mash before putting it in the still for distilling.

[@SweatyFatGuy]

Just found your channel... Its interesting what differences there are in producing something to drink, and something to run in an engine. The different ways you do it are very informative, so you got another subscriber. I can't drink alcohol anymore, I think there is either a bad interaction with my old man meds, or I am simply too old now. I get a headache immediately, thus its not worth it. However, I am big into muscle cars, lots of power, and I have never had lots of money. The fuel you can make, even with pot stills despite the multiple runs required, can make a lot of power. Gasoline is expensive, has low octane so you can't run much static compression, and it wastes most of its energy as heat, doesn't make as much power either. If you don't care how it tastes and you only want a high proof in a large volume, you can make ethanol rather cheap. Lots of advantages to using ethanol as fuel, and most of the bad stuff you hear is actually from methanol, which you are not going to survive drinking... or you will have a very bad day/rest of your life if you survive it. I found potatoes to be lots of work for not much fuel, just like your vodka video 2 years ago. I made some tree sap mash last year, doing some more this year, kinda like maple syrup, but not boiled down as far, only to 18% sugar. Really easy, but lots of boiling if the sugar content is low. Have to produce copious amounts of methane to boil tree sap down to make fuel and have it not be outrageously expensive. Propane is nearly $4 a gallon here. Not a big deal if you plan to sell spirits for $50+ a liter, but if you want to drive around propane/LPG is not the way to go, just run the propane in your vehicle. My main focus is on cattails (aka typha) which grow in marshes and ponds. 6x the starch of a potato, they are very dense and dwarf corn for ethanol yield per acre. I don't know how it tastes, never tried it, but it runs very well in my old Pontiac V8s. I use the high compression cylinder heads from the late 60s to get as much compression as possible, it gives me power as well as efficiency. I get better mileage while making a lot more power on ethanol than I did with the same size engines with low compression running gasoline. Currently I am rebuilding almost everything, trying to get up to 1000 gallons per year capacity. Had to move ten years ago and started from scratch where I live now. 13 acres of woodland, the house is nearly done, the shop is workable, and the vehicles are coming along. Legally I can make 5000 gallons per year, but I don't need that much. I don't even need 1000 gallons, but being able to store some is a good idea. Building a plate column, have a couple small packed reflux columns right now, takes too long to distill a 200 gallon run with them, so I am going larger. Not needing it to be drinkable, and actually needing to denature it means I can make a still out of things you normally wouldn't... like pvc with a divorced boiler so the heat doesn't melt it. The muscle cars are my hobby, distillation, methane, and other green energy projects support the vehicle hobby by allowing more of my cash to go to car parts. Energy is my largest expense so the more I can make for less cash, the more cash I have for GTO parts. I got a sawmill so I can make lumber from the trees I need to clear.. so its morphed into something of a prepping adventure. As people ask for more information on stills, mashes, etc. I will be sending them to your channel, because you have great content and information.