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Confessions Thread

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  • Jayzus!!

    God speed on the healing.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Thanks, the hands were a month ago, the foot two years ago. All healed up by now.

    And the sad part was that there was no alcohol involved. Maybe that was the problem.

  • @Smaug said: No pics,,,never happened.

    Trust me, I wish it hadn't. Didn't get any of the melt part right after it happened. This is how it looks today and yes, I can catch my own fish with just my feet.

    FC

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  • Thanks for the well wishes my friends. It's going to be an interesting ride.

    We're Already looking to scale the distillery up; have a very large gin contract we're negotiating on; Are discussing the production of a new range interesting products which we can probably get grants for; have been approached to make a few things under contract for a couple of companies; working on opening a small bar as well as an operation to assist other distillers get product to market.

    I have started my first distillery consulting gig as well as have a couple of leads I'm working on for stills and kit.

    Still need to get a domain name, email, socials and a squillion other things sorted.

    Really need to find a deep pocketed investor / friendly lender to get the distillery to the next stage. Anyone know anyone?

  • Another confession. Well I just picked up another 3 months estimating work, this time in Peru so by the end of November I will have the coin to get my shed fixed up and start the process of getting approvals from the Municipality. Which here is the biggest step. I will probably have to go to Brazil for 3 months in January on another estimating gig but that will pay for my tasting room and some oak barrels to fill. Every day one step closer. Poco a poco se lluegar lejos.

  • edited August 2019

    Horsey Surprise @ tumblr

    Confess that i just discovered the internet's best troll and i'm wasting a whole day reading his dribble. It's just plain gold.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Ken M quote "Are you really that stupid?
    "Not to my knowledge."

    I'm so keeping that one in the bank.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • "They've crossed the line that separates porn from ography."

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited August 2019

    @punkin said: Ken M quote "Are you really that stupid?
    "Not to my knowledge."

    I'm so keeping that one in the bank.

    There,,,I crowbared it in one more time for you in case you don't have an opportunity.....

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • edited August 2019

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    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Confess that most nights i eat off paper plates as i'm too lazy to wash up. I do use stainless cutlery though.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited September 2019

    Burns I know. I used to pick up and carry my keg boiler by the top handles and stagger across to a patch of gravel where I’d empty it. I’d use a towel to hold it by the handles. That was until the day I got matching blisters on the insides of each thigh from contact with the hot boiler yeeow! Now I use a handcart to shift the boiler to the emptying place. I’ve also learned to loosely cap the boiler when I am transporting it (confession # 2). I take it pretty easy with the handcart nowadays so that the boiler does not fall off and break off the lead to the element (confession # 3). When replacing an element after incident # 3, I will in future check that there is fluid in the boiler (confession # 4).

    1. Not sure if I ever mentioned this but 10 years ago in all the excitement of making my first rum I forgot to dilute the molasses during my clarification step. Smoke was billowing out of my boiler and it took forever to get that baked on molasses off my heating elements.
    2. While running full power for heat up I got distracted and forgot to turn back to half power for my run. Hot vapour was pouring out the condenser at great speed...
    3. I also forgot to turn the condenser water on for the above incident. For 10 years my No. 1 rule had been if the power is on then turn on the condenser water, it saves forgetting. Clearly I was incredibly distracted that day.
  • 100% on #3

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • I once got back from a tour on site in Armenia and did a few hard days of mashing and grinding. It was really hot and on the 4th day I had a ferment fermented out. But I was still jetlagged and went to have a nap with my phone on a timer. I went to sleep and woke up and looked out and the run had started and there was a huge cloud of vapor around the still. I hadnt turned on the condensor water supply before I went to sleep and I probably lost about 20 % of the run. I wont do that again.

  • Mindful of all above. I have it in my programme that as soon as the kettle temperature reaches 45 deg C, the cooling water automatically turns on. I also have a further safety guard that if the RC condenser's cooling water is above a certain temp and or if the column top outlet temp goes above a certain temp, the whole system shuts down.

  • Power on - water on. Now with a recirculated supply of cooling water I don’t have to worry about wasting water.

  • @kimbodious said: Power on - water on. Now with a recirculated supply of cooling water I don’t have to worry about wasting water.

    How many times must one tell you,,,,water on-power on lol...

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • edited September 2019

    @Smaug said: How many times must one tell you,,,,water on-power on lol...

    True that!

  • Doubt there is anyone here who hasn't forgotten to turn the water on. Luckily the one time I forgot, I was close enough to hear the hissing as alcohol vapor came flying out above the parrot. Scared the shiite out of me and hasn't happened since.

    FC

  • The holes in the parrot make for a pretty booze fountain

  • I never.... I never had my program set to turn on the PC water recirc pump once the PC outlet temp (measured at a probe in the exit fitting) got to 120F and then moved the probe to a point on the pipe a few months later...

  • After 7 batches of gin, I changed the processes by grinding my juniper berries and found out how much better it was. Face slap!

  • @FloridaCracker said: Doubt there is anyone here who hasn't forgotten to turn the water on. Luckily the one time I forgot, I was close enough to hear the hissing as alcohol vapor came flying out above the parrot. Scared the shiite out of me and hasn't happened since.

    FC

    This made me laugh. Guilty a few times. Also forgetting to close valve on collection tank drain while i'm collecting in that tank.

  • @LocalGoat said: After 7 batches of gin, I changed the processes by grinding my juniper berries and found out how much better it was. Face slap!

    Interesting, how fine are you grinding..... are your berries dry or are they juicy

  • I use a 2-roller feed mill with about a 3mm gap, the company said do not use a 3-roller becasue it will gum up more, and even the 2-rolller gums up, I use a stainless brush to clean it when done...

    220C Corn and Grain Mill @ Crankandstein

  • @richard said: Interesting, how fine are you grinding..... are your berries dry or are they juicy

    so I dont use a gin basket, I macerate then pot still. But I use a nutra bullet grind them up pretty good along with any other type of seed in my recipe.

  • well I am trying my first cereal mash on triticale with a 5kg test batch. Should work better because I fucked up all the last triticale runs.

  • @CothermanDistilling Just to confirm is that what you do to your juniper?

    And other seeds ? Then you put in a vapor basket ? I am about to do a run and was after a bit more juniper flavor.

  • My 54th birthday today. Spent it bottling vodka. ran out of cleaned bottles at 47 cases - didn't hit 54. Couldn't be assed cleaning more so started drinking instead.

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