John:

Welcome to the hobby.

Most recipes and yeast packs are set up for 25 liter which is 6.5 gallons. A 5 gallon carboy will work for some things but my advice is to pop for a 8 gallon fermentation bucket and air lock.

A simple recipe for rum is 16 pounds of dark brown sugar and a jar of molasses and a pack of turbo and filtered water up to 7 gal. Put two gallons of warm water ,120 df, in your bucket, stir in the sugar and mollasses then top off with cold water. Let it sit for a week. I promise you it will turn out much better than a white sugar wash with essence. You don't have to worry about methanol if you toss out the first 50 ml. This will make a 7 gallon batch.

Now to reduce this to 4 gallons, hmmmm... you may want to run this as two batches. Your stove top will work fine for such a small still.

I've never used a Brita so I will leave that for others.

Cheers and good luck

How would I test for vapor leaks?
If I decide to do outside what is best electric burner to use for 4 gallon pot still?
I am getting a little concerned about doing this in the house - should I be?

I am leaning towards outside also because I have a 3 year old son - I would have to do this when he was not home if doing inside

I am giving up on the filter idea as you said I don't want vodka.

Any rum makers who use Natural unbleached cane sugar crystals and Molasses Powder instead of brown sugar and liquid molasses? I am looking at a site called bulkfoods.com and pricing looks good on this

How long would it take to distill 4 gallon pot still ? - how much of the 4 gallon would be drinkable?

John:

Skimp on the ingredients skimp on the taste. Sixteen lbs pure cane DARK brown sugar, not one where they add molasses to white sugar, and a jar of molasses should set you back less than $20 and will produce the kind of product you are looking for. Unbleached cane sugar and molasses powder will not give you the rich molasses body you are looking for in rum.

Just for the record I truly believe that corn sugar makes a much better netural than regular cane sugar as well. I figure if I'm going to go to all the trouble of making a batch I want the best results, and that comes with the best ingredients.

As far as heating it, use a hot plate and you won't have any problems, inside or out.

As far as output from 4 gallons? I do a seven gallon wash and usually end up with 3 1/2 to 4 quarts of uncut ,87%, rum. Cut down to 80 prooof gives me a couple of gallons of excellent white rum. You can do the math from there.

Cheers

how much sugar and water and black label turbo yeast to put in for one run of the 4 gallon pot still.? how long before ready to distill - how do you tell?

The question is how much do you use for your fermenter.

You ferment in a fermenter, then transfer however much you want into the distiller kettle for each run. You may take two or three runs to distill a single wash.

You let it ferment until it quits bubbling and smelling like fresh-baked bread.

Also, you can taste a little, and if it still tastes sweet, it isn't finished.

Or, you can also check the alcohol content with one of the two hydrometers/alcoholometers you should have bought with your still. One is for testing high-strength alcohol, in the 50%-90% range, and the other is for testing washes, in the 6%-20% range.

I ferment in a spare bedroom, so the wash can stay in the air-conditioning, and it makes the whole house smell like we're baking bread. Too much heat during ferment kills the yeast. Too much cold extends the number of days it takes to finish fermenting.

Most packets of turbo yeast tell you how much water and sugar to use with that packet. Heat the water to dissolve the sugar into, then top it off with tap water or otherwise let it cool to room temp before adding yeast.

Generally it takes about a week to fully ferment, sometimes two weeks. Even Turbo-Pure 48 ,sold by Brewhaus, actually takes up to 7 days, if you want the full potential. It's only 48 hours if you will settle for lower starting alcohol percentage.

thanks for all the info
I got my still in mail - anybody deal with ethanolpro on ebay - I thought it would be bigger - did not measure yet but cannot beleive that 4 gallons will fit in pot, looks a little cheesy for $80 and also charge 28 for shipping ups - I am starting to feel ripped off already. please comment
THANKS AGAIN TO ALL

Thanks Brew - I was planning to do a water only run first but did not plan for discarding a wash run - is this for taste or safety? I bought a starter kit here so my first wash will have enough for 2 still runs.

I did not get a good description on how the cooling process works - I received a small pump with the still but was told to keep the cooling pot higher up - confused about how this will work and how to set it up - guess I need to do more reading and start experimenting - I don;t need to cool on the water only run , right?

The CD is almost worthless - has alot of stuff copied off other websites - some recipes, etc. nothing that great as far as I can see - It does not even show the unit setup fully - just pictures of the parts - I wanted to see how it should look fully setup - I will copy the cd and send it to anyone who wants a copy - just let me know where to send

another dumb question: on the condensor the cool water in should go in the lower of the two inputs? and output from higher back into the cool water bucket? I wish seller would have included a picture of the fully assembled still

also if i wanted to extend the receiver so that collection takes place further away from the heat source, does it have to be copper pipe - does it get too hot to just clamp a hose on it?

THANKS

Yes cold bottom and out on top. always on every condenser like that.

Some people use long hoses and then the sink instead of a bucket. The guy that built and sold it should be answering these kinds of questions though.
Go to Homedistiller.com and start at the beginning and read for a couple days. all your questions will be answered.

At 10:54 AM 05/18/2007, you wrote:

I did not get a good description on how the cooling process works - I received a small pump with the still but was told to keep the cooling pot higher up - confused about how this will work and how to set it up - guess I need to do more reading and start experimenting - I don't need to cool on the water only run, right? ______________________________________________________________________________ You need to cool any time you're distilling, even if it's distilled water.

Otherwise, your condenser will eventually become the same temp as the steam, and probably melt your hoses. Also when the condenser is almost the same temp as the steam, nearly no condensing will happen, your output will be mostly steam.

Cooling can be problematic. Some people just run a couple of garden hoses, ,with adaptors, and water their lawns as a by-product of condensing. You don't need a huge water-flow, just enough to keep it moving.

I guess that works, but even at low flow, you'd be surprised how much water your faucet will dispense in five or six hours. Most people use a recycling scheme, where they buy a used 55-gallon barrel and pump water from the barrel,s, through the condenser, back into the barrel. I bought a used plastic 55-gallon barrel for $15.

Even at that, you'd be surprised how well you can heat 55 gallons of water just from cooling the steam in a little condenser. Often, a radiator is used.

I have a motorcycle radiator that I got on Ebay for about $40, delivered. Or you can get a transmission cooler from an auto parts store for about $100. Run your cooling water through it, with a fan blowing on the fins, and it will get the job done.

The cooler you keep the condenser, the more efficient it will be, but really, as soon as it's cool enough to not be shooting any steam from the output end, that's cool enough, and it doesn't take all that much.

If you just put three or four gallons a kitchen sink, and pump in/out of that sink, it might be enough. Most people who use small-capacity cooling sources also freeze water in several 2-liter soft-drink bottles or milk jugs, and drop those into their cooling water one-by-one at intervals during the run.

At 01:17 PM 05/18/2007, you wrote: also if i wanted to extend the receiver so that collection takes place further away from the heat source, does it have to be copper pipe - does it get too hot to just clamp a hose on it? ________________________________________________________________________________ _ Unless you do a run with no cooling water, there should not be a problem with hoses or most flexible tubing standing the heat.

The main thing about the hose running from your condenser to your collection vessel is that it be impervious to high-strength alcohol.

If the alcohol dissolves it, you'll be drinking it, in addition to the hose eventually getting brittle and breaking, possibly during a run. ,Alcohol Fire?,

Copper would add a little extra cooling, and might improve the flavor of the product if your system has no copper in it already. It's good to have some copper in the vapor-path, but I don't know if there would be any benefit in exposing already-condensed output to it.