"Hi . I hate to ask so simple questions but i want to learn more before my Liver gives out . Does tomato paste make the wash work better . I use turbo yeast and sugar now but i have read the tomato might bump it up.

Thanks guys for answering my simple questions"

And quit using turbos

If you are refluxing it matters not so much, but if you are only pot stilling then you want the purest wash possible. Turbos add off flavors to a sugar wash plus it's easier to experiment with what each chemical additive does if you're just using a standard yeast.

"Hi Guys . Iv got a hot plate that with 32L of wash takes dam near 2 hours to get going . How much faster would propain be to use . And they do say outdoor, but would a garadge be that bad .

Thanks"

"

Yes - do not use a propane burner in a closed room. I would not use a burner that puts out that much heat with anything but sky over me.

Which hotplate do you have & did you defeat the thermostat on it?"

"OK that's the 1500w unit, what I use until I get my electric keg going. You need to open that up. You'll see the knob connected to a rod, rod is connected to the thermistor, one wire on each side. One side should have 2 prongs, one occupied by a wire & the other empty. On the other side is one connector only. Remove the wire from the single side & place it on the empty terminal on the other side. Now the thermistor is bypassed. This thermistor is either on or off, no in between, and it will prevent you from maintaining a constant temperature. I bought a router controller off of ebay, but in reality I run full blast all the time. (8 gal kettle) For stripping it's hard & fast & this is where I will use my electric keg. For refluxing I control the temp purely with water control to the head. I pack extra copper scrubbers around the reflux tubes to spread the cooling effect. With this head & this hot plate, temp control should never be an issue, only cooling control. My kettle & column are fully insulated with Reflectix and I use 2 water pumps, although the same can be done with the single unit. I run the condenser pump on full 100% of the time and control the output of the reflux with the ball valve on the exhaust side of the reflux. This is not the only way to do it, but how I am able to work. Now I live in a hot climate and this may not work the same in a cold area up north. I experimented a lot until I found what I liked.

Please ask any questions you want - there are no dumb questions - only stupid answers!"