Comments on: Stopping Your Still Foaming Over

By: Hope81026

Hope81026 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:55:39 +0000

Hi
I am brewing as we speak. I didnt read much past getting the alcohol to ferment so this is an eye opener. My “smartstilll” is behaving erratically. The top jumps up and it leaks. I am thinking of adding marbles (as I saw on another site) in place of the ceramic rings.I will also put less liquid at the start. What do you think. I have just double distilled my first 1.75 liters of Vodka. It’s a bit skunkier than my store bought Vodka but otherwise sufficiently strong, About .65 of this is distilled water as I read it might be good to add some distelled water to double distilled mash as per this site. Any words of sage advice for me. Hope

By: Fatbloke

Fatbloke — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:25:57 +0000

Excellent. As I mentioned elsewhere Canyon Cat, the little ceramic rings so the job as well. The homedistiller site seems to prefer ceramic/glass/copper items (from what I can gather), to do with what’s in them and just how “food safe” they are. But I for one can’t see why you couldn’t use brass just as well – afterall they make bloody taps/faucets from the stuff !

I think it’s mainly stuff like solder that you have to be careful of i.e. well that it’s certified food safe and/or lead free (it seems that “silver solder” is a favourite for building stills etc).

So I’d guess that chucking the faucet handle in while running the still shouldn’t do any harm at all. Well done matey.

By: Canyon Cat

Canyon Cat — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:40:48 +0000

I used a brass water faucet handle, washed thoroughly and placed on the bottom inside of my EasyStill before my first run. No problems at all despite using a far-from-clear wash. I suspect that the modifications on the EasyStill make it less susceptible to this problem, but I was paranoid and put the brass piece in anyway. No problem! I’ll do this for subsequent runs, too–why tempt fate?

By: Fatbloke

Fatbloke — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 16:03:12 +0000

Already commented elsewhere, but to recap for this article.

The ceramic rings in the article, or broken glass/ceramic crockery can do the same job. Even stainless steel or copper nuts and bolts (sterilised of course) work.

Distillers conditioner – available from the Distillers Suppliers.

Ensure that your wash/mash/pre-distil liquid is completely clear i.e. transparent. If it’s wine/wash/mash that you’ve made yourself, then use finings to clear it. If need be some sort of filtration.