Grumpy here, with greetings and salutations to all.
Am an age pensioner living in the goldfields.
I am a newbie to distilling and keen to learn more.
I have an Air Still (Dont gag, it was all I could afford ), and have made and distilled 4 washes, one with sugar/carbon, the rest with Dextrose. None of the latter matched the one using sugar. However, my "supplier", lol, told me the sugar was just a "starter package", and turned me to Dextrose.
Thus I stand before you 4.5 days into my very first TPW, which has been at 30-32 degrees constant, the bubbling is now getting fainter, and the colour a fainter shade of pink by the day.
Obviously, my interest is learning/further refining my use of the air still.
I am waiting with bated breath for the fermentation to end, so I know whether I'm on a winner with my TPW.
My sugar/carbon wash was a corker, fully fermented in 3.5 days, and gave me 60-63% alcohol average in each 4 litre batch.
When diluted to 40%, it was as good to drink "as is" as any Vodka.
The Dextrose/Turbo products? The last one made me crook.
A mate with an air still suggested I break the rule of 2.5 hours switch on to switch off and go at least 3 hours for extra alcohol. I became distracted (phone) and went about 4 hours before I switched off. The alcohol tasted like crap, but I drank it. Got rather crook & seedy & even mentally disorientated for days. Could I have copped some Methanol?
I always tossed away the first 50ml, even though the instructions didnt say to do so. But seems I went too far. Wont do that again.
And now you have my life story. :))
cheers,
Grumpy