alky_D

[ghurd]

All you guys have the "Firefox" book set right?

Just a thought...

G-

[Bruce S]

G-

Hooked on them from Mother-in-law. She showed me the first on that explained how to make ginger beer, yuck!! nasty stuff , but in a pinch will do ..

Have vols 1- 3. Any new ones?

With those books you can survive about anywhere.

Bruce S

[nothing to lose]

Well I have problems

I haven't been thinking to clearly last few days/week, too much on my mind I geuss, lot's of stress right now.

Anyway I tried a few things with the gallon milk jug stuff, so far I did get a couple drops that did light up really nice. I have not set up a system like you have or used the fish tank heater yet as planned though.

However I did test a junk coffee maker, coffee I think was right around 170-180f fresh brewed and the grounds were around 200f I think. That was with my good coffee maker. My thought was/is that the coffee maker cooks alot pretty fast. SO, I put some mash in a junk coffee maker and routed the flow tube to a coffee can of glass marbles instead of the top of the maker where it was. Then I added a copper tube to the coffee can and ran that to a different milk jug. Bah, it was slopy made and not the correct stuff to work with for it, it did not work at all. The idea is a fast cooking reflux condensing still and I think better built it will work later though. The temps are about correct I think.

I bought a $10 hot plate. Using an old coffee can for a pot and putting the thermometer and copper tube through the plastic lid I did get a few drops of burnable stuff. Maybe 1/4 cup or so? Problems, plastic lid does not like the heat it gets soft and swells/expands so not a great fit. Other problem was condensation on the inside of the lid. I had a hard time getting the feul out the tube. I eventaully run down my batteries and had to stop, about the time I was getting it to work

Other problems, my 30gal mix I thought should be done sunday is still bubbling good so it is not ready. Could be it's been cooling off to much at night maybe and slowing the yeast??

My barrel with some juice stopped bubbling too soon I think. I filled a barrel Monday with yeast water and sugar, not bubbling

 Either the yeast is bad (thought it was working before I added it) or perhaps the water in the barel was too cold and made the yeast go dormant for awhile.

I have alot of things to try still.

I did get a well blader tank cut open, removed the bladder, installed a coil of copper tubing, welded the tank halves back together. Little problem with welder and holes for tubbing so I went over all the seams with JB weld. It should not leak unless stress on the tubbing ends crack the JB? Hopefully I will get it installed on my truck this weekend. I have a few ideas here, I have old copper tubing and also some conduient. First I will try engine coolent only, if not hot enough I know the exhaust is. I stuck the meat thermomoter against the manifold after running the truck just a few minutes and of course it burried the needle. It goes to around 220 or higher, needle must have been around 300f it went so far beyond numbers.

 A bit worried about using them, but I bought some plastic tubs at Big Lots. I think the outer tub was about 48quart and the inner around 20 quart maybe. I'll have to seal the lid on the outer tub better than it comes from the store. They are clear so I can see what is happening inside them. This will be for the tank heater. Problem I been having is dead batteries though, and I am not at this house with grid power very much now, so I have not been able to set up a tank system yet. This weekend I should have all batteries running full charge, but saterday I will be gone. Maybe Friday or Sunday I will get it working.

 I think I will get some pictures of this as I set it up. What ever works I will figure up the costs involved for that set up. If I can get the coffee pot idea working that would be $10 for a coffee maker and $3 for marbles plus a little extra for tubing and such.

 The hot plate that did work some was $10, free coffee can, scrap tubing. Although I will have to figure somehow for the electric it uses also.

 For electric I need to get a kill-a-watt meter, these things kick on and off so it's a random power usage not steady.

[nothing to lose]

"All you guys have the "Firefox" book set right?"

Never heard of it myself.

What got me started in the first round was a book on Homemade Soda Pop from Linsey Publishing. I should have sent that book back, kinda expensive, kid wanted it and I bought it for her, then she didn't like any of the stuff the book had in it

Gave me the Idea to brew up other stuff though

This second round Bruce got me started up again after I got back from Canada.

What's a Firefox?

[Bruce S]

NTL

   good to see you are still here. I put up a post in the rants area, to see if all was well about a 1 1/2 weeks ago. It disappeared so I figured it was in the wrong section or something.

Y'all had a lot of water coming your way. Good to see everything is still working.

There was a site someone posted about using a tea kettle as a column still.

Hey That stuff burning is 160P good to see that its working even if you melted the plastic.

Big Lots is a good place to find containers. I have a food container place between work and home so I go there to get their seconds instead.

If you're needing High-Drain batteries to run this stuff on; I have some 19.2Vdc NiCds that will work just perfect. The wires on them are only 18ga but they work perfect for IgnesAndros. I've sent him about 50 by now.

I've been banking them is series then parallel ( 32 of these so far) up to 40Vdc at 34Ah then regulating it down to 12Vdc to run an inverter I got free. Runs perfect for the little stuff, the inverter complains more than the batteries do.

I have about 200 more coming so if you need a lot let me know, I'd like to see how well these hold up under a real heavy load.

Those tubes sould be just fine, are they flat tubs or tall and round ? I'm thinking the more surface area the better for the yeast, but you'll then run into problems when it comes time to cook.

The best would be to have some Aluminium stand offs to keep the two tubs seperate, as well as keeping the heater off to plastic. You should also have one side no more than half a bubble on a level, stand-offs higher on one side for the outer tub while keeping the inner tub level. This way when you start up the heater and it begins to cook the Alky out it will have an easier way to flow to the bottom.

 Do send pics when possible.

I am now just finishing my current run, it's due to have the heater turned on here in the next day or two, just watching the bubbles nightly. Got down to my last 5 gals. Had to run the truck on 87octane , it ran okay but you sure could tell the difference.

Cheers

Bruce S

 

[ghurd]

Hi NTL,

The Firefox books are almost like hillbilly handbooks. Best I can say it.

They pick up where the Boy Scout books stop.

Everything from how to build stills and mash recipes, to coon skin caps made from scratch, to...

I think I have 3 of the set, maybe thats all there were?

Mine are at my parents house, so no idea authors or anything.

I would guess they were published in the early 1970's.

Can't find even a referance to them online.

G-

[nothing to lose]

Yep still here, but busy with several things and not around the pc or online much for periods of time now and for a while yet.

Well the little bit of burning stuff I got once evaporated, I geuss it was good stuff

Ran the tank heater awhile in the tubs. I set up the tubs one inside the other. The outer tub leaks fumes bad

 I should be able to seal it though. So anyway I heated the mash a bit on the stove to get it started faster. First I put in cold mash and the heater into the inner tub so there would not be a tempature shock to the glass heater, then heated mash to around 120F or so and poured into the tub slowly to raise the temp fast but not too fast.

 Then I ran the heater all night and till the batteries went dead next day while I was gone. I got alot of water

 At first I got alot of alky smell and a fog formed quickly inside the outer tub. I had it sitting outside and the night air was cool, I thought that might help condense the outer tub while the inner tub remained constant temps with the tank heater. I geuss not, or I could have over heated it also. I had a thermomoter in the inner tub and last I had looked at it it still was not above 120F yet that night, could have got alot hotter over night perhaps. Anyway I had alot of water, no alky smell. Also I think one of my mashes may have turned to vinigar

The one of yams and cranberry sauce in the milk jug.

Well today I got a 120V small hot water tank to play with. I have to look it over good, still in the back of the truck. It is supposed to work, just replaced because it was too small.

Had alot of other things going on this weekend too, but for the barrels...

I found that the one I was worried about that was not bubbling the screw cap was not sealed tight so it was leaking there instead of bubbling the water. Everything was working fine inside though. Took me about 4 tries before I actaully got it to tighten down and seal and now it bubbles great. Not shure why it would not screw down correctly, probably a twisted thread in the hole. 3 caps had the same problem.

The first barrel that I thought should be done about a week ago is still bubbling but it has slowed alot. Another couple days maybe.

Did a barrel of garbage yesterday also. Grits, Rice, candy bars, Andy Cap Hot Fries, etc.. got a hole trailer load of stuff mice had gotten into. Also dumped in maybe a gallon of Apple juice or more. This was just all geuss work if even that. More like dump junk into water, stir well, dump into barrel, do it again. I did boil water on the stove in tea kettles to melt candies and soften rice and grits.

Added 6 packets of yeast and 4 lbs sugar. It was bubbling ok this morning, will check it tonight when I get there, I expect it to be doing good at least untill the 4lbs sugar is eaten then we will see how the rest works out.

 Everything was free except 5cents a pack or so for the yeast, $1.15 for 4lbs sugar, and the propane to heat a few gallons of water for this batch.

[nothing to lose]

"If you're needing High-Drain batteries to run this stuff on; I have some 19.2Vdc NiCds that will work just perfect. The wires on them are only 18ga but they work perfect for IgnesAndros. I've sent him about 50 by now.

I've been banking them is series then parallel ( 32 of these so far) up to 40Vdc at 34Ah then regulating it down to 12Vdc to run an inverter I got free. Runs perfect for the little stuff, the inverter complains more than the batteries do.

I have about 200 more coming so if you need a lot let me know, I'd like to see how well these hold up under a real heavy load."

Hmm, sounds interesting, how much do those things go for?

I could use them for many real heavy loads

 Actaully I am wondering how many would be needed to power an electric bike. Does it take alot of those to make 40Vdc and 30amphrs? Would it be feasible to wire up say 100amps?

 Not really sure what you have or how they can be wired at the moment.

[nothing to lose]

Oh, ok.

Thought it sounded like something I might like to get too, but if they can't be found I geuss not.

[Bruce S]

Hello My friend;

 The batteries go for nothing more than the shipping cost. Last set sent out was 19 of them and $10.50 UPS ground to Nashville.

Our CFO hasn't asked for the shipping money, I do keep letting him know what is going on, as I like to make my mortgage payments on time:-)). I know that it costs less to ship out old usable batteries to people like Andrew who will us'em wisely than to have the recycler charge us to remove them from work.

These aren't the big heavy ones from train stations or anything like that they are out of Medical devices; we can only use these for 2 years before we MUST replace them. Since the company owns 4000 of these little wonders, every 3 months or so about 100 units arrive back, we remove to old batteries install the new ones and send them out.

hopefully the upload of the "trike" we have running on these batteries will help answer your question about electric bike.

The packs are built in a 4 x 4 array, which gives a 19.2Vdc at 1300mAh set.

I have learned that setting them up in series to get the voltage we need then bring in the packs to make up the current rating keeps these from having heat related problem while charging.

I since our trike uses a 36/48Vac 600watt motor with a PWM controller. I wired our batteries up at 2 in series to bring the voltage up to a nice 40Vdc 1300mAh then wired these into 3 parallel packs then 4 of these again in parallel. This gives us 16Ah of which 90% is available to the motor, instead of 50% on the old SLAs. The NiCd packs weigh, which includes wiring and connectors, 38lbs instead of 52lbs for the 3 12Vdc 17Ah SLAs.

This thing is awesome, goes even in the rain St.Louis got buckets of last month.

I was trying to get one of those electric bikes Pep-boys had for $400.00 but couldn't find any, they were selling them out.

I would use a normal charger on these, I built a 24V version of the desulfanator to clear out the cobwebs in these and then use a three step charger with a timer on it to keep these from exploding like the first set did.

From weekend tests, I haven't had anymore exploding batteries even when I leave them on a trickle charger.

Let me know if you want to try some and I'll set some aside. I can't give you any guarantee that they'll all be good but IgnesAdros hasn't had any problems with them. There are a couple other people I've sent them to as well and everyone's has good luck.

Sorry to hear about the vineager and water. I thought you have a good run after reading about the bruning drops.

Cheers;

Bruce

[nothing to lose]

Well, I don't want to be greedy, but if I can pick em up I will take all you want to give me

 20 would get me rolling pretty good also, shipping here would probably be about the same I geuss or close.

I can always use batteries. I have a few projects in mind for indoor use that I would not want gassing of lead acid batteries or any leaks. Also may like to play with some high power devices.

 I have a 120VAC electric heater, the temp settings go up to 170F on it. I looked at 120Vac elements today and also the temp controls. Not very expensivew for either, both run $6 to $12 each I think depending what you buy. So the most expensive of each is still only $24 for a set. Far less than I would have expected. I wonder if 120Vdc would work as well as AC

 Looks like I can make a decent electric cooker anyway for cheap.

One of my thoughts is the electric tank will have alot more draw in amps while the element is heating but it should really be equal power used as with a smaller heater.

The large one should heat faster and then cycle on and off as needed. The smaller one takes forever to heat up and cycles on and off more often. But I think it's still going to be the same total power used. Problem is the larger one will need so many more amps when it does kick on I could have lots of battery power that would run the small heater but shut down under the load of the larger one. I may try the tank on grid power at this house so I don't have to worry about batteries for now.

I am trying to get a small gennie flying at the other house now. Got some stuff yesterday but no time to work on it, maybe tonight I can alittle.

My friend is closing his salvage grocery store and that is keeping me a bit busy right now too. I just unloaded the trailer last weekend and got most of the stuff put in a building, but still had banana boxes with lots of broke bags of grits and such sitting in the yard. Ohhhh, I hate to go over there today! We had a really hard rain here tonight, bit of a hard storm for a short while. I bet I got a yard full of wet instant grits

Got to get another trailer load today or tommorrow.

Good news is the mash I made up sunday is going nuts now. I hope that is a good sign.

Left sunday right after mixing it and was getting no bubbles, Monday I had decent bubbles, yesterday it looked like holding an air hose under water! I mean I was getting enough bubbles I might have been able to run an airbrush or other low pressure/volume air device from the barrel.

My barrel that should have been done a week ago finnally stopped bubbling now also. I should have about 30 gal now to try cooking.

 I think the one jug turned to vinagar after I let it sit for awhile after I got the burning drops. Could be the 5 gal may have soured also? Problem was those darned balloons, they just fall apart or get ate by the Alky and fumes. Then once the balloons disolve air enters the jugs as it wants. Was not much of a problem when I was fermenting, I kept changing them, but while sitting so long it was a problem. I should have found something alot better and corked the 5gal one.

It should not happen again! I am thinking now that since I plan to always have a barrel fermenting I might be able to fill a barrel with CO2 as I empty it. Use the fermtenting barrel to "pump" CO2 into the finished barrel I am removing mash from. Maybe drop a tube into the mash a little up from the bottom and use the CO2 entering  with a tube in the top to push out the ready to cook stuff

 Sort of a pump and siphon both but no air entering to sour anything that stands for a period of time.

Using free garbage I am mostly just out of my time if a batch sours I supose but if using sugar I'd be out some bucks.

Well gotta run, time to take the kid to school.

[nothing to lose]

Hi Bruce where you at?

Update on my stuff.

I thought the wort ruined and turned to vinagar, I was wrong!!!

I cooked a bit now. I got a flow running into a milk jug. Curious what I had I poured a little onto concrete and lit it. Yep it burned really nice. When I thought it went out I started to pour out a couple more drops. Well as I said, "I thought it went out" Hmm... always be certain! My flame was so clear I could not see it at all! Good sign eh.

So I had a hot jug with just a little hot alky in the bottom and alot of hot fumes when I went to pour out a few more drops onto what I found out was burning concrete :O

Nothing bad happened luckily! The fumes in the jug lit from the clear fire and shot a clearish flame I could barely see about 2' or so from the jug and like those model rocket engines the jug tried to fly away

Hmm, maybe like a bottle rocket but without the bang thankfully. Only reason it did not fly was I was holding it, lucky it did not explode on me, litterely.

This was from the stuff in the 5 gal carboy pictured before that has been standing for weeks after fermented. Well I learned a couple things, never trust your eyes when burning this stuff and it works very well!

After I got a bit in the milk jug I wanted to try it in the truck engine. Well I switched to the rear tank that should have been empty and let the truck run a long time, durring this time the batteries in the bed where being charged from the truck also. Well the truck would never run out of gas, I was going to run it totally dry then prime the carb with the alky and see if it would start. Well since it would not run out instead I dumped it into the carb while running. My truck has the idle set low and runs rough at idle. I dumped in a little Alky and she smoothed out and pured like a kitten. Best I ever heard that truck run

I still have not made much fuel yet but what I did make I dumped into the truck tank with however much gas was in there. I think my truck actaully ran just a bit better till I had to buy gas again then it ran as normal.

Hey Bruce,

Back to my thoughts on a electric hot water heater again for higher volumes.

 Been doing some searching and looking around at various things when I can, not online much right now.

 Saw something that gave me an idea. Leave the heatng element in the bottom of a hot water tank, move the temp control to the top of a reflux colunm. It does not hurt to boil the brew in the tank as long as it cools before the vapors leave the reflux column and the water steam condenses back to water which flows back down to the tank.

 So with the hot water tank I have it has a temp setting up to 170F which I should be able to bump up a bit higher I think. Mounting a reflux column of any size above the water tank and moving the control to the top of it should then actaully heat the brew much hotter than if the controll were on the tank as normal. I beleave it is the top of the reflux colunm that actaully counts. At 170-190F at the top the alky should remain vapor and the steam should condense and flow back downward.

 For an electric still then I think a metal tank of any size for the brew and however large you could go with a reflux condenser will work nicly with $12-$20 for a tempcontroler and element.

 Now I think I mentioned before about the power used. To me I think that it's all the same amount of power rather using a fishtank heater or water heater, fish heater of lower watts takes longer, water heater faster, but still same total power used I think. So if the power is available to run the larger unit it will produce the fuel faster.

 My problem is at the remote house I do not have the power to run this and I don't go to my real house much now at all. As little as posible really. So I don't have 1200watts available to run my water heater long enough. My inverter is no problem 5K and 10K surge. I just don't have the batteries for it or away to charge them up right now if I did have them.

 I am working on this problem also for remote use

Riding mower gennie with a couple alternators to charge batteries, run it on alky of course, and use the exhaust heat to heat the brew as much as posible, fine tune temps with the electric water tank heater.

Still working on the truck distiller also.

[bparks]

It would probably be really hard to have a simple solar system hold your brew at 170 to distill it, but a simple & cheap solar device of some sort ought to be able to get it half way there or more.  I bet setting your container in a black box in the sun in the morning on a sunny day would get it over 100 by afternoon.  Maybe something like a large solar cooker with reflective panels to get even higher.

Brian

[nothing to lose]

Yes anything to preheat it for free will reduce the fuel/power needed to reach the final tempature needed.

[xboxman]

how do you get the ice out with it still running ?

and about how many watts does your freezer  use?

thanks game

[Bruce S]

NTL

  Been out a bit. Family concerns. Had to go help with a little rescue of a sorts. The Alky based truck hates pure 87Octane now. Got two batches ready to go as soon as I can get everyone settled back down.

Read your little story about the clear flame.

Yep, this stuff is great for burning huh. How true about pouring it directly into the carb. If you have any of that stuff left, here's something you can try, try pouring some gas into a clear jar, then pour of the Alky into that same jar and what do you see? the gas getting clearer.

This would be a good time to also pour more into the tank, along with the xperiment stuff. The Alky will attach itself with any water in you tank and pass it along with the gas (no pun intended;-)).

Interesting theory about the still, give it a try. If you do make it up to the 170 -190F range try putting a stainless steel plate with a bunch of holes in it( like an old spatula)OH!! don't use galvinished pipe the fumes can be lethal!! around the middle of the column. This should knock the water vapors down while allowing the Alky vapors to pass on through. This will at the temp and the steel, make your kinda like a run 1 1/2 as you'll be pushing the heat temps up and making the water run back down for a re-burn. Will be interesting to hear about your fire teat after that. BTW: 200P will put the match out, but the fumes will burn sooo pretty once it absorbs enough water vapor :-)))

 I found some old fridge shelving tempered glass that I want to make some solar distillers out of. I saw a small demo where some guys took salted water, put it into a glassed solar heater, set the unit into the sun and let the heater distill the water to drinkable pretty clear water. Since I kinda know what I'm doing, I spoke with the guy for a long time about if he had tried making Alky with it and he said it always got too hot, but that he had gotten his idea out of an old Mother Earth News magazine. We talked a while longer and traded recipes. I need to know the temp rise he was getting on cold days he needed a why to distill Alky without the columns getting him into trouble with the law ( seems he lives in a dry county :-(( ).

The rest is yet to play out, will send up pictures once I start the solar part.

I have some old NiCd batteries I'll be sending you. Andrew is sending me some pictures of how he's been able to get the ones I've sent him up to 192Vdc This aren't the railroad ones either, they're the Sub-C type configured into a 19.2Vdc at 1300mHa rate. They thrive on being used down to the 85-90 % deep usage.

You could use these for the heater, we're able to draw 600watts at 36Vdc on a continous basis and they charge right back up.

If you have a small TIG welder you can re-arrange them into whatever you'd like. the individual batts are 1.2Vdc @ 1300mHa rating or better. Since they can't be reused after two years of continous use in the medical field..... I have another 200 coming.

Takes the analyzer about 2 hours per set of 4 to go through all of them. They'll have connectors on them , but we snip them off and make our own.

Should've tried to look you up, I was around the border earlier this past weekend the rain was murder...

Cheers .

Bruce S

[nothing to lose]

 About the batteries.

Any Idea what it will take to run a 5K inverter for about 1500watts to run a 120volt water tank? Would that even work with those all that way. I have an idea about the truck and still I am working on. Running a tank heater on batteries and charging while driving as needed may work out for one system, the other system I should not even need any extra heat.

[Bruce S]

Okay now that's what I call a request.

if you need to run a 5k invertor with a 12Vdc input then you're going to need a good 500Ah setup. Does your invertor have other DC inputs ?

The barrery sets I have, are currently rated at 19.2Vdc @ 1.3Ah per set. You could break these apart and redo them for 14.4Vdc and then stack them in series for the amperage.

We do this for the trike.

You'll need to use metal connections at the battery points like we did for the lowest voltage loss and higher current draw than the 12AWG we used to use.

We went with tin strips and the heating that the wires would get from pulling up a large hill went away. I knew we would need something like this , but the early "wired up" batteries were merely proof of concept and to get our layout from concept to production.

Keep in mind these are the ones called sub-C batteries. Each one is rated at being 1.2Vdc w/1.3Ah so there's a lot of room from customization. And they are used but still working for me.

If you try to shoot for the full 5K start up, you may see the batteries being sucked right up into the invertor :-)))

Let me know if your still interested.

Bruce S

[Bruce S]

Okay now that's what I call a request.

if you need to run a 5k invertor with a 12Vdc input then you're going to need a good 500Ah setup. Does your invertor have other DC inputs ?

The barrery sets I have, are currently rated at 19.2Vdc @ 1.3Ah per set. You could break these apart and redo them for 14.4Vdc and then stack them in series for the amperage.

We do this for the trike.

You'll need to use metal connections at the battery points like we did for the lowest voltage loss and higher current draw than the 12AWG we used to use.

We went with tin strips and the heating that the wires would get from pulling up a large hill went away. I knew we would need something like this , but the early "wired up" batteries were merely proof of concept and to get our layout from concept to production.

Keep in mind these are the ones called sub-C batteries. Each one is rated at being 1.2Vdc w/1.3Ah so there's a lot of room from customization. And they are used but still working for me.

If you try to shoot for the full 5K start up, you may see the batteries being sucked right up into the invertor :-)))

Let me know if your still interested.

Bruce S

[nothing to lose]

Yep still interested.

I sent the adress in an e-mail to you today also.

You know me I like to try about anything. I do have some uses for low power 12V-15V indoors also. Once I get a look at some of these I'll know what I can do, perhaps they will also be good for that also.

 Well I ran into a wall with the owners of the rock house, no go on a still there

But I do have my own land in MO. of course, just not very convient since I am seldom here. At least I do have grid power and can run anything on it. Working on a couple more electric stills and converting the truck for an engine heat still. Just slow going right now on everything.

[nothing to lose]

How is your fuel going Bruce?

We have not been posting here much lately, myself not online much and only short times when I am.

I should be doing a big batch this week. It turned cold all of a sudden here, that should help with the condensing part, cooling the fuel barrel outside.

Just put the wood burner in last night (and used it too). I plan to preheat the wort with the wood burner then run it into the electric hot water tank still. This should speed up the heating time and lower the electric costs. I won't be getting the wort too hot at the wood burner, don't want loose alky vapors floating around it of course.

See how much the wife complains, probably alot.

The electric water tank/still will sit beside the wood burner near the outer wall. The condensing tube will come off the top of the reflux condenser then run out a hole I have to drill in the wall and then down to a barrel. The barrel will be a couple feet lower than the still. To drain the dead slew from the still I will drill a hole in the wall at the bottom for a pipe to run through and into a different barrel, top of that barrel will be almost even with the bottom of the still.

The holes in the walls are what I figure the wife will complain about the most

Since this still should be totally sealed and electric operated like a normal hot water tank I don't see much problems with it being indoors next to the woodburner.

Basically I am replacing last years wood fired clothes dryer with a still instead, same spot in the room. Geuss I figure driving in wet clothes is more important than walking in dry clothes

I have not yet decided how I will fill the still though. Most likely a third hole in the wall and fill from outside into a copper tube which will run around the flue pipe a couple times then inside acrossed the top of the wood burner and into a top side hole in the still tank. That line will have a shut off valve on it also to seal it.

 So basically everything in the house is sealed at all times and all openings are outside the house. As long as no joints or fittings leak there should be no danger or smells in the house. Don't think the wife would like it if I spilled 5gal of beer on the floor either so filling starts outdoors also then just a downhill slide through the tubing.

This is a 20 gallon tank still, I plan to only fill with maybe 15 gallons to begin with for the first 5 or so runs. Not sure how much wort I have now really. I have tried different things in making it. I know I have 30gal good stuff maybe 60gal, and 2 almost full barrels of garbage foods (grits, cornmeal, candy, etc..). 1 Barrel was food, other barrel very old juices and sugar.

Should be fun to see if I get anything decent from the food barrel.

Once I see how this works I have another plan to change the feed tube. I am using gas line shutoff valves. Unfortunately my water hose type 12V pump has a problem. I may use an auto fuel pump, but that will take forever to pump 25gal or so.

 The new plan (if everything works to begin with) will be mount a 30gal barrel on the trailer house tip out roof. Fill still above heating element with hot wort then adjust the feedline valve to slowly fill the still, letting gravity feed the cold outside wort down though the copper tube around the flue pipe getting it as close to 160F as I can, then the electric heating element only has to raise it a little more.

I am thinking the electric for this still should not cost too much even if starting with room tempature wort. I mean the use of the still will be far less use than the average hot water tank in a home gets figured over a months usage. Course the temp setting will be much higher durring it's use, but still I think the cost should actaully be lower than normal water heating usage for washing clothes and taking baths. I will try to get an idea of what the cost is various ways, room temp wort and preheated wort.

[Bruce S]

NTL;

   Getting ready to start a new brew with a new container. It's basically the same type , I just put a faucet 1 1/2" from the bottom so I don't have to open the cooker to test the proof.

I got to talk to a true brew master (beer dude) about an enzyme that would let us break down the carbs in hard foods such as corn and other heavy starch based foods. He told me that the enzyme amylase <sp? is already present in Malts. This would make the enzyme. He wouldn't go into any better detail, but I will talk to the brewers at Worm's Way about this.

According to the people with the Missouri CO-OPs I'm on the right track but they've not heard of small batch runs using the pure enzyme and won't help me unless I join the CO-OP. So we'll see. I need to get on a batch due to my low amount left.

I think ,that once I get ready to start the new batch I'll start a new diary. this ones getting long and hard to wade through.

Cheers!

Bruce S

[nothing to lose]

Yep it's getting up there pretty good in numbers, 88?

I hope to get pictures of stuff myself to post also. Can't even find the daughters camera now. First full week I run alky in all the vehicles I am gonna take the gas money I saved and buy myself a camera!!

Been trying to work on things as I can. Element in the 110V tank looks to be bad, get another tommorrow hopefully. Posted in the other thread alot of stuff.

 A couple of my truck ideas for a driving "fuel refining system" is kinda a perkulator type system to heat the wort from auto exhaust and perk it up through a small tank of 180F water to condense water but leave alky a vapor.

Similar idea is to just boil the wort and run the steam through a 180F heater core in a box to do the same thing.

With both the condensed water should run back to the wort, the alky vapors run through a copper tube under the truck cooling on the way to a tank.

 I been driving about 1hr trips each way nearly everyday I geuss. With the engine running 1hr like that, I really want to do something with the heat produced.

[elvin1949]

Bruce

malt is sprouted grain.

Sprout some corn [deer corn is cheap] then put it in the oven and parch it,grind it up and mix with your mash.

later

Elvin

[ghurd]

"Deer Corn" from a place that doesn't sell horse feed is surely over priced.

Even more so if it is in bags that say "Deer Corn", and that's often the crap that can't be sold for real feed. (but its still legal to dump in the woods)

Call a feed store or 2 and ask about 'shell corn'.

Tell them what you want it for, you might get a deal.

G-

[Bruce S]

Hoping to get to two emails on this one as this list is getting pretty long .

Elvin1949;

  I'm still learning this from the starchy side of life, and have gone to my "PHD in Chem."--Father-in--law to ask about the enzymes and see if he can find out if the sprouts are enough to break down extra pulp or just enough for their own use.

E & G

Friday had a thought. Then over the weekend and once our youngest son got up from KY; we headed to Arnold, MO to check in at the farm CO-OP there.

O-BOY big mistake!!!

Started talking the the good-ole boys about buying whole dried corn or "deer-corn" since it's also deer season soon. They thought I might be chumin for deer and refused to sell me any. Soooo I told them what it was for, and then they would sell me any period!!

Tells me it not legal in MO , so I tell them it is and then they say it's not worth the trouble , by now I'm getting peeved, then I ask what kind of lazy farmers they must be not to know how good "old Farmers fuel" is for the tractors and even pointed in out in the old farmers almanac.

OOOOO then it was a shouting match with the younger boys right up til the police got called. My son then stepped in show the police his military ID and explained the event.

The police then explained to the sales person and the ole boys there that that's exactly what he comes in th buy the corn for. "AT this point I'm finally calmed down"

All in all it didn't turn out like I thought it would. still didn't get the corn to try.

Will head out to west Mo next time, they're not so up tight.

More later

Bruce S