Hello Again

[Chubbs]

Good morning all

Its been a long, long time since I last visited the boards and today its about to change.

I have owned an Airstill for a few years but not really used it much. This was mainly down to the hassle of how much time it took to complete the process and family life getting in the way.

Today I'm just about to make a call to Love Brewing and finally upgrade to a T500. Its been a long time coming as every penny has had to be saved, and surplus kit from my other hobby of wild camping sold to finance the new purchase. Its taken me a while but finally got there in the end.

I won't be selling my Airstill because I'm thinking that it will be ideal for experimental small scale brews, and tbh, I don't think anybody would want to buy it as it took a knock and got dented. I managed to take the dent out but it can still be seen a little.

So, before I make the call, is the T500 really worth the money. While I'm buying it is it worth me spending money on a few packs of the Turbo Clear two part finings or just use the Clear It (Vin Quick Type) two part finings from my local HBS.

I will mainly be making the lentil wash to start with, so will the addition of Turbo Carbon be needed considering I have an Essencia Filter to clean it up with.

Cheers

[Mash]

As you sure you need to spend the money??

Freeze stripping reduces your 7 runs to just 2.5 !

If time is your enemy an AS is quicker in 'doing stuff' time that a T500 IMO.

Search for "Freeze Stripping"

[Chubbs]

Hi Mash

Freeze stripping ??, haven't mentioned freeze stripping. Think you have replied to the wrong thread

[Chubbs]

Sorry mate, didn't quite get you there.

Wanted to buy the T500 so that I could make more of a better product if you get me.

Lots of talk about how good these stills are so I thought I would give one a go.

Cheers.

[Mash]

Sorry perhaps I misread - I thought you were concerned about the cost & time.

Quality - really depends on what you want to make. The AS will make a decent quality. Both stills need good working practices. I have thought about it many times and can't quite afford the time bill for a T500. My AS is plug n play (with summat else - while its doing).

What do you want to produce? Good nuetral..

[Chubbs]

Yes, I want to produce decent neutral in bulk.

I have replied in the Distillation topic to keep it on track.

Cheers.

[Curmudgeon]

T500 is a good purchase if you are bored with doing multiple runs on airstill.

Personally, from a 23 litre wash, I sometimes use T500 for stripping run instead of 6 airstill runs and then use airstill for the 1 or 2 spirit runs.

Finings are going to be an optional cost with no great benefit. T500 lid clamps down and running a cloudy/uncleared wash is not going to be a problem at all.

Carbon filtering will not be necessary after a double distill but may be something you decide is worthwhile. Buy a packet/kit or two and try it both with and without.

[Chubbs]

Cheers Curmudgeon.

Looking forward to trying it out and getting up some decent stocks of neutral. The only extras I did buy was a few packets of Turbo clear. Not too bad at £1.75 a packet for a 5 gallon brew considering my usual two part clearing agent is now over a fiver.

I've actually got a brand new Essencia filter that is in the loft.. The wife bought me it for Christmas one before last and never got round to using it. Main reason was that I planned to make loads of neutral and pass it through in one go, instead of small batches. Sort of lost the taste for drink but the urge is slowly coming back

One of the last recipes I made was using the apple juice reduced right down and mixing it with neutral, sticking in a few cinnamon sticks for a few days, can't remember the name off hand. It was a big hit with a group of friends I regulary wild camp with so its time to make more, a lot more >:D .

Was searching the web a few days ago and found that you can now buy apple juice in concentrated form. Its sold in all different sizes and they do a 5 litre for £40.00 !!. The dilution rate is 8-1 so might give it a go first with one of the smaller bottles.

[packapoo]

The Turbo Clear is good gear to use if you're into fining, it's benign - no hidden nasties so if you don't want to filter you won't need too.

Apple Pie may be the name of the apple juice based tipple. Recipe's on this site in recipe section.

[Mash]

If you have enough space the T500 would take the contents of two frozen fermenters. T500 would be full of 30‰ that would be bulk run

[Chubbs]

That's the one packapoo, Apple Pie. It was lovely when I last tried it and wished I'd made more at the time. My enthusiasm levels for brewing seem to be getting stronger, especially as the T500 has just turned up. Its actually bigger than I thought, once set up on the kitchen worktop it will be nearly touching the ceiling .

Thanks again Mash for the advice on the freeze stripping. Will start doing it straight away once I have a couple of the wine fermenters of wash fermented, I'm sure the wife won't mind as I have done a lot worse in the past. Another plus for me freeze stripping is the extended life the boiler element will get. Don't know how long they are supposed to last, but whatever it is, it will be doubled.

Really looking forward to starting up again. I was getting a bit peed off spending nearly seven quid on half a bottle of supermarket vodka every now and then that tasted like battery acid and thinking at the time that I could produce better.

[Curmudgeon]

Google and youtube have lots of apple pie moonshine recipes. Cinnamon is the main flavour. I like a hint of ginger.

[RumJohn]

@ Chubbs: My biggest seller by far. Run with it.

1 part 40% ABV white rum. Lets say 750ml.
1 part apple juice. I use DOLE which is reconstituted from ....
45g brown sugar per part.
A stick of cinnamon. Quite big sticks here. Can send a photo if you want.
Bring to the boil.
Simmer 30 mins.
I remove the cinnamon and let cool.
When cool, add 1 part 50%ABV rum. I use an aged rum but when it has gone I will use white as the sugar and cinnamon overpower the wood.
Let settle for a few days. There is some sediment. Siphon and bottle without siphon tube reaching the bottom. Sediment is very light and fine and will get sucked up easily.

Overall comes out at 30%ABV.

[Mash]

Is this lidded when you boil? Or put another way - do you not lose a lot of alcohol in this process?

[RumJohn]

@Mash: The loss is minimal. Once I have finished the simmering, I lid it. I make 48L per batch, If I lose a liter it is of no concern. The end product is worth it.