StillSmart

I shal resurect them all sir

Good evening all.

My name is Adam and I'm a new T500 owner. I have a wash on at the moment and I'm currently reading as much as I can. (Completed the T500 section today and now looking around at whatever catches my attention). There is so much great advice and information here that I am sure I can avoid at least some rookie mistakes

I have been brewing beer and mead for around 5 years and now I'm expanding my knowledge and experience to distilling. It seems I may already have met some of you at the homebrew festival in Market Bosworth last year, so i may see some of you there this year.

In the meantime I look forward to sharing my experiences and "borrowing" your expertise.

Cheers

Adam

adman wrote:Good evening all.

My name is Adam and I'm a new T500 owner. I have a wash on at the moment and I'm currently reading as much as I can. (Completed the T500 section today and now looking around at whatever catches my attention). There is so much great advice and information here that I am sure I can avoid at least some rookie mistakes

I have been brewing beer and mead for around 5 years and now I'm expanding my knowledge and experience to distilling. It seems I may already have met some of you at the homebrew festival in Market Bosworth last year, so i may see some of you there this year.

In the meantime I look forward to sharing my experiences and "borrowing" your expertise.

Cheers

Adam

Welcome to the forums Adam.

Straight in with a T500 eh ? nice

I'd guess that once you've got your head round it a bit i.e. how it works etc, you'll find that it's straight forward. Myself, I just make the cleanest neutral that I can, then I have either good vodka or it's perfect for mixing up with flavouring essences (which, if you don't mind lots of tasting and testing, you can find that while they're not quite as perfect as branded equivalents, they ain't half bad).

It can depend on a few things, like the depth of the pockets, you can, if you want, splash out on some marvellously efficient and very pretty bits of kit, or if you like a bit of a challenge you can make many bits for yourself it just depends on whether you like the idea of DIY projects from a plumbing POV (some electrical knowledge helps too), or you can just stick with what you've gone for (actually, thinking about it, once you've got your head round making neutrals for vodka etc, you can just get the copper dome lid and liebig condenser and bingo you've got yourself a 25 litre pot still and you could have a crack at flavoured spirits as well (there's a number here, braver than me, who like all that)..........

Don't worry if things seem a bit quiet here, some have more time to post and chat that others - plus we do have some overseas members. By and large a good bunch hereabouts..........

Welcome Adman, and nice response Phantom.
Here,here!

Robert.

Welcome Adman +1 with the above, and yes we do have a few on here from the brewing fraternity.

Hi guys
Been making wine on and off for many years ,had a pot still about 6 years ago only used for a year or so then sold on as it was too small for my liking,
recently purchased a 25 l reflux and playing around with different washes,so looking forward sharing my experiences and results with you all .
nice forum guys ,cheers

Welcome Zappa,
It sounds like you are in a good place.
Keep doing it.

Robert.

Glad your on board Zappa, what's this still you've got then?...a T500???

Icefever wrote:Glad your on board Zappa, what's this still you've got then?...a T500???

Thanks Icefever ,your spot on yes it's the t500 ,I thought this would be a good starter point and user friendly ,looked at them many years ago but the price was a bit high and picked this one up for a couple of hundred under retail back when they were £560 a pop
Already tweaked the packing with copper mesh at the top of the column and happy with the results so far the plastic cap at the top is bugging me so might be the next tweak but overall good enough for the job,and Mrs Zappa approves on the cosmetic look in the kitchen so win win situation at the mo I'm not really a connoisseur in any spirit love them all so great fun hehe,
So What's the kit your running Ice ?.

Like a lot of guys I started off with the Airstill, then moved up to a T500....I then made a 2" pothead to fit the T5.

I'm now just starting on making a 4" with 3 bubble plates sections, which when I want I can add a packed section for neutral.

It's a good idea to read the most of the T5 section on the forum, loads of good info for you to take on board.

HI im a newb to this and I have got the right stuff to distill"water" I like a bit of sugar and turbo yeast with carbon added.. this will be my first wash and today I bought the air still to start me off. without jumping the guns , I thought id learn the basics before going onto traditional methods.. ps as its UK I may add that I'm making fuel not liquor and even distilling pure flavoured water at some point

Welcome to the site dude..it's a long and winding road...stick with it...we're here to help..

There is much to be said for a gentle start!
It can all too soon become time consuming.
Welcome!

Robert.

Hi and thanks for the welcome messages .. having read so much now I think I'll be going for the 500 and copper dome etc in next couple of weeks but I guess the airstill will do for now to get a couple of runs and see what I produce .. something new I wasn't here stated a couple of runs are needed through the still to get strength from the wash is that correct ?

Two summers ago my plum tree finally made fruit, in abundance.
Flans, compotes, even sorbets. What to do?
Then a bumper year for blackberries.
Found a recipe for Slivovice and got hooked. Either I buy a dozen bottles 70ml of eau de vie at 96%ABV from the off-licence or I make my own. 40 squids a bottle. No contest.

But as you know this hobby does not save money.

Still#1 was and is a36l caterers pot with a 3" pipe welded into the lid by a car exhaust mate. All stainless steel.
Next was a boka made from 2" copper.
Then a 3" boka from a recycled SS bollard
I found a 55l SS beer keg and made my current CCVM reflux still in 3" tubing. It's a Tee with SS Liebig and csst (flexible 12mm gas/fuel pipe or corrugated stainless steel tube)

I prefer the clean taste of refluxed spirits, I get a new taste in every 1pint bottle off the still. All the flavours in the beer come over eventually. I get to choose what to blend and age, what to recycle.

I used to ferment in 6gal bins. I needed 8 brews to make enough strip to run the 11gal reflux. So now I am working out how to do it all in one go in a 270l wheelie bin.

But I am currently working most with my first pot still. I can play with the tails like whiskey stillers do. First the stripping run, separating heads from tails, they go back in the next strip.