StillSmart

Hi & welcome guest...hope you enjoy yourself here....it's a great hobby, and you get to drink it...

hi everybody and greetings from Dublin, Ireland
I have been brewing on and off for the last 30 years, am currently a year back at it and with mostly beers and wine until i got myself an Airstill in january this year. Went down the sugar wash turbo yeast essences route and whilst it produces reasonable results i started to get fed up with the turbo yeast twang/smell so looking for cleaner neutral washes. Started my first cornflakes wash monday morning and its been going like a train since so am eagerly awaiting the results. Planning a lentil wash now as I have just been reading that thread and sounds cheap and cheerful way to go

Welcome RR, Glad that you took the time to say hello.
Turbos and essences can work, but you may find other washes more neutral.
Making cuts is important, but you seem to be a savvy person.
And seem to have read around a bit.
Shout out if you need a hand

Robert.

thanks Robert
hoping for less esters and will try to refine my cuts more
there is a wealth of knowledge here so will work my way through it cheers

Anthony

my all time fave bourbon is Russells Reserve

Hey all Will here just purchased 2 full starter kits with lots of extras im sure i didnt need cant wait until Tuesday to get first wash going. Hoping to bend a few ears and learn any tricks or advice from experienced distillers. Thanks for having me

Welcome Will, I'm sure you will not have to wait long for answers here, a finer bunch of alcoholic experts will be rarer than hens teeth.

please excuse my grammar on that one...

haha i dont even think i can say the word gramamrara well you get the jist lol

I just registered, having read the 5-page sticky "Unofficial guide to Airstill Operations" PDF which seems helpful. I bought a SS a couple of weeks ago and I've been triple-distilling water to get a feel for it. I bought a 5-gallon plastic tub too which I'm sterilizing.

What I've not seen is a thread on fractional distillation using a Vigreux column1 over a heating mantle. I'd thought that would be a common way of processing the output of a stripping run but I appear to be mistaken. I've enough glassware to try that, with a digital thermometer probe which is very good at distinguishing 0.1 degree increments. I've no idea how to make anything palatable afterwards, which is presumably where the skill comes in.



1: A fractionating column might be called a deflegmator here, depending on how medieval the art of distilling might be.

Hello everybody, fairly new to the distilling world. Have used the Air Still for a couple of years and thought I'd treat myself to a T500 mainly for the time factor and I have read that I should get better results, not that the Air Still hasn't proven its worth. Hoping to learn from you more experienced guys and contribute to the forum. Any advice before using the T500 for the first time is appreciated.

Snakeman welcome to the forum...from an Airstill to a T5....that's the route most of us take...then maybe on to bigger things who knows??

Snakeman wrote:Hello everybody, fairly new to the distilling world. Have used the Air Still for a couple of years and thought I'd treat myself to a T500 mainly for the time factor and I have read that I should get better results, not that the Air Still hasn't proven its worth. Hoping to learn from you more experienced guys and contribute to the forum. Any advice before using the T500 for the first time is appreciated.

Without wishing to be too obvious, read the T500 section, particularly the posts about water pressure.
I don't have a T500, but this seems to be the most common problem.

Robert.

Hi i am mike been distilling for a bit looking forward to meeting you all

Hi Mike

Welcome to the forum, what have you been using! Airstill, T500?

No a custom homebuilt keg boilered stainless reflux column wanted something different thanks for the welcome

Welcome Mike, I look forward to you resurrecting loads of old threads