StillSmart

Hello fellow brewers - though, I'm not exactly distilling just yet, I've been making my own liqueurs for a couple of years and am just reving up to splash out on a still.
I've had my eye on the T500 for a few months (I want something that produces at least 95% as I want to double steep some liqueurs)and would have it by now except for: £££!!How much!!£££.
So I'm just wondering if it's worth the agro of building my own - would it work out more expensive once i've figured parts and labour into the equation? anyone know?

Well hello NA, The T500 is a good bit of kit - but you are not going to get 95% out of it - 93% is more typical.

Building your own, you could build a still that will achieve 95%+ how much that costs is down to you, a few choice finds down the scrapies, a lucky ebay find, could mean it costs not a lot - to costing much more than an off the shelf number depending where you source the materials.

Another thing to consider is what type of spirits you want to make, if you drink whisky, rum, bourbon then a pot still that produces much less ABV might be better suited this can be as simple as a stainless stockpot with a pipe in the lid.

- if you want clean vodka\neutral then you are after a column.
If you want to do both, then you'd be looking for a way of using either "head" on the boiler.

CC

Hmm - I read somewhere that you can't get up to 100% because after a certain percentage the water sticks with the alcohol and the way to take the last bit of water out of it is to add something that sucks up that last bit of water but I don't remember what it is. Anyone know about that and if you can use it on a something as low as 93% ?

as for what I want, I'm mainly into my liqueurs: some I make with whiskey/brandy/rum and others I want a neutral taste like vodka. with stuff like peach shnaps, it tastes pretty weak unless you add a load of peaches, let it steep, drain it and then add a load more peaches. Trouble with that, is it will go mouldy if you don't use a high alcohol to start with.

I'm pretty good at finding stuff at the dump and scrappy and I can weld with stainless wire - just have no idea about what a decent plan to follow would be.

In a lab you can get 100%, but ethanol is hygroscopic so it will absorb water from the air, 95.63% (azeotrope) is the best you can achieve with our equipment.

Playing about with vacuums and strong acids you can achieve 100%, but really there is little point if you are planning on actually drinking this stuff. What you going to do with 100% that you can't use 95% or 93% for?

Just asking.

Alot of good drawings here....
http://homedistiller.org/forum/download/file.php?id=7370

Oh, I could do with some pure stuff to use in my business - I want to use it as a lubricant for cutting glass as it's one of the least toxic of the possible chemicals to use. trouble is, if you only want a litre of the stuff, most chemical companies don't want to know and the ones that do want to charge a fortune for it (£80 for a litre delivered!)

"So I'm just wondering if it's worth the agro of building my own - would it work out more expensive once i've figured parts and labour into the equation? anyone know?"

Hi,

Like you I am interested in Vodka fusions and there are some really interesting ones on this site - I cannot wait to try the Rum & Raisen.

I deliberated for a while whether to buy or build, I eventually decided to build, this is not agro to me, I enjoy it. If you are comfortable working with hand tools, have a simple work bench then you can make a really nice still for the price of a T500, Sorry - I am not saying that the T500 is not a nice still - I have friends who are very happy with it - but they do admit that it has a couple of shortcomings that I have tried to build out of mine.

I have opted to build a 2" Boka with a 36" packed column that I can quickly change the configuration of, into a Pot Still. I have sized the condenser to be able to cope with a 3KW heater for stripping, and I am intending to mount the still on a 33 Litre Stainless Electric Boiler - I reckon that by the time I am finished I will have spent £170, that is without going to a scrap yard. You could add another £100 if you want to buy all the items ready made for you just to assemble.

I enjoy making anything and have built as much of the still as possible including the needle valve and the boiler connector from scratch .

I have time on my hands and not an infinite amount of cash. If I had the ready money to buy a T500 I reckon it would only take a couple of weeks of evenings to have the still up and running.

I would be happy to include the details of my build to date but I do not know where would be a suitable place to post the thread.

MOD - is there any chance of allocating a board for something like "Builders Bits" or "My Still"? if you do I will gladly get the ball rolling and describe my efforts to date and add to it as the work progresses.

There is now a 'Build Your Own' forum for still building and modifying tales!

I enjoy my T500, I know its not the worlds best but I am in no way a handy person so I didnt have a choice other than to buy this or buy something built by another "enthusiast" at a similar cost (or higher)