StillSmart

I wish to introduce myself as a newbie to this site.

I\'m thinking of getting a still for xmas and I was wondering roughly how much per 75cl bottle of 40%ish alcohol would cost to produce?

I love making red wine and i\'ve been looking for something else to try and I think this would be the perfect next step.
I appologise if this has been asked before, but I\'ve not found it on the site yet!
Thanks for any replies.

Depends on the wash you use, whether you use clearing agents, carbon in the wash, etc.
As a rough guide, I get about 4 - 5 litres of good stuff from 5 bags of sugar, a tin of tomato paste, bit of lemon juice and half a tin of bakers yeast - total cost about four quid.

Thanks for the prompt reply Jimmy.

Using the Easystill how much wash is needed to make a 75cl bottle at about 40%?

Hi v4mpy

At the moment using my pot still i am throwing the first 20ml from the spout and getting 800ml at 60% from using 4 litres of wash this is then cut with 400ml of water to make 1200ml of 40% ready for filtering and flavouring.I usually get 5 still fills from a wash.I am using the still spirits yeast etc.Others on here will advise you on different washes yeasts etc which will possibly give you a higher yield but i too am a relative newbie but have got the bug and am at the stage where i am ready to improve/experiment with different methods etc.

Good luck with your brews

trelliS

trelliS

next time you do a run try collecting the usual 800ml @ 60ish% carry on collecting in another jug you should get another 500ml around the 30% mark put this in a DJ,then do the same on the rest of your runs then put what you have got at 30% through collecting until it drops bellow 60%,then if you like call it a day or better still cut all you have got back to 40% and run it again you will get a couple of litres at 80-82% per run its well worth the effort as you end up with a far more pure alcohol.

cheers

Optic

Hi optic

Many thanks for the advise seems im using the good bits but throwing the better bits.Am just a little puzzled because it says to put four litres in the pot still and 5x500ml is 2 1/2 litres is this to be retained until i do my next wash until i get the full 4 litres.

Cheers trelliS

Many thanks for the advise seems im using the good bits but throwing the better bits.Am just a little puzzled because it says to put four litres in the pot still and 5x500ml is 2 1/2 litres is this to be retained until i do my next wash until i get the full 4 litres.

Cheers trelliS

its up to you,you can just run the 2 1/2 ltrs if you want or just keep saving it till you have 4ltrs

cheers optic