Some questions from a newbie!

[Copperhead]

Evening all,

Finally got round to sorting the garage out so got room for the t500 but have some questions.

1) How long start to finish can I expect it to take, just the distillation process.

2) What realistically is the amount in litres and what ABV could I expect

3) What's the best rum essence available and can I get a spiced version.

And last question,

After watching the DVD the presenter used a syphon which left the sediment behind, any one know where I could get one.

Many thanks
Newdistill

[Admiral Toad]

Hi mate and welcome
From my experience it takes around an hour and a quarter to get up to operating temperature give or take a bit for ambiant temperature volume etc then about 3 plus hours to run so 4 and a half is my average
As to what you get off this wholy depends on the ABV of your wash
I find you get about 95% of that produced at about 93 % ABV
However you need to discard the first few ml as foreshots then idealy the next couple of hundred ml which still taste iffy put aside as heads and run in next batch.likewise towards the end the ABV drops down as you enter the tails and tastes oily again either rerun or discard
So from a 25 litre at 16% you should get about 4 litres all told of which the middle 3.5 litres is good spirit
Still needs filtering though and there is a bit of experimenting involved
Theres some good brew caculators online which allow you to put in start and finish wash specific gravities etc to give you a fair idae of wash ABV
A siphon is essential and can be obtained from any home brew shop or online, I find Wineworks very good and they sell full range of essences.
Only tried dark rum essence from SS and those that like rum said it was ok.
Have fun feel free to message me or post more questions thats how I learnt and am still learning !

[Copperhead]

Many thanks Admiral,

I just needed the time so I can run it when swmbo is out, she thinks the boiler is for brewing.
I take it there will be plenty of lees left, I have a syphon for brewing and winemaking but the one on the DVD seemed to leave all the sediment behind.
Hopefully will be doing a run at the end of the month.

Cheers

Newdistill (have to change the user name)

[MrCat]

As far as rum goes I like this one

[Admiral Toad]

Depends which yeast and fining you are using ,SS classic with carbon sticks like s**t to a blanket while Vodka star is more fragile
Leave as long as you can to settle and gently does it ! >:D
Sometimes a rattle on the side of the tub helps to settle it

[chill]

I've only tried the Prestige brand of essences so far, that is what is readily available to me. The best of the lost was drinkable. The rest seemed like a plot of the major distillers to discourage home distilling. The one rum that I tried, Austrian, tasted very strongly of cheap bubble gum. It and most of the others went back in the still.

Google "pugirum" and "hook rum" for alternatives to using essences. I personally and going to be a LOT happier going that route.

Chuck

[Admiral Toad]

By the way the website with loads of useful calculators that I use is brewheads.com

[billmcc]

or you could try here

http://www.aussiedistiller.com.au/calcs.html

[Admiral Toad]

Aye that's a good one too Bill

[Phantom]

Well, from my T500, I get an average of 3.6 litres at 93.5% ABV, but I then let it down to about 40% with reverse osmosis water and run it again.

Then let that down to exactly 40% before carbon filtering it.

Might seem a little over the top, but I seem to be able to achieve a very clean neutral spirit. Which allows for just the taste of whatever flavouring I'm using at the time.

For rums, I've tried lots of them, and while most of them are good, I do find that still spirits classic range "Navy rum" is most to my taste. The local HBS does the SS brand stuff, but I have no qualms about mail ordering either prestige or essencia brand flavours to try. Lots of them are good too.

[Capt-Cudellez]

Welcome newdistill, I'm sure you'll have fun with your new bit of kit.
Just curious though for the reason for keeping your better half in the dark about what you are up to?

For me at least, this can be a time consuming hobby and would be difficult to hide what you are doing - most if it can be covered by wine\beer brewing, but sitting with a still for 7 hours on a spirit run is less easy to explain away.
I think that will be a tough one to keep going.

[MrCat]

Mine is a water filter - it removes the water.....

[Capt-Cudellez]

Mine is a wine purifier

[Capt-Cudellez]

Well, from my T500, I get an average of 3.6 litres at 93.5% ABV, but I then let it down to about 40% with reverse osmosis water and run it again.

Just wondering if your re-running it have you tried doing 2 or 3 "strips" then charging the boiler will all the product for a large spirit run?
If you are going to equalise a column and slowly remove the heads, then to me it makes sense to do this time-consuming bit with a larger charge, rather than do it 3 times with a third of the alcohol.
Also the larger volume makes cuts easier, and the mid hearts more neutral (if you are collecting in fairly large containers like 500ml jars - less smearing)

I am also sold on the idea of letting the charge down to 20-30% ABV if you have the room in the boiler, this seems to give better separation of the fractions than a higher ABV charge - more so if doing a stinky heads only run.

I know we all have different aims and goals in this hobby, and its good to see what others are doing.

CC

[Admiral Toad]

And mine produces fine oils used in perfume making by the lost inca tribe (I am a philantropissed sponsor) and for bio fuel to help power the sea Shepard in their whale conservation (all allowable against tax of course) >:D