Airstill, Best Practice and Results

[Almanac]

I decided to repost this guide to keep it at the top of the Airstill thread so new users/members will benefit from not having to learn the hard way

The contents of the guide are for use by those who want to get the best from their Airstill and should be roundly ignored by everyone else who is happy with what they are otherwise doing.

Airstill Brief SS.pdf

(357.5 KiB) Downloaded 16766 times

AM

[YHB]

As you know I havn't got an airstill, but if I had, that would be a really usefull read.

Aidan, I saw the reference to the problem uploading PDF files on MD, try zipping the file and uploading that.

Brian

[Jimmy]

Great work Aidan, as usual - this will be a great help to a lot of people!

[Almanac]

Thanks guys.

Brian you were spot-on, that worked just hope the guys there can unzip and open it as normal.

AM

[YHB]

Checked out the Zip file on MD - it works for me.

[Magnu420]

very good intresting details aidanmac,it has help me more to understand
the art of distilling,i will be using this as a guide cos i was gonna do it
winework way just distilled once,now its opened my eyes more and makes common sense to do it twice and dont rush it (which i were gonna do but ive seen the light )

just a question,on some threads around the forums they mentioned taking 20ml of fores and some say 50ml of fores,in the diagram it says 50ml of fores would this be correct

thanks for the upload aidanmac im sure it will help other newbs like me included


forgot to say i d/load the pdf ok,but was expecting a rar file

[Almanac]

Magnu420; 20ml or 50ml? The difference in a actual amount of liquid is tiny and I prefer to go for the 50ml because then there's no doubt that I got all the nasty foreshots. If you were to take that extra 30ml, dilute it to 40%ABV, you'd hardly get a single drink for yourself from it.

I have a little jar marked for 50ml and I collect that much from an Airstill Spirit Run without even smelling it and toss it in my cleaning fluid jar which I use for washing the outside of windows.

YHB; Thanks for that, I'd never have thought that zipping it would work - who knew

Thanks

AM

[stout]

nice job Aidan

yourself and mozr are indeed the go to guys for crackin swally from the airstill



all the best

[Almanac]

Stout wrote; "...crackin swally from the Airstill"

Ha! Ha! haven't heard that expression for a very long time

Nice one

AM

[shawry99]

Hi aidan,

Cracking job.

couple of questions, firstly compared to Mozr you seem to get more end product, is that down to using 7kg of sugar? If so would using an extra Kg with my remaining SS Turbo work as well (I have 2 packs to get rid of before moving onto VS)

2nd is their an easy way to work out when its coming through at 20% as I wouldnt know where to get a cheap parrot from?

[Almanac]

Using 7kg does give a slightly higher yield and I split the sugar starting off with 4kg then adding the other 3kg on day three. Greater minds than mine have told me this avoids early stress on the yeast which can lead to incomplete fermentation.

I also add some gluco amylase along with the second batch of sugar to ensure all sugars are available to the yeast to consume.

This type of wash will often yield 15%+. The SS Turbo should be able to cope with the extra sugar but try it in two lots a few days apart.

Testing the ABV without a parrot on the stripping run. I'd collect 1lt straight off then use two small jars with a 100ml level pre-marked on them and then you can throw each 100ml batch into a trial jar and float your alcometer to monitor the ABV. Once it's over 20% you just toss it in with the first liter.

I stop collecting as soon as the alcometer dips below the 20% mark because it's just not worth going any further.

AM

[The Real Yahoorsur]

thanks Aidenmac,this is what the double distillation turned out,cheers

[Almanac]

That's a result

AM

[LeeH]

Thanks alot for taking your time to write this guide up. It will help a newbie like me alot

[Robbo79]

So please help on stripping run collect down to 20%? What about spirit run collect down to what % ?