StillSmart

From the outset i was never keen on the idea of distilling, tubs, stills, pipes, heads, tails..all seemed too much for me. Same as beer, pressurised kegs and vessels etc.. I'm happy making wine, pop in a tub to ferment. Once done transfer to another one to clear and viola!!! Loads of wine easy peasy..........
Anyway i now have my air still and i'm pleased with its simplicity, and of course now i've graduated to double distilling.... yeah i know.... seperating heads and tails. I'm right where i didn't initially want to be.
Here's my question if anyone can even point me in the right direction for things to go research myself.......... I'm happy shoving 4 ltrs of 30% in my AS after tea, and a few hours later i have my product. That bits great. Whats not so great is having to shove 6 lots of wash through it to get your 30%. So whats my next move to get a bit quicker, a T500 ? Or can i use one of these things to distill my wash ready for my AS ?

My 2 cents....buy a T500, you'll get more out of it than that link.

Nothing wrong with the T500.

However, in the contest of processing wash to feed an airstill all you really need is a pot still.

This can be as simple as a pot on a stove/hotplate connected to a condenser, or you can go down the route of a pot with an integrated electric element of some sort. Ending up with the T500 and its alternatives.

There are a lot of options - it depends on price, convenience, and whether you wish to do a bit of work or buy off the shelf.

Perhaps by another airstill. Doubles your capacity.

Consider freezing your wash first. It is "no-still stripping"

Both together. Is quicker and easier that a 500.

I really do have to agree with Mash on this issue.

If you have the freezer space, and your fermentations are not too big, then doing the initial wash processing in the freezer is an effective method.

I would recommend trying it before buying more gear.

Thanks Myles - and I mean that.

I always expect holy water and exorcism when I post on this topic.

Another 2 Airstills is still a lot cheaper than a T500.

There you go Mash......

I am going for a lay down

Preowned £80 is a common.
When you get the hang of it, run em hands free on a timer. And you can do hot swaps.

The only issue of multiple air stills that doesn't beat the T500, is that the 500 takes about 4.5 hours to run the whole of a 25 litre batch and it will reach a much higher strength.

To beat that time-wise, you'd need about a dozen air stills (what with an airstill taking about 2.5 hours to process 4 litres of wash, and they'd all need to be started at the same time).

The bonus of an air still over a T500 is that the normal T500 will strip all flavour to that higher strength, but if you want to retain flavour, then air still (or any other pot still) is the cost effective way ahead.

If you factor in the cost of a T500, but also buy the domed copper lid and the liebig condenser, it still works out cheaper than buying enough air stills (used/cheap or otherwise). Then you can indeed do stripping runs or flavoured spirit runs.

Oh contrare min amiee.

2 airstills will finish a 25l wash from frozen in 4 hours. But leaves a couple of litres for next time.

3 would nail it with spare capacity so prolly only take 3.5 hours.

On a single timer, whirring away while you watch the footy.

Using less leccy and water.

Seriously speedy.. I think the next upgrade would need to be 3 way funnel

Mash wrote:Oh contrare min amiee.

2 airstills will finish a 25l wash from frozen in 4 hours. But leaves a couple of litres for next time.

3 would nail it with spare capacity so prolly only take 3.5 hours.

On a single timer, whirring away while you watch the footy.

Using less leccy and water.

Seriously speedy.. I think the next upgrade would need to be 3 way funnel

Mis-calc on my part. A 25 litre wash will give 6 runs of wash, at 4 litres of wash per run. So rather than having to use some twice and be quicker (at 2.5 hours rather than 4.5), then it'd be 6, but that doesn't account for higher purity/strength and additional distillation to get anywhere near the strength that the T500 produces.

But whatever eh ? not here to argue the toss.........

But whatever eh ? not here to argue the toss.........

Absolutely.

I don’t find stripping with the air still a problem. Before or after breakfast I simply fill the still and use a timer plug set at 3 ½ Hr, plug it in, job done.
A timer plug and a Free PC program could Cool Timber are a must for letting you to get on with other things.
My old foreman would say “if you want to find the quickest and simplest way to do a job ask the laziest man”, I was asked quite often.

Pyro wrote:I don’t find stripping with the air still a problem. Before or after breakfast I simply fill the still and use a timer plug set at 3 ½ Hr, plug it in, job done.
A timer plug and a Free PC program could Cool Timber are a must for letting you to get on with other things.
My old foreman would say “if you want to find the quickest and simplest way to do a job ask the laziest man”, I was asked quite often.

Sure. It was just "mental cig packet maths" after reading the original stuff and thinking of comparison to my experiences etc......

I keep trying to remember to buy a plug in timer for mine (still dragging my arse in setting up circular cooling for my T500 and it should do for my milk can boiler once I can make my mind up about a column for it)..........

Ha! won't stop me asking idiot questions to fill gaps in knowledge etc

Pyro wrote:I don’t find stripping with the air still a problem. Before or after breakfast I simply fill the still and use a timer plug set at 3 ½ Hr, plug it in, job done.
A timer plug and a Free PC program could Cool Timber are a must for letting you to get on with other things.
My old foreman would say “if you want to find the quickest and simplest way to do a job ask the laziest man”, I was asked quite often.

Although I haven't done any distilling for a while,I did regret selling my airstil after buying Phantom's super reflux. Likewise an entire wash was stripped by using a timer over a couple of days without needing any real attention or nurturing on my part except from,empty,refill and set the timer.Spirit runs where a doddle done at the weekend.