StillSmart

After AM posted on an Aussie distill site that I was over here for chrimbo and missing a good pint, a couple of the Aussie guys posted offers of a M&G. One of them was around a 4 hour drive away in the north of NSW, we've got the use of the daughters car but I think if we went missing for about 10 hours.. you get my drift.

Another guy was right on our doorstep by the name Yummyrum, only half an hour away. We've just had a great visit with him, had a very interesting talk about our hobby. He showed us his first 5 liter pot, but the one I would have liked to take home was his beer keg reflux.
To see a big still close up..for a newbie like me was out of this world, to have someone like yummyrum explain how a reflux works was worth the time spent there.

He's got a number of bottles of rum with different woods in them....would have loved to have tried a couple, but I was driving and over here the police have stop & random breath tests. Never mind I go back to the UK with loads of ideas on building a reflux and the odd wash.

I can't wait to get stuck into building my own now.
Many Thanks to AM for sorting it out...I owe you one mate.

Icefever

Soon as I read yer post, I thought "damn, that username sounds familiar"......

Spend some of yer time, working out the cheapest possible shipping methods, that way you could indeed benefit from the amazing knowledge down under.......

You can carry the ideas for nothing, but to be able to get hold of some of the nice, shiny bits and pieces at a reasonable cost would be bloody marvellous

Phantom wrote:Soon as I read yer post, I thought "damn, that username sounds familiar"......
Spend some of yer time, working out the cheapest possible shipping methods, that way you could indeed benefit from the amazing knowledge down under.......
You can carry the ideas for nothing, but to be able to get hold of some of the nice, shiny bits and pieces at a reasonable cost would be bloody marvellous

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Tis I Phantom..

Shipping would be the easy bit, getting anything through customs would be a pig.

I got loads of ideas mate, can't wait to get stuck in. Some of the shiny bits I saw yesterday at yummyrums..

Of course, but your crimbo visit is an ideal chance to gain intel...... to know the cheapest shipping methods etc....

If you shipped a whole still, then I'd expect some ?'s but a few bits at a time ? Damn it'd be a peach to get some of those shiny bits and pieces......

At the moment I'm only thinking along the lines of making a pot head for my T500 boiler and changing the ceramic saddles in the T500 column for structured packing pieces (which either means Poland or the Philippines). Plus Myles posted info about making my own electrical elements to fit into a keg so I don't have to pi55 about with propane. Then I can think about tri-clamps and columns.......

I'm thinking about building a reflux, now I'm still reading up on a load of thing. I've found a number of sites that I think may be of some help to me.
I'm ok with silver solder, so no problem there. One of the sites has a photo list of making a reflux still.
Link 1 on making a column.

When I did my 100 liter boiler for my AG brewing, I used kettle elements, but later I found these bendable elements..Link 2 I'm now thinking about using one of these for my boiler.

I looked for 2" copper pipe as well and came up with this Link3 I don't won't to pay £40 but this is the cheapest I found so far. All the other fitting I may have or they are not hard to find.

I'll check the links later when I can get to PC (got phone atm). It took me a while but BSS will do copper pipe up to 247mm diameter but I reckon thats kicking the arse out of it. Myles posted about the bendable elements, along with essex flanges etc (in the BYO forum ? Somewhere here).

Ive got a keg.....10 gallons I tbink it is, once the beer fittings have been removed I should be able to use a 54mm joint, ferrule and a tri-clamp.

I'm very much of the view that once the boiler is sorted, the column is easy......, might even try a couple of different columns, like a boka and one or two other designs.

After all, with a keg and appropriate connector even a bubblr plated column isnt out of the realms of possibility. ....

Theres a good site linked from one of the facebook groups (good ? wel its nearly finished but the bloke whose site it is does some very smart part etc too.....