Just back

[short2]

Hi , back again after several months, though I still browsed the forum without contributing. Reason being was moving house.Couple of things Asda and the other supermarkets have taken their 2k bags of sugar from the sheleves due to Christmas spirit. Aldi 79p per K opposed to 82p per k. cheapest at the minute though Tesco did their 5K bag at £4 plus down to £3.37 to get rid of them for Christmas stock. Asda are doing them at £4 something.
I am accquing the bits and bobs for Pot still. Going down the natural route now.Dont see any reason now to just stick with the T500 as it would only take out the natural flavours from the maze and barley in the reflux. Any crit welcome on that score as is advice. Bought new scales, portable oven and grinder for doing the biz and will be in deep at the weekend. Will keep you all posted on success and failures

[Capt-Cudellez]

Glad to see you back short. Are you considering all grain - or just grain flavoured sugar washes - I've been doing a fair bit of the latter recently - it a different beast to neutral making, but I'm hooked.
AG is on my radar - but the returns are low from straight AG - and you need to be a skillful brewer.

Let us know what way you are going with it. Also for the most of the grain\suger washes I'm preferring the results using raw sugar - it even pricier than refined at to mo - but the heats cut is so much wider - it's still a bargain in the end.

[Capt-Cudellez]

Also, you building a pot-head for the T500 boiler or a complete new still (beer keg perhaps?)

[short2]

Cap, Thought about a complete rebuild but going to do a pot head for the T500. At the end of the day I wont get any more than 95 t0 96 out of the best home build. Further more I dont want to go gas as it is too dangerous nacked flame etc. Especially in confined space

[Andy]

Welcome back short.
I assumed you must have been taking a break due to all the health issues.
So, glad your all good and going the natural way now.
Email sent.
Cheers

[short2]

Ok Andy, will need to get onto the Assie forum once i am fully up and running. Good to be back .

[Andy]

Here is a pic of my pot/T500 setup:

[Capt-Cudellez]

Very nice Andy.

You got power control on that or just using it for stripping?


Short,
A pot-stripper is great if you keep using the T500, lets you strip 2 or 3 washes then do one very productive spirit run.
You say you would only get 95+ building another column, but the extra couple of % really makes the difference IMHO. I'm chuffed to bits how things turned out with my VM. You can always do that further down the line.

[Andy]

I just use it for stripping CC and then run the low wines through the T500.
I must say its made a big difference.
But I do like your rig CC, just dont have the room for such a setup.

[Capt-Cudellez]

Nice Andy - folks could prob get away with just upgrading the condenser on the T500 and run without any reflux to achieve the same results- without the reflux it doesn't make much difference if the column is packed or not - it all get very hot very quickly and you don't get any natural reflux to speak of.

The T500 condenser isn't up to much and has been sized for the job SS wanted it to do - it also reduces down to 6mm which restricts the flow on a strip.
Having something like the condenser in your pic, but with just a bit of 3/8" pipe at the elbow rather than the union - it would slip right in to the T500 housing.

[short2]

Nice setup Andy. I want the pot for flavours. I was intending just using maize and barley without sugar but on reflection I will try both systems.

[short2]

Hi Captain, thought about the VM but it may be a bit beyond me at the moment.Construction wise soldering etc is no problem. However, getting into the electrical side of things is not my long suit and would need to do a bit of reading to get up to speed before I blow the shit out of the house. My new shed arrives Tuesday so once in I will get biulding. As you say something to look forward to further down the line. does the VM strip away the natural flavours as it is a reflux or do you use it alternately.

[Capt-Cudellez]

The VM is a neutral maker - I run the occasional white rum too but that is all. If I am doing rum, whisky or other flavoured spirit I use the pot still - I'm having more fun running the pot than the column - but I like gin and make a load of it.
I make the neutral with the VM, then use the pot head with an internal copper gin basket to vapour infuse the spirit - lovely stuff.

As I have used tri-clamp fittings, I can use either head on the modified T500 boiler or my 50L electric keg boiler - I have never used the column on the big boiler though as 25-30L of 40% strip in the T500 is a long day stilling with the output on that rig - I would need to go to 3" on the bigger boiler, and I just do not have the head space for the length of column that requires.

Just to confuse things I sometimes run whiskey or rum, starting off using the column to remove the heads efficiently, then switching to the pot head to run out hearts with loads of flavour.

i am currently considering a 3" VM with a cross flow condenser to cut down the height by a few inches so I can fit it in the garage - and considering making it a VM\RLM combo - I saw a build on the artisan distillers site that grabbed my attention. It would increase the output to over 4L\hour which is quite appealing not to spend all day in front of the still.