StillSmart

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

A couple of years ago and due to unforeseen changes in my life, I ended up with time on my hands and not much disposable income, so I started looking round for a new, low cost interest to fill in some time.

I had always wanted to make my own spirits so I discussed the idea with my wife. Her first reaction was “How much will it cost”. If the truth be known, I had absolutely no idea but anticipating that I would want to make 2 bottles a week at say £2.50 a bottle and to sound knowledgeable about the subject, I proudly announced that it would “only cost £5 a week”.

My budget was set, it has never been increased and to the best of my knowledge I have never exceeded it, now it is part of the overall enjoyment of my hobby.

Having got the necessary permissions from my wife I started looking at the options. Buy a still? A trip to the local Home Brew Shop and I realised that at £5 a week it would take a couple of years to save up for a T500 + ancillaries and even using an Airstill it would be over a year or so before I could make something to drink. The obvious thing was to build my own; it would be cheaper and keep me occupied for the period before I would be able to manage my first run.

Any tools or equipment I would need had to come out of the same budget, so I decided not to buy any and made do with the basic hand tools that I had in my shed.

I saved up a few weeks money and bought a roll of 8mm copper tube, a lot of reading, a bit of practising a couple of disasters and I had my coil(s). In the time it took me to make the coils I saved enough money to buy a meter of 2” pipe and this is how it went, saving the money to buy the materials that would provide the entertainment for the next period, I managed to salvage odd bits and pieces, the local pound shop supplied a few more and my Mum bought me a second hand “Burco” for my birthday. A year later I had my still, complete with power controller.

In theory the same budget applies to the production cycle as it did during construction i.e.. £5 a week. With this I can keep one 25 litre fermenter going full time and make my two bottles a week with some left over for long term keeping. My wife is very pleased; I no longer slip slabs of beer into the supermarket trolley so she happily turns a blind eye to the extra boxes of Bran Flakes or yeast that replaces them.

My circumstances once more have changed, this time for the better and I am now in a position that I could afford a bigger (better?) setup and make more, but why? My reality is that I do not need it, with my minimalist brewery I can make 25 litres of wash = 4 litres of strip =/ 3+ bottles of spirits a week which is better than I hoped for and when people ask me “what does it cost?”, I can honestly answer “£5 a week”

Bravo Brian An object lesson in patience, creativity and how to adapt and overcome which all proves that this hobby is within the reach of anyone prepared to apply themselves and the resources they have to hand.

AM

Well done Brian, for me it actually cost nothing per week depending on how you look at it, I have recently acquired my T500 complete kit for around £500 which I reckon I will have recovered my full investment within 1 year

before the T500 I was buying say 1 litre bottle of Russian Standard for the weekend and maybe a couple of bottles of wine through the week.

Now in Tesco/Asda at best on a good offer your looking at £15 per bottle of vodka

Now I make my own for less than £5 (including an essence) so thats saving me £10 per week minimum, x 52 weeks and that's not counting Christmas where I will save a fortune on the wife's Gin etc

So in less than a year it will be more than paying for itsself

Glad to hear things are better for you Brian, I've had my poor spells and if you approach it right, poverty becomes an art form.

I'm into tools and have a £500pa budget for toys. This year the tools I got were an airstill and later a T-500. Maybe later I'll get the proper kit for making a coil but I get nowhere trying to anneal 8mm pipe with a cheapo gas torch. I've read some horror stories about MAPP gas so won't be trying that. (Seems MAPP gas can corrode the seal on the top of the can.)

To get started with the airstill, I bought a fermenter every payday until I had enough. All I have to do now is make the wash up and leave it for 5 weeks or so. Have a luggage label on each one to note the date it was started.

Equipment aside, the most this hobby costs me is £9 a week, that covers the 6kg of sugar, Vodka Star yeast and the leccy for the still.

I haven't calculated it fully yet but if someone follows the HBS spiel about using triple distilled yeast (oxymoron of a name) with carbon and finings etc. plus their expensive flavourings it is no longer a cheap drink.

John - If your looking at making a coil you will be fine using Mapp gas it does not corrode the seal on the can, you will actually be very lucky to get Mapp gas now as it has been replaced by Mapp Pro.

Mapp gas is Methylacetylene which is a condensible form of acetylene and has been replaced by Mapp pro which is propylene a hydrocarbon up the chain after propane, doesn't burn as hot as Mapp gas but will do the same job.

I import and sell this product as part of my job and have been to the Worthington factory in Portugal where they make the cans

BTW guys I've had the honour of meeting Brian and seeing the equipment he has made when I collected the pothead he kindly built for me and which is an excellent piece of kit

What he has made on this budget is quite frankly astonishing and is a tribute to his skill patience and ingenuity

Truly the Fred Dibnah of home distilling and a good friend too

Take a bow YHB.

I don't think Brian could make anything as ugly as this:

I bought a 3 gallon Stainless stockpot,and made it into a pot still with a leibig condenser, also purchase a 7 gallon fermenter,two hydrometers (beer and Spirit) and other bits and pieces. the total bill came to around £90.

My washes are about £6.30 for 25 litres and I get around 5 litres of distillate after cuts and dillution to 40%.

I love this hobby