Cheers from northern Europe

[Berserk]

Hey guys.

First of all I would like to thank all the members of this site for the incredible amount of knowledge and wisdom shared. Thank you!

I'm a software consultant hailing from northern Europe. My interest in homedistilling started about a year ago, and I have lurked here ever since. Homedistilling really scratches my engineering nerve, and I get cheap alcohol as a bonus. I'm actually not a big drinker at all, and tend to prefer cocktails over straight drinks, which is why I'm mostly interested in making neutral for infusions and liqueurs, rum for cocktails as well as some bourbon and whiskeys for sours and for the hell of it.

My first still was a simple 10 liter stock pot with a stainless steel bowl and a 10mm copper worm in a bucket run on a 1500W hotplate. It produced very shoddy alcohol.
The first upgrade was a 1m long 35mm column, packed with lava rock and with a jacketed condenser at the top, which would classify it as a CM. This still produced better alcohol, both in taste and %ABV (94% at it's best), so I have made some vodka, limoncello and berry liqueurs as well as spiced rum. So far I have tried BW, DWWG as well as a brown sugar/muscovado rum.

My current project is to install a 2000W heater element in a 30 liter keg and construct a regulator using an SSR and an Arduino, so that I can do bigger batches and hopefully be able to make better cuts.
Once it's up and running I'll try my hand at UJSSM. I was thinking of stripping the first 3 generations and run them through the CM to create neutral, then do corn whiskey using gen 4-6. I'm really curious how UJSSM vodka would taste, and hopefully I'll soon find out.

Anyhow, that's me.
Cheers,
Berserker

[Bushman]

Welcome, your handle makes me believe you are from one of the Viking Countries in the north. Being married to a Norwegian I have done a lot of reading and touring Viking museums as we try to get to Norway every 3-4 years.

[Berserk]

Thank you! You are also correct!

[cuginosgrizzo]

Hi Berserker, and welcome to this forum from a fellow European (although much southern) with a similar day job!

[Mikey-moo]

My first still was a simple 10 liter stock pot with a stainless steel bowl and a 10mm copper worm in a bucket run on a 1500W hotplate. It produced very shoddy alcohol.

Modify the hotplate to not surge and you can make good flavoured booze from a set up like this... if you run it right

Anyway - Welcome to the forum