G'day from Oz

[silverbean]

Hi all,
This Covid iso has left me watching a lot of youtube where I came across videos of guys Unlocking the mysteries and chasing the craft which made me think I can do this. I have been drinking Bourbon for years but it keeps getting more expensive each year.
I have always been pretty handy in the shed so I bought a cheap little (8.8 litre) second hand urn, some copper pipe and made up a little pot still which actually worked. Have made some upgrades with a domed lid and a 1 inch column (not sure if that does anything), swapped the coil condenser out and added variable control to the element. So far I am rather pleased with the results (I had low expectations).
Just browsing through this forum I have already picked some great knowledge and hope to learn heaps more.
Cheers

[Saltbush Bill]

Welcome aboard Silver......mosty YouTube is good for learning all the wrong ways to do things.
What you learn here is not always what you want to hear.....but is the correct way.

[silverbean]

Thanks Salty,
I had sort of worked that out about YouTube but it got me started and can be entertaining. Now to learn and improve my skills, to be honest I enjoy the trial and error approach and now with this forum it will make it easier to learn from the errors.

[silverbean]

Ok so trial and error is not working out too good so its on to Tried and True. UJSSM gen 1 is at day 5 and down to 1.000 with airlock down to burps every 3 seconds so it looks like I'll be stripping this weekend. Cannot wait, it seems like everyone loves this recipe.

[MartinCash]

Hi silverbean, welcome to HD! There's a pretty good number of Aussies here.

As Saltbush Bill has said, you'll notice that a lot of advice here contradicts stuff you'll see on YouTube (though thankfully Jesse is not bad so far). When you come across contradictory statements, it helps to keep in mind that YouTubers have a vested interest (they often make a living out of their videos), whereas people posting here have:

• No vested interest (nothing to sell)
• Probably the largest amount of collected know-how on home distillation you'll find anywhere
• Been around much longer than YouTube
• Very clear (strict) views on safety.

You're also likely to get warned to not listen to advice from your homebrew shop who just wants to sell you much gear that you likely don't need. I can see you went down the route of building your own, which is awesome!

The main piece of advice I have is to go reasonably big (50L keg is a good starting point, smaller boilers don't have a good result on the effort to product equation, 2-inch is better than 1-inch - Sankey keg valves fit 2" triclamp fittings), and if you can, go modular with triclamp parts, which makes re-purposing parts very easy. If you've watched Jesse's videos you probably get what I'm talking about as his is modular and can be used as both pot and condenser-controlled vapour-management reflux.

[thecroweater]

G'day silverbean welcome here, what state are ya from? You kind of need to ask your questions from this point an an appropriate place like novice distillers for instance

[silverbean]

Thanks Martincash as I replied to Bill the YouTube videos are entertaining and got me interested but that guy with hundreds of videos is just making stuff up and he will kill someone with his advice on electricity. Jessie on the other hand is very entertaining, a bit light on the details but the best advice was pointing me to the HD forum, I have already learnt heaps. I have spent the last week reading the massive UJSSM thread and I'm not even half way through.
My little still is just what I could knock together easily to see if I could produce something drinkable before I move onto something better, when I know what that is of course. That sounds like good advice.

Hi Croweater, I'm from Vic the lockdown state. My last post was more of a diary type rather than a question, I'm thinking If (when) I ask a stupid question other people might check my into post before bagging me too much. I'm sure just about every question has been asked on here already (most numerous times) and so far there is only 1 answer I haven't found, I might ask that later on the UJSSM thread.
Cheers guys thanks for taking the time to comment.

Happy Stilling Oi Oi Oi.

[thecroweater]

Yep from second wave COVID myself but luckily Hepburn shire and Ballarat are still Kung flu free, only just though as there are cases just north and south of here

[Copperhead road]

G’day Silverbean, The forums are a far better way to learn than YouTube.
I’m from Brisvagas Queensland, Pretty much the clean state when it comes to COVID-19