Home Distiller

Haha thanks for the advice. Looks like a pretty clear consensus. I have transferred the mash to a plastic drum, added 3kg of distillers malt and 2 packs of high temp alpha amylase (24grams total, that's the only enzyme I had) at a temp of 60deg C. I want to continue the process for practise as I'm n...

Hi all, I was cooking my first large scale mash and it smells burnt and has some black kernels swimming in the mash. Is it worth continuing? It is a 100 litre mash with 22kg corn. I added the corn to a boiling pot with the gas still burning and continued cooking with gas for about 1 hour. I have let...

yes well thanks for the replies all. but when i redesign my still in Melbourne im planning to scale up to approx 400l boiler, 400L is going to take some heating and to make it economical your going to need to think about your boiler design and heat retention also sounds like your hitting commercial ...

thanks for the replies all. Im currently using electricity just because it was convenient for me, but when i redesign my still in Melbourne im planning to scale up to approx 400l boiler, and therefore energy costs will start to become significant, and electricity may not handle my requirements from ...

Hi, Im about to shift to australia to live in urban melbourne (Camberwell area) and im going to have to build a new still as i cant take mine with me. Im aware of most of the pro's and con's of gas, electricity, steam and glycol, but im looking to design an efficient still and wanting to know the ch...

yea i put 40litres into my ~50litre keg and was obvoiusly a little bit too much... lesson learned.

i stripped the 40l and got ~11litres of low wines to do the spirit run

Hi guys, thanks for all your help, now I have a new issue. Started stripping my wash and its started puking a few litres into the run, its still going as i type... puking.jpg I turned off the heat and left it for a bit then turned it back on but its still doing it, i dont have a voltage controller t...

wow thanks for the fast reply, the column is 3in diameter, 70cm (27in) tall and and 1/2in takeoff. My understanding is that everything that comes over the "takeoff" should be condensed, although the stills in their shop are all CM stills and the guy has obviously been distilling most of hi...

Hi Guys, I've been having huge success making neutral with my VM still I built, and I have moved onto trying rum, and soon whiskey. I have two 20 litre (~5gallon) buckets of PUGIRUM ready to go from the Tried And True recipes, so I dug up my old copper CM still head and thought I could use it as a p...

hi guys, Just trying this recipe for the first time. I started my 2x 20litre buckets with a starting gravity of 1.115, with 3kg raw sugar and 4kg mollasses. really high i know, i obviously made a mistake then ran out of room to water it down. Anyway, it started really well and in 3 days it was down ...

hi guys, made this wash twice now and the first time I 'started' the yeast in a pyrex jug and added 2 cups water and 2 tablespoons sugar. I waitied for 15-20mins until the yeast foamed up like a loaf of bread before adding it to the wash. this took about 5-6 weeks to ferment out and i didnt know why...

hi guys, sorry for the late reply, ive been overseas for a few weeks. Thanks forthe advice guys, The only reason I put the valve (its a large Stainless gate valve) upside down is because its high up and easier to reach up and turn. Not a big deal as i can just stand on a chair. Anyway the still has ...

Ok, new5.jpg So ive pretty much finished my still and decided to do a water run through it to make sure the reflux condenser was long enough that alcohol doesnt escape out the top heres what I did: Filled the keg with water and turned both elements on (1500w and 2000w) put the column on (valve open)...

I added scrubbers to the condenser because when I was running it with water, steam was coming out the top, but the water in the condenser was still cold. this seemed to solve the problem

OK,
So ive pretty much finished my still, just needs a little tidy up. heres some pics
i'm having some problems running it with water, but ill start a new topic for that.
please feel to give advice on how to improve it. thanks!

what your building is almost identical to what im half way through. if you look in "My still" section I posted a thread "help me finish my still". Im welding all the stainless up tomorrow and have a wash ready to go, so ill have results in a few days. rather than plasma cutting t...

With regard to the top coil - the fact that it's 3/8" will improve the flow, but also reduce the time spent in contact, as it's volume is greater. I'd be worried about it knocking down the vapour from 3500W. yes thats my primary concern but i guess ill find out Where in NZ are ya? currently li...

If you are making neutral to flavor it later, why not jump straight to the pot still? i am planning in making a pot stil, but for now as im still learning the hobby, i would like to be able to make a range of spirits from just one wash in future i do plan to make each spirit properly am currently r...

thanks for the replies. yes they are running on 240v (New Zealand). i have read a bit about centrings, I might make some up and slide them in with the packing. another thought was 'pushing' the 2.5" takeoff tube into the reflux column an inch or so to induce turbulance around the takeoff- what ...

Hi everyone! ive been researching on here for a very long time and come across many amazing stills. before finding this site a made the mistake of building a CM still as i tried to copy what I saw in the shops. Now i like the idea of a VM still and have all the parts, just have a few questions to av...