Hello

[RevRich]

Hello from, ah…, Australia,
Yea, that’s it, Australia. Yep.

Mate.

I am not much of a conversationalist and am not real comfortable talking about myself. However, as it is required to introduce myself I will give it a try.

I have wanted to try my hand at creating my own spirits for many years. I found this website in the previous decade and read and re-read every topic on the main page but never got around to taking the first steps. So when my wife suggested trying our hand at making wine I enthusiastically agreed. We have been making wine from the berries grown on our farm for the last 3 years and the first products are starting to be ready to sample. They are turning out to be quite good. Even my wine snob brother grudgingly agrees. The secret turns out to be patience.

The wine making gave me the excuse to also try creating some harder alcoholic beverages and I cobbled together a simple pot still. My first efforts were aimed at producing a scotch like product. I quickly realized the grain bill was going to price this out of reach and am currently perfecting brews from products grown on my own land. I have produced an apple brandy that I have to hide from the relatives and a corn whiskey that is coming out well. I may try other brandies form the excess fruits and berries that don’t get made into wine.

I made my still out of a 5 gallon pressure cooker and some copper piping. My Lyne comes off the still at a 45 degree angle and is terminated at a 20 foot ¼” jacketed, water cooled worm. I pack the lyne fresh for each run with a copper plated chore boy scrubby. I use an electric hotplate to heat the unit low and slow when the industrial temperature transmitter installed at the top of the lyne starts to spike past 30°C. I usually start to collect my hearts at around 80-81°C and stop at about 84-85°C. This usually yields about 1 ½ gallons of 80% from 5 ish gallons of 40% low wines. I usually finish on white oak chips in ½ gallon ball jars placed in the greenhouse for 3-6 months.

Sincerely,
Reverend Rich

[HDNB]

hey Rev nice ta meetcha. welcome to the site.

great that you are getting some good results. if you want to up your game, have a look for some pure copper scrubbies, the iron under the plated ones can give some off flavours i'm told...never tried anything but pure myself but there is lots of comments that don't agree with iron in the vapour path.

the 1/4 worm could get dangerous too if something gets lodged in it. I'd suggest an upgrade there too, especially if you are going all grain at some point.

cheers! hope you enjoy the place and try to have some fun.

[RevRich]

I run two separate pressure reliefs on the pot so if the worm plugs I will know about it and there will be no danger. I also like the surface contact of the ¼” tubing and the smaller volume it takes up so I can use a smaller jacket to minimize the water waste.

The chore boys I use are copper plated over stainless steel so there is no iron to flavor the vapor. Pure copper chore boys are expensive and hard to find. I am just looking for the surface contact anyway and don’t need the copper to go more than 1 molecule deep.

[der wo]

I made my still out of a 5 gallon pressure cooker and some copper piping.

Whenever I hear the word pressure cooker, I reach for my Browning!
How do you seal the lid?

[RevRich]

Why a Browning?

The seal that comes with it does a good job. I keep it conditioned so it last a bit but they sell replacements seals at Fleet Farm.

[der wo]

Why a Browning?

Oh, it's a quote. Not political correct, I'm sorry. I like this quote, but of course not the context.

Did you research here about sealing materials and safety?

[RevRich]

I did a lot of research on this site and other places before I did anything. All I remember about sealing advice was for copper, a flour paste mud was used. I did not think that necessary for the unit I was putting together. And thus it proved. I have only experience vapor leaking once and a seal replacement took care of it.

[der wo]

You did a lot of research and do not remember about synthtetics?

Did you read Crankys spoonfeeding thread for example?