Hello

[FreddyG]

Been wanting to get into distilling for years and finally pulled the trigger on buying my equipment a few months ago. Been a long time scotch fan but in recent years have become an American whiskey/bourbon fanatic. I love the process of trying new mash recipes and discovering what flavors I can pull from the ingredients. I'm still very new to all of this but have had several successful runs and am finally starting to feel comfortable with my process. I don't join forums often, but this one seems so chock full of good info I couldn't pass it up. Hope to share tips/tricks and stories with the group.

[still_stirrin]

Freddy,

The worlds’ experts are all here. Small batch distilleries have nothing on us...except the budget. With the current wave of micros opening, each producing a sampling of “craft (small batch) products”, there is no reason the hobbyist can’t compete with the variety of specialty products available for personal consumption. Your options are only limited by your creativity and inventiveness.

Many new hobby distillers have elected to “pull the trigger” on purchased equipment, but often times the “seasoned veterans” here have built their own equipment. Building gives you the chance to customize your equipment to your (specific) requirements. Often times, purchased equipment is adaptable, but may not be tailored to your needs, resulting in a compromise. And building gives you an intrinsic “ownership” of the investment (time) you’ve made to build. So, I am a fan of “building” instead of “buying”.

But regardless of whether building or buying, always be safe, responsible, and discrete.
ss