First Still Advice

[jfowler99]

Hello all!! I'm new to distilling as in I am currently looking at my still. I have a couple of links I was asked to post. Can anyone give me some advise on these? I'm looking to stay about $250. I would like to make, vodka, whiskies, essential oils and prob any thing that sounds good, experimenting! Ive been looking through the forums and heard some advise, in the future I will probably use some designs an build my own. Right now just looking to get started. Thank you all for the advice in advance!!!

John

[jon1163]

Hey J,
That is basically identical to the first still that I ever had. I can tell you that you will quickly become frustrated with trying to keep the condenser level adjusted. You also have to add some valves and some sort of circulation component to keep that water flowing through the condenser.

I ended up making some fairly bad whiskey with mine and then upgrading to a fish tank pump to circulate the water through the condenser. But then I had a problem of it running dry and then overflowing and then running dry again. Every time it overflowed it overflowed right onto my boiler causing the temperature in my boiler to drop which necessitated adding valves to the inlet and outlet of the condenser in order to adjust the flow and level. The problem with that is that you have to sit there with your hands on the valves the entire run, we were talking a few hours for that particular still, which makes for a horrible experience and I quickly gave up distilling.

I ended up buying a simple pot still from Mile high distilling which I have had great success with. My brother bought a still from brewhaus and has also had great success with that pot still. It wasn’t long after having a great experience that I just ended up building my own out of a beer keg boiler as a modular design with a copper header running to a thumper. Building your own is actually much easier than you would think but if you’re looking to be cheap and buy just go with something from a reputable manufacturer and stay with a simple pot.

Low wines run through my pot and thumper come off the parrot at about 85-90%.

If you want to stay with this hobby I would recommend none of those rangetop stills made in China. I was also a little bit sketched out by the gaskets that they used.

[Tummydoc]

If you want to be around $250, buy an old keg off craigslist ($50), 2 inch stainless triclamps, spools, and elbows from Amazon, Ebay, or aliexpress. . Then get a stainless shotgun condenser from aliexpress or Alibaba. Run on propane for a fine pot still which is expandable. For vodka you're going to need a packed column and a reflux condenser which will run you about $100 more but do that later when the bug has bit you hard.(look up CCVM column). By the time you go electric with a controller your whole package will be about $500, but so much better than the crap your looking at from Amazon.

[Corsaire]

I don't think anyone here will recommend you buy those.
It's a very poor design. The cooling reservoir is way too small, sits on top of the boiler so soaks up more heat than it should, dodgy sealing materials and useless valves, probably brass as well.

I would recommend a pot still. Go with a large boiler, I started with a 30l pot and 25l fermenting buckets but am upgrading to a keg. You don't need anything fancy, no thermometers, although fill and drain ports are nice to have.

Keg builds are easy, you can use an unmodified keg on a gas burner. Make a simple liebig out of copper pipe. There's plenty of build threads here to show you how it's done.

If you don't want to build or modify a keg, I see mile hi gets mentioned here a lot, they sell boilers with tri clamp fittings.

Tri clamps will allow you to go modular, if you decide you need a reflux rig to make neutral. Or a flute, or add a thumper.

[jfowler99]

Thank you all, So much information especially for being new to this. So I did look at mile high and found one I can probably do. Is this one better? I know I would need a pump yet for it. But would one like this pretty much make everything including essential oils?

https://milehidistilling.com/product/3- ... ill-tower/

Thanks to all again

[Tummydoc]

Yes that's a better choice. His 25 day "build time" matches with the typical shipping times from China. If the listed price includes shipping its competitive. You might also look at distillex on aliexpress.

[jfowler99]

Cool as it seems reasonable. Do you feel I could do vodka and essential oils in this as well? Ill check out those others as well. And a induction plate about 1800 watts should work as heat?

[jfowler99]

So they did tell me about another one

https://milehidistilling.com/product/3- ... ose-tower/

Might be better only 50 more

This is so confusing lol, Im going to owe you all some batches!!!

[still_stirrin]

‘cept, I suggest saving up a little longer and getting this one: https://milehidistilling.com/product/8- ... ose-tower/

You’ll outgrow a 3 gallon boiler in a heartbeat.
ss

[Dewstiller]

If you want to be around $250, buy an old keg off craigslist ($50), 2 inch stainless triclamps, spools, and elbows from Amazon, Ebay, or aliexpress. . Then get a stainless shotgun condenser from aliexpress or Alibaba. Run on propane for a fine pot still which is expandable. For vodka you're going to need a packed column and a reflux condenser which will run you about $100 more but do that later when the bug has bit you hard.(look up CCVM column). By the time you go electric with a controller your whole package will be about $500, but so much better than the crap your looking at from Amazon.

Some good advice here. If I was restarting this is similar to what I would do.

[jon1163]

‘cept, I suggest saving up a little longer and getting this one: https://milehidistilling.com/product/8- ... ose-tower/

You’ll outgrow a 3 gallon boiler in a heartbeat.
ss

I second this recommendation if you’re not going to build. You can reflux a bit with it and am eight gallon boiler is just about right to start off imo. I ran this still for a couple years with good results before buildings.

[Saltbush Bill]

All of the things you are looking at now are better options than the first one you had in mind.
Take your time and dont rush this.....to many jump straight into buying and live to regret the decision they made.

Do you feel I could do vodka and essential oils in this as well?

No still is going to make whisky , vodka and essential oils well. as with most tools not many are multi functional.
A specific tool is always best for a specific job.

So they did tell me about another one
https://milehidistilling.com/product/3- ... ose-tower/

https://milehidistilling.com/product/3- ... ose-tower/
Dont let them tell you that is a proper reflux still either, its a pot still that wants to be a reflux still when it grows up.

[jfowler99]

All of the things you are looking at now are better options than the first one you had in mind.
Take your time and dont rush this.....to many jump straight into buying and live to regret the decision they made.

Do you feel I could do vodka and essential oils in this as well?

No still is going to make whisky , vodka and essential oils well. as with most tools not many are multi functional.
A specific tool is always best for a specific job.

So they did tell me about another one
https://milehidistilling.com/product/3- ... ose-tower/

https://milehidistilling.com/product/3- ... ose-tower/
Dont let them tell you that is a proper reflux still either, its a pot still that wants to be a reflux still when it grows up.

So do you feel it would be worth the $50 more for the dual purpose? I think I will get one of these. I understand the size issue and all. I'd like to learn, and with that expieriance and the knowledge I gain eventually build my own to what I find I like the most and what I find I want to be making. I do love to build. I'm in heavy machine maintenance and have done quite a bit of fabricating. As far as the dual I'm thinking it would be for vodka, but I can do multiple distills of the product for vodka if what I read was right. My wife wants me to make her gin!! Thanks again for the responses and the help. Such a great group of people here!!

[Saltbush Bill]

It won't make good vodka in my opinion.....some are sure to disagree. Personal opinion is that your money would be better in your pocket. A beer keg a few $ in copper pipe and a day or less work and you have a good pot still.
Oh and a gas burner for under the keg....start there and learn and build your way up. Walk before running.

[Corsaire]

Since you have building skills...

Make your own.

Get a beer keg. Look up ccvm. It's easy to build and allows you to run in reflux and pot mode. Should be cheaper as well.

Pot mode to do strip runs.
Reflux to make neutral.
Pot still the neutral with botanicals to make gin.

If you use a gas burner you don't even have to modify the keg. You can modify it later.

Still It on youtube has some videos of his ccvm keg build, if you find that easier to learn from.

The boiler you linked to is pretty small. 3 gallon is 12ish litres? You'll have to do a lot of runs to make a decent amount of neutral. On the other hand, it will make a good little gin still. I would go for the pot still in that case.

[Tummydoc]

I know the "plug and play" features are appealing, but if you're going to lay out almost $400, you can make a better tool for less money. Go with CCVM and your wife will think you're a Gin meister. (Odin's easy gin in the tried and true section)

[Saltbush Bill]

Corsaire is probably right , its a better option..you get the best of both worlds. And easy to build.
I don't like seeing people buy cheap shit stills that don't do the job that the maker says they will, thats just me ....I'll say build your own every time.

[kimbodious]

Build your own. When I say build your own I also mean you could consider assembling one from parts i.e. a modular construction. Check out the pics in the links in my .signature for how I assemble my stills.

[jfowler99]

Ok I'm convinced gonna start looking for parts to build my own. Thinking about an 8 to 10 gal ss milk jug type. Can I still use an induction plate for heat? I live in AZ and gas is a bit hard id have to build a burner and hook up a propane tank which would have to fill quite often. I think ill.do the ccvm as recommend to impress the wife with gin lol. Im good at soldering but will have to stick to modular as possible as I dont have a welder. Only a mig at work. Not sure if they would like me building a still at work!!!!

[Corsaire]

I don't think a milk jug works on induction, unless it's magnetic? I could be wrong! I don't know a lot about this. I also think they cycle on and off, which isn't ideal.

Try and find some tri clamp water heater elements. You can put a triclamp ferrule at the bottom of the kettle and run an internal electric element.

You can always tell people you're making a homebrew setup, it's what I did!

[jfowler99]

So the heat source can be internal? it doesnt burn the mash or anything?

[Tummydoc]

An internal element allows very precise power control, which is important in making a neutral spirit for eventual gin. It's what many of us evolve to and wish we had started with. You can silver solder fittings to stainless. Kegs are stainless. But it's not you typical lead free plumber's solder from home depot. You need higher silver content and an acid flux. But you'll find info on this forum or on YouTube.

[jfowler99]

So starting to look things up. is something like this good? Its a 10 gallon stainless steel milk jug to start?


attachment=0]20200507_080910.jpg[/attachment]

[still_stirrin]

...is something like this good? Its a 10 gallon stainless steel milk jug to start?

Well, that vessel would require you to add ferrules for the element as well as the vapor outlet. If you’re acknowledging you’ll have to do some modifications to the vessel, then why not go all the way....and get a used 15 gallon keg? You wouldn’t have to add the vapor outlet ferrule, as you could use the Sanke outlet as a tri-clover attachment (they fit 2” T/C clamps).

Sure, the vessel you linked would work, with modifications. But others would too. I suggest reconsidering the 8 gallon boiler and stillhead I hotlinked in my previous reply. It would give you an “off the shelf” solution as a start.
ss

[kimbodious]

In Australia we could get an entire 50 litre stainless steel beer keg boiler and power controller for what you are considering paying for that milk jug. Plus the beer kegs have a readymade 2” ferrule. This is why you see so many electric beer keg boilers here. Save your money on the boiler so that you have more to spend on the condensers.

Don’t ever underestimate the importance of the condensers, always have a bit extra capacity if you can

[Saltbush Bill]

As Kimbo said .....beer kegs make great boilers and can often be aquired very cheaply. Spend your boiler money on copper and other parts.

[jfowler99]

Ill have to consider that. Now with a bigger boiler like that, say I only want to run 5 to 7 gals in a say 15 to 20 gal boiler, is that ok?

[kimbodious]

Ill have to consider that. Now with a bigger boiler like that, say I only want to run 5 to 7 gals in a say 15 to 20 gal boiler, is that ok?

Sure, as long as the element is always covered by liquid. I you are concerned about that risk you can always add a gallon or two of water.

[jfowler99]

okay great I actually already found one and I'm on my way to get one right now found one for $20. And The Keg AKA boiler is where all the fermented Mash goes correct is it hard to clean everything out after a run

[ViceGripson]

Yes that's a better choice. His 25 day "build time" matches with the typical shipping times from China. If the listed price includes shipping its competitive. You might also look at distillex on aliexpress.

Totally agree after building my own similar to what your looking at now.