Turbo 500 (T500) great for 'vodka'

Other discussions for folks new to the wonderful craft of home distilling.

Moderator: Site Moderator

Post Reply
clearspirit
Novice
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2022 1:53 am

Turbo 500 (T500) great for 'vodka'

Post by clearspirit »

In the face of much disdain and ridicule on certain forums, I'd like to share my experience for those considering this still.

I bought my T500 5 years ago because I was in a particularly bad place with ongoing depression (second divorce – you'd think I'd learn first time...) and couldn't afford to drink as much as I wanted at the time. I just wanted cheap and fast escape from my problems (it didn't work and only made things worse what a surprise) so I blindly followed the manufacturer's instructions with turbo yeast, two-part flocullent, diligently thoroughly shook both copper and stainless saddles in place, distilled at 55-65C (tried to keep it at 60C), and put it through a four litre SS column carbon filter.

I distilled straight into a 4L carboy (what are cuts?) and regularly got 3.5 – 3.8L of 95% @30C. My alcometer temperature adjustment scale only goes up to 90%ABV and for 30C the adjustment drops the higher the ABV. At 80% it's -3.1% and at 90% it's -2.7% so at 95% I'm guessing the adjustment would be even less than -2.7%, so at least 92%.

Diluted it 1:1 with water, wacked it in the column filter, set it to two drops per second as per manufacturer's specs, and it came out 45% (adjusted). I thought it was a bit rough, so put it through again. Very drinkable, and anyone who tried it was impressed.

After that brew the only change I made to the process was letting the 50/50 (always 95% @ 30C) diluted mix sit in the column for at least four hours or overnight and set the ball valve to 1 drop per second . This flow rate was near impossible with the ridiculously short tap handle so I lengthened it by unrolling the rolled sheet tap handle and epoxying in a 3” nail, then using a foot long by half inch piece of 9-ply as a hammer to gently tap the end of the nail. This was still frustrating as a slightly harder tap would change the flow too much. I finally worked out it was better to hammer with the same force, but shorten or lengthen my grip on the ply (duh...)

The problem here was that even after a whole 750ml (I thinks that's 'a fifth') of my 45% 'vodka' I had no hangover so there was no dis-incentive not to drink! (thankfully I saw the stupidity of my coping mechanism and brought the black dog to heel)

The point is, if you want pretty easy making quite nice 'vodka' with no hangover that you can afford to generously shout your mates, the Turbo 500 is an excellent choice in my opinion (as well as everyone else who's tried my 'vodka' so far)

Now I'm trying to avoid 'crap in, crap out' by giving my still the cleanest wash possible, as well as avoiding buying carbon and the 5-6 days it takes for the 8-8.75L of 40% (80 proof now – easier to keep track for driving) to filter at one drop per second but that's a whole other journey...
User avatar
Renhoekk
Swill Maker
Posts: 217
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2022 3:43 am

Re: Turbo 500 (T500) great for 'vodka'

Post by Renhoekk »

First of all, I’m glad you got rid of your black dog. It’s not the best motivation to get into the hobby of distilling.

That aside, you are exactly the target market that Still Spirits is aiming for with the T500. The T500 was designed to be a home appliance…..A plug and play unit to make alcohol with as a little fuss and as few moving parts as possible.

You can greatly improve the output of the T500, if you throw away Still Spirits’ instructions, and spend some time learning how to do a clean ferment, and how to make good cuts. You will also save yourself some money because you won’t need to purchase all of the useless crap that they flog in their instructions.
User avatar
Saltbush Bill
Site Mod
Posts: 9675
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2011 2:13 am
Location: Northern NSW Australia

Re: Turbo 500 (T500) great for 'vodka'

Post by Saltbush Bill »

clearspirit wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 1:29 am distilled at 55-65C (tried to keep it at 60C)
I learned on a T500, it taught me a lot about distilling and the idiosyncrasies of Coolent Management stills.
Its much easier to disregard the water temps quoted by the manufacturer and just watch the output speed, a fast broken stream or very very thin constant stream is about as good as it gets with a T500.
clearspirit wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 1:29 am and regularly got 3.5 – 3.8L of 95% @30C.
Ive never yet seen one that could do 95% , The best Ive personally seen is 92% temp corrected.
Most alcometers are calibrated to be read at 20C.
clearspirit wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 1:29 am I'm guessing the adjustment would be even less than -2.7%, so at least 92%.
User avatar
Saltbush Bill
Site Mod
Posts: 9675
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2011 2:13 am
Location: Northern NSW Australia

Re: Turbo 500 (T500) great for 'vodka'

Post by Saltbush Bill »

clearspirit wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 1:29 am distilled at 55-65C (tried to keep it at 60C)
I learned on a T500, it taught me a lot about distilling and the idiosyncrasies of Coolent Management stills.
Its much easier to disregard the water temps quoted by the manufacturer and just watch the output speed, a fast broken stream or very very thin constant stream is about as good as it gets with a T500.
clearspirit wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 1:29 am and regularly got 3.5 – 3.8L of 95% @30C.
Ive never yet seen one that could do 95% , The best Ive personally seen is 92% temp corrected.
Most alcometers are calibrated to be read at 20C.
clearspirit wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 1:29 am I'm guessing the adjustment would be even less than -2.7%, so at least 92%.
No need to guess, there are numerous ABV/temp Calculators out there like this one.
https://www.copper-alembic.com/calculat ... hp?lang=en
User avatar
Yummyrum
Global moderator
Posts: 7653
Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2013 2:23 am
Location: Fraser Coast QLD Aussie

Re: Turbo 500 (T500) great for 'vodka'

Post by Yummyrum »

Well done Clearspirit .

Glad to hear you are going with crap in crap out . So guessing you have switched from HBS turbos to something like Shady shine recipe here . :thumbup:

Saltbushbill is quite possibly one of our most experienced members here that has also cut his teeth on the T500
So just say’n you should here him out . :thumbup:

What kinda worries me in what you wrote … Iff’n I didn’t get it wrong , was you suggesting that you might be running this still unattended at night . :thumbdown: thats just down right dumb and dangerous .

Edit ::
OK , I re read … you are only dripping your Carbon filter unattended.

Hmmm….Be careful … shit happens
User avatar
Euphoria
Site Donor
Site Donor
Posts: 486
Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2015 6:48 am
Location: Western WA

Re: Turbo 500 (T500) great for 'vodka'

Post by Euphoria »

This is my 26 gallon CM fluted still. I can easily get 90%, and even more if I push it. And if I double distill it, it's the cleanest, smoothest and tasteless neutral spirit I've ever tasted. Puts any "store-bought" Everclear to shame.

A major step-up from the T 500 by far.
4 Plate Flute 2.jpg
Hydrometer.JPG
Still 002 (2).JPG
"Government doesn't have the answer to the problem, government is the problem." Ronald Reagan
clearspirit
Novice
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2022 1:53 am

Re: Turbo 500 (T500) great for 'vodka'

Post by clearspirit »

Renhoekk wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 2:05 am First of all, I’m glad you got rid of your black dog. It’s not the best motivation to get into the hobby of distilling.
Thanks for your kind words :) Unfortunately very few long term sufferers actually get rid of the black dog. Most of us mere mortals only learn to make him heel rather than taking us for a walk...
Saltbush Bill wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 2:30 amIve never yet seen one that could do 95% , The best Ive personally seen is 92% temp corrected.
Most alcometers are calibrated to be read at 20C.
My bad – I assumed all alcometers were calibrated to 20C as my graduated measuring cylinder also states that, hence the '30C' :) (would it be a fair guess that most common lab equipment is calibrated to 20C?)

Saltbush Bill wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 2:30 am No need to guess, there are numerous ABV/temp Calculators out there like this one.
https://www.copper-alembic.com/calculat ... hp?lang=en
Thanks!! I went there and plugged in 95% and 30C and it came out 92.9% I'll be only quoting adjusted ABV's from now on (TBC I measure sample temp not ambient)
Yummyrum wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 2:55 am Glad to hear you are going with crap in crap out . So guessing you have switched from HBS turbos to something like Shady shine recipe here . :thumbup:

Edit ::
OK , I re read … you are only dripping your Carbon filter unattended.

Hmmm….Be careful … shit happens
Yep, TPW for my first non-turbo wash seeing as it is so popular here. And got rid of all the plastic so I can strip run with no packing and bypass the reflux coil. Ended up with 4000ml at 51% (adj) in carboy 1, and 4500ml at 15% (adj) in carboy 2. The spirit run netted 2800ml at 90.5% (adj), 600ml went to cleaning ethanol with 125ml fores and 425ml cloudy spirit because I had to turn off the heat to take the dog out (I live in a unit and neither of us particularly likes using or cleaning his toilet on the balcony) and only managed to get another 50ml of clear spirit after restarting it which I wasn't game to keep as it came out at 45C (before the cloudy stuff) which I suspected might have been methanol (?)

Yeah, I never leave heating elements on unattended. What could go wrong with leaving the carbon filter dripping at 1 drop/sec unattended? Jeez that'd be worse than watching paint dry! ;)

edit - forgot to include cuts details! After the cleaning alcohol I ended up with 11 x 200ml cuts. Bottles 2-9 were all nice!! Bottles 1, 10, and 11 were also drinkable but not in the same category as 2-9, so seeing as I already have the filter and unused carbon, I combined and diluted them to 50% and they're sitting in the column overnight before dripping at 1 drop/sec tomorrow. When the carbon is gone (what else am I gonna use it for?), I'll start collecting a carboy of feints for a dedicated run.
worldsbestdistiller
Novice
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2022 5:04 am

Re: Turbo 500 (T500) great for 'vodka'

Post by worldsbestdistiller »

The T500 gets a bad rap because people expect too much of it and make invalid comparisons. I wonder how many of the people who diss it have learned to drive one - or even seen one in action. As Renhoekk mentions above, the T500 is aimed at a specific market which included me a number of years ago. Having brewed for over 30 years the odd urge to try distilling never came to anything until the increase in excise duty on gin started to do more than grate. Having researched the need for a reflux still I was not interested in building one and the T500 was available locally. From day one I took cuts, split the water flows to the two condensers, eventually insulated it, cleared my washes, ran the ferment temps low. 92-93 pcent easily achieved. The reflux condenser water outlet temp is a really good indicator of product out quality.

Recently, I decided to extend the column with a 450mm spool and SPP packing in the extension. I was pleasantly surprised to find the product output up at 95 to 96 pcent on a 12 pcent wash with some feints chucked in, with a good flow rate. It didn't fare so well when I ran a spirit run at 40 pcent starting ABV. On full power the column flooded at the top and kept burping out gobs of product with virtually no reflux. When a controller was attached to the power input a small decrease in power input sorted it until the pot ABV dropped. I'm no expert, but I reckon that the reason the thing kept flooding is because the reflux condensor is living on the edge of its capability - it is not very big at all - which is perhaps why the T500 can be run on reflux condenser water outlet temp, certainly here where the winter mains water temp is 6C at precent and rarely goes about 12C.

Since then I made up a 550mm spool from 54mm copper and a temporary reflux condensing arrangement from a copper coil which i thought may be way oversized, with a 22mm product take off. One of those 'won't take long' jobs which took all day. I've been cured of soft soldering 2 inch ferrules to 54mm copper as the clearance gap between the two is too large. I sould have just silver soldered them!). As it happens it works a treat. I can now see why people who have never driven the T500 don't believe that the T500 can be run on RC water outlet temp cos on this new RC the water out, so far as I can see gives no indication of product quality- or maybe the differences are in the 0.1s of a degree as opposed to degrees on the original T500.
Problem now is that the column is rather heavy for the thin top of the T500 pot so defintely has to be supported. Next step is a keg pot then make up a fresh column.
JAMAWG
Novice
Posts: 72
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2022 11:54 am
Location: Cascadia

Re: Turbo 500 (T500) great for 'vodka'

Post by JAMAWG »

I did my first dozen runs on a Vevor! Then stepped up to a digiboil and alcoengine. Which is compatible with the T500 copper condenser, which I recently got. Personally loving it. Wish I had the space or cash for a better setup. But I am getting great results with it. They don't deserve the hate. Its the vile turbo yeast. A good wash/mash makes all the difference.
Mossback moonshiner in Cascadia.
buchrob
Site Donor
Site Donor
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2022 12:33 pm

Re: Turbo 500 (T500) great for 'vodka'

Post by buchrob »

T500 is a great point of departure. There is an active FB group as well. Graduate from the dumbed-down basic instructions, split the cooling lines, and learn something about the craft in the process. Sold the T500 column, bought a larger capacity set-up with sight glass and shot-gun cooling, and haven't looked back.
Post Reply