American Distilling Equipment? vs. Rocky Point or other options

Zoa · Post by **Zoa** » Thu Feb 17, 2022 12:47 pm

Hey y'all!

Long time lurker, been cooking liquor on my keg still for four years now, have learned a lot from this forum. I have decided that I'd like to upgrade to an all copper traditional pot still, in an attempt to cook my great-uncle's recipe as close as I can to how he did it. My career is back in full swing now that covid is easing up, and given that I travel a lot building one isn't feasible for me at the moment. I am looking for a 20-30 gallon setup, with thumper and worm. Nothing fancy.

I am looking at 3 different makers. 1) Rocky Point Copper Stills, who come highly recommended on this forum. 2) A local-ish builder named Bryan Boye https://www.facebook.com/BryanBoy.CopperKing and 3) American Distilling Equipment https://americandistillingequipment.com/

Both Boye and ADE look decent to my eye (properly sized thumpers, worms etc) but I don't know what I don't know. If anyone with more knowledge than me has an opinion on any of these 3 (or another builder close to NC's) work I would love to hear it.

Much appreciated!

Post by **rgreen2002** » Sat Feb 04, 2023 10:09 am

I would say that anyone that would offer a 2 mason jar (half gallon each) thumper is someone you do not want to deal with. ADE has this mess of a product here: https://americandistillingequipment.com ... ch-thumper

Rocky Point had no products I could check and while I did like the memes on Bryan's Facebook site, I'm not too sure about sizing, functionality, etc...

The fella who runs mile-high distilling used to be a member here and is a long-standing copper still maker. I think there was some bad blood back then but he has been fabricating stills for years.

my 2 cents...

Post by **Saltbush Bill** » Sat Feb 04, 2023 11:22 pm

I wouldn't go near one of those mason jar thumper things if you payed me to do it, they are just blingy trash marketed at the unwary newbie.
The only report Ive ever heard about the Rocky Point mob wasn't good.

Post by **LWTCS** » Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:17 am

Chris Kelly is a very creative builder and imo a man of his word.
I'd say Rocky Point all the way.

Post by **Euphoria** » Mon Feb 06, 2023 9:07 am

I've had good luck with Mile-Hi's products, (out of Denver,) and I'd say that over 90% of my stilling equipment came from them. I also don't feel that the added expense of going "all copper" is necessary either, unless you want to drop a lot of money on a still that you don't need to. Just use some copper plates and copper mesh in your column or Lyne Arm and you'll acheive everything that you'd pull from an all copper still, and at a much lower cost.
I have a 26 Gallon 4" plated column still and a 13 Gallon Lyne Arm pot still w/ 8 gallon Thumper, and the nicest feature is that it's almost like a lego set. I can mix and match and interchange components across the board to create the still I want for whatever I want to make. Just sayin'.