Air Still Pro Reflux With Air for Cooling ? What you think

[Fxaddicted]

So it seems that Still Spirits have new version of Air Still called Air Still Pro . What you guys think of this ?
Reflux With Air for Cooling
Auto Collections of Heads
90% ABV

[BrewinBrian44]

Seems like a gimmick to me… especially the automatic foreshots collection.

The heads and fores cut should be determined by taste and smell, not a gadget. Also, 90% purity isn’t that great either.

The standard air still is cool for making gin and other macerated products, but that’s where it ends for me. I wouldn’t try to achieve any other goal with it.

Might as well use the money one would spend on this thing and build a proper column to make neutral spirits.

[Fxaddicted]

Seems like a gimmick to me… especially the automatic foreshots collection.

The heads and fores cut should be determined by taste and smell, not a gadget. Also, 90% purity isn’t that great either.

The standard air still is cool for making gin and other macerated products, but that’s where it ends for me. I wouldn’t try to achieve any other goal with it.

Might as well use the money one would spend on this thing and build a proper column to make neutral spirits.

I agree with you regarding heads collections . however i think the 90% purity can be pushed to higher then that . i think they means 90% from single spirits run but if you do multiple striping run you can go up to 93% . just like the standard pot version they say 60% but with multiple striping run i get 78% in the final spirits run

for me it seems really good for those who just want make a booze and not necessarily into the hobby

[BrewinBrian44]

Realistically, for how small the charge is in these stills, final yield wouldn’t be worth the amount of time invested to make something intended to be neutral. Also, 93% is still not a big achievement.

You’d need to do several stripping runs to build up a worthwhile low wines charge for a spirit run. Even after the spirit run, you’d likely need to distill a second time to clean it up.

If the goal is to just play around making booze at home, knowing it’ll be sub-par, sure why not. Not trying to sound harsh here, but a small air still is simply not the right tool for job. I say this as an owner of the classic air still.

For anyone that wants to make decent neutral at home, they’d be much better off saving the money for a real column / boiler and using something like stainless scrubbies. Going CCVM is about as simple and inexpensive as it gets.

[Saltbush Bill]

2.25L yield from a 4L capacity ? That in its self is a joke.
Why would anyone except the inexperienced really buy one.......there are so many other options.
Going on those figures we could expect to get "keep" 22.5L of 40% from a 40L charge in a 50L keg boiler with a well made reflux column mounted to it.
With well made washes and cuts plus Azeo capable stills we still can't achieve figures like that.
These people are living in la la land.

[rubberduck71]

No arguments with the veterans who've already commented, but not gonna lie: how cool would this be for running next to you on a work from home day??? No water cooling to mess with, just plug & play.

But yeah, the 4L charge is a huge time sink vs larger systems.

I googled it, but could not find. Fx do you have a link?

So it seems that Still Spirits have new version of Air Still called Air Still Pro . What you guys think of this ?

[shadylane]

Anybody found an actual picture of the "Air Still Pro Reflux"

[Fxaddicted]

I googled it, but could not find. Fx do you have a link?

So it seems that Still Spirits have new version of Air Still called Air Still Pro . What you guys think of this ?

Not Public yet . this has been sent to Still Spirits retailer & they're sending out info and training on them now to retailers . it also mentioned here in Jessy Video @ 7:52

[utube][/utube]

[Smog]

While I don't like deceiving sales tactics, in my very own opinion, thd classic air-still is the perfect companion to my keg reflux distiller.

Can't be easier than using an air-still to make batches of gin or whatever infused product you make out of already clean neutral spirits.

That being said, i fail to see the point of an "improved" half reflux condensing air still with such a low capacity where you cannot properly make cuts out of it.

[BrewinBrian44]

Clearly Jesse on Still It has some cash coming his way from still spirits. I feel like all his videos these days he’s using an air still or the T500 boiler / copper dome. Nothing wrong with making money though! He’s trying to appeal to a newb audience, which is good. I’d rather newbs see his content than George’s trash.

I’ll say this, I was fooled into getting a T500 because when I first started this hobby because I wanted something turn key. I quickly realized that boiler was far too small for my goals and upgraded to a keg boiler that I had a local welder friend modify for me. All my stainless spools, gaskets, valves etc. came from Amazon.

I actually just bought an air still with some Amazon gift cards I got from family members. I’m excited to use it for Gin. I like that I can run it in my kitchen and hang out with my family at the same time.

[buchrob]

Air Stills are remarkably convenient for small batches since they can work on a countertop without any plumbing complications, but the throughput is numbingly slow unless you can run multiple machines at the same time.

The analogy that springs to mind is that of the bread-making machine you could buy from a big box store. Stick to specific recipes and ingredients by rote without any real understanding and you will have something palatable without having to know diddly about food chemistry or cooking. But don't expect to match the quality (or quantity) of a specialty bakery unless you learn the craft and upgrade your equipment.

I started with an Air Still clone, followed all the groups and instructions on the web, designed and built several control boxes to tinker with timing and temperatures. Then ditto with a T500 reflux.

Conclusion: you can use some blindly automatic functions as a backstop, but never as the arbiter of final quality.

[rubberduck71]

I, like many on this site, started on a Airstill. +1 to the numbingly slow & small output comments above. I quickly outgrew it. I can strip 5-7 gallons as fast as 1 run through a 4L Airstill.

That said, you CAN make worthwhile cuts & good product (but small batches!).

That botanical basket that clips under the lid: you can put copper saddles in to get some in the vapor pathway.

[NZChris]

Like any tool, you will have to learn how to use it properly. For every product you make with it, do the cuts by using jars the first few times and you should be able to work out a protocol based on volume that works better than following the instructions.

Use a large fermenter, don't use greedy sugar shine %s, strip enough for a full charge of 40% for each spirit run.

[still_stirrin]

Like any tool, you will have to learn how to use it properly. For every product you make with it, do the cuts by using jars the first few times and you should be able to work out a protocol based on volume that works better than following the instructions.

Use a large fermenter, don't use greedy sugar shine %s, strip enough for a full charge of 40% for each spirit run.

+1.

Those tips should be a “sticky”. Very wise (& experienced) advice.

Thx Chris.
ss

[wscywabbit]

Google search found this buried in the results:

https://bsghandcraft.com/still-spirits-air-still-pro

Its the only retailer page I could find with any sort of info. Not even the Still Spirits website had any info. Seems aweful spendy to me...

[Fxaddicted]

Google search found this buried in the results:

https://bsghandcraft.com/still-spirits-air-still-pro

Its the only retailer page I could find with any sort of info. Not even the Still Spirits website had any info. Seems aweful spendy to me...

Thanks . Great find . This is a full PDF Specification
https://www.docdroid.net/xNaQf30/air-st ... -guide-pdf

[rubberduck71]

Google search found this buried in the results:

https://bsghandcraft.com/still-spirits-air-still-pro

Its the only retailer page I could find with any sort of info. Not even the Still Spirits website had any info. Seems aweful spendy to me...

No price point though. But it looks like you CAN add the head unit to your regular Airstill boiler.

[Fxaddicted]

Google search found this buried in the results:

https://bsghandcraft.com/still-spirits-air-still-pro

Its the only retailer page I could find with any sort of info. Not even the Still Spirits website had any info. Seems aweful spendy to me...

No price point though. But it looks like you CAN add the head unit to your regular Airstill boiler.

the Price estimated to be 579$ not sure USD or AUD . it's crazy IMO you could get T500 or even better Still with that price .

[shadylane]

Google search found this buried in the results:

https://bsghandcraft.com/still-spirits-air-still-pro

Its the only retailer page I could find with any sort of info. Not even the Still Spirits website had any info. Seems aweful spendy to me...

Looks like the design needs to defy the laws of distillation to meet their claims.
I'm thinking it takes a packed column, not some plastic hanging on the side of an airdistiller..

[rubberduck71]

All I'm saying is that I'm intrigued (the science of the small space it takes up, ya I'm skeptical). That said, at $500+, wayyyyyyyyyyy too expensive, even as an "experiment."

[NZChris]

Looks like the design needs to defy the laws of distillation to meet their claims.
I'm thinking it takes a packed column, not some plastic hanging on the side of an airdistiller..

It does have packing according to the PDF. We won't know much until someone dissects one, but I'd guess the packed column on the side is fed vapor from the bottom. It's not a design idea that I haven't seen proposed on this forum before.

[Saltbush Bill]

All I'm saying is that I'm intrigued (the science of the small space it takes up, ya I'm skeptical). That said, at $500+, wayyyyyyyyyyy too expensive, even as an "experiment."

With that sort of money you could buy a keg and build a CCVM,

[wscywabbit]

Looking at the instructions, its interesting that they thought enough to make it useable as either a pot still or a reflux. Remove the packing and change to the larger tip for pot mode, or keep the small tip and the packing for reflux. Almost makes it an LM... I wonder if you could add an output valve... probably not; would it just fill the column with liquid since it can't reflux down into the pot? Either way I'm not sure that its worth the $$. Maybe if you lived in an apartment and space was limited?

[Fxaddicted]

The Auto Heads Collection seems to me "Collect X amount of the first drops" and call it Heads . it looks like they come to this calculation based on their "fermentation kit" that they sold .

even if that's true the problem is not everyone use their fermentation kit and you'll find the machine collect less then what it should .

This is nowhere like GENIO Still Auto system and people should know that

[chown]

Looks like the design needs to defy the laws of distillation to meet their claims.
I'm thinking it takes a packed column, not some plastic hanging on the side of an airdistiller..

It does have packing according to the PDF. We won't know much until someone dissects one, but I'd guess the packed column on the side is fed vapor from the bottom. It's not a design idea that I haven't seen proposed on this forum before.

I'm hoping to play with one this week, I'll disassemble it and snap some pictures. Probably just going to run some old wine through it to test it

[chown]

I didnt get around to breaking it down, but I make a pretty nice gin with it. Did a spirit run of low wines that yielded about 2 liters of ~170-180 proof.
I then took a quart of that and proofed it to 90 proof.
I soaked botanicals in the ~2 quarts of 90 proof for a day.
Strained the botanicals and added whatever would fit to the included botanical basket. The rest just went into the boiler. Tiny heads cut (auto foreshots collection), hearts until about 50%abv, the rest tails. Proofed to 90p yielded 1.5 liters.

It's not worth the price imo, but I understand it's place in the market.

[MooseMan]

All I'm saying is that I'm intrigued (the science of the small space it takes up, ya I'm skeptical). That said, at $500+, wayyyyyyyyyyy too expensive, even as an "experiment."

With that sort of money you could buy a keg and build a CCVM,

Or 3!

[squigglefunk]

it also mentioned here in Jessy Video @ 7:52

the hillbilly infomercial

ron popeil would be proud!

Just set it and forget it!

[greggn]

ron popeil would be proud!

I'm old enough to get that reference though I doubt that *any* of our non-US members will.

Was the Veg-O-Matic sold internationally ?

[cob]

ron popeil would be proud!

I'm old enough to get that reference though I doubt that *any* of our non-US members will.

Was the Veg-O-Matic sold internationally ?

Course it was and it came with a pocket fisherman for $19.95

Is this just product exposure???