New, old member

[Homesweethome]

Hi members of this wonderful forum.

I live in Belgium, am 73 years old and retired.
More than 25 years ago I became interested In the subject of distilling after finding the website that Tony Ackland had set up. And later a Yahoo forum.

I don’t remember why exactly I started showing interest in distilling, because since I was a child I’ve been fanatically interested in about any technical stuff. And working, working, working became my happy life. But then, about 30 years ago now, I suddenly became very ill over the period of a few days. Totally unexpected. From being a happy workaholic, I became an invalid. This situation has never changed. I continue to feel fortunate however that despite all this I never lost my many interests. Slowly, against all odds, I started collecting bits and pieces towards being able to distill. About ten years ago I was able to buy a small (20 liter) jacketed copper boiler, second hand. I used it to distill many sugar washes (enriched with rye bread, oats etc.). The middle part of the distillate was already quite nice to drink from the start, but after I put it into an oak barrel for several months it became really nice to drink, better than what I can buy in the shop.

The last five years or so, because of several coincidences, I started to buy tri-clamp fittings (many of them 4”) whenever I can find a really good deal. I think this kind of equipment was not available/affordable 20 or 30 years ago. I hope to be able to create a good and bigger set-up that will save me precious time.

I want to finish my short introduction by saying HOW MUCH I appreciate this forum and all those whose countless efforts have been put into it to make it what it is and to maintain it so well !!!