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I ferment my scotch style mashes off grain, so lautering still is useful.
There's many ways to go about it. Comes down to personal preference.

NZChris wrote: ↑Sat Oct 24, 2020 1:03 pm I want to age on wood for much longer than you can leave spirits in a small barrel without over-oaking.

How long do you age your whiskeys for?

I drew off a bottle of 2013 last week.

What kind of bags do you all use for sparging?

Just a Google brew in a bag. Any home brew store should have one. Just don't forget how heavy it will be when you try to lift it out to sparge. Grain can easily hold its weight in water. I stuck a pulley on the roof so I could winch it out.

I ferment on-grain but the Scottish whisky producers do typically sparge and ferment off-grain. There must be a reason?

Cheers,
Jonny

They want it all out the grain I believe they use the sparge water to start the next batch of grains

Well,anyway. To anyone that's thinking of buying 1 just to get going I say go for it. 2.7l of 50 odd to 60odd % out of mines last night and have 2 more sugar washes on the go for it again. Will definitely buy or make a better 1 in the future tho

Well,from my chinese still I just ended up after 2 x 20l sugar washes with 3.5 litres of 100 proof vodka/very nice neutral.
Well impressed for a newcomer!
(Thru my spirit run it ran from 76 odd % ABV down to 40 odd).

Congratulations

Hide a small bottle somewhere to sample in a few years time.

Are you happy with the still?

In general yes RevA. I've done 4 runs now and I get quite high % abv and after my spirit run the alcohol is quite good (after doing cuts). I might have a few drinks tonight hopefully

You will get bored with the small still and want to upgrade

If the still has seals that might not be compatible with high proof alcohol and you get new health problems, don't ignore the possibility that your problems may be related to the sealing materials in the still.