Hi dellaedellae wrote:From my experience with a T500:
Replace at least 1/2 the ceramic saddles with copper mesh.
Place some mesh at the bottom to stop any saddles falling out the bottom.
I have wrapped a handful of copper saddles in copper mesh and have them at the top of the stack (my unit does not have the copper sleeve).
I throw a handful of the spare ceramic saddles into the urn.
I have modified the cooling circuit to control the flow to the coil and have a bypass control also.
If you must use turbo yeast use 1kg less sugar than the pack says, I add sugar over 2 days.
Let the wash settle a few days before running. - don't get to much yeast in the urn, its where a lot of the crap taste comes from.
Outlet water temperature - max 55C for clean spirit (93%), Max 63C for flavoured(not much 88%) spirit.
Burn the first 100ml of distillate, stop collecting once the output slows to a couple of drops a second (or sooner if you want to be sure), at this point head temp is up around the 80C mark.
I clean with a dilute solution of white vinegar.
My standard wash is natural bran, oat bran, supermarket yeast, multi vitamins, horticultural fertiliser, cheapest raw sugar I can find.
Happy stilling.
I also have a Turbo 500 and found what you said interesting, especially the part about running 55C max for a neutral wash, taking off the first 100 ml of Heads and to stop collecting when it slows to a couple of drops per second, however there still seems to be a fair amount of alcohol left in the boiler at this stage.
Or maybe I just cant bear the thought of wasting it.
The instructions told me to run the T500 with water out temp between 55 and 65C, to only take the first 50ml off the heads and that he T500 automatically stopped producing before it gave tails, so I have been wringing it out to the last drop,following these instructions I have achieved some rough brews.
I noticed that you use 1 Kg less sugar than specified with turbo yeast, I am using turbo yeast with dextrose, and use 1Kg more than specified as the guy at the shop told me it would handle it and I nearly always get a finished wash reading of 990 on the Hydrometer.
I use 9 kg of dextrose in a 25 litre wash using 1 packet of still spirits turbo yeast at 23 degrees, I sort of liked this, because it gives me 5 litres at 93 - 94%. However due to these rough brews of mine I am open to your suggestions on yeast types, sugar ratios, size of a wash etc,
Are you sure that adding the sugar, or in my case dextrose to the wash over a couple of days is a good thing?
As I understand it, the yeast slowly builds an immunity to the alcohol as it converts the sugars to alcohol, so I was wondering if adding it like this is a good idea or what the reason is, once again, open to suggestion / theory.
I remember when the kit was new, I was instructed to take the column, tip it upside down, put half a handful of copper saddles in it first, then fill the last 2 foot with ceramic saddles, this is supposed to take out any sulfurs etc.
I have heard conflicting reports since then on how often to replace the copper and / or ceramic saddles, some say yes, "a Brewcraft supplier" and some say no.
I am also wondering if I should put more copper saddles and less ceramic, in the top of the column.
I noticed that you are using copper mesh, could you describe the mesh and your method a little bit more clearly for me please, cheers.
