Pictures of my rig!

[Bumblingblockhead]

Since I'm stuck here all night babysitting my copper baby, and my computer is 10 feet from it, here it is folks. My first still. Coming to ya live and die-rect from the trenches! 10 gallon Georgia Ridge model, gooseneck head on it, and reflux head on the table. Haven't used the reflux head yet. Got the still on Ebay from a guy who hadn't used it, and it was collecting dust. It is sitting on a 45,000 BTU stockpot range, run on natural gas. I got it on craigslist for real cheap. Blue container is a 30 gal. for the condenser, and since it's food-grade, future fermenting perhaps. The copper pipe thing sitting on the jar under the output is a filter packed with sugar maple charcoal. Thar she blows!

[LWTCS]

Sheee,,,ewt, Thats some nice copper still porn.

[Hawke]

Looks great. I love the Col's work.

[gary.angie]

Top notch , just love that copper , you must be well pleased

G & A

[Beerswimmer]

Beauty! And the sugar maple charcoal sounds delicious too, how does it make it taste?

[Bumblingblockhead]

Glad you guys like it. I'm real happy with it myself!

Beerswimmer, the sugar maple charcoal is great. So are sugar maple sticks or chips for aging. Gives it a little maple sweetness.

[plonker]

Mmmm.. I like it!!

Sooo.. where am I going to get sugar maple from in Oz?? I thinking to make a Tennessee whiskey..

[olddog]

A dash of maple syrup is not the same I'm sure, but it makes a good subsitute.

[Bumblingblockhead]

Hey Plonker, sugar maple is also known as hard maple, or rock maple. If you guys don't have any down under, I got mine on ebay. Not too much of it up here on the west coast either.

Olddog, sometimes I throw in a capfull of real maple syrup to top it off as well, on top of the maple charcoal and sticks, and some air-out time. The maple syrup doesn't quite get it up to snuff by itself.

[HookLine]

A little bit of (genuine) maple syrup in rum is nice.

[Barney Fife]

Maple syrup(surp as we call it) adds a smooth texture to the spirit. Charred or charcoal'd maple adds a a sweet smoky flavor, and if done to excess, adds a smoked bacon type flavor.

So, the flavor comes across right away with the flow through filter thing? I've been wanting to try that for a while now. First, plates, then a charcoal filter, then....

Bags of maple chips are sold for smoking meats; look into those before importing boards; hard maple is heavy! Any maple will do, by the way, but they vary quite a bit in sugar content, so you may need nearly twice as much western big leaf maple compared to eastern sugar maple, for example; google for "maple tree sugar content" or something like that for charts.