new to distillation

[brewersgold]

hi there, i have been all grain ale brewing for 19 years now and have made fractional haed cider but have yet to distill liquor. i have all i need to mash and am looking for a distillation unit. i saw an ad for turbo stomper stills and it looks like a good system. does anyone have any suggestions for me?
i have read some of the posts and i like this site already. thanks in advance.
oh yes i live in new jersey.

[cluey]

oh boy, i asked that one a couple of days ago. i assume ur looking at the one from stilldrinkin.com. put stilldrinking into the search feature and stand back, as u will get blasted lol.

[LWTCS]

Like standing in front of the mirror ay cluey?

[kiwistiller]

what sort of spirits are you wanting to make?

[carl1078lewis]

I think the general consensus here on the forum is that home-built is better than store-bought. Many stills can be assembled by just screwing parts together, or at worst some light soldering of copper, requiring a $20 hand torch. So it's not too expensive to do. I got set up for a couple hundred bucks, and the current still is better than what I see for sale. I made a lot of mistakes and had to re-purchase some expensive parts (2" copper pipe ain't cheap), but even with mistakes it cost me a little more to build a really nice still for the cost of a not so nice store-bought still. If I were to do it over again, I'd buy a better boiling vessel (the best I've seen are the milk can boilers from mile high distilling) as my stock pot has leaky rivets and is definitely the weak link of my apparatus. The still head itself is pretty easy to assemble and get working well.

[kiwistiller]

I must add I do love my beer keg boiler...

[WalkingWolf]

brewersgold,

Here is what Cluey was talking about. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=13727

WW

[brewersgold]

i am not good at letter writing or comunnicating this way , so please donget me wrong i love people who want to do things like this. i have taught hundreds of people to make really good beer, wine and mead. al i want to do is take my must, wort and mash and produce good liquor. if you have a good still plan i would love to see it. i can solder, silver solder and braze. i have a full shop with drill press, vise, lathe, and gas welding equip. plus i have award winning ale recipies, if you are interested. jb

[rubber duck]

With that shop I would build my own. sounds like you have more then the required skills to build a fantastic still.

If it where me I would start with a beer keg pot still on a worm coil. Doesn't get easy then that lots of examples around hear and you can do a lot with it.

[olddog]

Feel free to copy any of my designs.

OD

[LWTCS]

Feel free to copy any of my designs.

OD

Heck OD,,, I'd copy your designs if I could

[rubber duck]

+1 and I might try.