Home Distiller

Well...Here's the story:
I'm a newbie and after lots of reading of all of you craftmen masters, I decided to make a nice, working still....
So I got to work, soldering, cutting, thinking....Doing all of this at my grandad's place...He can't do much anymore, but he sticked around advising me on how not to screw up the whole thing (I'm not really good with my two hands, but I try to manage)......When he was young he used to have a moving still, kept distilling his whole life....It's a right that, in France', a grandfather would pass to his grandson...But shit happens and the law decided to banish that right, so slowly, the fine art of distilling our own "eau de vie" ("lifewater" as we call it) vanished...Mostly for the government to keep applying taxes on their commercial shit....They took away his moving still.....

When I first asked him if I could build the still at his place, he told me: "Outrage yourself, and fuck'em all!!!" (in french, "Indigne toi, et qu'ils aillent se faire foutre!!"
I'm now feeling pretty proud and will do as my elders tell me

Just wanted to share that story with you all, and thanks again for this very useful forum

Great story -- thanks for sharing. Enjoy your time with your elders. You know grandpa is just beaming inside.

Grandpas know best, gain all the knowledge you can from him and keep the tradition alive in your family!

Thanks for that Froggyshine, an always do what yer elder's tell ya,,,

Great story...

Wish I could have spent that kinda time with my grandpa, you have something to cherish, make him proud.

non carborundum illegitemi!



Didnt know my granddad as well as I would have liked. But I know he would have approved!

My two grandsons are only 5 and 7 but they came late in my life, now well past the biblical three score and ten.
Hope to still be around with enough marbles, to pass on stilling knowledge when they come of age.

squidd

It's funny being an old bugger isn't it squidd? Amazes me how much stuff you experience in a lifetime and even more amazing how much you forget. One of my favourite things to do in a pub is to just sit back with the hearing aids on and listen to the youngins discovering new stuff that we did half a century or more back; just like we did half a century back.

that's neat froggyshine, I used to enjoy seeing my grandfather at work in his workshop, hearing old stories and such.

Keeping old traditions alive as well, that's got to be right up there! The "guvmint" took away my first still too, that was a bummer for a while, but it was later replaced with something better, and a happy ending.

+1 Blanik, my-soon-to-be-no-longer-a-teenager son often relates "discoveries", and things he's forgotten were mentioned to him a year or more ago, and most surprised when some latest hit is actually a remake of a remake dating back decades.. brings back memories!, and being "in-between", there's still much *I* have yet to discover...

My Grandfather was from Germany. He was a master welder and he was the "go to" guy in the county where we lived. Anytime there was an impossible job to do, they brought it to his shop. I had zero interest in learning his craft, what I wouldn't give to spend time with him building stills.

Now my grandson is eight, and I'm hoping I get to show him some of the things that I've learned the hard way.


Bull.

Don't know much about havin' a Granddad. Both mine were gone before I even knew what one was. But I'm one now and it's a great experience! Putiin' up special bottles for special milestones. Hope I can make it another 20 years. I want to give my grand kids somethin' I never had. Not talkin' 'bout the booze, that's just icin' on the cake.

Big R

if only the young ones knew and the old ones could.....

blanikdog wrote:It's funny being an old bugger isn't it squidd? Amazes me how much stuff you experience in a lifetime and even more amazing how much you forget. One of my favourite things to do in a pub is to just sit back with the hearing aids on and listen to the youngins discovering new stuff that we did half a century or more back; just like we did half a century back.

Hi Blanik,

What's funny also is that I never really felt old...er until this year. Then it sort of came on all of a sudden, with very little transition. As for the "youngins", they are also into things that are way over my head but very normal for them.

Wish you all the best over the next few decades !!!

squidd

Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill, listen to your elders they maybe slow but they can save you from a lot of headaches with their experience

Froggyshine wrote:if only the young ones knew and the old ones could.....

"Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait".

squidd

squidd wrote:

blanikdog wrote:It's funny being an old bugger isn't it squidd? Amazes me how much stuff you experience in a lifetime and even more amazing how much you forget. One of my favourite things to do in a pub is to just sit back with the hearing aids on and listen to the youngins discovering new stuff that we did half a century or more back; just like we did half a century back.

Hi Blanik,

What's funny also is that I never really felt old...er until this year. Then it sort of came on all of a sudden, with very little transition. As for the "youngins", they are also into things that are way over my head but very normal for them.

Wish you all the best over the next few decades !!!

squidd

Me too Squidd. it must hit around the seventies. I don't think in decades anymore. More like hours now but it's been a fun ride.

squidd wrote:

Froggyshine wrote:if only the young ones knew and the old ones could.....

"Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait".

squidd

That's it mate!!!

Yairrrrs Cobber