Home Distiller

Hello all, been lurking for a while absorbing some info but now I'm about to start my journey of putting something together out of bits of this and that I have kicking around the house but of course I'm likely to have questions so I figured I best sign up. My goal for this new hobby is to keep it simple, cheap and safe plus make a better product than what my neighbor has been getting me to taste test!

So since simple and cheap is the goal I'm thinking I'm going to go for a neutral spirit which from what I gather is going to require I construct a refluxing setup of some kind. One of the items I have in the cupboard that we rarely use anymore is a 10 liter stainless steel stock pot with a lid, I figure this pot will make a good enough starting point to attach all the other required bits to. Yes it's maybe a bit small capacity wise compared to other member's setups but if it works and I find I like the finished product it produces I could always scale it up some I suppose. I'm fairly competent with my O\A torches, plumbers torch and a soldering iron and since I got a small machine shop in the basement I think I should be able to fab up everything I need without too much fuss.

Anyway it's nice to be on board and thank you all in advance for any and all helpful advice you toss my way

Stew-Whee....
Welcome

Welcome. I lurked for quite a while too, too much info on here to not.

Lil_Stewie wrote: . . . . and since I got a small machine shop in the basement I think I should be able to fab up everything I need without too much fuss.

Aw dude -- you have instantly become the envy of more than just a few here on the forum (I have taken the liberty of speaking up for my shy and introverted brethren here on the boards )

Lil_Stewie wrote:My goal for this new hobby is to keep it simple, cheap and safe plus make a better product than what my neighbor has been getting me to taste test!

The word cheap just sounds cheap. Think higher (highest) quality in a most efficient manner. (I have been called snobbish and I don't mind)

good luck

10 Liters is just fine. My pot still is only 7.5 liters. I've made some of the best whiskey ever with that thing. The cool thing about a small still is that you'll get to do what you love more often.

I built my first reflux column from plans on the mother site. It was a Nixon-Stone offset head. I had some machinery available, too. Good Luck.

Welcome.

Thanks for the warm welcomes

Haven't started building my still yet, still reading, thinking, inventorying what I have kicking around, listing what I think I may need to scrounge up at the salvage yard etc etc.

One thing I'm really kinda stumped on at the moment is where am I going to set the darn thing up. I was hoping to be able to do it in the kitchen BUT when I took the tape measure and checked the distance from stove top to bottom of range hood there is no way I'm going to get a 3' reflux column in there. A pot still would work in the kitchen I suppose but geesh I really didn't want to build a pot still. Too given the time it takes to run off a wash, do some experimenting and so on I don't know if I could take over the kitchen for that long. Lots of room in my basement shop and laundry room for a reflux column but with either of those locations I'm for sure going to have to build a bench, plumb in some feed and returns lines for the cooling water and wire in a dedicated electrical outlet. I have kiddies at home still too plus a trusty little beagle that follows me everywhere so that's another big consideration for where and how I set the whole thing up.

Maybe I should just do it the old fashioned way and go find a spot out in the woods beside a crick

Lil_Stewie wrote: I was hoping to be able to do it in the kitchen BUT when I took the tape measure and checked the distance from stove top to bottom of range hood there is no way I'm going to get a 3' reflux column in there.

There'z ways if a fellars determined. You could come off the pot with a 45 till you clear the hood then go back to vertical. T'aint nuttin wrong wit'a pot

Lil_Stewie, how far out does your vent hood hang...??? My electric stove has a vent hood and my still column just clears it with the pot centered over the largest electric element... With a 2" column I might have to place the pot a little bit forward of exact center, maybe a half inch at most, but that wouldn't cause any problems because the stock pot is a lot bigger than the element... Also, you don't have to mount the column dead center above the pot... Whether using a lid or a mixing bowl you can offset where the column mounts... Don't fixate on problems, think about solutions...

Welcome to the forum, I agree with Walkin Wolf, a small machine shop would have me drooling.

Hi Lil_Stewie,

You could also go the electric way and place your still with element in boiler on the kitchen floor, that's the way i do it (also a workingspace problem) and if you want to do a stripping- or pot still run you can place your still on the sink....

Show us some pics when you're ready with your build.
oh yes, and welcome of course!

rad14701 wrote:Lil_Stewie, how far out does your vent hood hang...???

Well it's a rather large hood and given the way the wall and exhaust duct work was re-engineered, plus how the hood had to be mounted, it covers the entire top of the range sans about 3".

Lil_Stewie wrote:

rad14701 wrote:Lil_Stewie, how far out does your vent hood hang...???

Well it's a rather large hood and given the way the wall and exhaust duct work was re-engineered, plus how the hood had to be mounted, it covers the entire top of the range sans about 3".

I LOVE YOUR AVITAR ! Go Stewie! The evil genius baby.... I have a blow up Stewie that hangs on my boat! You have some big evil genius baby shoes to fill!
I am going to expect some great contibutions to our hobby from you! Bring it Stewie!

Mash Rookie.

There is probably no reason for the column to rise from the centre of the pot, you could mount it almost at the outside edge....