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Gimmi some ideas on something useful I can make to keep my self outta trouble. A small of medium size project. Open to all ideas.

Cider press. Looking at building one of these myself. Make things easier for my wife's apple cider, and making some brandy.

A pre-heater using the heat from the outgoing vapor to heat the next charge.

Another still, can never have enough stills!!!.

googe wrote:Another still, can never have enough stills!!!.

I would love to make another but I would need to find a boiler a size I could work with alone. No kegs available at the moment so my only choice would be a traditional copper still with sheet copper or those 25 gallon milk can boilers. I haven't even run my new keg build even though its finished because i'm making it electric now haha.

Plan is to get the feurrel in the keg, polish the keg up and set up the controller with element.

A gin still. Mine takes slightly over a quart charge. Makes one bottle of gin, absinthe, whatever. Every bottle can be different. Very useful for experimental runs, or runs of exotic ingredients that you couldn't afford to do in your main still.

NZChris wrote:A gin still. Mine takes slightly over a quart charge. Makes one bottle of gin, absinthe, whatever. Every bottle can be different. Very useful for experimental runs, or runs of exotic ingredients that you couldn't afford to do in your main still.

There no way I could use a smaller pot still for it or would I need a reflux and gin basket.

You only run hearts through it so you don't need to make cuts.

Mine is just a saucepan and steamer. $5 at a charity shop. A couple of large hose clamps wrap around it to clamp it together and the seal is flour and water. Uses the same condenser as my main still. Magic toy for small runs. My first gin took a couple of hours including a trip to the supermarket to get coriander seeds and a bottle of tonic water.

NZChris wrote:Mine is just a saucepan and steamer. $5 at a charity shop. A couple of large hose clamps wrap around it to clamp it together and the seal is flour and water. Uses the same condenser as my main still. Magic toy for small runs. My first gin took a couple of hours including a trip to the supermarket to get coriander seeds and a bottle of tonic water.

Do you have any photos of you mini-still? I've been thinking of doing exactly the same thing.

No photo. You shouldn't need one. It's just a saucepan with a matching steamer, a lyne arm from the lid to your condenser and some way of clamping it. I linked two large hose clamps together to make one long enough to wrap right over it. Charge it, put a copper scrubbie in the steamer, clamp it, flour paste the steamer and the lid and it's ready.

Thanks for the info!
This one looks really slick, but I wouldn't pay that much, and I wonder what gasket is used.
http://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-A ... distilling" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

That one costs $244 more than mine and doesn't have a steamer basket.

The pot I picked up at the charity shop was more like this...
http://www.angelfire.com/az2/waterless/ ... insert.jpg

kent_skinner wrote:Thanks for the info!
This one looks really slick, but I wouldn't pay that much, and I wonder what gasket is used.
http://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-A ... distilling" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Who in their right mind would pay $250+ for a 1/2 gallon still...??? And one that uses a handful of ice to condense the distillate vapor at that... You can, and should, do better...

The uninformed Rad, although this site ranks pretty high in google to inform them:)

rad14701 wrote: Who in their right mind would pay $250+ for a 1/2 gallon still...??? And one that uses a handful of ice to condense the distillate vapor at that... You can, and should, do better...

Not me.

I want to be able to mess around with small volumes of gin, and possibly flavored vodka. I don't want to fire up a 15 gallon still to make a quart of gin.
I also have tools and skills to work with stainless, so I was looking for photos of things to get inspired by.