Home Distiller

Hi l'm Steve from Australia and l am just starting out, l worked in a malthouse for years and took the samples home each week to feed to my horses. l still have a few tons left so l thought l might have a go at making some whiskey.
l am waiting on a reflux still l bought on ebay to arrive that attaches to a 50 litre beer keg along with an STC 1000 controller for the heating element. Looking forward to an interesting and rewarding hobby l hope.

Welcome Steve
Tones of malt hey... where abouts in vic are you lol
More seriously though I'm not sure an STC 1000 will do the trick for your elements, I thought they were an on, off temperature sensor? If you want to control your elements you'll need something to vary the power.

Hi ya, if that's whites malt house how about I buy your nags all the oats they could eat serious though welcome here

l am out west near Rokewood, l worked at the malthouse under the Nylex Clock till it closed down in around 2003. l read that folks use the stc 1000 on the aussiedistiller forum.

horseystevetoo wrote:l am waiting on a reflux still l bought on ebay to arrive

Mate with that much malted grain on hand the last thing you need is a reflux still. Hopefully a couple of the more clued up Victorians will be along shorty to take you under their wings.

I'm not far from you at all, Smythesdale way.

Reflux still might not be your best solution if you have that much malted grain available. All the flavour you have available will be left behind making vodka or neutral.

Even a classic 2" pot still might serve you better. Easily made, great for keeping flavour. Lots faster too.

And there is other stuff around.

Welcome and enjoy

horseystevetoo wrote:l am out west near Rokewood, l worked at the malthouse under the Nylex Clock till it closed down in around 2003. l read that folks use the stc 1000 on the aussiedistiller forum.

Am I reading that your malt is 14+ years old?
I'm not exactly sure how long the enzymes in malt last but I'd be betting they'll be pretty warn. A small test mash will confirm viability, probably be ok

Can't see how an STC will work. You don't run a still by the temperature of the wash in the boiler... STC's run two temperature controlled sockets, like for a fermentation chamber. Temp goes down it turns on the heat belt, gets to hot turns on the fridge.
We need a device to limit the power our elements draw. Standard elements maybe 2400w, my controler can go from 0-2400w depending on what's needed at the time.
You'll find diagrams for these on most of the forums, I'm just at work atm or I'd link one.

Sorry for all the negativity btw

P.s got a link to the STC 1000 thread. I've been wrong before and always like to know.

Here's a link to one on a Australian site.
http://coppercustomstillcomponents.com. ... f=77&t=123" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

To mods:
hope this Aussie link is ok, thought it would be useful since it relates to a country specific electrical question and the OP is located there.

You sure got some attention mentioning that grain, horseystevetoo!

Welcome.

Thanks for all the advice, my malt is stored in air tight 50 litre drums so l hope it has retained its goodness. Sadly it is an unknown blend of all the varieties of barley malt they processed, not sure if its worth the trouble but a friend has a feed mixer big enough to blend a couple of ton at a time so at least l would have consistency. l have a few hundred kg's of wheat malt too but maybe only good for beer and also plenty of malt dust removed from the air in the silos. l will post a pic of this still l have bought when it arrives and if need be l shall make a pot still as l have an engineering workshop at my disposal, just getting lazy turning to ebay.