Home Distiller

I am retired and have been an experimental distiller for 4 years. My first preference is to make scotch, just the 4-week stuff done with French Oak chips, and some distilled peat essence. I did make bourbon for a while but it's just too sweet. I also make gin, but just using the store-bought essence. Some select botanical essences can be just as good as the real thing, but not the other types, such as rum or whiskey. Most of the finished product is give to friends as it's more than I consume.

My ferments are plain sugar with turbo-yeasts, done to a max of 14%. I have long given up with grape, grain, and molasses washes. Sugar-derived whiskey tastes 95% as good as the peated grain type, anyway. The still is a small 17L stainless boiler with a hidden element. I made a power controller with LCD meter to drive the heater element directly; controllable form 0W to 1500W. The head is a tall 18"x1" copper column pot still with a downdraught water-cooled condenser. Near the head cuts temp, the power can be reduced to increase the cut precision.

The design allows for some packing and cooling in the column. I gave up on fractioning attempts as it takes a lot longer, a lot of fiddling with the cooling, and wastes energy. I use an air-cooled water still ($60 on Ebay) hooked to the same power controller for secondary distillation. Water stills pull 700W, and this needs to be cut to 400W for moonshine. Rather than looking at the vapor temp, the expected volume and taste testing tell me when to stop the air-still.

I use an air-cooled water still ($60 on Ebay) hooked to the same power controller for secondary distillation.

I would look at that distiller for non approved materiel in the vapor pass.

AC

welcome

Welcome!

My ferments are plain sugar with turbo-yeasts

Maybe think about trying a Birdwatchers, they can finish up as high as 14% and are cheaper and taste better then turbo mashes. Ive made several they are super easy to do.
Here is a link http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =14&t=5018
There are a bunch of great mash's in the tried and true recipe section.

Welcome here SG you are at the right place to learn and improve, you will find better stills and better recipes in no time and will soon surprise yourself. The turbo range and the related instruction are to put it politely sub par and less polite complete shit. Do have a read through the newbie section as even after 4 years of distilling you will be surprised at what simple but important things there are to learn. I think I follow how you stilling system works but I think you could do much better with a pot and thumper or even double running a pot. These are both simple, cheap and a safer option, water distillers work but as distillate vapour was not in mind when designing them god only knows what petrochemical products are in the vapour path.

Welcome!

Gday oldmate. welcome aye!
Make it your challenge to do a ferment from ingredients all sourced from Woolies. The recipes are to be found here
I can set up a 23 litre sugarhead wash for no more than $6.50 AUD and get a far superior product than the Turbo washes and it does not require carbon filtering, got your interest? It should!
Be prepared to experiment and put faith in the tried and true recipes here and you'll be blown away by how good the new spirits will be that you are making! I'm in FNQ, where are you?

acfixer69 wrote:

I use an air-cooled water still ($60 on Ebay) hooked to the same power controller for secondary distillation.

I would look at that distiller for non approved materiel in the vapor pass.

AC

Already done. The water stills are actually a lot better made than the old alcohol air-stills. All SS and two silicone seals. No air/chlorine hole, either. Water comes out at 65C, which is too hot for 77% moonshine, thus the 50% power reduction.

There is a cube-shaped spout on all air stills which can be easily removed. Just push it towards the still body and then downwards. Unclips at the front. It usually contains a bag of carbon, dust, and roach bodies. Replace it it with a short bit of 3/8 copper tube, which pushes into the silicone elbow. No more roach-shine1

Dantuss wrote:Welcome!

My ferments are plain sugar with turbo-yeasts

Maybe think about trying a Birdwatchers, they can finish up as high as 14% and are cheaper and taste better then turbo mashes. Ive made several they are super easy to do.
Here is a link http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =14&t=5018
There are a bunch of great mash's in the tried and true recipe section.

Turbo washes are smell-free provided you keep to a max of 15%. I also do sugar, raisins, tom paste, etc with wine yeast with similar results.

** If you use DAP, do not source it from a gardening store. There's a few ways of making DAP, and one way is with hydrofluoric acid. Turns teeth purple.**

thecroweater wrote:k you could do much better with a pot and thumper .

I did have a thumper but removed it. I treat the stripped distillate with bicarb and depleted oak for 48hrs. Then I do run #2. This completely cures the saponification haze when adding water. I will post this info later.

kimbodious wrote:Gday oldmate. welcome aye!
Make it your challenge to do a ferment from ingredients all sourced from Woolies. The recipes are to be found here
I can set up a 23 litre sugarhead wash for no more than $6.50 AUD and get a far superior product than the Turbo washes and it does not require carbon filtering,

Yep, see above post. Raisins are the go. Brigalow yeast at Woolies is a wine variety (B431, AWRI) and is an aggressive fermenter. Bad in beer, though. I agree carbon is not the quickest of best way to get clean. Bicarb and oak do a very good job at getting rid of the smells and haze.

A bad batch of DAP came into NSW a few years back, so see my warning above about DAP. Wine makers buy it from agricultural sources, but test each batch for excess fluorides.

good cuts will negate the reason for scrubbing http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 0#p6801645

I will use tomato paste over DAP every time, too often for me are reports of it contaminated with urea.

I am using 1/3rd cup of Lowans Bakers Yeast. No DAP for me, I use 50 grams of kale for my nutrients, I puree it in a blender. Plus 5 kgs of raw sugar for the cleanest freshest neutral, and superior to the tomato paste IMHO. There is no need to clean up the product from this recipe prior to the spirit run unless I was to run way deep through the tails, rom a 46 litre wash I pull up after collecting 10 litres.

kimbodious wrote:I am using 1/3rd cup of Lowans Bakers Yeast. No DAP for me, I use 50 grams of kale for my nutrients, I puree it in a blender. Plus 5 kgs of raw sugar for the cleanest freshest neutral, and superior to the tomato paste IMHO. There is no need to clean up the product from this recipe prior to the spirit run unless I was to run way deep through the tails, rom a 46 litre wash I pull up after collecting 10 litres.

Bakers yeast will go to 14% easily, although I found Lowans did have a high DOA rate...whole packets no good if too near the use-by date.

Comment above regarding urea in DAP. Urea is not a good idea in wine and beer. Ethanol + urea makes ethylcarbamate. A potential carcinogen in large amounts; probably much larger than ever found in alcohol production. It should not hurt in distillation, though, as the BP is high.

To the doubters of the usefulness of turboyeast, try this 14L wash. Scale up as appropriate.
--LAZY MAN'S WASH--

1. Buy a 240g packet of turbo. Do *not* read the instructions.
2. Mix 4.3kg of white sugar into 3L of hot water.
3. Top to 14L. Best water temp is 35C.
4. Add one-third packet (80g) of turbo. Dont bother to mix as it sticks to the stirrer too much
5. Keep at 35C for the first 24hrs. Ensures a strong yeast colony. Yeast release a good deal of
heat in the first 48hrs.
6. Leave about 6 days., until 8-9 Brix is reached
7. pH should be 5.5 to 6. Add 50g of bicarb, or just enough to neutralize the wash. Add one desert spoon of bentonite
in cup of hot water. Stir up 3 times in over next day. Let it clear and distill the next day.

This wash will make a crystal clear gin after a double distillation, which is not easily done without an advanced double-column still.