Home Distiller

Hi!!!!!! This is my first post here and I want to share my experiencie. First of all, I´m from Argentina and I speak spanish, so, appologies in advance for any gramatical mistake! lol

Last year a bought a 30 litre pot still
I want to make a spirit made of cider (AKA: Calvados in France, Applejack -I think- in USA), so, I bought a lot os apples and made a 6,55% ABV homemade cider.
The result was 19 litres of cider. After that I started the firts Run.

I collected aproximatedly 1,95 LTs of spirits, I separated them in

300 ml 64% abv
150 ml
300 ml 55%
300 ml 53%
300 ml 50%
300 ml 45%
300 ml 39%

Just for precaution, I don't have the equipment to analyze the fractions to saparate them in the next run.

I wonder if it's ok to collect that quantity of spirit from 19litre of 6,55% abv cider.

Any advice is appreciated in advance!!!!

MND, I may be doing the same! Please keep us updated on your progress/results. I have a dual-keg system in my garage fridge for hard, carbonated ciders, but am very eager to distill a batch.

What kind of yeast are you using? I've found that Nottingham Ale returns a nice flavor, but after a recent trip to wine country in upstate New York, there was a delicious cider made with Belgian Saison yeast. I found some online and will be trying that soon.

Also, check link below, or just google "calvados + homedistiller" and you'll see a few discussion threads already exist that will help you.

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=20971

Thanks for the link!!!!!! The main idea wasn't make a drinkable cider, so I used a proportion of 2/1 Granny Smith and Red Delicious. The yeast used was

SAFCIDER from Fermentis Lab (made in France)

I would aim for a minimum of 10 lots and probably more. That means 150-200ml per fraction. Makes it easier to do cuts. Once you get a few runs done, you can use larger containers in the hearts.

If its a first pass through the pot still and you intend to do a spirit run, then it seems like a very conservative take to me.

From my notes, I had a 6.7% ABV Cider and collected (minus the foreshot) 2.7L @ 34%ABV from a 17L strip.

Nice pot still BTW. Though I'm not a fan of what looks like an EPDM gasket.

bluefish_dist wrote: ↑Sat Sep 05, 2020 5:33 pm I would aim for a minimum of 10 lots and probably more. That means 150-200ml per fraction. Makes it easier to do cuts. Once you get a few runs done, you can use larger containers in the hearts.

Thanks! The main Idea was to send to analyze in a lab the samples, so I can determinate how much methil do I have in first place and then with the experience make differents cuts, the problem is that in my country, the goverment Institute of wine and alcohol (INV) demands a minimum of 200ml per sample... I don't want to send that amount! lol

SaltyStaves wrote: ↑Sat Sep 05, 2020 5:55 pm If its a first pass through the pot still and you intend to do a spirit run, then it seems like a very conservative take to me.

From my notes, I had a 6.7% ABV Cider and collected (minus the foreshot) 2.7L @ 34%ABV from a 17L strip.

Nice pot still BTW. Though I'm not a fan of what looks like an EPDM gasket.

How much foreshot did you throw away? adn, btw, I think that an "EPDM gasket" is the stainless stell part of the pot still, isn't it? there was a big difference between 100% cooper still and 50-50 in the final price

mndvtn2020 wrote: ↑Sat Sep 05, 2020 6:39 pm How much foreshot did you throw away?

Not much and I didn't throw it away. It was recycled back into my 'Sugardos' which I made with all the leftovers from the Calvados. Then it was discarded with the foreshot take from that run.

I think that an "EPDM gasket" is the stainless stell part of the pot still, isn't it? there was a big difference between 100% cooper still and 50-50 in the final price

How is the copper dome and the top of the stainless steel pot sealed?

Your output is dangerously close to your open flame heat source.

Thanks! I'll try to change it for the next time, but this is the only place where I can distill