Home Distiller

Hey there everyone.

I'm from Wisconsin and I'm interested in learning to distill my own rum. I've been purchasing a cheap rum and infusing it with my own blend of spices for well over a decade now, and everyone who tries it loves it. My hope is to be able to make a rum from scratch that has the same flavor profile. Plus, I know this is a hobby that I can enjoy for the rest of my life and it's something I'm passionate about learning. I've already learned more than I thought I would need to learn. The more I read, the more I'm fascinated by the incredible amount of skill and knowledge it's going to take to be able to successfully make a finished product. I feel like I've started to learn a new language. I just started researching a couple weeks back. I'd hear things like heads, hearts, tails, dunder, wash, mash, etc, and I was lost. Then, while watching the Still It YouTube channel, I heard about this site, and now I think I might just figure this out after all. I know I have a long way to go before I even start putting stuff in a bucket to ferment. That said, I haven't purchased a still yet. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what size to buy. I was planning to get a 9 gallon pot still, but as I read about stripping runs, the amount of low wines that come out of stripping runs, and the amount of low wines you'll need for spirit runs, I'm thinking I may want to go smaller than that. I'm really excited, but have also been doing my reading in the beginner's guide and the spoon-feeding for beginners. Last thing I want to do is waste anyone's time with a question I should have been able to find answers to on my own. I just want to thank you all for putting this wealth of knowledge together. Looking forward to the journey!

Welcome to HD MonkeyRumKing

Your off to a good start. When you begin learning this stuff it seems very complicated and overwhelming but eventually it all clicks and becomes quite easy...or as complicated as you choose to make it It doesn't need to be all that complicated.

Choosing the right still can be important, especially if you are going to buy one. Depending on how much you plan on making a small still might be a mistake even though a larger one may require more fermenting. I myself started with a 3 gallon stock pot, moved up to 4 gallons, then up to a 15.5 gallon keg. I haven't used the 4 gallon in years now but in the past having that smaller still in addition to the larger one has served me well. With the keg I have to have a minimum of 30 gallons to do stripping and spirit runs but with the smaller pot as well I can strip 10 gallons then do the spirit run in the smaller pot. That's not saying that that sort of thing is right for you, and like I said I haven't used the small boiler in years because I've just progressed that far.

With this hobby people tend to get to where they want enough drinking stock to put some back to age and if you think about it a 10 gallon still will only handle an 8 to 9 gallon charge, so that's 24 to 27 gallons for 3 strips. Figure since you want rum you can push a ferment up to maybe 12% and you wind up with around 3 gallons at drinking strength when it's all done. This is about 15 bottles of rum in the end, which sounds like a lot but when you like what you are making you want to enjoy it and can find yourself going through those bottles fairly quickly. At a bottle a weekend that is only a 3 month supply.

If the still you choose is small, say 5 gallons, you find yourself spending just as much time and effort making half as much product and having to make it twice as often. Maybe this works for you but most people who start off small find themselves upgrading fairly quickly.

Anyway, welcome, and enjoy the ride

Welcome! It is a fascinating hobby which I hope you enjoy. I will second what Cranky said. I started with an 8 gallon and after one season built a 15.5 gal keg. About the same work to ferment 20 gallons or 40 gallons. And about the same to strip 13 gallons as 6 gallons. I suspect I will eventually land on my 15.5 gallon for most things and a 3 or 4 gallon stovetop unit for gins.

I second what cranky said. I started with the dreaded 5 gallon amazon pot still and immediately rebuilt it and then upgraded to a 26 gallon still. With my 5 gallon I was finding that in order to make enough to age AND enjoy, I was at my still every spare moment I had. Now I can essentially do 4 runs in one which saves me HOURS when doing stripping runs. It also has the added benefit of allowing me to share with my friends without having to worry about dipping into the jars that I've deemed my special jars that nobody gets to touch for x amount of months.

When in doubt, I'd buy or guild the biggest pot still that you can afford (no larger than 30 gallons if you want to talk about it here). A large pot still is a good starting point that can be later modified to fit whatever spirit you decide to branch off into.

Nice to see a fellow Wisconsinite here!

Like everything Cranky said
Keep reading, there is a lot of hard won knowledge here and on the other sites. The spirits you want to make will help decide your design path. It will not take a lot of reading to see that the efficiencies in time and energy decrease with small systems.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I was about to go even smaller than 5 gallons because this is something i want to do more than a couple times a year. Based on what you're all saying, it sounds like I'm overestimating the yield from the wash. I'm off to do some more reading and learning. Thanks again!

Plan on about 7 or 8% of the wash volume to be hearts cut at aging strength (60%). A 36 gal ferment of about 8% will get me about 2.75 gallons to put on oak depending on how I fermented it, how I distilled it and how the cuts were made. Stressed yeast on ferment = more nasties = more heads. Distilled too fast = smearing = smaller hearts cut. Want to drink it now = tighter cuts since no time to age out rough edges.

MonkeyRumKing wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 4:18 pm Thanks for the advice everyone. I was about to go even smaller than 5 gallons because this is something i want to do more than a couple times a year. Based on what you're all saying, it sounds like I'm overestimating the yield from the wash. I'm off to do some more reading and learning. Thanks again!

Welcome, if you want 1 quart at a time of unaged rum get a 5 gallon pot. keep reading.