Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

A long while ago I made this.

It’s a great bit of gear for making Wheat Whisky and Scotch and it will handle most grains. Except the one that counts. You put corn anywhere near the thing and it tells ya to fuck right off.
So it’s time for a change of tact. I want something that will Mash, Ferment and Still in the one vessel. I’m thinking double boiler.
I started with a couple of kegs. One short and fat, the other tall and skinny

Cut the top off Fatso and Voila

Oredered a few bits from the Mecca of all things Bubbles and a few bits from Stirlings Stainless Bibs and Bobs. Whacked it all together with a few boogy sticks and took a photo.

It's got a 6 inch top hole for cleaning, adding grain, sampling and stirring. Two 2400 watt elements to warm it up. A thermoport in the bottom section which will control power.
It will definitely mash and ferment, but will it load up the bubbler? First run I'm going to run a pipe up the wall of my shed and put about 4psi of head height onto it. This should enable heat of 100C without it going into full boil. If this don't heat up the mash enough to load the bubbler then I have a plan B which involves a small amount of additional pressure. There is no plan C though. I am not going to strain grains.

Go bushy go :O)
Cant wait to see how it goes :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Looks good mate

A long while ago I made this.
IMG_0133.JPG

It’s a great bit of gear for making Wheat Whisky and Scotch and it will handle most grains. Except the one that counts. You put corn anywhere near the thing and it tells ya to fuck right off.

Looks flash. Do you have instructions for building something like this ? Agree on the corn, the bloody kernels get stuck everywhere transfer hoses/pumps, heating elements, drain valves...
As a result I havent made a UJSSM in a while and will stick to cornflakes and weetbix washes (so much easier imho).
Cheers, RS

Looking great Bushy, that should sort the corny buggers out for you :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Bit of an update.
I had a rethink on the water head pressure idea and decided to go mechanical. After much searching I finally sourced a 1.5 Bar relief valve, from pommyland of all places. :flags-wavegreatbritain: Fitted that this morning and cranked it up. With both elements running and the temp controlled one set to 118C we achieved a rolling boil in the 3/4 full mash/ferment/still keg. The pressure at that point was 10PSI which is about 10PSI below the blow off point. I have loaded this thing up with compressed air to 40PSI just to make sure I had a good margin of error. I gotta admit I put earmuffs and a faceshield on for the test, just in case.
Next steps? I need to make a stand for the Ryobi powered agitator paddle. I need to pretty up the electrics and sort out the automation side of it. I figure that for the mash and ferment stage I can use the bottom section for heating and cooling. I can use the temp controller to turn on an element or turn on a water valve to let cool water in. Good for maintaining a set ferment temp and also crash cooling after the mashing. Insulation needs to be sorted as well.
For cleaning the thing out I'm going to agitate the hell out of it then pump it in to a wheelbarrow with a submersible. Horses are going to love this shit all over their paddocks.
To be continued.....

Looking good Bushy! Seems you are good for more than heckling slow builders!

Another update. Put 10 kilo of corn through my corona mill on max grind a few times. Some flour, some little bits. Half filled the boiler and set the drill paddle going and then put the corn in. Turned on both elements with the controlled one on 115 degrees. After a noisy hour and a half the mix got into a rolling boil. Let it cook for an hour and then cooled it down to 90. Put the sebstar htl in and straight away she thinned out. After an hour and a half the iodine test was showing conversion. Cooled it down to 65 and put the amylase in. Left it set overnight on 65 degrees with blankets all over it. Then turned it off and left it to cool while was at work. Got home and it was at 35 so left it a bit longer. Next morning she had a good ferment going. That was monday. Today it had stopped all activity and the time to run it was here. Dropped the still on top, fired it up and away she went.

I disabled the bottom plate for extra flavour. Got a couple of litres of corn whiskey out of it which has a certain flavour that I could go for. The parrot needed a mod which has been done but aside from that I would have to say success. I have mashed, fermented and stilled a corn whiskey on the grain.
A lot of fuckin around though, compared to rum. Next run will be with some of the pregelatinized corn from the feed store.

Looks like a pretty mad puke there bushy?

Not a puke. The two elements running was too much. Turned one off and she settled down. My plates are just at the bottom of the glass so what you see is it, but still fkn overloaded me downcomers. First time for that.

did you distill the whole lot, yeast and all? how are the elements after?

It's a double boiler. The elements are separate to the wash.

oh, i guess i dont get it lol.

Bushy wrote:Another update. Put 10 kilo of corn through my corona mill on max grind a few times. Some flour, some little bits. Half filled the boiler and set the drill paddle going and then put the corn in. Turned on both elements with the controlled one on 115 degrees. After a noisy hour and a half the mix got into a rolling boil. Let it cook for an hour and then cooled it down to 90. Put the sebstar htl in and straight away she thinned out. After an hour and a half the iodine test was showing conversion. Cooled it down to 65 and put the amylase in. Left it set overnight on 65 degrees with blankets all over it. Then turned it off and left it to cool while was at work. Got home and it was at 35 so left it a bit longer. Next morning she had a good ferment going. That was monday. Today it had stopped all activity and the time to run it was here. Dropped the still on top, fired it up and away she went.

IMG_1170.JPG

I disabled the bottom plate for extra flavour. Got a couple of litres of corn whiskey out of it which has a certain flavour that I could go for. The parrot needed a mod which has been done but aside from that I would have to say success. I have mashed, fermented and stilled a corn whiskey on the grain.
A lot of fuckin around though, compared to rum. Next run will be with some of the pregelatinized corn from the feed store.

So you don't crash cool then hey? I guess it's been boiled and there's no malt so there's no need to?

I put cold water through the boiler section to get it going in the right direction but don't want to overshoot the mark. Once I get the feel for it it will get easier. For example, if the wash is at 100 degrees and i put cold water into the boiler section and bring it down to 60 degrees where will the two sections meet in the middle. Theres about twenty litres in the boiler and fifty in the mash tun. I will be takin notes so that I can save a few minutes, litres and kilowatts. The stage from the 65 degree rest down to yeast pitching temp wouldn't hurt if I crashed it but there was no rush. Sealing up the wash is pretty high tech too. A soup bowl out of the cooks kitchen sits inside the six inch ferrule just nice.
I'm going to smash out a few runs with this. The next run will be with flaked corn and the enzymes. Then I might do a flaked corn with wheat malt. I got a fair bit of wheat. Then I might pick on a couple of commercial recipes. The no strain thing is what it's all about. That and being able to ferment and still on the grain. It's not as easy as an olive drum full of rum but good things aren't always easy.

Yeah I was referring to crash cooling down to yeast pitching temp.

I only ask as I'm waiting on my double boiler to be built, should be ready soon. Fingers crossed.

Many thanks for the thread. Great stuff!

Bushy wrote:Next run will be with some of the pregelatinized corn from the feed store.

Please let us know how this turns out...thinking of going this way myself.

tipsy wrote:

Bushy wrote:Next run will be with some of the pregelatinized corn from the feed store.

Please let us know how this turns out...thinking of going this way myself.

+1 interested to know also i think tasspirit was looking at it to. Is the pre gelatanized stuff also flaked?

bluc wrote:

tipsy wrote:

Bushy wrote:Next run will be with some of the pregelatinized corn from the feed store.

Please let us know how this turns out...thinking of going this way myself.

+1 interested to know also i think tasspirit was looking at it to. Is the pre gelatanized stuff also flaked?

The stuff I am looking at is almost whole kernels, will need to be milled, the pregelatinized maize I bought from the HBS turned out to be not gelatinised :violence-smack: $6 kg Im going to try make a set up like Pintoshines for corn mashes :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I am going to have to save my pennies and buy a tig welder, love the double boiler Bushy :handgestures-thumbupleft: