The Story So Far "With Pics"

[Tsv Stiller]

Im the attempt to try and give something back i figured i would try and document what i have done so far and how its been done. Hopefully this will help anyone new like me in explaining the process and including some pics. Of course this is by no means the best way to go about things, its just how i have done it so far.

I quickly want to mention that this site is a fantastic resource and i thank you all for contributing to it, especially the guys and girls who do all the back end maintenance to keep it up and running, so thanks to all the people that i dont know and probably never will outside this wonderful forum :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Ok so im gonna start form the beginning;

I firstly had decided that i wanted predominantly whiskey and rum from my first still so with much back and forward i finally decided on a pot still, A big wrap here to JayD, he built my still and shipped it across the country for me at a great price and continues to put up with my rambling questions on this and that. For me it was never about building a still, i never will do that cause i get frustrated making lego toys for my kid so i was always going to buy something and for those of you like me i cannot recommend JayD enough.

So the still is ordered and getting built and now i had to source a boiler, i was lucky in that a mate owns a pub so a 50litre keg was an easy and free find. My suggestion to those of you trying to get kegs, have you called and asked a pub for one? "excuse me sir i am attempting to build a table from a 50 litre keg, would you happen to have any spare, im happy to pay of course?" thats what i would say.

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I decided on using an electric element, again with much research and discussion with the crew on this forum and ordered my weldless element from Mac and i will also add that it really is a fantastic product and i am glad i waited until Mac had his stock back in and didnt settle for some other element. Below you can see both the element on the inside and out of the keg, i used a 32mm stainless drill bit and plenty of wd40, one person sitting on the keg and the other drills, be very careful and wear long pants because boiling hot stainless shavings are fucking hot and actually stick like a dart in your skin :crying-blue:

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Whilst getting all the equipment together i had started a couple of WBAB wash's, i just used old beer fermenters which work perfectly. I did two wash's but in one i used raw sugar the other white sugar, you can see the color difference in the photo.

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I then needed to get a controller sorted out and the electrical side of things, my brother is an electrician so this was pretty easy and straight forward. He created a swicth out of an old stove top element controller, at this stage its just on or off but will have the regulator functioning in a day or so. On my house the current drawn from the element was a fair bit and would play havoc in the summer when we are cranking air cons etc so we ran a dedicated power point just for the still.

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The switch

Will post a second part as the photo upload is doing something stupid, sorry folks.

[Tsv Stiller]

Part 2

So once the electrical stuff was complete i did a check to make sure the boiler was operating properly which it was and then did my cleaning and sacrificial alcohol runs.

For cleaning i used 4 liters of white vinegar and the same amount water once i started getting some output i rant it for 25mins.

alcohol run was 4 liters of cask wine with equal amount water and ran it for the same time.

Finally got to strip my first WBAb wash

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Once all in the boiler and setup it took about 40mins to get up to temperature and the alcohol started to flow soon after. I use a variety of containers and just marked them all out at 500ml a good find were glass jars with lid for 2$ each from one of the local cheap shops.

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I ended up collecting about 4.5liters which around 62% on the alcometer, i think it turned it off to soon as the last jar i measured was still at 40% so by that i could have probably got another liter. I found it a but tricky to measure as by the time the alcohol is cool enough to measure you could be below 20% which is then not worth running. Next time i might try perhaps cooling the jars after they are filled just to get them down in temp so i can read the alcohol content accurately.

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It has taught me a heap doing my first run, i discarded the first 250ml and then collected in 500ml lots from there. The difference between the heads and the heart of the run was quite easy to distinguish by smell but im not so sure about the tails, i couldn't really pick up on a big difference in the smell of my last couple of jars, perhaps i didn't actually make it to the tails.

The plan is to strip my second batch on the weekend and combine the two and water down for a spirit run, hopefully i will have enough to get a decent quantity of final product.

Cheers :D

[Kimbo]

Great work tsv, keep the tutorial coming, its great for the noobs :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Smbjk]

Gret job mate. If your doing a strip run maybe I'm wrong but you dont need to worry bout cuts just keep it all except fores for you spirit run. Love the pics :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Tsv Stiller]

Thanks guys, yeah im aware technically i dont need to cut but i wanted to do it for practice i only chuked out the first 250ml at the start.

Just got the controller working as well so i can now control temp :))

[kingy]

Gret job mate. If your doing a strip run maybe I'm wrong but you dont need to worry bout cuts just keep it all except fores for you spirit run. Love the pics :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yea it would be hard to make cuts on a strip run as the fractions would be smeared. I struggled with tails on my first run. You only need to drink it once and you'll be able to pick it up next time lol.

There's also a few alcohol temperature calculators on the net so you know the actual alc as its coming off the still. ( easier then cooling jars)

Top work on the write up, was a great read.

[Tsv Stiller]

Need some advice peeps,

My still works great but im unsure about my temp controller. its controller the temp exactly the same as an electric stove top so basically heat come on for so many seconds and heat goes off, increase heat just means less seconds off.

So this works but technically its stopping boiling for a few seconds and then starting again so the output will be a slow stream, then start to drip, drip ,drip, stop...then start again with a stream.

So its going stream.................drip drip drip drip..stream..................dripdrip drip drip...stream and so on

so i cant get just a drip constantly its like stream and drip or constant stream, is this an issue?

Cheers

[SBB]

So its going stream.................drip drip drip drip..stream..................dripdrip drip drip...stream and so on

That's why people go to the trouble of making proper voltage/power controlers, you cant have the on/off thing happening or it won't work properly, you need constant steady heat.
There is a thread around here someplace on building them.

[Tsv Stiller]

Yeah just gave it a go. I figured it should work the samr as bringing
something down to a simmer on the stove. The heat stops but the simmering will continue, anyway I guess no piss for me until I can fix it.

[Sam.]

Yeah just gave it a go. I figured it should work the samr as bringing
something down to a simmer on the stove. The heat stops but the simmering will continue, anyway I guess no piss for me until I can fix it.

No mate you need to have a constant rolling boil in your boiler to get a constant output that you can control. Either get a real controller or just run what you got and take off how you can :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[MacStill]

Need some advice peeps,


So its going stream.................drip drip drip drip..stream..................dripdrip drip drip...stream and so on

so i cant get just a drip constantly its like stream and drip or constant stream, is this an issue?

Cheers

Sounds like a prostate problem, have you been checked lately ?

:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[dogbreath vodka]

:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

:text-+1:
DBV

[Dominator]

Haha Mac!

A simmerstat would work if you were using a double boiler, unfortunately they just dint cut it as a power controller. I built myself a power controller with one of these recently. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10000W-220V- ... 3cd15a0349 It was fairly easy to make and it works a treat.

[Aussiedownunder01]

I had mine checked and when I asked for a second opinion the doctor gave me a funny look