Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Definitely double distill mate :handgestures-thumbupleft: no need to do cuts on the strip run (first time you distill it) only do cuts on the second run (spirit run). Do however throw the fores on both runs.

I don't know how much an air still holds but the best thing to do is to do a few strip runs and put them all together in a jar untill you have enough to do a full run for the spirit run. Just make sure what you put back in the still is below 40%abv. This will then be your spirit run that you should do cuts on :handgestures-thumbupleft:

No need for filtering mate or any carbons or clearers or pretty much anything they sell you at the home brew shop.

Hi potrocket ,

Have a read of this mate, it's a great guide to running the air still

https://www.aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6177#p103481

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Thanks all for very help full advise. Back to the cave and sort this lot out :happy-partydance:

Take this with a grain of salt, as I haven't been distilling long, but if you did no cuts with the first run, it mightn't be a bad idea to add it to the low wines of the second wash and do a spirit run. There are likely to be heads in the first run which will mean headaches. Literally. Nobody here want's you to have a bad experience this early on and be put off what I think is a most rewarding hobby. I'm sure someone will either confirm or deny this theory, as I haven't seen the information that comes with an air still and they may well already have you cutting the heads from the hearts.

There is also a thread on making cuts in the beginners section. It explains what to look for and that airing the product for 24 - 48 hours is important

Well Hi all have been busy in the background for the past 12 months reading, reading, reading and churning out run after run of TPW for a clean neutral and also using oak chips and essences to give me a drinkable, with coke product. Now to try this wash, have just put on first NGW 25 litre batch good size for my t500 followed recipe as provided. Questions can I use Dextrose instead of sugar? for next generations. Have 3x30lt drums that i could use, but that would give me 3 lots of first gen to strip and then do spirit run, then the next would be all 2nd Gen and so on. Would that be a negative on flavour of final product?
Where do you all get your Oak from?
Will I need to get a power controller for the boiler. Have now got a Pot Dome and condenser top for the T500, to run flavored washes.
so many questions, feel like I am just starting out all over again. Let the fun begin.
Cheers
Grumpyian

Oak dominoes from five star distilling, or offcuts from cooperage like roll out the barrel then cut, toast or char them yourself.
Dextrose will work but prob more expensive for little if any benifit :handgestures-thumbupleft:
With gens generally do 5gens then a spirit run with all combined. Get a big low wines container mix all gens then do spit run or runs.
People with bubblers seem to do a single run then blend the spirit from gens together. I have been doing it that way with a pot still and the spirit is still mighty tasty..
So up to you how you run it and what your doing will still work..

Cheers Bluc thanks for that will blend all stripped gens and then do spirit run. Will order Oak. Should I get a power controller to slow the t500 boiler down for spirit run?

Yes, makes for a much better end product and a bigger hearts cut.

Hey dudes I’ve got my nutrigrain wash at pretty much the end of its ferment, I was hoping it would all settle and clear like the wbab wash. lt hasn’t. It’s got a thick cap at the top that I have tried to stir in a couple of times. Is this cool? Is it because I didn’t blitz/crush the cereal?
I guess I will siphon it through some sort of filter?
Also should I use the sediment from the bottom or this “cap” for the next generations? Or both?
Sorry for all the questions.
Thanks legends.

Hi Shortcut,
First time i ran this recipe i crushed half and left half whole.
Same issue with floaties which i decanted off when siphoning.
However i must have also transferred into the boiler a fair bit of suspended nutrigrain, burnt to the bottom of my boiler (on gas burner) and had to ditched the run as it tasted burnt, and re-clean the still.

Since then i blitzed the whole boxes in the thermomix/blender, then once the wash was complete transferred to secondary and cold crashed for a week. Surprising how much would have been suspended in the first wash. No issue since doing the cold crash and also make siphoning so much easier. I also switched to a drain tap with bazooka and found that although it needs scraping while draining, works well to keep the bigger clumps out.

Ta Username, just looked up “cold crashing”. Very interesting.
Definitely gonna blitz the cereal next time. Did the siphon thing last night and got a mouthful of mank cornflakes.
( chucked in some cornflakes with ninjagrain)
Ran it last night, smells pretty good this morning.

I've never done a nutrigrain wash but I would think it would settle out itself like a CFW or WBAB wash or any other wash. If you leave it a while longer all the floaties should drop and the wash should be clear but have a little colour. My CFW has just dropped it's crust in the last couple of days but I'll leave it a few days more just to make sure it’s clear and good to go.

I may be posing this question in the wrong thread, admin please move if need be.

Why does a wash clear? Is it due to the change in SG? If so, is it consistently the same SG? Or am I completely off track. Thanks everyone.

It’ll clear because the fermentation stops and the suspended solids/ fines are allowed to settle to the bottom.

Woodduck,
I normally leave all my washed for 3 weeks, same cycle as my beer brews, so plenty of time to whatever was going to drop out naturally to happen.

I think my method of decanting is not that great. Tried siphoning and found it quite slow and still upset the trub.
Ended up putting a drain valve in my S/S keg fermenter about 100mm from the bottom fitted with a bazooka, this sits above the trub but still stirs it up a bit.
I would suggest my bazooka was not great at filtering the finer suspended material, however i am already set up to cold crash so it was a easy solution for me, and after ditching one batch i decided on a process where i could physically see what was removed, as i stated was surprised at how much dropped out.

Ok cool

Shout out for Nutrigrain on special at woolies atm - $3.70ea for the 800g box - until tuesday 30th jan :D

RC Al wrote:Shout out for Nutrigrain on special at woolies atm - $3.70ea for the 800g box - until tuesday 30th jan :D

yeah saw that, need to get a few boxes because the kids actually eat it :laughing-rolling:

hey all.. planning on doing my first ever wash/run and thinking about going the NG route given it looks relatively simple for a newb.

I'm currently buying glassware and groceries for a 60L ferment / 50L boiler (will probably put 40-45L in it each run)

a couple of questions if I may;
I love my whiskey, but I love my rum too. I wanted to do a molasses wash, but the stank of the ferment won't allow me to do it in the house/garage. Whilst this may be sacrilege... would swapping in say 2kg of Brown Sugar (out of 10kg total) give me somewhat of a more rum-like whiskey? effectively 20/80 ratio of brown sugar to raw.

Second question.. purely for making sure I have enough glassware on hand for storage. Obviously hugely variable, but how many litres of low wines can I expect to be keeping after the stripping runs for each gen? (40-45L charge running through a 2" pot). Just want to make sure I have enough to store 3-4 gens before mixing them together for the spirit run.

Are you telling me you don't want the beautiful fresh smell of sweet molasses and freshly fermenting rum wafting through your home? Whats wrong with ya :D :D :teasing-neener: