Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

After some family dramas, I needed a distraction, so I thought I would do my first run, while I had some quite time. I'm using the Pure Distilling home Spirit Maker to cut my teeth on, with a turbo wash that came in a pack form using 6kgs Dextrose. I also have TPW on the go, which I will run next week more than likely so I can do the comparison. I took some notes for my own benefit, so I would have something to refer back to when I do cuts on the TPW. This may helps other NOOBS out there as well?

First and foremost this still is dead easy to run, there is absolutely no fucking around with it. Its almost set and forget - there is no need for constant adjustments on the water flow as I believe is the case with the T500. I had the other end of the water draining into my pool and a relatively slow trickle - being quite warm to touch.

Anyway, the still was loaded with the wash, 21 litres from memory and after checking that my hoses were good with a test run, I turned the still on. It took approximately 40 minutes to get to the stage where the thermo was reading around 50 deg where I started the water flow. It then very quickly reached 80c where I let it for 10 minutes, and quickly stablised at 77.8c. I then opened the tap to let out foreshots as per instructions with the unit. I collected just over 150 mls and kept this aside for household cleaning duties.

I then collected the remaining spirit in approximately 300ml lots so I could get and idea of smell, taste (at aprrox 40%) an alcohol levels at a given temperature. These testers were aired for approximaely 10-15 minutes (not a day like suggested over this forum) and by placing some product in the alcometers tube (I didnt have a parrott). My notes :-B roughly are:

Stablising temp 77.8c

11.05 am 300mls - 94%, heads?, lots of bite, tastes like stale vodka
11.15 am 300mls - 93%, heads?, smells more like vodka, bite at the back of throat
11.32 am 300mls - 93% hearts?, definitely better product, some bite
11.42 am 300mls - 93% hearts definitely, holy crap smooth as, no bite and clean flavour compared to previous
11.50 am (temp up .01 degree)
11.56 am 300mls - 94% hearts?, bite back, although not bad.
12.06 pm 300mls - 92% hearts?, super clean, no bite, smooth
12.21 pm 300mls - 94% huge bite again, but ok
12.26 pm temp up to 78c
12.39 pm 350 mls - 92% smooth, very little bite. Still clean tasting.
12.56 pm 280 mls - no notes as I was heading into the tails section and was concentrating on the still temp.
1.00pm temp up 79c or thereabouts things were happening quick here, the bit I collecting as it was definitely tails - smell :o I collected some tails, to get a better idea of smell, taste etc, not sure what the ABV of this was, as I spilled a couple of drops on this section of my notes :wtf:
1.01pm, shut it down - didn't bother with tails at all.

From reading this forum, it was clear that turbos aren't though of that much, so I recombined all the cuts which from memory came to 94% then reduced it to 40% and filtered it twice through carbon Which also came in the kit. I letting it air in the demijohn for a day with the lid of a bit of tissue paper secure over the top. I now think I have a better idea of this 'cutting business' 8-) so when I run my TPW I will not have to filter it. I may just go hard on some my cuts. I also think about keeping feints.

All in all pretty pleased with the firs run.

So if i've got it right, you added all your cut together as soons as you were finnished your run? it's much better to let it air overnight then do your final cuts by smell and taste.

Yes that's right. The only reason I did it this way was because I was putting it through carbon and wanted to compare the 'HBS method' (the cutting was for my own experience) to the method of cuts , airing, and recombining to taste.

I'll be definitely doing it this way with my TPW.

Great example of a first run... I think you will be really pleasantly surprised with the result of a TPW although will extract less booze, but that said , once you go there you will never go back... both for price and taste, although you will probably buy an additional fermenter (by the way, you can buy something that looks and acts exactly like the HBS ones from bunnings, they are called a 25L water container, just drill a hole in the top and buy a bubble-o from the HBS).

Vatoe wrote:Yes that's right. The only reason I did it this way was because I was putting it through carbon and wanted to compare the 'HBS method' (the cutting was for my own experience) to the method of cuts , airing, and recombining to taste.

I'll be definitely doing it this way with my TPW.

I find on my (same right but older I think) rig, running TPW and after fores, about 300ml goes into a little pot for the next run.... Once the temp has gone up 0.2 degree from my starting point I cut very small cuts, letting each one sit for a while before making judgement, usually if it goes up another .1 above that it means the end of the run, as it very quickly rises at that point.... I collect about 200ml of this stuff and it goes back into the next run too..

I generally get about 2L of 94-97%ABV

Whilst I'm not familiar with your rig, for a 25L boiler I'd probably suggest smaller cut jars to minimize the smearing across jars. I use a 50L boiler and do 300ml cuts and wouldn't go any smaller (although with bigger batches it's easier to be brutal with your cuts).
Great move getting into the TPW. Whilst yeild is less and even worse with good cuts, who really cares if quality is what we all seek
Edit: spelling

Boomgate wrote:Great example of a first run... I think you will be really pleasantly surprised with the result of a TPW although will extract less booze, but that said , once you go there you will never go back... both for price and taste, although you will probably buy an additional fermenter (by the way, you can buy something that looks and acts exactly like the HBS ones from bunnings, they are called a 25L water container, just drill a hole in the top and buy a bubble-o from the HBS).

I dont even bother with the bubble-o with tpw not needed just a light screw on the lid. Tpw is very forgiving and I haven't had a bad batch yet ;-) :D

Boomgate wrote:Great example of a first run... I think you will be really pleasantly surprised with the result of a TPW although will extract less booze, but that said , once you go there you will never go back... both for price and taste, although you will probably buy an additional fermenter (by the way, you can buy something that looks and acts exactly like the HBS ones from bunnings, they are called a 25L water container, just drill a hole in the top and buy a bubble-o from the HBS).

Yes, actually looking forward to the TPW run. I have 4 fermenters with airlocks etc lying around from my beer brewing days, so all good in that area :-D I have Mac's rum wash on the go as well.

Boomgate wrote:

Vatoe wrote:Yes that's right. The only reason I did it this way was because I was putting it through carbon and wanted to compare the 'HBS method' (the cutting was for my own experience) to the method of cuts , airing, and recombining to taste.

I'll be definitely doing it this way with my TPW.

I find on my (same right but older I think) rig, running TPW and after fores, about 300ml goes into a little pot for the next run.... Once the temp has gone up 0.2 degree from my starting point I cut very small cuts, letting each one sit for a while before making judgement, usually if it goes up another .1 above that it means the end of the run, as it very quickly rises at that point.... I collect about 200ml of this stuff and it goes back into the next run too..

I generally get about 2L of 94-97%ABV

Are your small cuts around the 200ml mark? The instructions that came with my still refers to a one degree climb signalling the tails coming in. The instructions actually recommend turning the still off at this point. Is this what you meant or did you mean 0.1 degree? I must admit it was all a bit quick in the end, I missed the temp rise due mucking around withe the jars.

I find after the run starts the temperature will hold steady for most of the run, then it goes up 0.1 degree... Usually this is at the 3/4 mark.... then when it goes up another 0.1 degree it basically means its just about finished because when it goes up yet another 0.1 after this it will suddenly keep rising... I hope it makes more sense when I say it this time haha

I also have this still. Ultra easy to use, slow but easy. I didn't get to stingey on water flow as I found ran right it would come out at 95.63% all the time every time. I always used ABV to judge cut off time as it just didn't trust that sort of thermometer to be that accurate (and I hates wasting) :laughing-rolling:

crow wrote:I also have this still. Ultra easy to use, slow but easy. I didn't get to stingey on water flow as I found ran right it would come out at 95.63% all the time every time. I always used ABV to judge cut off time as it just didn't trust that sort of thermometer to be that accurate (and I hates wasting) :laughing-rolling:

Out of.interest have you tried it with a weetbix wash?

Boomgate wrote:I find after the run starts the temperature will hold steady for most of the run, then it goes up 0.1 degree... Usually this is at the 3/4 mark.... then when it goes up another 0.1 degree it basically means its just about finished because when it goes up yet another 0.1 after this it will suddenly keep rising... I hope it makes more sense when I say it this time haha

Yes come to think of it, my was probably doing something very similar.