Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I need to build a 500 gallon beer stripper. I need to keep the cost down. I want the kettle to be stainless and the column can either be stainless or copper. The spirit run will be through my existing still. So what I am looking for is some creative ideas.

Ok first thing all raises my eyebrows is 500 gal boiler . Are you a commercial distiller as that is a huge volume, just under 1900 litres ( same as running 18 stnd beer kegs at a time)

Being that most of the members on this forum are home hobby distillers and only a few craft distillers on here you may struggle to find anyone with any experience in a still of that size. But I digress, personally I think for a wash of that volume you would be better off with continuous still. There is a small amount of information on this forum but if you do some some googling and watch some videos on you tube and you will get the idea.

500 gals :scared-eek: :o holy schmoly!!! mate i think thats gonna be a custom made number for sure, most of us on here a used to small volumes, i would look around for a distillery that has shut up shop, i know a distillery at kingaroy closed down, but i have no idea if or where the equipment is.

If you have a look at stillwagon's profile there is a link to his website for his distillery in Oregon USA.

Hi Stillwagon, I had a look at your website, nice idea with the barrels.
Anyway for a stripper how about a submarine still? Built with foodsafe materials of course. Easy to fabricate and will look the part if you start doing distillery tour groups once your business is up and running.

I am not familiar with a submarine still. I have a friend that converted a used dairy tank into his beer stripper. But I haven't had much luck finding one reasonably priced and local enough to avoid outrageous shipping costs. So, I figure I will have to build it. I am just looking for good ideas, or something creative I may have not thought of yet.

Ok well in that case you may be able to keep costs down by looking at ex dairy vats or wine tanks. I would think the vats would be better though as you might struggle to find a tank that is short enough at that copacity

Submarine still, traditional shine still made from iron sheets wrapped around wooden Sides,
Most people will recognize it from TVs Moonshiners.
If you used foodsafe materials.... Then I think one would be a showpeice.
I am.not suggesting using iron in it at all

The submarine still would be quite a "period" looking piece. I would imagine high maintenance in the long run though.

Someone mentioned a continuous operation for stripping. What do you think of that?

I actually built one a couple of years ago with a pellet stove, a couple of stainless steel heat exchangers, and a 2" column. I completely forgot about that. It put out a continuous stream of 75% from a 15% wash. The problem I had was too much build up on the heat exchangers. But maybe a more gradual heat up would prevent scorching... It was originally designed for fuel production so taste was not a consideration at the time.

submarine stills would be a cheap option and I heard they made a really nice flavoured whiskey. I haven't ever seen the moonshiners show but the ones I've heard about are copper sheet wrapped around oak walls. From a marketing point of view I think they could work really well :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Edit There is a movie called "Lawless" about a bootleging operation during the pohabition yrs that shows some really nice examples of these. I have personally been thinking of different ways to use a wooden or semi wooden boiller for a few yrs myself expressly to replicate a Naval rum ;-)

stillwagon believe it or not ebay is full of what you are looking from. I know a guy in WV that has stuff like that also. Have you found what you are looking for?

Not yet. But thank you for the referral, I will look into it.

I am thinking about the continuous still for stripping. I could pump straight from my 500 gallon fermenter to a small boiler that would send the vapor to a column that gives me the product at a steady abv and volume, and the spent wash leaves the bottom of the column. It would be a matter of controlling feed and vapor temp. I think something along these lines would be more efficient for stripping and far less costly to build.

Alexander polianski (spelling? ) from ferromit.com sell a contunous stripper. I havnt seen it myself or used one but he built one of my fractional stills and its a solid well made industrial foodgrade beast that performed exactly as promised if that counts. Alex exports to the world.
http://www.ferromit.com/continuous%20still.html

Better example of submarine but without the oak sides very interesting condenser 3:01 of way through video. I have never seen one like that usually the subs have a worm condenser.

Holy crap thats a lot of mash! :angry-banghead:

Check out Copper moonshine Stills 110 gal continues still