Hi,
I’ve looked at this forum a few times as a guest but after a break from any distilling I’m starting back with the intention of supplying my own fairly modest alcohol needs of a 700ml bottle every week to ten days.
I only have an Air Still at the moment. Although I’m sure it is nowhere near as good as a proper still it is all I have at the moment. I have been getting results that are acceptable enough to drink and at least on par with the lower end brands of scotch I buy but I am looking at improving the quality within the limitations of my equipment. Although overall it takes longer to process a wash than a better still the shorter blocks of time do work well for me - I would rarely if ever be able to devote 5-6 hours of constant attention in one go.
I have another TPW on at the moment which is certainly better than the turbos I started with.
I will think about a better still at some point but it has to work in with the limitations I have. These include cost but also not having any uninterruptable process take too long (eg no 5-6 hour runs), minimal real estate required, minimal water usage and limited experience in metalworking/plumbing. That probably pushes me towards a fairly small pot still (8-12l) with a worm coil which I realise won’t be the best for clarity of cuts.
Cheers,
Andrew