Hi from another Pom

[Goldenthroatcharmer]

Hi all from another Pom, or Little Englander as the rest of Europe now like to call us, residing in the south east of England (although, in my defence, I do have a son who lives in Brisbane - if that counts?)
I am probably like many people and had a mis-spent youth churning out barely drinkable beer and wine, mainly due to the fact that I was too impatient!
However, advancing years has changed my palate to somewhere near grown-up and myself and 'she who must be obeyed' are now really into all the different craft gins and mixers that have exploded onto the market in recent years.
Some while back, we had a day trip to a craft gin distillery where we were able to make our own personalised bottle of gin each, using botanicals picked from the huge selection that they had available. Having not given it a lot of thought beforehand and not really knowing anything about the manufacture of gin apart from the fact that juniper berries were involved, I was astounded at how easily a good bottle of gin could be produced using little more than a glass flask sitting on a hotplate with a tube out of the top attached to a water cooled condenser - no more high tech than we had in the chemistry lab at school! (Admittedly, they had high quality neutral spirit to start with which no doubt helped!)
Ever since then, every time I throw loadsamoney at a bottle of craft gin, a little voice inside my head has said '' You could be making that '', especially after I discovered that I could actually purchase a still in the LHBS - and make fuel for my bio-ethanol burner fireplace. :)) (Apparently legal in the UK)
Anyway, moving swiftly on with my boring story, which is probably the same as for masses of other people, I decided to do a lot more research during the 'lockdown' and spent many hours reading books and trawling the internet for information on home distillation (hence finding this forum) and now feel reasonably confident to move forward (hence joining this forum!)
My interest at the outset is not necessarily to produce large quantities of cheap spirit, but to experiment with the huge selection of botanicals that are available and try to make quality gin that will impress friends and family.
I do not have any equipment at present and came very close to purchasing a T500 with copper column but having seen pictures of one in bits being modified, I figured it was well overpriced (£500 in the UK) and something that I could easily make in my workshop. In fact, it looks so simple, I am left wondering why nobody seems to copy it for a home build - perhaps you all know something I don't!
So the upshot of all this is that I have convinced myself to consider building a still of my own and amaze my friends and family even more with my own bio fuel burning brightly in my lounge!! :))

Looking forward to learning a lot more from all you clever people.

[The Stig]

Welcome.
To make Gin your going to need 2 stills.
1 to make neutral and a pot still to make the gin.
Good luck on your journey , it’s a fun one that’s for sure :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Lesgold]

Welcome to the forum GTC.

Plenty of information here that will help to answer many of your questions. Good advice is available if you ask. You were talking about the possibility of copying the T500. When you do some research you may find that there will be a variety of options available that will allow you to build a reflux still that will give you good performance for minimal cost. Good luck on your journey.

[Goldenthroatcharmer]

Thanks for the replies . . . I am liking my abbreviated name already!
I realised early on in my research that I would probably need the two types of still & looked at the pot still top for the T500 but that is another serious investment - I think it would definitely be a case of 'all the gear - no idea' :think:
I would be seriously suicidal if I invested that much money & failed to get good results!
My mission is to find a plan for a tried & tested 'hybrid' that can do both jobs & hoped that you good folks could point me in the right direction.

[Guyross]

Thanks for the replies . . . I am liking my abbreviated name already!
I realised early on in my research that I would probably need the two types of still & looked at the pot still top for the T500 but that is another serious investment - I think it would definitely be a case of 'all the gear - no idea' :think:
I would be seriously suicidal if I invested that much money & failed to get good results!
My mission is to find a plan for a tried & tested 'hybrid' that can do both jobs & hoped that you good folks could point me in the right direction.

I am certain you will get good results. If I can, anyone can. My family is on the phone and messaging regularly telling me that they can no longer stand store bought and pretty please can maybe they get some more of mine.

It will pay for itself rather quickly.

[Professor Green]

Welcome to AD mate.

If you've got the skills, build vs HBS buy is a no-brainer.

As Stig mentioned, for gin you'll need two stills, a reflux column for the neutral base and pot for the flavouring part of the process.

For a smaller gin set up (I'm assuming you don't want to go large here since you were looking at T500s) then something that will fit on top of the 30 litre T500 boiler is good place to start.I suggest this boiler as you'll probably be wanting to run small batches to try out your gin recipes and the T500 elements are not internal meaning you can do so without too much fear of exposing your elements when the liquid level gets down towards the end of the run. Rather than copying the T500 design, consider making a 2" boka instead. Couple this with 2" pot and and you'll be making excellent neutral and gin in no time. Both are relatively simple to make and there are plenty of examples on this site for you to get inspired. If you make it modular you can get away with fewer parts by reusing some of the common sections in each configuration.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

[Lesgold]

:text-+1: On what the prof said. I built a modular CCVM a few months ago. It quickly converts from an efficient pot still into a reflux still that will distill low wines to 95%. The setup is great for brown and neutral spirits. I use a smaller pot still/ boiler when performing gin runs.