Distilling: A beginners journey

[pococse]

Hey Guys/Girls,

First off all thanks for having such an awesome forum. There is a great wealth of info here for a newbie like myself.
I have decided that I want to start distilling and thought that I would ask a few questions to get some opinions before I buy my first still.

I live in an apartment, so I don't have a huge amount of space and neither do I have a garage. So for my first still I want to buy all off the shelf (I have bribed my mates enough for use of there garages with my home brewed beer for car repairs). Sadly making my own still is off the cards until I have a bit more space and tools.

I would like to makes whisky/bourbon/rum style spirit so I would like to start off with a pot still.

I have a preference for an electric urn style boiler (if the head is detachable I would be able to use it for BIAB brewing as well as distillation) but I would be open to purchasing a still which would fit on my stove (I have quite a decently sized kitchen). I feel that a keg size still (50l) would be way to big for my apartment. Perhaps a T500 size (25L) would be better?

My biggest worry at the moment is that most stills on the market (or sold through here, or ebay) seem to be cooled by a continuous supply of water. Being in an apartment I have no way of holding a tank of water for reticulation so I would be wasting a huge amount of water with this style of cooling. I have been looking at cooling using a worm, but there does not seem to be many still's in Australia using worms for cooling.
Is there a reason for this? Is there any downside to using a worm?

My budget to purchase a still is between $400-$600 and as I brew beer I have most of the fermentation equipment.

If anyone on here has any apartment distilling tips I would love to hear them.

:text-thankyoublue:

Pococse

[Kimbo]

Hiya pococse, welcome to the forum. :greetings-waveyellow:
I have split this thread into the beginners questions section as this as a welcome centre :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[zombie]

Overwhelmed yet? Getting confused?
Just like the old tv shows used to say... But wait! There's more!!!

I liked the 1/4 keg idea. (pony kegs here). A simple electric heating element with controller, and a basic tri clamp pot head with whatever cooler you decide. You could build it for approx 350.00 USD or buy it all for maybe 600.00.

A few pieces at a time always helps give more time for reading up too. This is really the hardest part.

[pococse]

Pretty damn overwhelmed. Only makes me more excited.

And I have been reading up for at least 3 weeks!

[Muppet]

Hi mate welcome. I started with a t500 in the kitchen using tap water. As a estimate a run would consume around 200l of water. You could use the water for other things after just depends how worried you are. Mine was a good learning tool but it's not suited for flavored spirits, also quite expensive for what it is. Pot stills require multiple runs, keep that in mind too.

[zombie]

A BUNCH of posts dis-appeared???

[Kimbo]

I have split this thread into the beginners questions section as this as a welcome centre :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Sorry for the confusion everyone, I have renamed this topic in the beginners section.
Distilling in my Apartment