First still sort of - and g'day

[bluc]

You dont need esscence with a pot stil. Do grain mashs(or molasses for rum) and good cuts and you will make spirit as good as any bought if not better. Keep your exsisting reflux for making neutral/vodka for maccerations cocktails and liqueurs :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Nd83]

Bloody legends. My mate made his own still after he saw my monstrosity so I reckon I'll be able to trade him for some neutrals if need be. Final question can you mak him from a pot still or do I need one of the fancy little window looking stills. And if so how much are they or how hard to make

[bluc]

Final question can you mak him from a pot still or do I need one of the fancy little window looking stills. And if so how much are they or how hard to make

Not sure what you mean by this.. the ones with windows "plated stills" or bubblers make everything and fast. :happy-partydance: pretty sure you can make azeotrope vodka at about 2-2.5l per hour, same for flavoured spirit. Miles faster than and other "reflux still".
Pot still only makes flavoured spirit (you can make vodka but you need to run it through heaps of times, takes ages)

Reflux stills generally only make vodka.
Some can be detuned to make flavoured spirit but then they are more pot still than reflux still..

[Nd83]

Sorry I meant can you make gin from a pot still

[Sam.]

Welcome mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

My advice is to take it easy and have a good look around the forum before commiting to anything, seen it too many times when people jump in before they know what they actually want and end up wasting a lot of time and money.

[bluc]

Yes you can but you need neutral also.

You add botanicals to neutral than re-distill through a pot still, or get your best quality neutral/vodka and put the botanicals in a mesh basket in the vapour path and redistill through a pot still (or bubbler) .

You need to have finished/ready to drink vodka/neutral to make it, if you had a bubbler and tried to make neutral and gin at the same time you would lose the bulk of the gin flavour when you do your cuts.. hope that makes sense..

[copperhead road]

You can make whiskey in a reflux still and you can make gin in a pot still,
You can also eat chicken noodle soup with a crescent wrench BUT.......

anything is possible just have a crack

[Nd83]

Cheers blokes it's all making sense. I've read a bit on here last couple days just needed to here some definitive answers.

[Minpac]

I'm not the most experienced, but based on the pic, I'd say the reflux setup is slow because of the small diameter piping at the top of the still. Sounds like the pot still parts could work well for flavoured washes(rum, whiskey,etc). Do you have a pic of that setup too? - you may not need to make another pot head.

The column looks like it's screwed on to the boiler - you should be able to use the boiler for other designs pretty easily - I think most people here prefer tri-clamp fittings as they're easy to swap.

[Sam.]

You can make whiskey in a reflux still and you can make gin in a pot still,
You can also eat chicken noodle soup with a crescent wrench

You should really add the bloke who said that said for credit ;-)

[Nd83]

I'm not the most experienced, but based on the pic, I'd say the reflux setup is slow because of the small diameter piping at the top of the still. Sounds like the pot still parts could work well for flavoured washes(rum, whiskey,etc). Do you have a pic of that setup too? - you may not need to make another pot head.

The column looks like it's screwed on to the boiler - you should be able to use the boiler for other designs pretty easily - I think most people here prefer tri-clamp fittings as they're easy to swap.

So for the pot setup there is another 6" reducer that screws right onto the keg then the condenser just faces downwards and that's the setup the bloke I got it off used. The gear I was given obviously worked for him but it's too fiddly for me so I want to start fresh with my own plans and not mangle his stuff and probably just give it back to him. I can get a keg for free and most the stainless from work