Hey all,
Complete newb here. Up until yesterday, I’d never even looked at distilling before.
Quick background: I’ve been a bourbon/whiskey drinker for around 15 years, nothing too fancy but just the usual JD/MM, etc.. just none of that JB stuff! I also love a spiced rum to mix things up a bit, with my absolute fav being Rebellion Bay.
I’m currently exploring the idea of a small setup at home, and really like the look of the T500 boiler & copper condenser. It looks easy enough for a total beginner to not stuff up too badly. Pricing on sale isn’t too bad, so I might even be able to convince the treasurer to spend my own money on it for my own birthday.
Now after cramming some reading in on the train, this sounds like a column reflux still… after some further reading, this doesn’t sound ideal for whiskey/rum making. If using a molasses wash, would it be possible to produce a decent rum on the t500 with the copper condenser? I’m thinking that given the condenser is copper, it should remove enough of the sulphur if I run it empty and without needing to be jam packed with saddles, kind of avoiding much of the ‘reflux’ action. Running it at 60-65C by slowing the water cooling down might also help me collect from the optimum range for rum making.
How would the t500 fair for whiskey making? Does it again strip out too much flavor, or will running the copper condenser empty of saddles still give me something to work with?
Watching some YouTube vids, it seems that you can pull a very clear/pure product from the T500, but then add pre-made essences to colour and flavor it to whisky/rum, etc. This doesn’t seem right to me, as I would’ve assumed the flavor profile would be a combination of the base (inherited from the wash) coupled with the ageing process and additives (charred woodchips, oak barrels, orange peel, vanilla pods, etc).
Is using a T500 to make Whiskey or Spiced Rum like trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole?
Is there something as simple as the T500, in the same price range, that would be better suited to what I’m after? I’ve seen some threads pop up in various searches around a McStill Pot Still, if I couple that to a T500 boiler would that be similarly as “fool proof” and easy to use for a newb, but better suited to whiskey/rum?
Cheers,
Pete.