Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hello all, fellow newbie Perthite calling in here. Actually have a chemistry degree so a lot of distilling theory is not new to me but as always experience trumps all.

Just bought a stainless steel turbo 500 (I can hear you all facepalming from here). It has the stainless saddles which is good though and comes with a lote of other kit including flow rate regulator etc for fine control of the cooling fluid. I also plan to make some modifications.

1. Change plastic outlet tube to glass or metal (Am wondering if silicone tubing would work as well as it is not quite the same as plastic and it is very inert)
2. Want to drill a hole in the top of the pot and make my own thermocouple from an arduino and thermocouple wire from RS components to monitor the head temperature (much more accurate distilling)
3. Want to use it to also distill water, essential oils and general fun to teach my nephew/niece some interesting science stuff (they will be kept well away during spirit distills though)

Have read the recommended cut volumes etc on the newbie forums. Did have one question though, the prevailing wisdom for extracting flowers/oils is to suspend a hops bag full of the material above in the headspace so it can be permeated by the steam coming off (Going to try with water and ethanol to see the difference in product). I am wondering why people dont just stuff the hops bag into the column itself as this would increase the permeation of the material (all the steam has to pass through it to get to the condenser). Since you aren't refluxing a steam extraction you will be removing the saddles so there should be plenty of space. Perhaps it is not done due to the risk of a blockage that will build up pressure in the system?

Vapour infused gin is done the way you are describing.
But yes watch out for blockages using soft things that will "melt" ito a blob
Look at getting a carter head still.

Has anybody built an offset carter head for their bubbler? What are your thoughts on it? Have seen a few different ideas on them

Hi there and welcome to the forum :greetings-waveyellow:

I can't really help with a lot of your questions sorry. I don't think gin in a T500 will work as it's a reflux still designed to strip flavor. You can't take the packing out because it will overheat the plastic in them (so I believe never used one). You'll need a pot or bubbler or carterhead for gin.

Personally I wouldn't mess with the lid, it will become a potential leak spot. On that I would try not to overcomplicate the stilling process too much. Get the basics down pat first.

Good luck :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Righto makes sense. The t500 can be run to distill water with the reflux bypassed so I might give that a go to see how it runs like a rudimentary pot still without the packing. Will keep a close eye on the plastic to make sure it doesn't overheat. :)

Hold up...

Like I said I'm not very familiar with the T500 at all but I'm sure it's been mentioned in a few threads that they can't be run without the packing, I hope someone in the know will chime in and let us know but I would wait to hear from some others first.

Have you read this thread? It might have some info there

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=10483

Hey mate, welcome to the forum, unfortunately like woodduck said if you remove the packing you’ll over heat the top plastic piece. This would be more the case if you bypassed the reflux condenser.
The distortion of the plastic is not noticeable by eye, you only know about it after you have a vapour leak.
As for packing the Column with your botanicals, that’s an interesting idea but as you said, runs a huge risk of a blockage and potential pressure build up.

Heya, the instructions for the t500 state that you can bypass the refluxer when distilling water and just use the condenser direct. This would be the same configuration if you were steam distilling the botanicals so I am wondering if the design has changed recently to allow for it...

I doubt it, my old t500 instructions said the same thing.
Id advise you not to try