New player

[Hanbag]

G'day, just joined this group, hope to learn a lot and maybe on time contribute.

[Arismac]

Welcome and you will certainly learn heaps.

[Mitcon]

Howdy, not much to say except another welcome. The forum and it's members are great, there's ton's of info here.

[Professor Green]

Welcome to AD Hanbag.

Have a read of this post and the the posts linked within, they'll help you get the best from your T500.

Cheers,
Prof Green.

[Arismac]

Good, but too complicated Prof.

Just get rid of the ceramics and replace with copper mesh.
Purchase a Water Flow Regulator.
Run the T500 at 55C
Throw the first 100 mls of the run away

Enjoy

[unwritten]

Welcome Hanbag, plenty of information and advice from experienced members on here.

[Sam.]

Welcome here mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Hanbag]

Good, but too complicated Prof.

Just get rid of the ceramics and replace with copper mesh.
Purchase a Water Flow Regulator.
Run the T500 at 55C
Throw the first 100 mls of the run away

Enjoy

When you say get rid of the ceramics and replace with copper, are you talking about in the condenser ?

[Ravvin]

Some of the earlier T500 units came with copper saddles in the top of the column and ceramic ones below it to take up the space.
The newer T500's replaced the ceramic bits with little stainless things.
I don't believe there are enough copper bits in the stills to do the job, so some are removing the packing, putting the copper saddles back in, rolling up copper mesh and pushing it up to the bottom of the condenser coils and filling the rest of the column with the stainless things or the stainless curly-girl scrubbers from Bunnings.

Greg.

[Arismac]

When you say get rid of the ceramics and replace with copper, are you talking about in the condenser ?

Yes I certainly am. My recent tests indicate that both Stainless Steel and Ceramic contribute very little if anything to a good quality spirit. My last two runs with only copper mesh in the bottom section of the condenser has given the best results yet. You can make up two rolls of fairly tightly rolled 90 mm copper mesh and push them, one on top of the other, firmly into the condenser immediately inside the holding nut.

I have left the section of condenser above the rolls empty. The mesh is reasonably easy to remove for cleaning in citric acid. At $34.17 for 5 Kilos delivered it is proving to be the most effective and economical method of copper cleaning.

[woodduck]

G'day and welcome :greetings-waveyellow:

[Hanbag]

Thanks for the advice fellas, really appreciated. I'll have a look at buying some copper mesh and citric acid today. On another point, I have 4L of 90% would it be OK if I reduced it to 40% and do another run through the still ?

[woodduck]

That would be fine mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[SJC2]

Gday Mate :greetings-waveyellow:

[Lowie]

:greetings-waveyellow:

[Hanbag]

Where do I go to buy the 90mm copper mesh to place in the condenser ?

[RC Al]

5 star of course!
https://www.5stardistilling.com.au/prod ... pper-mesh/
https://www.5stardistilling.com.au/prod ... pper-mesh/
https://www.5stardistilling.com.au/prod ... pper-mesh/

I havent found a better value mesh