Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi all, it's great to be here. First timer at making spirits, just bought an air still and made my first wash. Flavored it to make kahlua, turned out really good. Getting a tad warm up here in FNQ but i'll carry on regardless.
Ciao for now.

Welcome mate :handgestures-thumbupleft: have you seen the airstill run guide here?

Welcome Steve-ABV.

What wash are you using with your air still?

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Hi Steve, welcome to the forum. :greetings-waveyellow:

db1979 wrote:Welcome mate :handgestures-thumbupleft: have you seen the airstill run guide here?

Thanks db1979 but at this stage that run guide is in Japanese!

Welcome Steve.
I started with an Air Still and my mum still runs that very same device.
They are a great way to get into the hobby but they require a level of precision during the run that only the dedicated will achieve to make a nice drop .
I used it as a stepping stone to bigger and better things, but many stick with it and are happy with their product.
We will not judge if you decide to stay with the humble Air Still.
Cheers

Professor Green wrote:Welcome Steve-ABV.

What wash are you using with your air still?

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Thanks. My neighbor showed me the basics and that's where I am at now. My wash is sugar (6kg) and turbo yeast(heat) with water to make up 25 litres of wash. Just on my second wash adding liquid carbon this time. I am on the learning curve.
Steve

Hi Steve and welcome aboard.

I would consider using a cereal based wash like the cornflakes whiskey or Nutri grain whiskey for your air still as it is a effectively a pot still so it will striggle to get all the flavours out so it would be better to have some nice wheaty flavours there. Plus you wont need all those clearing agents and turbo yeasts.

Good luck :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Hi Steve
I have had a air still for over ten years and recently upgraded to a FSD 2" Boka and Pot.
Initially I used turbo and did not make cuts but at the time I thought I was doing pretty well. It tasted OK as far as I could tell, particularly when i was using essences from the Home Brew shop or strong flavours like coffee. I have learned a lot since joining this forum.
There are things that you can do to make your air still work better for you.

First thing I learned was that the air still was essentially a pot still - so whatever flavour (good or bad) goes in - that is what comes out. So if you make a better wash you get a better product.

So a cereal based wash like Cornflake Whisky is going to work pretty well. Turbo yeast tends to produce not so good flavours and once you have them it is hard to get rid of them ( I know that from experience!). CFW will give you a mild cornflake flavour which is not harsh and it is easy and cheap to make.

The diagram that is Japanese to you now shows you how to improve the product by distilling it twice. So you run the wash through the air still and then save the distillate. Then you dilute the wash and run it again and this time you make "cuts" so you save the distillate in jars in smaller quantities. Then you smell and taste it and try to distinguish the different flavours. So you will have heads and hearts and tails. Once I discovered this method I re-ran the Turbo distillate that had been in the cupboard for a very long time and it made a huge difference to the quality of the final product.

In the Newbies section there is a guide to cuts which is very helpful. If you use a good wash and make good cuts then filtering is not necessary.
Feel free to ask me any questions about the air still and I will try to answer them. It is good fun and with a few tweaks you can improve the final product.

Cheers
Carol

Steve-ABV wrote:Thanks. My neighbor showed me the basics and that's where I am at now. My wash is sugar (6kg) and turbo yeast(heat) with water to make up 25 litres of wash. Just on my second wash adding liquid carbon this time. I am on the learning curve.
Steve

woodduck wrote:Hi Steve and welcome aboard.

I would consider using a cereal based wash like the cornflakes whiskey or Nutri grain whiskey for your air still as it is a effectively a pot still so it will striggle to get all the flavours out so it would be better to have some nice wheaty flavours there. Plus you wont need all those clearing agents and turbo yeasts.

Good luck :handgestures-thumbupleft:

+1 on this advice. I'd recommend you keep some of the spirits you've made with the turbo aside and give a weetbix or corn flake wash a go. You'll be amazed at how much better they really are. Any residual flavour of wheat or corn is going to be much better that what you'll have left over from a turbo wash. They're a truck load cheaper too.

Hi Carol,
Thank you for your response to my first post as a newbie, I've had some good replies.
I have a ton to learn and had a double take when I read about CFW and Nutrigrain .... My research begins today, I love to experiment. So when I learn about cuts, heads, hearts, and CFW etc your post will make more sense. I am looking forward to it.

If I do have questions for you, how do I ask you? This is my first forum and it's very different to messaging or texting. Thanks Carol,

Cheers,
Steve

Carol wrote:Hi Steve
I have had a air still for over ten years and recently upgraded to a FSD 2" Boka and Pot.
Initially I used turbo and did not make cuts but at the time I thought I was doing pretty well. It tasted OK as far as I could tell, particularly when i was using essences from the Home Brew shop or strong flavours like coffee. I have learned a lot since joining this forum.
There are things that you can do to make your air still work better for you.

First thing I learned was that the air still was essentially a pot still - so whatever flavour (good or bad) goes in - that is what comes out. So if you make a better wash you get a better product.

So a cereal based wash like Cornflake Whisky is going to work pretty well. Turbo yeast tends to produce not so good flavours and once you have them it is hard to get rid of them ( I know that from experience!). CFW will give you a mild cornflake flavour which is not harsh and it is easy and cheap to make.

The diagram that is Japanese to you now shows you how to improve the product by distilling it twice. So you run the wash through the air still and then save the distillate. Then you dilute the wash and run it again and this time you make "cuts" so you save the distillate in jars in smaller quantities. Then you smell and taste it and try to distinguish the different flavours. So you will have heads and hearts and tails. Once I discovered this method I re-ran the Turbo distillate that had been in the cupboard for a very long time and it made a huge difference to the quality of the final product.

In the Newbies section there is a guide to cuts which is very helpful. If you use a good wash and make good cuts then filtering is not necessary.
Feel free to ask me any questions about the air still and I will try to answer them. It is good fun and with a few tweaks you can improve the final product.

Cheers
Carol

Hi Steve
When you have 10 posts you can use the private message system.
Or just post questions on this thread. I get alerts when there is a new post.
There is lots to read and learn. Making whisky out of breakfast cereal sounds crazy but it works!

Cheers
Carol