Hello from SA

[cliffo]

Hello!

Having brewed some beer over the last few years, I branched out and picked up a cheap barely used Euro 5 last year. That's "5" as in 5 litres, yes, but I don't care too much for producing huge quantities (yet). It has a 500 W element and a short reflux column that easily detaches to run as a pot still.

It's not ideal for producing truly neutral spirits, but running a TPW through it twice makes a decent base for gin and ouzo. My first batches of each (based on the T&P recipes) were quite popular over the Christmas period.

I'm also making whisky, from rice with a smattering of other grains "mashed" and fermented with a Chinese baijiu culture (process based on this HomeBrewTalk thread) blended with NGW. After a month on oak chips it's got good estery and oak flavours but still a little hint of tails. Hopefully that smooths out with more time, but I've put some more on oak with more conservative cuts this week.

Thanks everyone for the valuable information on this forum, and I look forward to sharing more of my results.

[Professor Green]

Welcome to AD cliffo.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

[woodduck]

Welcome mate. Sounds like your off to a good start :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[db1979]

Welcome mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Are you stripping first before doing a spirit run? On small boilers it helps to run low wines on a spirit run as the amount of alcohol in the boiler is larger.

[Sam.]

Welcome here mate, sounds like your jumping in the deep end with what your doing :handgestures-thumbupleft: