Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

So.. Six weeks ago I got excited and rushed head long into buying a T500 kit from a home brew store and then set about learning to use it. had I done it the other way I may not have purchased it. I have read and learned hopefully enough to do my first spirit run tomorrow. I am currently waiting for the kettle to come to temp to do a stripping run with my 2 inch basic pot of my second wash of FFV


I used to home brew, never all grain but that fell away about 12 years ago as I got more into low and slow BBQ. Still cook but now realise all three crafts share the same basic principles. Take your time, Use the right ingredients and use the right techniques

I like rye whiskey, vodka and tequila.....and cats



Any way, thank you to all here who freely share their knowledge and learnings. You have been a great help in getting this noob this far.

I like cats to , but I can’t eat a whole one :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
Welcome aboard FMD :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The Stig wrote:I like cats to , but I can’t eat a whole one :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
Welcome aboard FMD :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Many moons ago went I lived in the north west when we went game fishing kittens were the best bait, just put a balloon on the line and the kitten and within a minute your on to a big one. Most times it's sharks but oneday using one I caught a 600 kg marlin and after the mercury test we had a good feed.

Cheers Bryan

Ahh, non cat fanciers


cats everywhere have this to say to haters

Welcome FMD.

T500s aren't that bad, may of us started out with one. Some folks here still run them, others simply outgrew it's capabilities.

Have a read of this: https://aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=11917 if you haven't already, it will help you get the best out of your still.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Welcome FMD,if you love cats we should get together and swap recipes.

Love low and slow as well, brisket after 8 to 10 hours is a great end to the day :)

Good luck with the spirit run mate

Gotta love brisket and a nice sauce :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The Stig wrote:I like cats to , but I can’t eat a whole one :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
Welcome aboard FMD :handgestures-thumbupleft:

FFS, not funny!

Bryan1 wrote:

The Stig wrote:I like cats to , but I can’t eat a whole one :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
Welcome aboard FMD :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Many moons ago went I lived in the north west when we went game fishing kittens were the best bait, just put a balloon on the line and the kitten and within a minute your on to a big one. Most times it's sharks but oneday using one I caught a 600 kg marlin and after the mercury test we had a good feed.

Cheers Bryan

Yeah, good onya mate! Fucken cruel prick!

Wellsy wrote:Welcome FMD,if you love cats we should get together and swap recipes.

I'd rather feed you to my cats!

I made a heap of mistakes leading up to my second spirit run but can not be happier with the final result

For this run I clamped the column from my pot still to my T500. It was stuffed with copper mesh and rings I cut from from the pipe I had left over from bending a couple of collection arms

It took a bit longer but I collected more of what I think is good stuff. Granted I do not have the nose to really tell but this stuff smells clean

I made another batch of FFV and started my first gen of UJSSM. One of my cats was clearly satisfied with my efforts and fell asleep in my lap

The more you do the more you learn mate.
There is lots and lots of time to pat the cats while strips are running, they will definitely approve your new hobby :)

I finally tasted my first run of FFV and so far I am not impressed. I filtered and proofed down one litre to 40 % and then mixed a packet of rum flavouring. I would have thought the flavouring would have imparted something and the fire of a young spirit was tamed down

Nope. This stuff tasted like sticking a lit box of matches in your mouth, followed by uncooked bread. I may be a cheap drunk and it is part of the reason I am distilling but what I drink needs to taste good

My second run at only a week old is so much better. The difference between the two is so stark but at least I now have " proof of concept " for myself and I think I will treat my first run as feints

The cats have been fed and are taking a pre dawn nap. Unfortunately I have to go to work. Thankfully only for a couple of hours

Glad to hear you have proof of concept and your second batch is so much better mate.
Mind if I ask a silly question
Given you have a pot still why not run a rum recipe instead of using flavouring ? The general consensus is flavoured is less complex than recipe stuff. I have no idea as I am only starting this journey hence my silly question

Hi mate welcome aboard :greetings-waveyellow:

I cant help but think you might have your wires crossed a little.
FFV is a wash for making neutral spirit ie vodka, No flavour. This wash would be better run through a reflux column. Did you get the reflux column with your kit?

If you have the pot still attachment use that for brown spirits like Rum and whisky. Have a look through the tried and proven recipe section for some great recipes. Also I wouldn't pack the pot still column with anything if its made of copper. If its a stainless column then a small peice of copper mesh in there will be good for sulfur removal.

Best of luck mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

PS the blokes are just stirring you about the cats, they dont mean any harm :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Welcome aboard FMD,

Ignore the gronks who are all for animal cruelty, this place is worth a look. lots of good solid info on here.

Do make use of the search tool, its amazing the wealth of knowledge on there.

Take care.

Harry

Hi Wellsy

Mate, that is not a silly question, in fact it is the smartest question to ask

The TLDR version is it came with the T500 kit so why not

My thinking at the start was simply to make a neutral spirit to flavour. I think it may be true for many people and it certainly was for me that when they first start researching distilling they come across home brew stores and vids on Youtube where the simple kits they sell are all you need and frankly you can not do any better. Besides I was mostly going to be mixing cocktails so a close enough approximation should be fine

It does not take much research to learn there may be a better way. Research I wish I had done at the beginning. I bought the pot still first to do stripping runs on my neutral and then do spirit runs through the T500 and in the process hopefully learn enough through practical experience to further experiment with the pot to do flavoured spirit runs, something I am really looking forward to

I also plan to slowly upgrade the pot to run plates but clamping that kind of set up on a T500 boiler just isn't gonna happen. In the meantime I will use the equipment I have and continue to learn

Just on the cat thing..... I am the one who put it out there and did so for the purpose of being mocked and teased a bit. It happens at work all the time and it is generally meant to be good natured banter. I have two and absolutely adore them but they can be total ba*tards sometimes. The reason I am typing this at 2.45 is because they were tearing through the house an 1am and woke me up and I could not get back to sleep, something they had no problem doing

Good answer mate.
I have 2 cats one is 18 years old and starting to struggle a bit unfortunately. The other one thinks he is a dog and always comes when you call him. Never owned a cat quite like him and we have had a lot of cats lol.

You are bang on the money about never needing anything else when asking at home brew shop. To be honest I don’t think they know any different. I actually started at the air still and then looked at the t500 before stumbling across this site :). As you upgrade you will find, like others on here , the t500 is handy for experimenting on different recipes and processes. Yes apparently you never stop experimenting in this hobby lol