Greetings from SEQ

[clearspirit]

Hi All
I bought my T500 five years ago because I was impatient. I ran about 10 brews through it using the manufacturer's ingredients (turbo yeast, flocullent etc) and instructions, including column carbon filtering, which made spirits that reminded me of the 'barely ok' (rather than 'rough') brews of palinka (Hungarian fruit brandy / slivovitz) my father distilled through an old copper wash tub with a hot water coil siliconed into the lid (which his drinking/fishing mates called rocket-fuel :)) He did make one brew which was delicious and smooth right out of the still, the difference being it was all apricots instead of mixed fruits. Anyway, my brews were a bit rough, and I was drinking too much because I was depressed (and there was no hangover! Surprising considering I'd never heard of making cuts...), so I stopped brewing.

Now after learning to manage my depression (it never goes away), I got the T500 out, and got sick of maintaining 1 drop/sec out of the 4 litre filter for 2 or 3 days (2 drops/sec was too fast), and started looking for ways to brew without using flocculent or filtration.

I've been a stalker at a couple of forums, and while the big one in the US has a wealth of information, they seem to like to be obtuse – little things like repeating “don't stress the yeast”, then don't tell you what stresses yeast. I think maybe they don't reveal all their secrets so they can make a better drop than anyone else. Maybe I'm making this up, but it's just a feeling I get when I'm there. Anyways, I'm finding the people here seem to be more open and informative - Running a T500, the Proper Way – gold!! (try and find that anywhere else). And I like the no BS approach here.

So thanks everyone for sharing your knowledge.

Cheers!

ps – my first ever non-turbo yeast 24 litre wash – 250g tomato paste, juice of one lemon, 7 kg raw sugar (1.140 sg! Wanted higher %ABV! I now know this might stress the yeast...), and 80g Lowan's bakers yeast) FINALLY started bubbling this morning after 3 days of sweet FA. I'm very interested to see how long it takes and how the flavour of this potentially too much sugar wash compares to turbo...

[The Stig]

Welcome to the mad house .
Next time try no lemon juice , I never used it back when I did TPW.
Enjoy your stay

[iOnaBender]

Welcome to the forum clearspirit!

We all started somewhere, most sugar washes here are all sourced from the supermarket rather than a HBS where you get misleading information. Try a few recipes from tried and proven section until you find what you personally like.

Cheers

[clearspirit]

Thanks for your welcomes :wave:
Learning so much here...

[BigRig]

Welcome clearspirit, good to see another SEQ member.

I know what you mean about the US site.

[Wellsy]

Welcome clear spirit.
The guys here are happy to share what they know

[The Stig]

Nice of you to call in today .
You’ll have to let us know how you go with the controller
Cheers

[clearspirit]

Nice of you to call in today .
You’ll have to let us know how you go with the controller
Cheers

The voltage controller works great :)
Once it's up to temp I can run as low as 60% to keep it on the frubble and consequently use WAY less water, but it needs cooling water adjustments every few minutes to keep it at drip drip drip dribble... (dddD) I think because I'm in units with lousy water pressure so anyone flushing a toilet or using a tap affects my pressure more than if I was in a house.
At 80% it's far more stable and uses a little less water than at 100%.
However, after all this I'm finding that 100% power is the most stable and needs the least adjusting to keep it at dddD...
So if I'm doing other stuff while distilling I run at 100%, and if I'm 'just having a few' and being totally attentive, I run at 80% to save water.
Cheers!

:obscene-drinkingcheers:

ps - after a while the knob didn't stop at the 100% mark and kept going - turned out the nut on the back (inside) holding the knob assembly in place had wiggled loose, so I just tightened it back up and it's all good again