Hi There

[unsub]

Hi all,

First post even though I have been lurking and gathering information for awhile now.

After a false start with one of those cranky old man ebay stills I got my hands on a 2" boka LM still and did my first run of a TPW on the weekend. I have to say that after all the research and reading it all really only came together and became clear the first time I powered up the still for a spirit run and actually saw it all working. It all makes sense now! I just needed to stop getting bogged down in the theory, research and worrying about how it was going to turn out and just crank it up!

I managed to get about 4 litres of 95% that are all lined up in little jars ready to be sampled and then blended when I get home from work tonight. Possibly a bit seedy at work tomorrow though because I am fairly confident that I am going to end up with some heads and tails in there due to it being my first attempt.

All in all I am really happy with the results thus far and there are now more barrels of TPW bubbling away in the spare room as I type this.

Thank you to everyone that has contributed information to this site, without it I would probably be drinking the results of a HBS turbo yeast tonight instead of something good!

cheers

unsub

[Kimbo]

hi unsub,
good to have you here mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[crow]

Hi ya US Welcome the the gang , if ya worried about ya cutting ability I'd suggest to er on the side of caution as you can rerun the faints with ya next wash so no waste . Don't worry there's a whole fraternity here that fell for that still , come close myself but at the last min looked at how it worked and thought umm nar but he can sell ,hate t see him with a car yard :icon-lol:

[Cane Toad]

Hi UnSub,glad everything came together for you :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft: As Crow said,make tight cuts,this whole hobby is a learning curve :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Report back tonight and let us all know what you think of the finished product,we really are interested in the triumphs and tribulations of ALL our members,both old and new....even Kimbo :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[unsub]

Don't worry there's a whole fraternity here that fell for that still

Yeah now that I have done a lot more research I'm not even sure how those even produce anything worthwhile. The next project is to either use bits from it to make a pot still or try and improve the design to make a decent reflux still.

I will report back my results from the blending tonight. If my spelling is worse than it is now you will know I have had some success!

cheers

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[unsub]

Ok. Blending and dilution of a sample 1 litre batch has been done. Pretty happy with it I must say, sitting here drinking a TPW and tonic at the moment and it's not too shabby at all.

I think I'm all good with the cuts now, the smells are getting easier to pick.

cheers again for all the info

unsub

[crozdog]

Ok. Blending and dilution of a sample 1 litre batch has been done. Pretty happy with it I must say, sitting here drinking a TPW and tonic at the moment and it's not too shabby at all.

I think I'm all good with the cuts now, the smells are getting easier to pick.

cheers again for all the info

unsub

welcome.

good stuff that.. as good as researching is, you really start to learn when you do it.

enjoy. its all an experiment.

croz

[unsub]

I ended up putting the first batch of TPW I distilled back in with 2 x 20l stripped TPW washes treated with sodium carbonate and some water to top it up to make up about a 35l of 26% boiler charge. It took bloody ages to run it all but the final product in short is amazing. 95+%, hardly any heads and a shitload of hearts to the point I was taking "samples" straight from the still, letting it cool and mixing with tonic. It was tasty then so it should be bloody great after it has aired.

Getting a lot more comfortable with the still set up now especially after a few stripping runs and figuring out the temps and water flow. Also picking heads, hearts and tails by smell is getting easier and easier. I noticed it was easier to pick them when distilling the low wines than when I have distilled straight TPW.

cheers

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