Way out West

[sumthing2do]

G'day folks,

I'm on the West Coast of this Beautiful country of ours (Australia that is). Discovered distilling through a mate o' mine which set me on a long course of reading a bundle of material. Not wanting to sit around twiddling my thumbs, and having quite a bit of research under my belt, I built a Nixon-Stone type reflux column and mounted that on a salvaged 50l beer keg fitted with 1 x .9kw and 1 x 1.35kw elements.
I learnt v-e-r-y quickly that I knew so little. Now after nearly 3 years of bubble and boil and further extensive googling and reading, I'm happy to be able to say that my batches are "doing good". I ferment 9kg dextrose on 48hr Turbo in 21 litres of (sometimes) filtered water. The boil off is consistently producing 3.5 litres of 95% abv approx., of slightly sweet neutral spirit. Something I'm happy with. I'm conservative in what I keep. 100ml of fores go into the fuel jar for the fish smoker. 3.5 ltrs of mids are kept, and what dribbles out as tails up until about 82degrees is kept as feints for the next batch.

And I'm hoping to learn a lot more so that's why I'm here.

Cheers

[Kimbo]

Hi WoW,
Welcome to the forum mate, It sounds like your well on your way.
It sounds like your "Slightly sweet neutral" sounds like you might still have some heads in it. ;-)
viewtopic.php?f=57&t=2859

[crow]

Hi ya STD wel.... :scared-eek: STD :wtf: i thought the fella using the initials TLC earlier today was a dooza :laughing-rolling:
Any way welcome here bud sounds like your getting into it +1 on the cuts and the turbo's are not noted for producing exceptional quality, have a squiz in the tried and proven :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[googe]

Ha crow, Welcome mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Cane Toad]

Fuck Crow,you're quick today bud :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
Anyway back on topic,welcome to the forum mate,seems like you're off to a good start :handgestures-thumbupleft: Now the real fun begins :D
Cheers
CC

[Goldie]

Howdy mate and welcome. Well done on building your own still, post up some pictures if you have some.
Have a try of the tomato paste wash in the Tried and Proven section for a excellent neutral that's not sweet. If you still have another turbo packet try the next one with sugar and see if you can taste a difference to your dextrose batches.
Plenty of great ideas on here and a few good laughs too.

[Goldie]

Follow this link for tomato paste wash
http://aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=8

[Andy]

TPW will give you a less sweet tasting neutral. Friend use to use turbos. make the switch and you will be impressed. You will be sacrificing a little bit of time with the extra fermentation time, and some yield (9kg of dex with 21 litres is pretty high. From what i have read initial SG should be 1.06 - 1.08. i would guess that the initial would be 1.1+ with 9kg), but it will be worth it

[BackyardBrewer]

I did turbos for maybe 3-4 runs. Then swapped to TPW. I have never looked back.

Be brutal with cuts, turf heaps of heads and tails and do a feints run of all your crappy turf.

I get maybe 2-3L of 94~% spirit instead of an easy 4.5l for a turbo run but the quality is astonishingly different.

If you've got neutral questions ask away. I can give you plenty of advice on TPW.