Hi from the Central Coast

[stevil]

Hi All,

I'm 30 years old from the Central Coast (in NSW) and just starting to get into doing some home distilling. To be honest, I'm probably the type of guy you all hate, I walked past a home brew shop and saw that they had a destilling package on sale so picked it up without really knowing anything. I've always had an interest in it thinking I'd like to give it a try but knowing the legality behind it never really worried about it. When I saw a kit in the window I thought I'd give it a try.

So here I am now, a guy with next to zero knowledge about the whole process, the lingo, and the ins an outs of destilling. We all have to start there at some point though, and hopefully it won't take me long to be up there with the rest of you.

I've done one batch so far, just using an air still, dextrose, turbo yeast, turbo carbon, in a 30l container. I'm mainly looking at doing bourbons and just flavoring using the bottled flavors and wood chips, I did get some advice from the guy I purchased everything off to start using some glycerin to help smooth things out. Obviously the first batch is never going to be the best and there is plenty to learn from it.

I'm sure I'm going to have lots of stupid questions, which I'll try an answer myself through the newbie corner and google searching. So hopefully I don't annoy people too much here, but still looking forward to being part of the community and learning from everyone else and hopefully be able to pay back the favor to people in the future.

[Zak Griffin]

We don't hate anyone around here mate!

All of us started somewhere. Good news is you've found us now, bad news is that in a couple of days you will be wishing you found us first :))

Don't get too caught up on what the homebrew shop bloke has told you ;-)

if it's bourbon you want to make, I see a pot still in your future. How handy are you with solder?

[CaptainRedBeard]

Hi stevil, and welcome.

I'm central coast too mate, what home brew shop did you visit? My local HBS talks people out of glycerin, glucose, and pretty much anything that he doesn't sell. Shame really.

I don't think your air still will give you very good bourbon, but it should give you the experience of running a still, cuts etc. Then you'll realize turbo products are rubbish.

Well anyway, welcome!

[stevil]

We all have to start somewhere, the issue I always find is when you don't know what you are looking for it makes it harder to search through things. I'm very much a learn by doing type of guy, but think this is very much something I'll have to read plenty on before I can start putting some things into practice.

I figured the air still isn't ideal, I don't think they can sell much better than that in stores though can they? I thought it would be a good starting point, but reading into cuts (which I only just started reading about today... hadn't seen anything about that before) I can see that a tiny 4l still isn't ideal, an I imagine with the lack of temp control probably isn't the best either. I'm happy to have a sit an go type of thing while I learn the basics though, and when I know a bit more invest the time and money doing a better setup then.

I haven't done any soldering at all in some time now (probably 10 years) my old man is doing the destilling with me though and he's pretty handy with that type of thing. Not so much on computers though, so I'll probably be doing the research and passing it onto him. I'll check more into pot stills and see what we're able to do though, thanks for the tip!

I was surprised to hear about other people on the coast doing this, I would have thought you'd get a lot of people making beer but after starting I've heard of a few people around the place into it. I got my gear from the place at long jetty, the guy in there seems pretty helpful, I have a feeling he held a bit back on telling me information as it would have been pretty easy to see that I had no idea what I was doing and telling me too much would have been an info over load. Told me to keep in touch with him and he'll help me as I go though.

Thanks for the friendly welcome to the club!

[1 2many]

Welcome stevil good to have you here, and thanks for the brief introduction :))

Plenty to learn here mate it never stops dig in and enjoy. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[BIG D]

Welcome Stevil enjoy bud :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[The Stig]

Welcome aboard Stevil.
I did exactly what your doing, after a couple of months I moved up to the T500.
The little air still will teach you lots as will the turbo's.
If you want to keep going down the turbo path, start looking at the slower turbo's and not the 48 hours things.
Rule of thumb, the smaller the pack the better - these have less rubbish in them.
Take your time and most of all, have fun.
This can be a rewarding hobby.

[Brendan]

Well we can start you off with spelling the word 'distiller', it's at the top of every page here :teasing-neener:

Only pulling your chain mate, welcome along to the forum. Reading is something you really have to do with this hobby, the learning by doing can only come once the knowledge of what's going on is in there :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Have fun and enjoy the learning experience, and I'm sure you'll be looking to upgrade soon enough like everyone always does!

[CaptainRedBeard]

I haven't been to the long jetty brew shop yet. Normally I'd go to Petes Home Brew @ Wadalba (used to be in Kanwal) or the Outback Brew in Toukley. I've now learnt enough from the threads in here that I don't need to visit the brew shops anymore, unless I want some chocolate rum syrup or other liquor flavorings.
Well good luck with your first few runs, hope to hear of your success soon.

[stevil]

Thanks for the tips guys, I haven't really moved onto the yeast side of things yet and which yeasts to use, more the general process. I hadn't really thought about the smaller packs are better due to the less junk left behind, but does make a lot of sense now I think about it. Sugars / Grains / Yeasts is on the list of things to look into eventually though. We started look at doing a corn mash at one point, but decided it's a bit to ahead of the game for us at the moment!

As for my typo, it's funny because it is something I know how to spell so no idea why I type it like that. If you are a grammar / spelling Nazi then you will have a field day with me though ;) I'm a developer, we never slow down to proof read what we have just typed. If it isn't auto corrected, it'll be staying that way. I've got thick skin though, I can take it!

I'm already half keen to upgrade my still, I think that may be rushing things though. I could jump into getting a new setup and realise that it's not for me and then be out more money when I change to something else. My plan for the moment is just to play around with cuts the best I can with the air still. Haven't had much time to do reading on it at the moment, but I'm thinking of just getting several small jars and collecting from the still as it does to separate it as it's coming out. I can then use this to compare the product and see the different between them... though, again, I'm not sure how well that will go with an air still but will be a starting point at least. Will sit down on the weekend and hit the forums and google hard and make my plan of attach from there.

The shop at Long Jetty seems okay, hard to say when I haven't been to other stores to compare them too. I get the feeling he's more of a beer guy than a spirits guy, nothing wrong with that though! I don't get out to Wadalba or Toukley much, I'm based near Berkeley Vale so it's only a 10 to 15 minute drive to Long Jetty. Parking is horrible there though, sometimes you have to walk 5 to 10 minutes to get there which would almost make it worth my time making the trip to Wadalba.

Thanks again guys, so far I've only created a post on the welcome board and gotten plenty of help. I think I'll like it here :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Zak Griffin]

Don't rush into building or buying another still, mate... Work out what it is you really want and go from there.

For now, have a play with the air still, and like you said, collect in small jars, ~50ml at a time, and you should be able to pick the different fractions. Just be aware that you won't be pulling neutral alcohol out of the little rig.

Have we convinced you to build a bubbler yet? :laughing-rolling:

[CaptainRedBeard]

If you ever do visit Pete at Wadalba, he claimed to me once that he has over 500L of bourbon bottled at his house :shock:
And he only uses a turbo 500, with turbo yeasts etc. All his bourbons are essences :puke-huge:
He would have what you need, but advice is much better here on Aussie Distiller.

[stevil]

Don't rush into building or buying another still, mate... Work out what it is you really want and go from there.

For now, have a play with the air still, and like you said, collect in small jars, ~50ml at a time, and you should be able to pick the different fractions. Just be aware that you won't be pulling neutral alcohol out of the little rig.

Have we convinced you to build a bubbler yet? :laughing-rolling:

Thanks for the tip, so what I'm thinking of trying is taking the wash out 4l at a time and then when I put it through the still catch it in 50ml lots and then put it into separate bottles. Some things I've read have said that I should only worry about the first 700ml from each 4l so will probably stick to that. So I'll have 14 bottles lined up, and I should be able to get 6 lots of 4l batches, so I'll end up with 14 bottles of 300ml taken at the different points of distilling. That should be enough for me to check things out and see the difference hopefully.

Can def see the advantage of upgrading the gear, talked myself into going the air still originally thinking working with smaller quantities would make it easier. Didn't think that the opposite would be the case... Still think the air still will be okay for learning and playing around, but in hindsight it's not the path I would have gone if I had my time again. Ohh well, we live, and we learn ;)

[stevil]

If you ever do visit Pete at Wadalba, he claimed to me once that he has over 500L of bourbon bottled at his house :shock:
And he only uses a turbo 500, with turbo yeasts etc. All his bourbons are essences :puke-huge:
He would have what you need, but advice is much better here on Aussie Distiller.

I still need to look more into the essence Vs mash thing, again it's something I haven't really to far into yet. I've seen a few claims that it comes out alright, our first lot with it (still only the one wash so far) was a pass... but barely. Would drink store bought stuff over it any day, that's without cuts though and only chips in them for a couple of weeks. I'd imagine a proper mash would be far better, but I'm a long way off even attempting it yet.

One thing I may try soon though is a bacon fat wash or something, maybe some other flavoring. Better off trying that on bottles that are't that nice then ruin a good bourbon with an experiment!

[Zak Griffin]

If bourbon is your aim, you want to forget that bourbon essence even exists... It's no good.

You don't have to go straight into an AG mash though, a BWKO or CFW wash will give you a nice bourbon :handgestures-thumbupleft: run either of these through the air still twice and you'll probably end up with something half decent.


Bacon fat wash? :wtf: :think:

[Sam.]

If bourbon is your aim, you want to forget that bourbon essence even exists... It's no good.

You don't have to go straight into an AG mash though, a BWKO or CFW wash will give you a nice bourbon :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Bacon fat wash? :wtf: :think:

Those acronyms mean nothing to me ;) but I'm sure with a bit of searching I'll find what they are. Guessing you wouldn't be suggesting them if they weren't easy enough to do for a beginner. I'm working now so better wait till I'm finished here before I start reading up on them.

An yes, a fat wash, gives a nice bacon flavor to your drink. I had a bacon infused bourbon once, an it was actually pretty damn nice. Here is a video on how it's done and a bit of an idea for a cocktail with it, would love to give one of these a try!

[CaptainRedBeard]

I'm on my phone so I can't link, they're acronyms. Check the Glossary in the Beginners Section, then cross reference with recipes from the Tried and Proven Section.
AG- All Grain Wash
BWKO- Bourbon Whiskey Knock Off
CFW- Corn Flakes Wash

(Please correct me if I'm wrong gurus)

[Zak Griffin]

RedBeard is onto it. BWKO and CFW are both washes found in our tried and proven forum.

CFW is made up of ingredients that can all be found in your local supermarket :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Urrazeb]

You weren't in Indonesia recently were ya? ... :think:

Welcome mate! :handgestures-thumbupleft: