Gday from the Gold Coast

[13chargers]

Hi everyone,
I've been reading a lot of posts on this site for ages and finally decided to get involved. I've picked up some great advice so far just from reading but ive got plenty questions of my own.

I've only been distilling for a short time but am totally addicted.
I'm on a quest for the perfect rum recipe.
Also looking to pick up a small Alembic still over the next few weeks for a few experiments.

Ill be sure to keep you posted on my progress.
Thanks,
13C

[Kimbo]

hi 13c,
welcome to the forum, keen to hear about your progress ;)

[stubbydrainer]

G'day 13c
and welcome to the site, enjoy yourself ;)

[R-sole]

G'day. Interested in what your thoughts are towards the alembics seeing as you have a pot still already?

Is it the partial reflux you are chasing or the beauty? :think:

[13chargers]

Thanks everyone.
5Star, its partly the beauty but also interested to see how the complete copper system might affect the end product. As oppossed to the mostly stainless steel set-up im running at the moment. The guy at the brew shop was raving about the quality compared to my current system.

Probably a good first question to put to the forum.

[Frank]

Hi 13chargers
welcome and enjoy and CERTAINLY feel free to ask about that which you do not know.
There are forum members here whom almost always do ;).

BTW (realtime topical at least) look out for the approaching storm!!!

[QLD.Andy]

BTW (realtime topical at least) look out for the approaching storm!!!

That storm just clipped us a few moments ago, not so bad.
Oh yea, welcome number 13 :clap:

[devotus]

G'day mate,

I have a 10 litre Alembic but unfortunately little to zero experience so I'm as helpful as a chocolate tea kettle.

I think its a great piece of kit though.

[R-sole]

From what i've read round the traps you need some copper in the system to convert sulfides or some such chemical wizadry. The amount of copper needed seems to be ok just having a copper head. So if you already have a bit of copper in your system (a roll of copper packing in a stainless still) you may not notice a difference.

Most of us here run keg based stills, that's where you'll find a difference. In the speed at which you can run with a kegbased 2" potstill, and the quantities you can amass in order to get some decent ageing programs going.

Nothing will compliment your rum more than long ageing.

Not trying to put you off, but if you really are attracted to this hobby in a big way you are going to end up with boiler envy. :lol:

[Sam.]

Agree with 5Star, if you have any amount of copper in the head then the base will do fuck all. Think about it, if you have your boiler 80% full then thats 80% of the copper that is wasted because the vapour is never even going to touch it. Water doesn't get better storing it in glass, stainless or copper :D

I do agree that they look cool and all the big joints in scotland have the huge copper stills because that was the tradition.

Like 5Star said as well for the volumes, if you really wanted to go down the whole copper path it might be worth while trying to source a sheet of copper?(fuck knows where you would get one) and get someone to roll up a big pot for you. 10L is way too small in my opinion. Me and my mate started off years ago with a 5L store bought pot still, then a 25L still and now a 50L keg setup which are soooo fucking easy to do it's almost criminal ( :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: )

Also I think the problem with a 10L would be if you are looking for that perfect rum recipe it will be a lot harder to judge cuts in a 10L Vs a 50L (or bigger)

Just my 2c (you can round it up to 5 :D ) If you do get an alembic post some pics, I still like the look of them. Some would even call it Still Porn :P

[Fermi]

Welcome 13C,
I too would like to find the perfect rum recipe. At least one that's not toooo hard to do and turns out great. I'm currently trying recipes and batches with molasses. Starting to practice with my cuts, etc.

If you do end up wanting some copper sheet - i was looking into it a few months ago when I started on my new still build, and I finally found a Brisbane supplier of copper sheet. They were full size sheets (1.2m x 2.4m or something like that) at 0.5mm thickness for about $250. I passed on it as I just didn't need that much copper, and copper is a tad expensive. I might be able to track down the company name/details again if you go down that route.

Share you experiences and tips with the rum as you progress.
There's plenty on these forums to get started with anyway.