Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

the Doctor wrote:the answer is yes, keep the basket out until you reach the hearts then insert the basket and run as per normal. Time is a consideration in the context of a commercial distillery so it is important to us to avoid shutting down if we can, but in the home situation that is exactly what you could do.
Cheers
Doc

I am gin obsessed and this is what I do - boiler with a 5star packed section on a 5 plate bubbler and get it up to temp, pull fores & heads and power down.

Then add the 5star gin basket with gin botanicals and power up and start collecting gin.

A rig like this would make the whole process so much quicker and easier. Not just for gin but for any infusion.

I think it was crow that mentioned trying this Carter head with coffee beans, I'd be real keen to hear how this turns out if anyones interested in giving it a go.

I'll have mine flat white, milk & 2 please :D

I'm getting quite a few emails about these asking if we have any in stock, we have a limited number of these units available to ship immediately. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers.

MacStill wrote:Oh and here's a couple more pics of how the thump tube is inserted, I had to custom build the tube in my shed to know for sure it's going to work properly, so now I can get the lower tee made with the thump tube already installed permanently :handgestures-thumbupleft: .

DSC_0572.jpg

DSC_0574.jpg

Hey Mac
That copper 90 deg... is that a 3" ?

DBV

dogbreath vodka wrote:
Hey Mac
That copper 90 deg... is that a 3" ?

DBV

2.5" ;-)

Carter Head Construction

Fitted the new FSD Carter Head to Ethyl this week, for an old boiler she really scrubbed up well.
The new setup is a beautiful piece of equipment...........a true work of Art, all that Stainless Steel
is very pleasing to the eye. My hand lift trolley made light work of putting everything together,
although I did drop a rather large tri clamp on my big toe. (*uck). All I have to do now is put her
to work and gain some experience, looking forward to 2014. CHEERS :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cherokee that is looking great, I cannot wait to hear how you find the Head to run,. It sure powers ourt the product....We laid down about 190 bottles of gin today from the first run of the still.

We had our first blind tasting today with another one friday night. We tasted our gin against, the Botanist (Islay) Hendricks ( Scotland ) Bombay sapphire (Britain) and Aviation (USA) we rated very well and an equal score to the Botanist.

I will wait to see how we go at a couple more tastings but I am thinking that our recipe is there for the London Dry...now just a bit more work on the "Revenge of the Mau Mau" asian gin. London Dry went on the market last friday.

The Carter Head was excellent and the spirit was clean and fragrant. I am using a very different technique for treating the oils collected from the botanicals and think that this is giving the gin a really different spin. I will be running again tomorrow and for the next few days so will have more to report then.

Cheers.
Doc

Quick Edit...if you are having trouble getting botanicals try Austral Herbs they are just up the road from me and seem to have good stuff...They ship anywhere. I have just bought a stack of stuff off them and it all looks very good. Also Herbies in Sydney (Rozelle ) are good...the only thing I found hard to find was grains of paradise...but I just imported them.

Thanks Doc

I’m no where near as experienced as you when it comes to running the Carter Head, I’m still a virgin.
I've got the unit and haven't used it yet but I’m keen to remedy that and have plenty of time to do so.
Glad to hear your beast is up and running and producing quality product from the get go, I know it
will be in demand and you’ll have trouble keeping up. Still waiting for the Video, looking forward to that.
When I move into Top gear I’ll talk to you about botanicals, sounds interesting and I don’t know what’s
available on this side of the world.
In the mean time Happy New Year and good luck (you won’t need it) for 2014. Cheers :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Hey Cherokee,

Looks beastly :handgestures-thumbupleft: I understand how Doc's will work by directing the vapour via the valve system, but I'm scratching my head how yours will work. I can't really determine the path from the pictures you have supplied. Can you explain to this newbie.

Cheers

V

Spelling correction, Carter Head not cater Head. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Vatoe wrote: I understand how Doc's will work by directing the vapour via the valve system, but I'm scratching my head how yours will work. I can't really determine the path from the pictures.
V

Look at 5o'clocks post on the first page of this thread, it has a diagram. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

DBV

Well a quick update. We have been very very busy since we got the new still. We had run down stock in the run up to Christmas ...So much so that we had actually sold out of many products. The new FSD still has really changed the game here. We now in just two runs have 220 bottles of gin on the shelves and just today I did 100 liters of Azeo.

I expect the next few weeks to be very busy as we have to fill some large orders for the Sydney and Melbourne markets, So there will be long days of blending and making tinctures and steeping herbs. Hopefully when it calms down a bit and I have done a delivery to our distributor. I can get some down time to get a video on gin making on Methusulah produced... I think people will be blown away when they see how well this still compresses heads and tails... It is just so stable once into the run. I have come up with some changes to the basic layout which are working well, with a separate satellite still run concurrently beside the main still just to process the hot botanical oils.

Like all stills this one has a personality, It is easygoing and reliable, where my previous still was temperamental and ornery. I like that I can trust it to stabilise so quickly, and I love that you can rely on the thermal mass to give reliable runs without the constant finessing the old hunk of junk required. My days are less stressful and I find that I can get more done while the run is on.

We got a really good review for our Le Caf liquour which has already led to more orders and I have realised that it is impossible to keep 26 products on the shelves and maintain the high standards we expect...So regretfully I decided today to take our bottled beers off the market to allow us to concentrate on the fast growing spirits line. We will still have 8 Craft brewed beers on tap at the bar ...but the demands placed on us to bottle and freight the beer was eating up almost as much time and man hours as the spirits for much less return.

So that is all the news thats fit to print. I stride confidently into a new year, at last equipped with the tools to enable our little distillery to punch well above it's weight... Cheers to all.
Doc

the Doctor wrote:I will be running again tomorrow and for the next few days so will have more to report then.

Cheers.
Doc

Bugger.

My family and I drove past the Kentucky turn off this afternoon. As we went past I suggested that we should stop and have a look thinking that you might have been running your new toy. Wife was driving and she just waved in your direction and told me to shut up.

Will have to try to get up there on my own for a running day later in the year.

Happy new year,

Richard

I look forward to seeing you here richard.
Doc

Awesome sticker Cherokee :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Nice going Doc, the way this thread is reading it wont be long before you are getting Mac to build you an even bigger still.
Gotta get off me bum and get down that way for a squizz sometime.

SBB wrote:Nice going Doc, the way this thread is reading it wont be long before you are getting Mac to build you an even bigger still.
Gotta get off me bum and get down that way for a squizz sometime.

Already on the cards SBB... I am thinking of a specialist stripper, which will bring our total to 4 stills if we go ahead. As I have just also built a specialist 50 liter still just for triple distilling botanical oils.
Doc

Here's my Carter head set up as a pot still. :D



Lemongrass & black pepper rum anyone :drool:

Can you explain the way a Carter head works a little please mac or has it been mentioned else where?

Cheers

backyard brewdog wrote:Can you explain the way a Carter head works a little please mac or has it been mentioned else where?

Cheers

Mate if you click on the firs page of this thread all will be revealed if you read the whole thread. :handgestures-thumbupleft: