Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

G'day fellow enthusiasts,

I've been brewing all grain beers for a few years now, and love producing something unique and high quality. Experimenting with food or drink is very much a passion of mine, and knowing what is in it equally important.

A few months ago, a mate of mine asked whether or not I'd considered distilling some of the beers I'd made.
We quickly devised an idea of brewing and distilling, and so I started looking around. I found this beaut forum, filled with all you good people :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The other day, I saw a thread by Peter01010101, viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10302
I really liked the still, so I headed over to the local plumbing shop and started looking for the bits I needed.
I didn't really want to look through scrap metal recyclers, it seemed too much work for the effort, so I bought the bits I thought I needed direct from the plumbing store.

All copper of course:
1m 2" Pipe
1m 3/4" Pipe
2m 1/2" Pipe

1x 3/4" - 1" Reducer
3x 3/4 - 1/2" Reducer
2x 90 degree bend
1x 45 degree bend

and some silver solder, ~$108 I think that was :cool:



On ebay I sourced a stainless 2" tri-clover clamp, which should marry up with a 50l keg.
I'll be using my 3-ring burner, sitting the lot on my brewery stand.

Yesterday evening after the kids and wife had gone to bed, I started the build. Only got about 2 hours in, but that was enough to build the condenser.

First up, using a round file to remove the little ridge inside the reducer.



Test fit

All soldered up


perhaps not the prettiest of joins, but I've leak tested it, and it holds water without any escaping :handgestures-thumbupleft:


Hoping that I can continue the build over the next couple of days and be ready for a cleaning run this weekend.
Will also need to get a sac wash over, TPW I hear is the go. How much wash do I need to make for the sac run? 10L OK, or do I need to go the full hog and do a 25L wash? Do I just do the stripping run, or both stripping AND distilling?

Cheers,
Martin

Nice, best to do a vinegar run first, 5L or so of white vineger and 5L of water, to flush out most of the crap left behind from building.
then do a sac run with the tpw, id go a full 25L as its not much extra cost/ time. Dont throw out your stripped sac run, keep it for the next time you need to do a clean.

great, thanks for the input :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Just to confirm, do I do just a strip run, or actually also the still run?

Just a strip for cleaning. Looks good btw :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The sac run is basically a strip run :handgestures-thumbupleft:

cheers fellas :text-thankyoublue:

Just put a 25l batch of tpw down, bubbles already, within like 5 minutes. Coming from beer ferments, thats crazy 8-}

This aught to keep my pace up and get the still finished by the weekend. I still haven't found a suitable keg yet... nor has the tri-clover arrive, but I'm certain something will present itself in due time :smile:

Good work mate!! Looks good

Mighty fine job to me! Its all about how it works... not just how it looks. :clap: :clap:
Going to a industrial plumber you can usually source scrap copper for next to nothing and little effort. They usually have pleanty of fittings sitting around too. :greetings-waveyellow:

Thanks :)

Second installment, and it's pretty well done.
I'm quite amazed at how straight forward this was to do actually, I only made 4 cuts haha The rest was just soldering, de-burring and sanding :cool:
About 3 hours spent so far!





When I sat the still up like this I realized that I need to make an adjustment in the design.
Because I will use gas to heat with, I want the condenser higher up from the top of the keg. I'll make a cut on the main section, about 100mm down from the 90 degree bend. Here I'll add the 45 degree bend, so that the start of the still stands up straight, getting the condenser higher up.
Another little design change I'm considering, add in a piece of copper pipe after the 45 degree bend going to the condenser. My BIL has a still, and the pipe at the top reducer is starting to bend because of the weight of the condenser, this would alleviate some of that weight.

I'll wait for the tri-clover fitting to come before I head down to the plumbers shop and get the last bits for the parrot, just in case I come up with something else ;)

Cheers,
Martin

Looks the goods mate. Exactly what I'm going to build (when I have a spare 3 hours!)

Which plumbers supply shop did you use?

Prices are cheap!

I got the copper from Tradelink, they did do me a good price as I work for a building company. I was initially told the 1m length of 2" pipe would be about 60 bux, but got it for just over half of that price :handgestures-thumbupleft: Not too sure what sort of discount was applied to the rest of the bits.
I've since had to buy some more silver solder, will tally the cost up at the end of the build ;)

Last night I made the changes to the still that I mentioned. It came up heaps better, and is water tight.
I'll put a support piece from the 45 degree bend to the condenser, but didn't do that yet.

Quick pic of what it looks like now :)


Still looking for a keg, and apparently my tri-clamp fittings are arriving today.
Meanwhile, that TPW, far out, it's roaring, holding a steady 31C without any help of heat or anything, haha, it's intense; that fermentation 8-}

Cheers,
Martin

Hey mate, looking good.
Have you made up an easy flange to mount it to the keg?
Another thing I have since done is cut a steel 44gal drum in half and sat it over my keg boiler to insulate it. It cuts down on heating time by 50% i reckon.
Cheers

Hey Pingu,

I bought one of these of eBay

I'll get a straight 2" join and solder it onto the copper pipe.

44 gal windbreak drum, not a bad idea, and it'd hold heat around the boiler better too :)
I don't believe I'll have that issue, as I have a stand for mine, which I already use for brewing beer.
If it becomes an issue, I'll build something permanent on my stand.

Cheers,
Martin

all over it. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Yeah I think the heat shield/drum saves heaps of gas.
Cheers

pingu wrote:all over it. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Yeah I think the heat shield/drum saves heaps of gas.
Cheers

Which is definitely not a bad thing, considering how long you potentially run the still for :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Minor update, I managed to find a guy selling a pretty mint looking keg that will suit my 2" setup perfectly.
The only downside was that I had to drive 100km there and back (so 200k) to get it!! Never mind, I got what I needed ;)
hoping I can get the ferule and solder it on tomorrow :handgestures-thumbupleft: if I do, then it'll get fired up this weekend :dance:

Today after work I picked up an alcohol meter, a 500ml measuring cylinder, some rum oak and a new bung for my 23l demijohn.
I'm not sure if I'll keep low-wines in it, or use my spare 19L kegs for that... Checked out some 5l demijohns as well, but at $16.50ea, I thought that was a bit rich?

When I got home, I took the spear out of the sanke keg. Anyone looking to do it, this is a brilliant youtube video of how to do it!



Unfortunately, because it is a show holiday where I live, the post office is closed :roll:
So I couldn't pick up the ferule and tri-clover. That's OK, it means I'm brewing beer this weekend :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Happy weekend everybody :)

Cheers,
Martin

IT'S ALIVE :D

I got to go to the PO and picked up the ferrule/tri-clover, which, of course, made me drop all other things and hook into the final build phase of the still ;)


Yesterday I went and got 4L of vinegar to do the cleaning run/ test for leaks.
I did end up with a leak, first at the condenser, this was easily fixed, filed back all the solder, re-applied flux and re-soldered, and that was leak free.
I ran the still for a while, playing around with heat and cooling, finding out what effects that had and what works best. Then I noticed a tiny green line of liquid at the base of the still... Sure enough the stainless ferule was not soldered on enough. After a few attempts I got it buttoned up. What a PIA that was. Hopefully it'll hold now, if not, then I'll have to look into annealing the 2" pipe on there and remove the connector...
Any insights on how you got the stainless to stick to copper would be greatly appreciated :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Here's a couple of pictures, sacrificial run is next



I have now also put over 2x20L of rum wash, I was going to Buccaneer Bob's rum, but with the wife and kids around, couldn't find time to do the molasses wash step. I guess it is in between Mac's Rum and Buccaneer's rum recipes.

20L Batch
3.5Kg Molasses
2.5Kg White sugar
2g Epsom Salt
5g Citric Acid
50g Baker's Yeast (After a lot of reading, it seems this is better than buying specific Rum yeast from the LHBS)

It's fermenting away in my (cleaned) brettanomyces fermenters now, I figured if some was to have survived, a little funk was acceptable. It smells great! Once I run it, I'll make Buccaneer's rum essence to achieve the flavour I like, once oaked ofcourse ;)

Cheers