Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I thought this illustration should have its own topic to make it easier to find for Newbies with Air Stills.
This is the best example Ive seen to date of how to run an air still, it shows how to strip your wash and then do a spirit run. It also gives a rough guide to cuts.
Anyone using this method will need to bear in mind that washes will vary in ABV depending on what wash you use. This will have an effect all of the total amounts quoted.
Thanks to Clunk for originally posting it on the forum

Interesting idea SBB.
I had only really considered these stills LHBS system stills but Frank showed me what can be achieved.
Do you think that the quality is as good as a larger pot still?

Ive never used one myself Rossco, All I can say is that using the above method has to be a heap better than following the original instructions that come with the still.

Agreed. But it looks like a hell of a lot of work.

http://www.stillsmart.co.uk/forum/viewt ... ?f=3&t=765
This is where I got the diagram from, yes it may seem like alot of work but we all know the rewards for what extra you put in are worth it.Plus if someone was looking to quicken the process they would look at trading up from an airstill. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

That is certainly great info to give you an idea of what to expect. I wish I had this when I first started as I had no idea of how it was all going to work & how much I could hope to get out of a run.
I have done about 15 spirit runs now & I think Im finally starting to get the hang of it.
The following as been my my experience using 25L TPWs and my Airstill and recording all observations after each run.
A run takes about 3 1/4 hrs to go through.
Most of my washes go in at about 12 point something %.
After reading some of the other comments by experienced members on here, I decided to do my cuts in 50,75,100ml cuts ( although now I will collect 150-200ml cuts during hearts & tails ). Yes its time consuming and a can be a pain in the butt but it does heaps for the confidence when you are a newbie and gives you a better understanding of distinguishing the differences between fores/heads/hearts and tails.
I now toss the first 125ml of every spirit run as fores.
Heads vary between 200-300ml
Hearts vary between 500-700ml
Tails vary between 400-700ml ( I usually only run it til it gets to about 25% ABV)
I usually end up with between 500-700ml hearts at approx. 66% ABV from each spirit run.
I save the heads & tails in large marked jars and do a run when I have collected enough. ( I have done a run with mainly tails and some heads added with no ill effect)

Good stuff :handgestures-thumbupleft: Feints runs will see you right mate

Hi All

With the heads run from the diagram do you discard any of it or as it suggests grab it in 100ml lots until about 55% ABV

once you collect 1750ml of heads

place in distiller & add water to the 4lt mark

discard the first 150ml

collect 1lt after that

I also enjoyed learning on my airstill and have since upgraded so that I can save time when making my favorites. These are my notes from one of my last batches - they may be of some help to someone starting off. I used a TPW with some barley added made up to 27lts. I added about 2.5lt of feints from the previous batch on the stripping run. So in total did six 4lt stripping runs, then did three 4lt spirit runs

Add 2kg sugar, 250g barley flakes ground in food
processor to boiling water & simmer for 10 mins.
Add 2.2kg sugar, 250g tomato paste & lemon juice (2) off
heat & stir to disolve. Into fermenter, last 2kg sugar
stir to disolve, make up to 27lt with cold water. 100g Lowans Baking Yeast
sprinkled on top, in @ 28 degC.

Racked to secondary fermenter after 1 week
approx 23.2lt. Let stand for another week beofre stripping.

Stripped with previous brew feints to 7.2lt @ 50.7%
watered to 12lt @ 30.4%

Spirits runs produced 2.7lt hearts @ 67.3%

I have also added an attachment of the data table for one of the spirit runs with temps & cuts etc.