Professor Green wrote:Welcome to AD jomo.
You've come to the right place for info that's for sure.
If you are looking to do gin AND possibly whiskies then a modular design will be your best bet as it will cover off most of your bases. You'll need 4 or 5 plates plus a packed section to make neutral for your gin. The bonus of this is you'll have the best possible vodka on the planet by just watering some of that neutral down. Going modular means you'll be able to assemble it without the plates and packed section for stripping runs and pot stilled gin/whisky or, you can pop in 3 or 4 plates for single pass rums and whiskies. Depending on how you want to make your gin you could leave it at that or you could add a botanical basket for vapour infusion. If you want to go the whole hog, there's also a carter head which is the mutt's nuts for vapour infusion.
You will need to think about your budget if you're looking to purchase off the shelf as this equipment is not cheap. If you do decide to buy something ready to go, you cannot go past 5 Star for quality and service. It's not cheap but you get what you pay for and their gear is worth every cent.
Another thing to think about before you embark on your journey is where you're going to run your still as 5 plates and packed section on top of a boiler add up to quite a height.
There's heaps of info in the pot and column sections on DIY builds to whet your appetite if you want to have a got at making it yourself.
Cheers,
Prof. Green.
Thanks for taking the time to reply to me - definitely some good bits of information in your post which I'll keep in mind when making purchasing decisions.
At the moment I'm very strongly considering buying Linny's kit that he has up for sale in the for sale section - it seems like it will tick all the boxes for what I'd like to do and sits pretty squarely on my budget - would this kit be a bit beyond a new starter, or should I dive right in? I'm certainly not interested in taking shortcuts, and understand that to obtain quality outputs you need high quality inputs and methods. I've tried homebrews and spirits done by friends before who don't care enough about sterilisation, or want to save a couple of extra dollars on cheap homebrand cans and sugars from woolies and I'm simply not interested in that game. As an extension from this I'm interested in making quality spirits with 'natural' flavour that comes from the distillation and maturation processes, rather than bottles of flavouring essence.
Space isn't a real issue - I've got a good sized garage and an enthusiastic wife who is 100% onboard and into the hobby. The garage has a pitched roof and no low hanging plasterboard so we've got decent height to work with too.
As I said I've been doing kit and bit brewing for a while now, and certainly wanted to graduate to BIAB or all grain mash in the very near future as I'm finding what I can do to be a bit limiting and less exciting than the possibilities and customisation of getting out of the world of tins.