G'day everyone,
As you might say on the radio: long time listener, first time caller.
Like most people here I went and got a t500 setup from my local HBS. Made my first wash using their turbo yeast. Tasted the end result even after polishing.. had instant buyers regret that I had spent so much coin on this piece of $#!t and packed the still away in the man cave.
About a year later I dusted off the t500 gear, did some googling and reading and came across this forum. Read the how to run the T500 the proper way ^:)^ , made my first TPW and started cutting and it changed my life... :handgestures-thumbupleft: produced some decent neutral and impressed the missus aka dept of finance. At that time I was surfing 5Star and drooling over the gear until the website randomly went offline :handgestures-thumbdown: sadly I know because I was checking almost everyday like a little kid waiting for Santa..
Thankfully it came back online and got onto Andrew at 5Star who has been awesome to deal with and just entered a whole new world when running his 4" pot still.. it's funny because you read the forums and people are almost screaming about not wasting your money on the t500 etc but you almost have to use it and then something else to realise the difference.
Currently running 5Star 4" pot still on t500 boiler for stripping and the t500 reflux column for spirit run. Using a 240 Litre wheely bin (my green waste bin has been sacrificed LOL) with Ozito pump circulating, return water for the pot still is cool, but def heats the water up when running the t500 reflux... water bill has dropped a lot doing this!
Looking to upgrade to get a bubbler and 50L boiler.
Cheers,
Closey