New to distilling

[Lesliev]

I am relatively new to the distilling process with only one wash distilled so far and a TPW ready and waiting for the next running. I am a reasonably experienced beer brewer with around 15 brews over the past year. I am a member of Home Distillers Australia FB page and have received lots of great help and advice from that group and from my exploration of this forum can see a great resource for my ongoing learning. Thanks for having me onboard.

[Professor Green]

Welcome Lesliev.

Be wary of distilling advice from Facebook groups. From what we've seen it's not necessarily always the best. There's plenty of knowledgable people here that can help you with really good advice.

What sort of spirits are you looking to make?

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

[Wellsy]

Welcome to the asylum mate.

Plus one to what the professor said about face book groups. Don’t take everything as gospel as some of what keyboard experts advise can be very dangerous. I often think some of it is written by ppl who have never distilled anything.

Always seek a second opinion :)

[Lesliev]

Thank you for the welcome and advice.
As a newcomer to distilling I am going slow and learning as I go. My first wash was a Turbo wash and I used the neutral spirit I got from the hearts to make Gin using an essence. It was well liked by all of us lifetime Gordon Gin drinkers.
My next wash currently in the fermenter and ready to run is a Birdwatcher TPW - just waiting for the available time to run it. Question I have asked in other places is do I do a stripping run or just a single run. No definitive answer I believe as it seems it is a case of taste and see for this first run and use that knowledge for the next one.
Cheers for any advice.

[Wellsy]

It is also a question of volume as well mate. It is simply mathematics

If you do stripping runs then a spirit run of 25 litres of low wines the cuts are easier to find because of the extra volume of alcohol you will be collecting

[WoodyD40]

Thank you for the welcome and advice.
As a newcomer to distilling I am going slow and learning as I go. My first wash was a Turbo wash and I used the neutral spirit I got from the hearts to make Gin using an essence. It was well liked by all of us lifetime Gordon Gin drinkers.
My next wash currently in the fermenter and ready to run is a Birdwatcher TPW - just waiting for the available time to run it. Question I have asked in other places is do I do a stripping run or just a single run. No definitive answer I believe as it seems it is a case of taste and see for this first run and use that knowledge for the next one.
Cheers for any advice.

Gidday and welcome.
I also first started with a kegland boiler and kegland reflux 2" still.
You should be able to run that stll you have slow enough for a single run with the TPW.
I collect all output into 250ml jars and wait until the end of the run before deciding what to keep (hearts) and what to store for Heads and Tails (and I always throw out the first jar as weed killer).
The TPW certainly tastes cleaner than the turbo wash.

[MarkChap]

Welcome aboard Lesliev

Lots of good advice from good people here.

As for Stripping first versus single run, I am finding more and more that I prefer to do enough wash for 3 or 4 stripping runs and then do a spirit run, I think I am getting a much nicer end product.

You are going to have some failures, that's just the game, but good notes on each wash really helps work put what you did, or didn't do