Hi all from Melbourne
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2021 6:47 pmI was bored with not much on the Telly so I was browsing YouTube when I come across guys building stills and seeing how I like to drink whiskey thought this doesn't look too hard. So I found a 9 liter coffee urn and made a 1/2 inch worm and started experimenting.
Then the Covid lockdown hit in Melbourne and I found myself in the shed a lot. I soon realized YouTube wasn’t a good teacher and found another forum which set me straight.
The flake stand was a bitch to keep cool so I built a 1” over ½” Liebig, added an inverted salad bowl to the urn with a 1” riser for height and things got a whole lot better.
After a few so-so all grain bourbon attempts where I struggled to get good conversion I pumped out 14 generations of UJSSM which started to get fairly good and a couple all grains.
I have now been playing with the yellow label Angel Yeast which is interesting.
I have a couple of problems, with such a small still I have to be pretty brutal with the cuts and although rerunning the tails works I have built up a lot of heads. I was lucky to be given a 3 foot length of 2“ copper which I silver soldered ferrules onto and today most of the rest of the parts for a CCVM arrived. I will build a new Liebig maybe 1” over ¾” or ¾” over ½” but longer than my old little one and if I can get it passed the minister of finance, a bigger boiler.
I thought I had better join this forum as it would be a better source of local info not to mention hearing Liters and Kilos is a lot easier than Gallons and Pounds, I struggle with that even though I first bought petrol in gallons and still tend to think in feet and inches (and copper pipe is still in inches).
Anyhow I still have a lot to learn and hopefully I can contribute in some way even though I think of myself as a newbie.
Bean
Then the Covid lockdown hit in Melbourne and I found myself in the shed a lot. I soon realized YouTube wasn’t a good teacher and found another forum which set me straight.
The flake stand was a bitch to keep cool so I built a 1” over ½” Liebig, added an inverted salad bowl to the urn with a 1” riser for height and things got a whole lot better.
After a few so-so all grain bourbon attempts where I struggled to get good conversion I pumped out 14 generations of UJSSM which started to get fairly good and a couple all grains.
I have now been playing with the yellow label Angel Yeast which is interesting.
I have a couple of problems, with such a small still I have to be pretty brutal with the cuts and although rerunning the tails works I have built up a lot of heads. I was lucky to be given a 3 foot length of 2“ copper which I silver soldered ferrules onto and today most of the rest of the parts for a CCVM arrived. I will build a new Liebig maybe 1” over ¾” or ¾” over ½” but longer than my old little one and if I can get it passed the minister of finance, a bigger boiler.
I thought I had better join this forum as it would be a better source of local info not to mention hearing Liters and Kilos is a lot easier than Gallons and Pounds, I struggle with that even though I first bought petrol in gallons and still tend to think in feet and inches (and copper pipe is still in inches).
Anyhow I still have a lot to learn and hopefully I can contribute in some way even though I think of myself as a newbie.
Bean