Nerw member, might call this post buy once cry once.

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Nerw member, might call this post buy once cry once.

Postby Bob9863 » Thu May 26, 2022 4:13 pm

Because I certainly didn't, anyway.

I started out as a kid helping my uncle Tom make runs in a sideways old beer keg with the hole in the side on coals hooked up with plumbing pipe to an old softdrink keg (20lt or so) into a worm in a 44 gallon drum behind the sheering shed.
He used to make a lot of brandies as the farm had a lot of old fruit trees, in fact he made so much he died at 63 of cirrhosis of the liver and just about everywhere else for that matter.

Anyway I moved around after school never staying anywhere for too long so the easiest thing to cart around and use was an air still, definitely not the best but it could make a reasonable rum with a bit of care.

But I promised myself that one day I would buy a proper big still like Tom used to use. Eventually I settled down and bought a place after many years and decided it was time to upgrade.

This is where buy once cry once comes into it, because I certainly didn't do that.

I made the 1st and probably most common mistake and went shopping for a bargain on Ebay, yes that old chestnut and ended up with this God awful POS.

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I decided the problem was that it wasn't big enough so back on ebay I went and bought a big milk vat boiler and plummed it up.
It was a little better but nothing like I used to make with old Tom.

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So then I decided to go modern with a proper boiler, an Alembic dome and Alcoengine Condenser and a power controller.
The results were much much better, but still not like the old days.

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I decided to go bigger again and built a keg still and ran the Alcoengine on it with a little extra bit of copper to replace the dome.
It was about the same but made a lot more.

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Bob9863
 
Posts: 106
Joined: Tue May 24, 2022 9:35 pm
Location: Albury NSW
equipment: 118lt keg still with 50lt thumper, gin cadfy/mini thumper and shotgun condenser
5lt copper pot still

Re: Nerw member, might call this post buy once cry once.

Postby Bob9863 » Thu May 26, 2022 4:14 pm

After that I decided to upgrade to something much better, I got some bubble plates and a shotgun condenser and put this one together, it made some damn nice runs and I was finally happy.

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But I missed the thumper like old Tom had so another trip to the store and I put a nice little one together that also makes a brilliant gin caddy.

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But eventually I progressed to making all grain, mostly grain whiskey and all fruit brandies and found with the low ABV of my mash I wasn't getting a lot of output, so I finally went the whole hog and put this together, and it is a beautiful still to run, easy to use and what it makes is smooth as a baby's bum and I wish I'd just bit the bullet and built it to begin with.

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I've still got the 2nd last one for smaller runs or suger blended runs, although the big one runs fine at 50% capacity and the PRV adds a comforting amount of reassurance with that level of fill.
Bob9863
 
Posts: 106
Joined: Tue May 24, 2022 9:35 pm
Location: Albury NSW
equipment: 118lt keg still with 50lt thumper, gin cadfy/mini thumper and shotgun condenser
5lt copper pot still

Re: Nerw member, might call this post buy once cry once.

Postby BigRig » Thu May 26, 2022 4:33 pm

Welcome to the forum. Love your 1st post, i enjoyed reading your journey and seeing how things have progressed to where you are now. Whats the size of the big boiler in the last photo ?
BigRig
 
Posts: 752
Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2019 1:29 pm
Location: Brisbane, QLD
equipment: FSD 4" Mac SSG, 50L Milk Can, 2 x 2400w elements, 35L Digiboil Boiler, Airstill.

Re: Nerw member, might call this post buy once cry once.

Postby Bob9863 » Thu May 26, 2022 6:06 pm

118lt with a, standard 50lt keg for a thumper, at 1st glance that might seem excessively big but when you do an all grain run that's at best only 5% abv you don't get a lot of output from a 90lt run.

I actually do all my experiments on a little 5lt copper pot still to see what they taste like before investing in a run in the big still.
For instance I did a tequila run after dialing in the recipe that only netted a hair under 10lt at 40% that cost over $250 to make, so doing some small or very small in this case runs to perfect a recipe is a pretty good idea.

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I probably should mention what I like to make, the majority is rice or rice based spirits, my wife is Thai and her brother in laws family run a pretty good backyard local operation. I spent a lot of time helping out as I've become something close to obsessed with the local moonshine and it carries, over pretty good with other grains or at least combining the two.
Other than that I do a couple of runs of rum and a number of brandy runs a year, I really like apple, peach and Quince brandy although I only tried the last one this year.
But now I'm buying a couple of quince trees, it's bloody brilliant.
I also do liquid malt based scotch and some very good rye bourbon.
I even played with milk after watching an episode of river monsters when he was in Mongolia, but the only one that I've really liked is made using non homogenised milk and that's close to $10 for 2lt.
But add some dark malt extract, chocolate malt and heavy pleated malt to it and you get the greatest scotch I've ever tasted.
Bob9863
 
Posts: 106
Joined: Tue May 24, 2022 9:35 pm
Location: Albury NSW
equipment: 118lt keg still with 50lt thumper, gin cadfy/mini thumper and shotgun condenser
5lt copper pot still

Re: Nerw member, might call this post buy once cry once.

Postby bluc » Thu May 26, 2022 6:52 pm

Like ya pot thump setup do you do many infusions in thumper? Do you have pressure relief on main boiler?. Any reason you dont use both plates on main boiler? For more flavour?
bluc
Site Donor
 
Posts: 8967
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2015 5:47 pm
Location: sunshine coast
equipment: 2" pot with 2" shotty 400mm long 5x 1/2" on a t500 boiler.
50l keg boiler 4" still mount 4" sight glass 1" drain..
4 plate 4" bubbler, 600mm packed section

Re: Nerw member, might call this post buy once cry once.

Postby Bob9863 » Thu May 26, 2022 7:18 pm

I find more then two plates and you can't balance the plates with a thumper, there muct be to much pressure as the top plate starts to fill up and if you back the heat down the bottom plates empty.
I actually only recently added the plate, IMO its not really needed but it does help to smooth things out a little. But I do usually run the 2nd little thumper for infusion of additional flavours or to smooth things out.

Particularly with the rice at 40% abv it tastes like it's under proof, but then when it hits the stomach you feel a definite warm glow.

Interestingly I actually start with the big thumper empty, that might seem counter productive but it makes a higher proof, smoother product and you don't loose any flavour.
I also pack the downward pipes with copper, that way you get a lot of contact with copper stripping the sulfides but you don't strip any flavour.
It took a bit of trial and error to put this still together and I've got several hundred dollars worth of extra parts sitting around now, I can actually put to other stills together with them if I share the condenser.
But it's finally perfect for how I like to run.
I think a key component is no sharp corners, everything should flow with minimal constriction, I also only run a 2200w element, I've got and tried a 3200w one but it's too hot and I can ower the power without tripping the power controller so I just run it low and slow with a 2200w one and let it go at that.
I run a 1bar pressure/vacuum PRV on the main boiler, and might add one to the thump keg in the future.
Bob9863
 
Posts: 106
Joined: Tue May 24, 2022 9:35 pm
Location: Albury NSW
equipment: 118lt keg still with 50lt thumper, gin cadfy/mini thumper and shotgun condenser
5lt copper pot still

Re: Nerw member, might call this post buy once cry once.

Postby Bob9863 » Thu May 26, 2022 7:25 pm

This is what I've made with my spare parts, well most of them anyway.

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Bob9863
 
Posts: 106
Joined: Tue May 24, 2022 9:35 pm
Location: Albury NSW
equipment: 118lt keg still with 50lt thumper, gin cadfy/mini thumper and shotgun condenser
5lt copper pot still

Re: Nerw member, might call this post buy once cry once.

Postby bluc » Thu May 26, 2022 8:43 pm

Good info and nice to see someone that puts a prv on for safety :handgestures-thumbupleft: nice rig for sure..
bluc
Site Donor
 
Posts: 8967
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2015 5:47 pm
Location: sunshine coast
equipment: 2" pot with 2" shotty 400mm long 5x 1/2" on a t500 boiler.
50l keg boiler 4" still mount 4" sight glass 1" drain..
4 plate 4" bubbler, 600mm packed section

Re: Nerw member, might call this post buy once cry once.

Postby Bob9863 » Thu May 26, 2022 9:42 pm

I like a good amount of head space, but once I jumped up to the 118lt boiler I knew the amount of pressure that could potentially build up and decide it would be better to fork out $70 or so as insurance against explaining to the wife why our little house just got a much bigger open space floor plan. :))

Yet the only time it's activated was when running the 3200w element which is, another reason I switched back to a 2200w one.
Bob9863
 
Posts: 106
Joined: Tue May 24, 2022 9:35 pm
Location: Albury NSW
equipment: 118lt keg still with 50lt thumper, gin cadfy/mini thumper and shotgun condenser
5lt copper pot still

Re: Nerw member, might call this post buy once cry once.

Postby Bob9863 » Fri May 27, 2022 11:15 am

Thought I might put up a pic of my rig 100% set up.

Image
Bob9863
 
Posts: 106
Joined: Tue May 24, 2022 9:35 pm
Location: Albury NSW
equipment: 118lt keg still with 50lt thumper, gin cadfy/mini thumper and shotgun condenser
5lt copper pot still


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