Which still

[Egosbar]

Hey all , very new but learned a lot from my first air still run , quickly learned that it’s to tedious and I’m a bourbon man and will be mainly looking to produce a good corn mash bourbon , with the ability to use it as a reflux for 95-96% neutral

Looking at kegland
Brewzilla 65l 4.1
Three bubble plates / sight glasses three inch
Condenser etc
Add on 50cm reflux column when needed

Think it’s going to be around $1700 approx maybe a little more I haven’t done a add up yet just a quick ai tally

Thinking all I have to do is add the reflux ext and take the plates out of the sight glasses and fill with stainless and fill three quarters of ext with the saddles and a few copper scrubbies

Like I said very inexperienced but I want a good bourbon as priority so the brewzilla looks good for making the mash and all in one distilling

Would appreciate any comments on if it’s a good system, is there something I’m missing , what better options
Cheers thanks in advance for any advice , budget is $2000 maximum but the cheaper the better , can’t see me getting what I want for any lower than 1500 what I see around

[Wellsy]

Morning mate
Try talking to Andrew at 5 star as well as AI, he is human and will also answer questions you have not thought of. His stuff is modular so can be added to over time, it is also top quality. You have ready learnt the cheaper options may not be the best value for dollar. Have a chat work out what you need/want , then you can make a plan on how to get there. Talking will cost you nothing :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Egosbar]

Morning mate
Try talking to Andrew at 5 star as well as AI, he is human and will also answer questions you have not thought of. His stuff is modular so can be added to over time, it is also top quality. You have ready learnt the cheaper options may not be the best value for dollar. Have a chat work out what you need/want , then you can make a plan on how to get there. Talking will cost you nothing :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I will when I’m ready , the air still pro wasn’t cheap especially with all the gear I needed lol it added up quickly , but I have all the gear now so it’s just a still I’ll upgrade when I have the cash

[Egosbar]

I’ll probably buy the boiler first and do a mash and run through the air still pro see how it pans out

[Wellsy]

Just make sure everything is upgradable/able to be added too.
We have all been there where the dollars are hard to justify. Doing it in bite size portions makes it seem a lesser investment is being made :laughing-rolling:

[Professor Green]

Modular is definitely the way to go here. You can build it up as you go. Boiler plus a pot still, add sight glasses as and when you can. I built my neutraliser that way.
Consider going 4" instead of 3" if you can. It'll run faster and, IMO, is more flexible when it comes time to expand.

Just my 2c.

[Egosbar]

Haha I’m using a air still pro , a three inch will run a lot faster than that but thanks I’ll consider all options , obviously a four inch system is pushing the cost higher again , 65l boiler and a three inch will probably be quick enough , im not ready yet just doing the research at the moment , say the best set up for 65l boiler masher combined , modular system to easily go from pot for a quality bourbon to reflux at 95-96% , I’d say budget $2000 max , ease of use is a high priority

[The Stig]

Please forget the 96% figure , you won’t hit that easily .
You could go a 4” x 4 plate Glasser and hit 92% that’s easily reconfigured to pot mode.
Something like this: https://5stardistilling.com/product/4-visualizer-mk2/

[TheRealMrMessy]

MrMessy seal of approval on the visualiser :D .

Many of them in the wild, Stig?

[The Stig]

Yes mate , heaps :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Amature_Hour_247]

Having just been down this route myself, I highly recommend the 5 Star gear and there is zero pressure from Andrew. He basically gave me advice he thought related to me and then said "come see me if / when you're ready".

Three months ago I was looking at the same gear as you which does look like a good value proposition on paper, but ultimately I wanted three things:
1. Stainless (easy cleaning - dishwasher)
2. Speed
3. Neutral-able (when I felt like it)

That left me with a pretty clear choice once I started reading up on modular stills. I ended up with a 50L milk can and the 4" pot still with block head config.

Where our journey differs is that I already used to do all grain brewing, so had the kettle and ability to mash sorted. That being said, you can just buy a BIAB bag and mash in an esky with either an immersion element or even use the kettle (if you're patient enough for that). Heck, just cut the top off an old keg and stick a weldless element through the side, so many ways to slice and dice that one these days.

After struggling with stripping wash in an Airstill, I really do feel your pain. That first stripping run on the 4" was glorious and it was a STREAM of low wines, just magical stuff to witness :-D

My advice, which is the same advice many on the forum gave me, was start with where you want to end up. I'm gonna learn the pot still for a while and save up for plates, then neutrals will come in time. All the best! It's a fun conundrum to have! :-B

[TheRealMrMessy]

1. Stainless (easy cleaning - dishwasher)

Everything but my boiler and elements go in the dishwasher (plus a couple bits that don't fit). So much better than manually cleaning.

edit: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Egosbar]

I’ll probably buy the boiler first and do a mash and run through the air still pro see how it pans out

Was thinking that , takes to long especially as I’m thinking buy once , well in my case buy twice seems I got the air still , I’m now thinking 65l brewzialla 4.1 , and a 3 x 4 inch bubble plates and the 500mm ext for reflux when I need , about 1k over budget but I can see the value in time saved , a while away before I buy , I’ll keep an eye out maybe there’s a 10 or 15% sale on around the time I’m ready

[Egosbar]

Please forget the 96% figure , you won’t hit that easily .
You could go a 4” x 4 plate Glasser and hit 92% that’s easily reconfigured to pot mode.
Something like this: https://5stardistilling.com/product/4-visualizer-mk2/

Was thinking of adding a 500mm packed ext for 95-96% , I’ll talk to them when I’m ready to take the dive , I can see myself more about making bourbon etc but would still like to smash out a good neutral for sambuccas etc

[Egosbar]

Having just been down this route myself, I highly recommend the 5 Star gear and there is zero pressure from Andrew. He basically gave me advice he thought related to me and then said "come see me if / when you're ready".

Three months ago I was looking at the same gear as you which does look like a good value proposition on paper, but ultimately I wanted three things:
1. Stainless (easy cleaning - dishwasher)
2. Speed
3. Neutral-able (when I felt like it)

That left me with a pretty clear choice once I started reading up on modular stills. I ended up with a 50L milk can and the 4" pot still with block head config.

Where our journey differs is that I already used to do all grain brewing, so had the kettle and ability to mash sorted. That being said, you can just buy a BIAB bag and mash in an esky with either an immersion element or even use the kettle (if you're patient enough for that). Heck, just cut the top off an old keg and stick a weldless element through the side, so many ways to slice and dice that one these days.

After struggling with stripping wash in an Airstill, I really do feel your pain. That first stripping run on the 4" was glorious and it was a STREAM of low wines, just magical stuff to witness :-D

My advice, which is the same advice many on the forum gave me, was start with where you want to end up. I'm gonna learn the pot still for a while and save up for plates, then neutrals will come in time. All the best! It's a fun conundrum to have! :-B

Yeah mate good conundrum to have , you say used to do the grain mashes , don’t you do that anymore if not why, what’s your main products your doing on the new still

I’ve pretty much decided it will most likely be spend the cash right first and go the 4inch system

[Amature_Hour_247]

Yeah mate good conundrum to have , you say used to do the grain mashes , don’t you do that anymore if not why, what’s your main products your doing on the new still

I got over beer after brewing for 8+ years and to be honest, I was an average brewer with inconsistent results. I wasn't always able to nail what I like to drink, and while some kegs were just awesome, others were 'meh' and it's a lot of 'meh' to drink through if you get it wrong.

For now I'm just doing CFW (corn flakes whiskey) from the tried and true section. Feels like going back to my early homebrew days using sugar but so far the taste has been really, really good! I'm onto Gen 3 in the fermenter now and it stalled due to too much acidity, but sorted now and down to 1.020 so it'll be stripping day soon :happy-partydance:

I want to do all grain washes, I actually have 12kg of grain sitting there waiting to be mashed and fermented from my beers days but I'm out of fermenter space until I get this CFW done and dusted. I really need to get a 220L barrel or a few 60L fermenters...

You won't regret the 4" mate, I can attest to that!