Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

scythe wrote:Seeing as your on a boat have you thought about distilling at or close to drinking strength?
That will allow you to run it a bit faster as your not trying to squeeze out the last 2%.
just thinking along the lines of how alot of spirits are only called what they are as a result of their distillation recipe and proof they are distilled at.

But then you are going to need alot more collecting jars.

Got an example of what could be distilled as a quality spirit this way?

What do you mean 'distilling at drinking strength', scythe?

Sam beat me to it.

Hrmmm, didn't actually think that through.
Forgot about all the nasties we don't want.
I was more thinking along the lines that this is what the big boys do so it must be most economical.
Now i remember the reason most if not all of us are here, that we want better than what we can get commercially.

I think you might be confused mate... How do you suggest we (or 'the big boys') would take product off the still at drinking strength?

Maybe i am confused.
Can you not distill at say 40-60% abv?
Or does it just taste like ass?

You won't get any hearts coming off that low...

Did you end up building a 4 inch pot? Looking for ways I can speed things up a bubbler is out of my price range atm and wondering about a better boiler and a 4" pot in the meantime... Wondering how much faster it is over a 2", really would like to get away from strip and spirit run and do it in one run, maybe a 50l boiler and 25l thumper and stick with my 2" pot..

Hey bluc. Sorry I just noticed your post. No I didn't I decided to wait until I could go for a bubbler.

CA...just to chuck a spanner into the works... 4'' is super expensive especially the elbows etc... i have just finished a 3''..
still not super cheap but do-able.
Stripping, it goes like the clappers, and according to volumes, 3'' bogs on 2''... easier to source and really, VERY effective.Also, with my T500 boiler (2kw) has ample power, so no need to upgrade by heaps.
Dont know why you would entertain a 2'' build, if you want speed.
Just me personal findings... good luck.

If you do it right, the only elbow/reducer you need for a 3" or 4" pot/bubbler is the 2" elbow on top of the product condenser ;-) which is exactly what coffe has done with Amber :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Zak AKA the Grand Poobah of Blockheads

Kenster wrote:CA...just to chuck a spanner into the works... 4'' is super expensive especially the elbows etc... i have just finished a 3''..
still not super cheap but do-able.
Stripping, it goes like the clappers, and according to volumes, 3'' bogs on 2''... easier to source and really, VERY effective.Also, with my T500 boiler (2kw) has ample power, so no need to upgrade by heaps.
Dont know why you would entertain a 2'' build, if you want speed.
Just me personal findings... good luck.

What collection rate do you get with 3" on t500 boiler during strip run? On 2" with t500 boiler i get 4.5l in 2.5h including about an hour heatup..

bluc... coz it is still very early days for me and i have only done one strip... i reckon it was around close to 2lit per hr.Probably a smidge more.That was last week, but I have since added another 2.5kw element and have not run it with both for strip.
I am running a spirit wash, as we speak, and heat up was reduced by about 20/30 min. from the normal 1 hour-ish. Big time saver and a cheap fix.
I suppose what i was really getting at in the prev post is that the volume, from 2'' to 3'' is much more than doubled..cant remember the figure...
WTDist gave me the heads up on the math... lol.
But really, what u r getting is a very good rate, gotta be happy with that.

On gas, my 3" pot with a 2" shotty condenser would strip at over 10L/h...

Zak, 10lit/hr...sensational..
Running Tails off the LM with valve wide open, i am getting 50ml/min...3lit/hr with the 2kw element in the T500 boiler. Happy with that.
Hope to clean up with the extra 2.5kw when i strip my 1st CFW, thru the pot, this week.

If I could go back to when I was considering a pot upgrade I'd build a 300 mm tall 4in blockhead pot. That way I'd have already built half a bubbler and get a massive upgrade on stripping and much better times on spirit runs over the 2in boka I've been using.