Newbie saying hi

[RC Al]

Hey everyone

Doing the obligatory intro :)

Through my life, have had a few goes at doing Beer, Ginger Beer and even Mead. Not a beer drinker at all, but the missus is - My personal tastes are more for vodka, bourbon, Cointreau and almost any liquor that dosen't taste like licorice, aniseed or ass - im not into scotch either

Too Many moons ago i had looked into building a still and at one stage and armed with some dodgey internet plans, had most of the copper together for a simple 3" reflux column, but ended up busy with a good job and then some travel plans and took it all back to the scrappys. Good info like on this site was literally next to non existent and my search engine skills have increased exponentially since then.

Have a very old little 5l still, dunno the actual model, aprox 3/4 inch bore and a can size PC - the one with a marble lol, the missus swapped it for some house/pet sitting a month odd ago. Have done a turbo, then a double distilled & cut Turbo, half way through the fermenting of the 2nd turbo discovered this and a few other sites. Got stuck into the tpw fermentation and 2/5 way through stripping the second fermenters worth to set up for 3x spirit runs.

Pulled the marble out to so the tpw strip runs and may try disconnecting the column cooling for the last runs to see if i can get some more speed and yes the plastic product line has been replaced with some copper. Run as reflux im getting 1.2L @ 76% Out of the turbo - no tpw spirit run yet, and in "pot" mode im getting 1l @55% for the tpw, both ending at around 90C vapor temp, will post up how the spirit run goes.

So a few days b4 the other half come up with this little pot still, an interstate family friend has a plumber mate who had knocked up a 2" column but never used it and was getting rid of lots of stuff due to some serious medical issues, It got here last week and i have to say i was a little dissapointed - I have no doubt it would work, but obviously some plumbers are better than others at brazing and it was 2nd hand fittings and im pretty sure the screw in base is a brass sink fitting - I had scored an 8.8l temp controlled 2000w double walled urn from aldi 5? years ago that i was going to fit the column to, not so sure now.... well crap no easy 2" for me.....

2inche.jpg

This weekend i was in brissy for the Paul McCartney Concert (Very worth it, glad we went) and a little voice inside my head told me to go the the scrappy at Bilsten Rd at Geebung. Pulled into the driveway and immidiatly spotted a large bore pipe hanging out of a skip. Went into the office and said im after some copper pipe, guy says, nah it gets crushed regularly - i pressed him and said i think i can see what im after, pointing at the bin 50m away, he looks, shrugs and says "sure go have a look"

Exactly what i was looking for - was half way down the skip and with 1/2 ton plus worth of cable on top of it - 2m of shiny 4" that i wasnt going to be able to get to, dressed as i was with my elderly mother in tow.. But with some F'ing around i managed to pull this beast out. 16kg @$10/kg

4inche.jpg

Score!! Its 4" with Viega Fittings - ive checked out the seal ratings and the majority of it is built with the Epdm seals that are rated to 15psi and safe for ethanol, but the end of the reducers have a "gas" seal that isnt. It looks unused, all the crimped seals had fresh tooling marks and a finger run inside came out only just green - i have checked via the PDS as to what would the system be built for with both types of seal present and its nothing im worried about - rain/grey water, NM oxygen, argon, co2 and a couple of other not evil things, mainly inert gasses. It looks like someone changed thier mind on configuration possibly, but it was an expensive change of mind or mistake, from what i can find these fittings are at least 20% dearer than regular fittings

Will throw up a new topic to work out how to use it most effectively soon with better pics

On Monday got 3 SS kegs for $100 and a couple of extra 30l fermenters for $20 thanks to gumtree

And yes most likely in my family tree a Scott'sman and a Jewish lady must have met lols

[bluc]

Couple good elbows there for a 6" colum with 4inch lyn arm and pc :D
And welcome what spirit are you aiming for?

[Sam.]

Welcome mate, great intro.

Also sounds like you have done a fair bit of research :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[RC Al]

Looking to do Bourbon and Neutral, the NGW sounds intriguing

Yeah a 4" bit at the top kinda begs for at least a 6" column - thinking im going to have to go 6" ferrule on the keg anyway, pretty sure i have sussed out the joining 2 kegs bit, not sure why ppl would carve 2 up to only make 80L other than fermenter size and minor heat up time difference? the 95ish size to run 3x25 washes is where im headed i think. I have a plumber mate who knows an insanely certified boilermaker who is regularly employed to do underwater welding for petrol co's so i think im covered for the "difficult jobs" - its been a long time since ive welded, but i am happy to have a bash at arc welding the kegs together and other fittings - I am a bit time poor atm (monetarily too lols) with some other projects around the house that -really- need finishing before going full on into a build though

It would seem i could get 2 or 3 pot still heads out of that too, decisions decisions....

[bluc]

Tig is the go for stainless :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[RC Al]

Yeah it will get done with a tig if outsourced or by arc if i do it - I really would like a tig set up, but all the cheaper ones are scratch start and no good for doing aluminium im told. that pretty much makes the cheap ones half a tool in my book

As I go along in life ive worked out mostly the hard way when to and not to cheap out on tools and more or less when to outsource labour to qualified ppl ;-) slowly getting there.....