Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi Everyone
Just joined the site after doing a bit of reading. Wow, it looks as though it’s going to be another hobby that’s going to do my head in for a while. Just bought a Pure Distilling reflux still as I want to make some neutral spirit to start with. Got my first wash down and the real playtime should start in a few days. I like the idea of infusing citrus (as I have stacks of them growing) and will also start with making some infused gin. The oak chips and essences that came with the kit will be used and will form a part of the learning curve. Madly collecting and cleaning bottles at the moment to store all of the “gut rot” that I’m likely to produce initially. Luckily, family members will be kind enough to help me through the early consumption stages. Already thinking about pot stills (gin and rum making) but I think it would be wise to crawl before walking. I used to be a teacher of wood and metal so the idea of making my own pot still appeals to me. I think that’s where you guys are going to be a good source of info. But that will come later. I also keep a few bee hives. Using honey to make a wash is a possibility but that may require a bit of thought and research. Not sure about that at this stage as the honey is worth about $12 per kg. Could end up being an expensive brew. Anyway, thanks for allowing me to join the forum. Looking forward to the discussion that may eventuate in the future.

Cheers

Les

Gday les, it might all seem a bit daunting at first but you’ll get the hang of things pretty quick. The newbies corner has a wealth of information to start with.

Welcome mate

You'll be fine mate keep reading and you'll have a good handle on it in no time.

Don't waste your honey for ferments, it takes too long and doesn't bring any real flavour over that I've found. There's some good mead recipes around you might like to try. I do use my waste honey for neutral ferments and they seem fine.

Good luck :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Welcome mate, looking forward to seeing your first diy still. Post plenty of photos. Lots of guys on here have built their own and are willing to help.

Thanks for the welcome guys really looking forward to learning from all of the wizards out there.

Welcome Les, you've come to the right place.

It's definitely quite daunting taking your first step but it will all start to make sense once you start running your still.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Gday Lesgold and welcome!
I started with a PD still and it was a good still to test the waters with.
As you've said you were a metal teacher, i highly recommend getting your hands dirty and building yourself a still at some stage... do pleanty of research first though. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
It is a very rewarding task and adds a whole new enjoyment to the hobby. A simple pot still would be a good starting point and then you'll be able to make that rum from scratch. :dance:

Thanks dans.brew.

That may be a long way off at this stage. Want to spend plenty of time learning and playing to see where this takes me. Sitting here watching my first wash running through at the moment. Decided to just follow manufacturers instructions for the first run and build up knowledge and confidence in the system before taking the next step. Everything is running smoothly at this point in time. Took off about 150ml of window cleaner and now have about 3l of neutral in the demijohn. Already thinking about taking cuts with the next brew. Need to start training the nose and sort out what the heads, hearts and tails will smell like. It’s been a good chance to do some cleaning in the kitchen while the reflux is doing it’s stuff. Looks like there may be some added bonus points gained with the coach. It’s a win, win really.

Cheers

Les

Good stuff Les.
You will get your head around it all soon enough, especially with a few runs under your belt. Anything your going to drink def do cuts unless you like headaches (from heads) or manky flavours (from tails).

Quick question from this newbie. Was just reading about Odin’s gin recipe and it got me thinking about boilers and their capacity etc. I can understand the logic behind only filling your boiler to a certain maximum height but is there a minimum quantity wash that you could put into the boiler? If I wanted to experiment with flavours of gins and the mix of botanicals etc, a small run would enable me to do this. I assume that you would need a certain amount of water/ wash to prevent the boiler running dry but are there any other reasons why a small run of 3 to 5 litres should not be attempted? (My boiler has a capacity of 30l.

Thanks in advance.

Les

As long as your elements, if your using electricity don't run dry or your boiler doesn't run dry and burns if your on gas then you should be ok.

Some stills may not run properly without enough alcohol in them, like a 4" bubbler can hold about a litre or so on the plates so your 3 litres of 40% would be used up just loading it but for a small gin run in a pot still you shouldn't have any problems.

I've had a bit more of a think about it and not sure I gave very good advice there sorry. I don't think 3-4 ltrs in a 30ltr boiler is a good idea. Way too easy to run dry. I would not recommend doing that. I would look around for a smaller 5ltr pot still and use that for trials.

woodduck wrote:I've had a bit more of a think about it and not sure I gave very good advice there sorry. I don't think 3-4 ltrs in a 30ltr boiler is a good idea. Way too easy to run dry. I would not recommend doing that. I would look around for a smaller 5ltr pot still and use that for trials.

:text-+1:

For those HBS boilers, even though the elements are underneath rather then immersed in the liquid, there is still a chance thet element will burn out if there's not enough liquid in the boiler to wick the heat away (I don't think the "boil dry protection" can be trusted). For 3-5 litre runs, you'd need an appropriately sized boiler or a slightly larger bain-marie style boiler like this one.

Thanks for your reply’s Folks. Basically what I expected to hear. May have to look at getting a smaller boiler or running a larger wash for experimental gin runs.

Cheers

Les