Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hey Hey, my names Andreas and a friend got me interested in and showed me the process at his place.

Couple weeks later I've grabbed a second hand 25L OzBrew reflux/pot still, currently 4 days into fermenting my first TPW thanks to the basic recipe off here, and the missus is already sick of me washing and collecting bottles and jars :)

Mainly drink and wanting to try my hand at bourbon, but am starting with neutrals to get familiar with the equipment and process, look forward to learning tonnes from here.

Welcome mate :greetings-waveyellow:

Sounds like your off to a good start. Make sure you have a good read of the newbies corner, heaps of good info there. If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask.

Enjoy the new hobby :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Gday mate, best thing to do is make something for the missus first, you’ll need her on side if you’re going to enjoy this hobby long term. Get her hooked then you’ve got free reign to spend as much time as needed collecting jars, distilling etc.

Welcome mate, with the help of the members here you will be knocking out top quality drinks in no time :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Welcome mate, get stuck into bwko once you've found your feet :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Welcome Andreas.

This place is full of helpful info (and people). You'll be making some top notch spirits in no time.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Thanks!! Was planning on cranking some neutral to make vodka or tequila for the missus to try ;)

Wash is good to go so I'm giving my still it's first stripping run (for me) this weekend, feel things out etc. Should be fun!

Well, that was interesting, fun, and potentially a bit dangerous!

Saturday morning I sanitised things then dropped the wash into the boiler and put everything together, powering up around 8:05pm. At 48deg (9:20pm) I put the water flow on by my cheat sheet (400ml/min), noting it made no difference...and temp blew out 90deg+ before I knew it!!!

Panicking, I kept increasing water flow (a crap tonne more than recommended!!) until the temp reduced and held to 80deg (around 9:45pm). That's when I saw my first output bottle splashing away with 240ml in it, so I swapped it out and marked it as poison, pity about the extra lol. I also noticed the inlet hose letting a water drop out every 30s or so.

At 10:15pm things were humming (81-82deg). Just a stripping run but swapping at 300ml to instill the habit and check cuts. On the 4th cut, content was 70 on the alcometer so I decided to stop cutting (not really sure what to check for, and running out of bottles!)

At 12:15am I swapped another bottle out which was at 60%, then at 2:30am I cut my losses and powered down, last bottle also measuring 60%.

Next day called my mate to update him. He suggested running the still out again to get the rest. Gave that a crack following night but in 2h15m the flow was slow, only got 160ml fore shot and 500ml at 60% so stopped again, not sure if I should have run it out again and with work in the morning needed sleep!

Mixed my cuts (mines the foreshots!) ready for the next run and got about 2.6L altogether. Didn't measure the final % as I'm planning another run before the spirit run anyway, but got heaps of notes (timing/temps/cut observations and problems) and think I learned a few things for the next run. Articles on here were great guides too, really useful stuff on here, thanks again!

Sorry for the long update that will possibly go unread haha :)

Hey Ondreyus
First run out of the way, always fun !
You mention wanting to make neutral and that the first run was a strip run to collect as much product as possible for a later spirit run.
You call the still a reflux pot still, these are normally two different animals
Pot still = great for stripping - don’t normally have any packing in the column
Reflux still = great for your neutral spirit run - has packing or plates in the column to creat reflux and increase ABV
Strip runs are normally fast dirty affairs run at full power or as fast as your water flow can cope/condense vapour without the still puking.
Collected in a single container (after discarding the foreshots) with a final ABV of about 40%
Do 2 or 3 strip runs then combine them all together for a slow spirit run (collected in your small jars) from which you can then make your cuts (smell/dilute and taste each jar to determine where heads hearts and sails start and end)
Cheers

Appreciate the reply, and yeah I don't know much yet!

I've got a 25L OzBrew boiler and "premium reflux condenser", like this one:
http://www.ozbrew.com/default.asp?menuI ... e&zoom=970

I used instructions sent to me as a guide, taking notes where things differed:
http://ozbrew.com/members/downloads/doc ... denser.pdf

I thought running without packing the saddles/mesh makes it a pot still?

Also just found instructions showing the condenser I have, steps look identical on skimming but will use this for distilling going forward:
http://www.ozbrew.com/members/downloads ... denser.pdf

My favorite go-to drink for all occasions is Jack Daniels (but I love Glayva as well!) and my goal is making something close to JD and beyond, as well as tequila/vodka.

I guess you mean strip once with new wash 2-3 times, combine the lot then do a final run?

Cheers again.

You are correct that a reflux still without packing is in fact a pot still
Pot stills are great for strip runs (many people including myself also like them for traditional rum where it is run through the pot still more than once

Yes strip 2 or 3 new washes through your still (without any packing) to get all the alcohol out quickly, then combine all the collected amounts together in the boiler and top it up to full with clean water, put the packing back in the column and do your spirt run slowly making cuts on this final run only, best way to get a clean neutral.

Welcome to the forum mate,

You'll learn every run and find ways that suit you.

I suggest stay well clear of essences if you want JD. You really won't get anything close. Try and find some decent staves or woodchip until you get it down pat and start making grain washes

Thanks Birdman,

Look forward to figuring it all out.

I grabbed some 20ml bottles of different essences (vodka/tequila/tennessee whiskey) to try as well as a bag of oak chips made from JD barrels.

Second wash was fermenting before the boiler warmed up so I'll be good to go again soon :D

Also, remember you can use your coolant water wisely in these trying times.

I have rainwater tanks that I either pump back into themselves or I run my outlet water into my spa which tops it up whilst maintaining temp.

Thanks, good advice. I'll consider how best to use water, the first lot got dumped on the lawn which is looking pretty healthy now :)

Missus saw me using the alcometer and asked what I was doing. "Checking % of fores for sanitizer".
She's then remembered its pretty handy stuff...aloe gel, spritzer, cleaner etc. She wants to sit in on the next run and learn the process. She will probably crank better product than me!

is 60% fores normal? I read they're meant to be 90%+. Might try packing the column and doing the next run that way to see what difference it makes.