Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi All

Wow am I happy to have found this forum, my wife not so much!

I am new to brewing / distilling and currently didn't really have a hobby... until now

I am normally one for researching the hell out of something before committing to a purchase yet on the occasion of a still purchase I did not and am now kicking myself. A couple colleagues have a t5oo and spent many a hours bragging about how much booze they are making etc. So after telling those stories to the minister of finance I was able to twist her arm into letting me buy a still and get some bourbon and whiskey production underway. Little did I know the t500 is not suited to this task :angry-banghead:

So I am now in the predicament that I managed to get the initial funds for this POS (copper t500) and very unlikely to get many more to sell and "upgrade". I've spent hours upon hours trawling through the threads looking for some guidance / advise / suggestions on what to do. I really want to make some mashes (Macwhiskey, weetbix, nutrigrain etc)

I've since replaced t500 outlet with copper pipe purchased a boiler lid adapter and a power controller but unsure on what direction i want / need to go. DIY Pot head / Liebig condenser?? Plead, beg, steal funds for a proper initial setup?

Help / guidance / advice would be greatly appreciated.

Tell her how much you love and appreciate her. :romance-kisscheek: Hold the line, telling her its going well. :liar: After 6 months start angling for an upgrade to “make a better product, cheaper.” Lie about how much you’re saving :whistle: . Oh, and try to make something she likes. :cool:

Tell her how much you love and appreciate her - Bugger I've already used that approach to get the initial purchase approved :think:

We are both big JD drinkers (with mixer) so I had been thinking I might be able to get a couple TPW going to flavour with essence until I can work out what direction I'm going to go in then.

Time is money and I hated how long it took to run the sac run (using turbo wash) so if I stick with the t500 boiler are all runs going to take as long regardless of condenser type?

Rolz

Well make a 2" pot still to go onto of the T-500 boiler then go to the feed store and buy a 20 kg sack of barely, put some in a bucket to soak and tell SWMBO this is the start of something good so get onboard.

have a good long read of my malting thread to get an idea just how easy this is and go find a 50 litre keg so you can cut the top out to make a mash tun, mate once you get one under your belt and when SWMBO tastes a dram straight off the still on the spirit run (after tempering down) you will be the best bloke in the world. Honestly a single malt barely will blow you away on just how good it tastes and mate it isn't a steep learning curve it's just a lot of preparation :handgestures-thumbupleft: before the liquid gold can be made.

so mate read, read and did I say read :laughing-rolling: learning the craft of AG has to be the most rewarding task of home distilling and it will beat any store bought junk too. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers Bryan

Welcome where to start.
Best advice you have been given is to make something she likes. My understanding is the 2 inch reflux still is very slow, all 2 inch not just t500. Accept you have not made a great start but it is not terminal.on the plus side it is only 10 weeks to Christmas that might be an angle :)
Bryan is right about all grain but I would look at nice and easy to begin with. Get a few wins under your belt be ruthless with your cuts as once your missus and you enjoy what you are drinking, does not matter if they are essences as long as you both enjoy. Then it gets easier to justify a further investment. Take you time and yes read a lot mate as it takes a few reads to absorb the amount of info in the newbie section.
Don’t blame yourself or your mates you simply had nothing else to compare with. Now you do and little steps will get you there

Hey mate,

welcome to the T500 should i of club...

Having quite a few runs under my belt with my T500 i can agree with the slow runs and other limitations.
i agree others have mentioned there are things you can do and there is a great guide on the forums that can help you get the most of your rig while you convince the minster of finance the benefits in upgrading
http://www.aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=10483

While it doesn't help the speed it most certainly helps the quality and more importantly the safety, then hopefully opens doors and as mentioned Xmas is just around the corner.

cheers from another newbie :)

Terzza

PS don't type over .05

Welcome mate

Imho everyone needs a pot still, regardless of the end product. T500's work much better fed with 40%.

Time taken cant be played down, even if you go larger, the time spent wont be much different, there will just be more booze at the end. This is a hobby of hurry up and wait lols

:text-+1:

Thanks for the feedback.

Aside from the 100's (seems like it when reading through) of threads of people making their own pot stills is there any tried and proven easiest DIY Liebig condensers? I've done a little soldering in my time but never any copper.

I'll have to search up kegs on here and hopefully find some posts relating how to set them up etc. I have seen a couple on market place near me for $80 but I imagine they can be acquired for less? Also are all 50L kegs the same??

I've been watching the "Still It' channel on YT and came across this https://youtu.be/IJDMPik5p_s
Has this been tried by anyone to confirm it can be done without destroying the t500?

Thanks again for your input. Anyways, back to studying... (on this forum :handgestures-thumbupleft: )

Rolz

where to start wrote:Thanks for the feedback.
Aside from the 100's (seems like it when reading through) of threads of people making their own pot stills is there any tried and proven easiest DIY Liebig condensers? I've done a little soldering in my time but never any copper.

My Liebig was here:-
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1958&hilit=+liebig#p26391

Goto big green shed place or favourite plumbing place, grab copper pipe, reducing tee's and fittings
https://www.bunnings.com.au/kembla-3-4- ... h_p4910029
https://www.bunnings.com.au/kembla-1-2- ... h_p4910028

BTW, build a liebig as length long as you can, they aren't the most efficient

Welcome mate.

I would avoid any advice you find on youtube.

The T500 is not such a bad still provided you drive it correctly but as you've discovered, it's not suited to flavoured spirits.

Soldering copper to copper is pretty easy. If I can do it, anybody can. Have a look in the pot still section for some ideas on what can be done with some 2" copper pipe and a few elbows. I'm rather fond of the "pelican" style stills. One thing to consider is the tools required to DIY a copper pot. If you have all the necessary tools already, then DIY is good cheaper way to go but if not, you'll need to consider the cost of those on top the cost the materials. You would also need to consider how you are going to attach it to the boiler.

If you can scrape up the cash, the 5 Star 2"pot is a good price and is ideal for your needs. Coupled with your T500, this would set you up to make just about any spirit you would care to.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Blues's build is great, just make sure if you use a union at the top that is is stainless steel as his is, you can get copper olives for those too (handles the heat), alternately you can throw an extra tri clamp or two at it.

5 Star sell some fantastic 2400w weldless elements that are really easy to install in a keg - get 2.

Could also look at making a boka?

Welcome!

You could make a simple 2" pot still head for the T500.... I say that because I'm currently building a modular CCVM (have a read about the various still types), but if you're wanting to get more speed then you might have to look at upgrading to more serious kit.

Good luck and enjoy the research to work out what's going to work best for you

Being a big jd drinker.
For easy all grain burbon check out the no mash required thread
It dont get any easier then angel yeast..

bluc wrote:Being a big jd drinker.
For easy all grain burbon check out the no mash required thread
dont get any easier then angel yeast..

I will definitely have a look into that.

tacman1970 wrote:Welcome!

You could make a simple 2" pot still head for the T500.... I say that because I'm currently building a modular CCVM (have a read about the various still types), but if you're wanting to get more speed then you might have to look at upgrading to more serious kit.

Good luck and enjoy the research to work out what's going to work best for you

Yeah I think more homework is required but I don't think there will be room in any such money that I can get for anything too serious.

I've managed to track down a 50L Tooheys keg for $10. I haven't picked it up yet so I could only tell by the photos on marketplace and what she sent me as to the condition of it. I really need to research what the actual cost of parts and labor would be to convert it into a boiler. Anyone able to throw me a rough ballpark figure??

I'd also been toying with the idea of running the two TPW's I have fermenting now and once done selling the T500 setup whilst it is still somewhat new (would have only done 6 runs). Would I be in dream land to think I could palm it off for somewhere in the ballpark of $550-$600? Copper column, copper outlet hose replacement, all original boxes and purchased about 4 weeks ago for way too much :cry:

Thanks again everyone for the words of wisdom.

Rolz

Rolz don’t underestimate what your set up an do mate. Many many of the guys here started that way and it can produce so very good product, like most stills, if run with knowledge and patience. Understand the strengths of what you have and play to those mate. Doing something a still , any still, is not designed to do will give you compromised results mate.
I would suggest working very hard to make something your missus enjoys and life will get easier.
There is a whole thread dedicated to running the t500 so you get the most out of it mate.
We all have still envy lol, it took me 1 year to upgrade to the setup I wanted, guess what, I want more lol.

I still got my t500 sitting in the corner.

I'm planning on making a second still so I can run 2 at once that negates the time taken. run twice as much in half the time. then only run for half the year.
I thought making your own was cheaper but the amount of stuff I have bought its blown right out. lucky I didn't do it because of the price.

Gets very expensive making cheap booze..
Until of course you compare the amount you "actually drink" to store bought..

When I got my gear back in 2014 (mind you it was a lot cheaper back then) I worked out I had to make around 100 bottles of cheap vodka (including power/water/ingredients etc) to break even. I am well and truly past that now and have been for a long time, I would compare some of my product (rum, whiskey, bourbon) to be worth alot more then cheap vodka if I was to purchase it.

Did something similar every-time I got extra gear or upgrade my home beer brewery setup, how much beer/spirits do I need to make.

I do still buy some commercial but not as much (mainly beer for ideas) but I also don't run the still as often as I have a lot of stock from when I first started I am slowly going through.

Which is funny because I can make product a lot better these days

Breaking down the cost over time is the way to justify it, I probably should have gone 5" or 6" originally but I couldn't shell out the extra $$ at the time and couldn't power it. But I only say that as I may be using my 4" kit for a commercial start up soon and I'll be limited with time/output

Always go bigger then you think :p I may see if I can track down some 6" pipe and have a go at making something at some point but who knows, if the commercial side takes off id probably look at 8-12" anyway