Nerw member, might call this post buy once cry once.
Posted: Thu May 26, 2022 4:13 pm
Because I certainly didn't, anyway.
I started out as a kid helping my uncle Tom make runs in a sideways old beer keg with the hole in the side on coals hooked up with plumbing pipe to an old softdrink keg (20lt or so) into a worm in a 44 gallon drum behind the sheering shed.
He used to make a lot of brandies as the farm had a lot of old fruit trees, in fact he made so much he died at 63 of cirrhosis of the liver and just about everywhere else for that matter.
Anyway I moved around after school never staying anywhere for too long so the easiest thing to cart around and use was an air still, definitely not the best but it could make a reasonable rum with a bit of care.
But I promised myself that one day I would buy a proper big still like Tom used to use. Eventually I settled down and bought a place after many years and decided it was time to upgrade.
This is where buy once cry once comes into it, because I certainly didn't do that.
I made the 1st and probably most common mistake and went shopping for a bargain on Ebay, yes that old chestnut and ended up with this God awful POS.
I decided the problem was that it wasn't big enough so back on ebay I went and bought a big milk vat boiler and plummed it up.
It was a little better but nothing like I used to make with old Tom.
So then I decided to go modern with a proper boiler, an Alembic dome and Alcoengine Condenser and a power controller.
The results were much much better, but still not like the old days.
I decided to go bigger again and built a keg still and ran the Alcoengine on it with a little extra bit of copper to replace the dome.
It was about the same but made a lot more.
I started out as a kid helping my uncle Tom make runs in a sideways old beer keg with the hole in the side on coals hooked up with plumbing pipe to an old softdrink keg (20lt or so) into a worm in a 44 gallon drum behind the sheering shed.
He used to make a lot of brandies as the farm had a lot of old fruit trees, in fact he made so much he died at 63 of cirrhosis of the liver and just about everywhere else for that matter.
Anyway I moved around after school never staying anywhere for too long so the easiest thing to cart around and use was an air still, definitely not the best but it could make a reasonable rum with a bit of care.
But I promised myself that one day I would buy a proper big still like Tom used to use. Eventually I settled down and bought a place after many years and decided it was time to upgrade.
This is where buy once cry once comes into it, because I certainly didn't do that.
I made the 1st and probably most common mistake and went shopping for a bargain on Ebay, yes that old chestnut and ended up with this God awful POS.
I decided the problem was that it wasn't big enough so back on ebay I went and bought a big milk vat boiler and plummed it up.
It was a little better but nothing like I used to make with old Tom.
So then I decided to go modern with a proper boiler, an Alembic dome and Alcoengine Condenser and a power controller.
The results were much much better, but still not like the old days.
I decided to go bigger again and built a keg still and ran the Alcoengine on it with a little extra bit of copper to replace the dome.
It was about the same but made a lot more.