Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hello all,

Another new member here, from Yarra Valley, Victoria.

I've been homebrewing for about 2 years now. Started with mead, and moved on to fruit/herbal/botanical wines. I've gotten fairly competent in that brewing niche, and produced a lot of tasty beverages. My favourite brews have combined citrus, spices and herbs, and I'm fine-tuning a personal recipe based on this. Most of the ingredients (apart from the sugar) are home grown, or from friends. I'm using EC1118 so these brews can have some kick.

I've also made some experimental brews using random foraged ingredients (eg dandelion, selfheal) with low expectations, but have been pleasantly surprised with the results. Selfheal is in the mint family, so I expected the brew to taste like mouthwash, but it was closer to a strong belgian beer!

Anyway, a few weeks ago I happened to see a second-hand T500 reflux setup going really cheap on FB marketplace, so I grabbed it. Have spent the last few weeks schooling myself on distillation, and have completed a successful first run (tomato paste wash).

I've decided I need a pot still, as I'm much more interested in making flavoured spirits than neutrals. My current homebrews are all about flavours, so a pot still seems like the obvious choice for me. Really curious to see how some of my favourite homebrews (eg. the citrus/spice/herb brew) would taste in spirit form, but I know the T500 reflux column won't carry those flavours across. So I'm currently in the market for a pot still that is compatible with the T500 boiler. The 5Star 2" pot still is looking like the top choice if I can stretch for it.

Until I get a pot still, I'll be flavouring post-distillation, which is also very interesting to me and I'm curious to see how far I can take that.

Good to be here, reading this forum has already been a huge help. Cheers!

Hi resist, welcome aboard.
A 2 inch pot still is a pretty easy build if your handy with tools. With a lid adapter from 5 star, you can fit it straight onto the t500 boiler. It would be a good idea to get a power controller, also available from 5 star to control the power of the boiler.

Enjoy the ride
Cheers Steve

Hi resist.
You have been doing lots of interesting things!
I have made Sort-of-sparkling-shiraz with supermarket grape juice and EC118 and various combinations of grape and apple juice.
I also made apple ciders as well. I think apple mango was my favourite.
I tried to brew various alcoholic teas ( in 2 litre test batches) but these were largely unsuccessful. I will return to those experiments later.

I have made some interesting gin extracts using macerations of various kinds - see Zymurgy Bob's gin extract in this forum for a base recipe.

I have a FSD 2" boka and pot. I can make a high quality product - albeit slowly.

This is the thread.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12638&hilit=fsd+2+boka

You might find it interesting.

Cheers
Carol

Welcome to AD resist.

resist wrote:The 5Star 2" pot still is looking like the top choice if I can stretch for it.

A very good choice indeed. Top quality, pretty much bullet proof and, being modular, can be expanded on later if you so desire. It's definitely worth waiting and saving your pennies to get this rather than something cheap and not-so-cheerful right now if your budget is tight.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Hick1960 wrote:Hi resist, welcome aboard.
A 2 inch pot still is a pretty easy build if your handy with tools. With a lid adapter from 5 star, you can fit it straight onto the t500 boiler. It would be a good idea to get a power controller, also available from 5 star to control the power of the boiler.

Enjoy the ride
Cheers Steve

Thanks Steve! I do have a power controller for the T500 boiler.

I'm not particularly handy, and also fairly time-poor, so buying a commercial still is probably easier for me.

Carol wrote:Hi resist.
You have been doing lots of interesting things!
I have made Sort-of-sparkling-shiraz with supermarket grape juice and EC118 and various combinations of grape and apple juice.
I also made apple ciders as well. I think apple mango was my favourite.
I tried to brew various alcoholic teas ( in 2 litre test batches) but these were largely unsuccessful. I will return to those experiments later.

I have made some interesting gin extracts using macerations of various kinds - see Zymurgy Bob's gin extract in this forum for a base recipe.

I have a FSD 2" boka and pot. I can make a high quality product - albeit slowly.

This is the thread.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12638&hilit=fsd+2+boka

You might find it interesting.

Cheers
Carol

Thanks for the recipe suggestions, I'll check those out! The 2" Boka does look interesting. When you say "albeit slowly", is that because its the 2"?

In that case I’d highly recommend the 5 star gear. Can’t beat the quality or service.

Yes - slow because it is 2" and running it slowly gives a better result. Stripping runs in the pot still were quite quick. Spirit run in the pot still quicker than the boka as you do not have to let it reflux before you take the distillate off. Cost effective because it is modular. High quality product that will last .

I was running my still in the swimming pool before we moved house. I found that if i set up the still the night before and put it on as soon as I got up, I could mind the still while I ate my breakfast and then do various small jobs in the pool room while I kept an eye on it. I had the submersible pump set up with an extra outllet so the surface of the pool rippled so I had a visual reminder that the pump was working.

I have 3 x 30 l fermenters. Three stripping runs gives me a full boiler for a spirit run. When I did a stripping run I would clean and refill the fermenter with the next wash so my fermenters were always full and ready to go when I had spare time. I can do smaller amounts in the boiler as it has a concealed element.

Cheers
Carol

That makes sense about the speed, cheers Carol. Have also been eyeing off the 4" Pot, but to be honest the 2" is probably more than enough for my needs.

talk to Wellsy. He has a 4" pot and can fill you in on his adventures.
I am sure there is a thread about it somewhere.

If all you have is the T500 boiler the 4” modular will try to pull over the boiler unless you take some of the weight off it .
If your thinking future upgrades , the 4” modular is the better way to go.
Decisions decisions ~x(

Hello and welcome resist.
The upgrade pathway was the reason I chose the 4 inch with the 50 litre boiler. The five star 4 inch is Fantastic and a great way to learn as it will show you a lot of love and be very forgiving as your abilities grow. It blew my budget out of the water but was a great investment. It meant I was locked into bigger runs but like all newbies you will need your stock levels to grow if you want them to age :). I have upgraded to a 4 inch bubbler but the pot still is still there for whenever I need.

The Stig wrote:If all you have is the T500 boiler the 4” modular will try to pull over the boiler unless you take some of the weight off it .
If your thinking future upgrades , the 4” modular is the better way to go.
Decisions decisions ~x(

Thats good to know, cheers. If I do end up getting the FSD 4", the T500 boiler would be a temporary "stepping stone". As well as the lack of weight you bring up, it seems the limited capacity would hold back the potential of the 4".

Wellsy wrote:Hello and welcome resist.
The upgrade pathway was the reason I chose the 4 inch with the 50 litre boiler. The five star 4 inch is Fantastic and a great way to learn as it will show you a lot of love and be very forgiving as your abilities grow. It blew my budget out of the water but was a great investment. It meant I was locked into bigger runs but like all newbies you will need your stock levels to grow if you want them to age :). I have upgraded to a 4 inch bubbler but the pot still is still there for whenever I need.

Cheers Wellsy, I'll find your threads and read up on the 4". Am I right in saying the 4" Pot can be upgraded to a bubbler, using some of the existing parts? Or is the bubbler standalone?

I'm also leaning towards bigger runs, getting a cellar stock started :happy-partydance: Have learned from brewing fruit wines, meads etc, that larger batches are much more efficient in terms of work/yield ratio. If you're going to the trouble of measuring ingredients, carefully monitoring the ferment etc, why not go bigger?

There is no issue with the capacity of the turbo boiler at all.
And all of the 4” modular is used when growing it into a full blown bubbler.
Plenty of people have/are doing the upgrade path as time and funds allow.
Feel free to call for a chat about the stills if you like.
0423164303
Cheers

Resist yes the 50 litre keg and 4 inch can be upgraded to however many bubble plates you want mate.

Give Stig a call mate he will give you honest straightforward answers with no pressure.

At the end of the day you need to be happy with what you buy and I can tell you I am exceptionally happy with my 5 star gear. Starting with my pot and knowing nothing it all it was a relatively easy learning curve, it was a big curve lol, but my pot looked after me :)

The Stig wrote:There is no issue with the capacity of the turbo boiler at all.
And all of the 4” modular is used when growing it into a full blown bubbler.
Plenty of people have/are doing the upgrade path as time and funds allow.
Feel free to call for a chat about the stills if you like.
0423164303
Cheers

hi Stig, thanks for the offer on the chat, I might take you up on that in future once I'm a bit more up to speed on terminology etc.

I'm leaning towards the 2" pot still. I'm fairly small scale, and could possibly move overseas in the next few years, so am attracted to the smaller size/weight of the 2". If I want to also get a 2" boka down the track, is it possible to buy the parts to convert the 2" pot into a 2" boka?

I see the 2" boka has an optional pot head attachment. But lets say I buy the 2" pot now, and then the 2" boka in 6 months, would I be doubling up parts? ie. Would I be better off just saving up for the boka with pot head attachment from the beginning?

Thanks in advance for the info, much appreciated.

Hi resist
Have a look at my boka thread - it shows both configurations set up. As I understand it if you bought the 2" pot version you would just need to add the boka "bits" on the top of the column that you already have from the pot version.
The parts pack down into quite a small space. I have mine stashed in a small plastic crate (apart from the column).
It is worth having a chat about it with Andrew.

Cheers
Carol

hi Carol,

Thats great to hear the 2" packs down small. Your thread has been really helpful. Seeing the 2" on the T500 boiler helped me understand the scale of it, and realise that the 4" was probably overkill for my needs.

Assuming I can separately purchase the parts to convert a 2" pot into a 2" boka, that would be an ideal upgrade path for me. I'll confirm that with Andrew before buying anything of course.

I've got a few 50l stainless kegs to play with, and thinking about converting one into a boiler :mrgreen: I'm currently fermenting 2x50l batches of kale wash, and thinking its going to be a little tedious running this in the T500 x_x

Sorry mate but the Boka is sold as a complete kit