Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Sweet :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Run 9 with water only checking for leaks. I think I’m on a winner. Luckily no soldering required but plenty of panel beating easy flanges and a small shim made from a beer can to give a tri clamp a little more bite. Let her cool down now and time for a vinegar run.

Should I put the vinegar in neat? I’ve got 19l stitting here, picked it up free from local bulk produce warehouse as it’s damaged from falling off a pallet.

Getting exciting now.

Think most do 50/50 water vinegar :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Good man Bluc, cheers.

Bit of a newbie question, and I do remember reading something about this before but I've forgotten more than I've read.

When running just water through the still, all I've done so far. Is water output quite slow?

Running 2x2400W elements at once, I was collecting about 600ml per hour. I have no comparison to go by at this stage, but the PC worked very well, I reckon I could double the wattage and it'll cope. Water temp in was 14C with water temp out 14C with condensed water 14C. admittedly, the PC valve was running flat out.

On the PC, is it OK to run it a bit warmer?

Experience is amazing.

It's so nice to be able to list my equipment now on my profile :D :happy-partydance:

600ml hour how much water flow in rc? Turn the rc water off should increase lots.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Don't get hung up on numbers at this stage it all changes once you've got a proper wash in there.
It'll take a bit of fiddling to find the sweet spot, don't expect the first few runs to be any good but just chuck them in the next wash as low wines.
As the abv in the boiler is increased you'll either needs faster take off or less heat for the same result.

Oh looks awesome too!

:text-+1: on coffee's comment. Water will react so much different to alcahol so will the vinegar. Don't worry about trying to set your rig on these runs just blast it through. You can reflux for a bit to wash everything but then turn all water off and let it steam out for a while, the vinegar steam will remove more gunk than condenced vinegar.

Cool thanks guys, yeah I’m not too worried, just trying to solidify knowledge and iron out those little grey bits I don’t quite understand. Vinegar run tonight when kids go to sleep :happy-partydance:

Cheers Coffee, I think she’s going to be a keeper ;-)

bluc wrote:600ml hour how much water flow in rc? Turn the rc water off should increase lots.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yep Bluc, RC turned completely off.

First wash boiling away. About 30 min warm up on 2 elements then switched off one element and it took about 10min to fully load the plates. :happy-partydance:



She’s running full reflux now but some product is slowly having a drip out, so I’ve upped the water pressure from the garden hose. Still drips occasionally so I take that as normal. Both condensers are cold to touch. Awesome learning experience.

What a weapon :clap: :clap:

It depends on how to rc was designed and water temp and flow.
I designed mine to handle low waterflow and still have heaps of knock down.

Cheers Astro.

My problem was obviously not enough water flow/pressure from the garden hose. As soon as I turned it up, no problem, even switch on the other element and it held full reflux without another drip. Very happy. It’s so satisfying to see all the hours of work put into her come to fruition. It’s also mesmerising sitting there watching the plates load the the bubbles running through the caps.

Then learning about the water control through the condensers was very interesting. With the RC shut off and both elements cranking I collected a 400ml jar in a bit over 5 min but my home made funnel at the end of the PC struggled with that rate as it doesn’t have a breather. But I needed to put a piece of copper wire on the RC needle valve and colour in every 5th rib so I had a reference for controlling the water flow. I’ve got great control of output from no output, drop per second, drop drop per second, drip drop dribble, dribble to full on flow, and everything in between. I think changes take between 1 and 2 minutes from adjusting the needle valve to output at the PC. So happy.



Well Sac run finished with 5.2L of product collected in 13 big jars. I think I need more jars and not fill so much to enable better cuts. Good experience and start of good practice.



Put product from jar 3 into a test beaker for alchometer for a reading of 92%, jar 8 was 90% and jar 12 was 61%, so it looks like she’s a keeper. I’ll donate all this product to the cleaning fluid drum i’ve clearly marked as poison. And it’s on the top shelf so unless your 6’8” like me, you’ll need a ladder.

Just need to tidy up the coolant lines & get rid of the plastic irrigation fittings from the PC. 50L of TPW went down while the run was going. So that’s next weekend.

6 foot 8 :scared-eek: :D my late best mate was 6'8" I am 6'5.5" he used to make me feel small. Dang I miss that crazy bas@#$%d :laughing-rolling:

Looking the goods mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Glad to hear she's going well