Distillation

[kman]

any one know much about home distillation? Because if i lived in a different country, this might very well be my next venture (if you know what i mean)

is there any book i should get to read up on it? for does anyone know where i might be able to get a still, obviously to extract oils and all the other bizzo.

so tell me what you know, or what you might have acheived in countries where home alcohol distillation is legal.

cheers

 

[sam]

yo kman

grain and grape sell 5L stills, check their site. don't know about geelong guy

thinking myself about making a scotch from a mash, theres a few resources on the net

http://www.homedistiller.org

http://www.moonshine-still.com/

nothing like moonshine from your own still

sam

 

[Hoops]

If you want a book I would highly suggest "Home Distillation Handbook" ISBN 91-970694-5-0. It gives excellent descriptions was start to finish of the whole process, and ways to improve your product.
Just check out or ask at your LHBS

Hoops

 

[kman]

the geelong guy sells pot stills, but from what ive been reading, pot still arnt as good as reflux stills.

but id like some other opions on people that may have experience.

i read through http://www.homedistiller.org, annd there is some good info there. and also some people that are straight up crazy (check the still pics section)

Also sam, just a quick question, have you ever made wine before? as i wouldnt mind a bag of 'kman goon' for its novelty value.

the kids would enjoy it

any way, anyone else that knows anything, let me know.

 

[pint of lager]

At the homedistiller.org site, there is a link to download the whole site. Just about everything you need to know is there, including links to making your own still.

Pot stills % output is about 50% purity, lots of base flavour carried over, use to make schnapps from your own wines, whisky from malt washes (unhopped)

Reflux, anything up to 95% depending on how well designed it is. Use to make neutral flavoured spirit, then add flavours back in.

If buying a reflux, go the super reflux with the special 25 litre crab cooker conversion, don't get the 5 litre. Most of the homebrew shops sell them. Go look at the Country Brewer site, everything you need sold as a package. Fermenter, still, carbon filtration, plus all the bits for your first wash.

If making one, Nixon-Stone head gets the thumbs up. Raid the scrap yard for offcuts to make it.

70% ethanol makes an excellent sanitiser.

You may own a still in Australia, so long as it has capacity of 5 litres or less for the purposes of making essential oils and distilled water. What you do in the privacy of your own home, is for you to know. How many people buy bongs for arranging flowers?

 

[sam]

the old man made a red wine from a kit, kits aren't cheap though. about $90 for 23L


i might look into buying some grapes when they come into season, brewshops hook you up, hire the press and stuff and give it a shot, depending on price. it would be good to try. i think i just like brewing stuff.

not sure about putting the wine in the goon sack itself though, thats just asking for trouble.

 

[kman]

thanks pint, hypotheticly, do you distill yourself?

also if i was to get a still made, is there any way to have it fark up? or is it fairly simple?

 

[pint of lager]

What a question kman.

Yes, it is possible to fark it up. It is possible to fark up anything.

If you can braze, you can make one yourself.

There are very comprehensive instructions at one of the links to make the Nixon Stone head.

 

[kman]

arhhh to braze, if i knew what that was im sure i would be good at it, alas, it looks like i should probably buy a still rather then try my hand at making one.

 

[timmy]

You can buy a 25l still in Australia but not own one.

The good ol' trans tasman act states that anything that can be bought in NZ (firearms excluded) can be bought here in Aust. Distilling gear falls under this act Therefore I have a reflux still with a 25 litre boiler.

 

[kman]

how much did you pay for it?

and how would you rate the sprits compared to say commercial stuff.

Cost per bottle?

cheers, just trying to gather as much info as possible

 

[Justin]

Kman, in my opinion you should make, not buy a still. They are ridiculously expensive and honestly are quite inferior to one you could make. If your going to make one I suggest making either a nixon-stone type offset valved reflux (ooohhh what a mouthful-get the plans off the www.moonshine-still.com) or an inline reflux head one (I can give you the plans for this one ).

Also consider reading over the Yahoo groups "Distillers" and "New Distillers" for plenty of info. If you have any questions (after reading through the archives ) post a question. The guys on that forum are a pretty helpful bunch of lads, (especially that Closetdistiller ).

But, basically go for it. It doesn't come any easier and is a damn site easier to make a good base spirit than a good beer. I do prefer a good beer though. Cost wise, for $8 you get 6kg of sugar, $4.50 a turbo yeast if you want to use one (easiest option), makes 23L. Then ferment is. This will ferment to around 14% which will yield around ~3L of 95% (if using a proper reflux still) dilute this out to 40% and you get around 7-8L of 40% vodka. That's a lot of grog for about $12-$14, plus the power to distill it. Cheap.

As good as comercial stuff, in some cases better.

Cheers, Justin

 

[kman]

how do i access these yahoo groups? im going to try the obvious first and go to yahoo.com and look, but if i have no joy, can someone point me in the right direction.

cheers

 

[kman]

ok, found it, good info, shite layout

 

[sosman]

Speaking of farking it up.

Several months ago there was a radio report of a dude in a Melbourne suburb who went to the great brewery in the sky. The force was such that he blew the doors off his garage.

Apparently he was "homebrewing". Either he had a gas leak while boiling or he got the flame too close to the 95% alcohol h34r:

 

[kman]

isnt that why you use electrice heating elements?

 

[Justin]

Just beware also with electric elements that you don't boil them dry. Imagine a 50L S/S keg with a column clamped on and ethanol vapour in the head space of the boiler then you boil down so that the elements are exposed, they heat up and burnout with a little red poof and #$$%%^&!!!!!!, this is more of a problem if you were running a prestripped run (ie. it's about 40% in the boiler anyway) but is still something to be wary of.

JD

 

[Jovial_Monk]

All stills are illegal in Oz, just that 5L stills beneath the notice of tax/excise people.

If you want to make your own still, it is your life. Anyone owns a still, much less one over 5L, keep pretty stum about it--as I know all too well (though I wasn't involved)

if Howard gets back in (yuck!) look to all stills being made illegal


Jovial Monk