Hey guys
Anyone one have any experience with distilling their own spirits . I'm keen to get into it and looking for anyone who can point me in the right direction. I'm mainly looking at making vodka.
A quick google points towards the turbo 500 but forum is putting doubt in my head
Cheers for any replys

Only reason they use a long glass cooler coil to run the vapor through is because stainless steel is expensive and you cannot see blockage (micro debris) and metals tend to hold heat longer than glass although at some cost it will not be much of a problem for heat retention.
Plastic gets a flavor in the vapor so is unfavorable. My brother works in a lab so from time to time makes that sort of stuff.

Been at it for a few years now. Approx $4.50 for 1lt @ 50% I love it. The turbo 500 is ok but over time (depending on amount of brewing) the metal fails and you will slowly get metal flakes in your spirit. It does make a wider variety of alcohol. It also strips alot of flavor from your wash so you are very reliant on your flavors from the brew shop.

I went the still spirits alembic still with a 30lt plastic fermentor (25lt usable) and a ss 25lt cooker/kettle to suit including a ss filter where you add the carbon yourself. All up I spent approx $1100 for memory.

What I like is to play around with the sugar's. Eg. 4kg white - 2kg raw - 1kg brown - 1kg molasses and 8kg turbo yeast with liquid carbon and the clear once fermented. With this I get a very rum flavored vodka then I stretch out a flavor of say a Jamaican rum from 2.25lt to around 6lt.
or 8kg of white sugar to get a nice coral sea rum or spicy rum just need more flavor.
On average in consistent weather it takes 1 to 2 weeks to ferment and 4-6hrs to boil up in the still - remembering to discard the heads (first 50-100ml) as it will kill you. I get 8-10lts @ 47-52%alcohol.

Just started a banana run which consist of 15kg banana's cleaned and diced including the skin minus the ends, 500grams white sugar and a wine yeast. It is cooking its brains off and the house smells like a banana heaven. Its fun to play around for the different flavors. Also with the first recipe it makes an awesome lychee. As above with the turbo 500 you strip the flavors and are limited to the shop flavors. Only downside to the alembic is it requires better water control and more, approx 300lt's per run. Think the turbo 500 uses around 200lts.

Really easy and you can nail yourself and feel great in the morning. Do it..............

My local brew shop used to sell "water purification units". Now they have a full range of stills and don't seem to be making any effort to hide the fact. Has the law changed, or have the authorities simply become more accepting?

Same laws. You just don't make excessive quantities or sell it.
A member on here had his neighbours dob him in and had the council come to his house. He said him and 5 mates all went shares in the still and he does the brewing at his house. Council left satisfied.

Just looked up the detail....owning a still < 5 liters is legal. Using it to distill alcohol without a licence is illegal, even if it's only a small amount and you do not sell it.

I don't think the local council could do anything about it, it's a federal tax evasion issue covered by the Excise Laws Amendment Act 2006. Hopefully the neighbours don't give the ATO a call.

My friends,friend went a bit all out .
Large stills & a few of them started selling his product got 3 yrs in jail plus massive tax as deemed by what the tax department figured he was capable of making & fines.
Its pretty full on if they decide to go you .

Also illegal to change lanes through an intersection. Talking about making alcohol.

You're talking about more than making alcohol. I think it is easily erred into making ethanol, which is what gets the occasional tourist in Bali... brain swelling, coma, occasional death.
keep your margins and protocols tight.

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actiomax said..
My friends,friend went a bit all out .
Large stills & a few of them started selling his product got 3 yrs in jail plus massive tax as deemed by what the tax department figured he was capable of making & fines.
Its pretty full on if they decide to go you .

The legislated fine includes paying FIVE TIMES the tax that they calculate you avoided. This would include stuff you only drank yourself. For a semi-commercial setup, that's gonna add up fast!

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JulianRoss said..
You're talking about more than making alcohol. I think it is easily erred into making ethanol, which is what gets the occasional tourist in Bali... brain swelling, coma, occasional death.
keep your margins and protocols tight.

Your're talking about methanol. Ethanol is the stuff that you want to drink.

You dont need worry about methanol if you only do sugar wash just for flavor sake chuck the heads n trails

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Harrow said..

actiomax said..
My friends,friend went a bit all out .
Large stills & a few of them started selling his product got 3 yrs in jail plus massive tax as deemed by what the tax department figured he was capable of making & fines.
Its pretty full on if they decide to go you .

The legislated fine includes paying FIVE TIMES the tax that they calculate you avoided. This would include stuff you only drank yourself. For a semi-commercial setup, that's gonna add up fast!

JulianRoss said..
You're talking about more than making alcohol. I think it is easily erred into making ethanol, which is what gets the occasional tourist in Bali... brain swelling, coma, occasional death.
keep your margins and protocols tight.

Your're talking about methanol. Ethanol is the stuff that you want to drink.

yep, corrected...

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Harrow said..

JulianRoss said..
You're talking about more than making alcohol. I think it is easily erred into making ethanol, which is what gets the occasional tourist in Bali... brain swelling, coma, occasional death.
keep your margins and protocols tight.

Your're talking about methanol. Ethanol is the stuff that you want to drink.

I'm pretty sure that Ethanol gets more Bali tourists with brain swelling, coma, occasional death than Methanol

Council have nothing to do with it unless your considered to be running a business from home... then they are in for their cut.
Fed level with the ATO, AFP and other TLAs get involved. The ATO has very wide powers for getting money out of you (But not big business, go figure...)

www.ato.gov.au/business/excise-and-excise-equivalent-goods/alcohol-excise/spirits-and-other-excisable-beverages/stills-and-distillation/ they even have a little video at the bottom of the page...


"Excise duty is generally payable on alcohol you distil, whether you have a licence to produce it or not" :the ATO.

So just like bringing in duty free, if you go over the allowable limit (which in this case is 0L) you are up for duty on the lot, not just what's over. The there are the fines for just having a still...

For a still over five litres in capacity, if you're not a licensed excise manufacturer you must have permission from us to do any of the following:
?manufacture the still
?move or set up the still, for example at your home or commercial premises
?sell or buy the still
?import the still
?have possession, custody or control of the still.
Penalties apply if you don't have the appropriate permission for a still.
:the ATO.

Given this^ I'm not 100% sure how shops sell the stills, maybe like bongs and such from smoking shops like Joynt Venture etc ie what you use it for is illegal rather than just having it... except for >5L still, just having one is an offence so... ?


^That said...
(I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any knowledge that I may or may not have with regards to this topic...)
rumour has it...

Generally...
Alembic/Pot stills are for flavoured spirits where you want flavours coming through from the wash (pretty much any dark spirits) They don't produce as higher % (less than 80% at best).
Reflux/column stills are for unflavoured where you want no flavours coming through from the wash (Vodka) Produce high % (+90%)

Take your time... let stuff settle out, 24-48hr turbos etc should not be racked and run in 48 hours... they'll taste ****e.
You don't have to with Reflex/column... but Do cuts... you can use the different cuts for different spirit types (mids for vodka, either end for dark spirits)

Don't make super high % for bottling - sure... you can drink 80% but when your mates start getting out of hand really early in the evening...

If you have solar panels at home... do your runs during the day - free power!

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rod_bunny said.. I'm not 100% sure how shops sell the stills...

They sell the stills for you to purify your water supply, or extract essential oils from plants. I'm sure that youngbull spends all weekend making lavender soap for his grandma.

Honestly, I wish I was more into drinking spirits....home distillation sounds fascinating!

A lot of very interesting reading here... homedistiller.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

beats pot puri anyday, she said.

It really is a fun process. I do it for me and the wife - that's it. Never been sick by drinking it although I did get a headache once due to a small environment whilst brewing and sampling a little to much out of the still during the start of the hearts stage.

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Harrow said..
My local brew shop used to sell "water purification units". Now they have a full range of stills and don't seem to be making any effort to hide the fact. Has the law changed, or have the authorities simply become more accepting?

Hehhh, neider, what you destiled and indigestet is yours, no penently involved (?..). But if you sell a "drop" you are tax fraud and will be chased by law enforcment agencies. If you produced to much of it, I do sugest peacefull solution : we ( you and me) will puryfied this liquid trough our kidneys for enviromental benefit, my self I will do sacrefice myself for free,

this thread explains a hell of a lot !!!!

Petrol stations sell E10.Consist of 10% pure alcohol.
So you could all safely process in your home distillery cans of petrol.
10% of the output is for your consumption the rest for your mower.
Just remember - you split you distill output into 1/10 alcohol and the rest 9/10 is gas.
\Don't mix this numbers, because if you do and drink the bigger part- you could kill your mower while running on pure alcohol.

At $1.20 per liter, it could be cheaper than sugar and yeast

Yeah bugger that Macro.

Sticking fuel in a pressured electric kettle. The thing could catch fire and you wouldn't even see it. If it catches fire with a sugar wash all I will get is a vapor flash, with e10 the vapor would ignite the whole 25lt which by then would be everywhere from the initial explosion.

Water and power are massive factors in home brewing. I could make 1lt@70% for approx $1 to $1.50 if I could take these 2 away, maybe even cheaper.

Separating petrol from ethanol, which may have a bit of methanol in it as well... Sounds difficult.

A still that can condense 1 litre of ethanol, more than 10 litres of petrol, and still be safe?

I hope that you didn't take my post seriously and try to destile petrol at your home. In fact, I am against cheap access to alcohol.It may cost you $1 to produce 1 liter of alcohol but the cost of replacing your liver and the mulfunctinon brain is much higher.

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Macroscien said..
In fact, I am against cheap access to alcohol.It may cost you $1 to produce 1 liter of alcohol but the cost of replacing your liver and the mulfunctinon brain is much higher.

Oddly enough, consumption doesn't really change... but the result of keeping money in my pocket vs lining someone else's pocket does.

YoungBull thanks heaps I'm considering the turbo 500 with the copper condenser . Online for about 550 . I only want to make vodka at this stage What do ya recon
cheers

100% on the copper t500 over the stainless.
A few tips.
#Read hours and hours from forums.
#Watch hours and hours of video's.
#Take your time and be prepared to really dedicate yourself to the process for the first few runs. A few ml can make all the difference.
#Highly recommend taking at least 100ml to 150ml on the heads to dispose of. People say 50ml but seriously its a few ml that could be the difference in death.
#Get the ss filter, taste better and smells nicer.
#Record your wash mixtures and temps when running a wash.
#Oak ( yes not for vodka ) is like a supermodel who wants you - seriously adds so much depth.
#Last of all enjoy. I just finished a double run tonight and my god it taste nice.

Macro. You say your against cheap methods. Its not cheap. I need a house to rent, water/electricity bills to pay, initial cost, a family to feed, rego and fuel to collect the products, sugars to be purchased from the shops. The hobo on the corner does not have all this so it is some what inaccessible to the drunktards. I drink to my means, have a 5year old to drop off and pickup everyday from school and I never ever drive whilst drinking. ( also its seabreeze so respect is their and also taken with a grain of salt).

So much of this makes it extremely logical to do home brew.

Happy distilling

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youngbull said..

Macro. You say your against cheap methods.

This is not exactly what I mean. I am happy for every liter of vodka you didn't drink because it is so expensive. I know that we are all only weak people and expect to have some fun in life....But the truth is that there is not a safe dose of alcohol. we could only talk more or less harm done.

Not sure I 100% get you on this one. Maybe anti - alcohol? Only know you from this forum for many years.
I love it when people who smoke refuse to own aerosols due to health concerns. Or Organic eating people that don't understand the implications of the process from the garden to the plate with the store brought organic products.

I would seriously like to catch up one day if I ever head down to the goldie from the brissie nth. I think we could have several great conversations from boating, rc, electronics, technology in general and seabreeze related topics.

young bull your a champ , ill have a drink to ya

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youngbull said..
Not sure I 100% get you on this one. Maybe anti - alcohol?

I am not against alcohol - just a stating scientific fact. Like a gravity. You like it or not, here it is. So every time you do yourself a favor - think that you are not doing the same to your body even with a single beer or vodka shot.
Obviously, your body will tolerate it, but only to some extent.Don't feel offended by science facts.
It appears every fuit you eat also kills you slowly- as humans are not very well suited to eat fructose ( sugar in the fruit)
But there is hope.
If people could do the same as with safe sex. Invented condoms.Imagine that you drink strong vodka and all going down to plastic blader in your stomach.
You would drink safely as much as you want.Even more.You could empty your plastic bladder, suck off of content to the container and drink again.

If the price of alcohol is controlled and somehow restrict amount consumed by society, it could be a good outcome.We could not rely on self-awareness when it comes to addictive substances.If you make all drugs available and cheap as cost prices to manufacture, people will not stop just to had a bit of fun.
Let see what happen in Venezuela when the state decided to keep petrol prices at cost or below.
If that makes country happier? People travel more? Manufacturing and communication is cheaper?

No you have the cheapest petrol in the world and the poorest people around.The point is that if you have alcohol in unlimited supply at $1 per liter most people will kill themselves less or more slowly.Russia is the best example what happens if the state keeps vodka prices cheaper the tap water.

OK we had this discussion recently on SB how good is a weed for you.Now is alcohol, that is saving your life from boredom.What is next? Maybe extramarital affairs we could discuss here? How to get BJ at $1?
or long one may masturbate for free?