The internet poses a threat to the health of Australians who use directions to build and operate stills.

The design is not always good, alterations are made by the builder and because he has trouble sourcing the correct parts and operating instructions from the other side of the world, it may not be appropriate for North Queensland.

Home distillation exists in Australia because of the ready access to information on the Internet.

Brew shops represent the only structure able to give correct information for the particular piece of equipment. We believe that licensing of brew shops and staff is the answer.

Meanwiile, it is still a criminal offence to distil alcohol in Australia without a licence

 

TEMPERATURE CONTROL and FERMENTATION.
These instructions are more appropriate for the N.Q. heat. Put 7 kilos of Dextrose in fermenter. Add 3 litres of boiling water and stir. Add water to 22 litre mark; stir in yeast nutrient pack/packs. Screw on lid, put some water in airlock, place airlock in fermenter lid. Leave for 2 weeks.

If room temperature exceeds 25 deg. C, you may find it worthwhile to consider temperature control. This will improve your yield. Air-conditioning is preferable but if that doesn¹t suit, use a cardboard box over your fermenter with a frozen water bottle placed inside the box every morning.

The next morning, take the melted bottle back to the freezer, exchanging it for a bottle straight out of the freezer and place the new bottle inside the box. A glass of water with your thermo in it, inside the box will enable you to determine if your temperature inside the box is ok.

Ideal range would be 20 c 25 deg C. Temperature should be at least 15 deg C. Two weeks later, you will be ready to proceed.

EQUIPMENT CALIBRATION
Calibrate alcometer by seeing what it reads for regular spirit and if it reads high by 3% don¹t forget to take the 3% off when reading your spirit. Have your brew shop calibrate your thermometer.

TREATING SPIRIT WITH CARBON.
Add good water to your ethanol (we recommend Nobles or Moores Table Water) Dilute to 40%. When the carbon treatment is taking place, leave the lid off your container and cover with some t-shirt of similar type of material secured with a rubber band. This will allow the spirit to breathe.

Another tip is to shake up or stir the spirit after 2 days to allow the carbon to fall through the spirit again. You may syphon off clear spirit and leave the rest on the carbon for as long as you like.

If you find you have 1 litre left in a 5 litre demijon, tip it into a bottle with a smaller base like a 1.25 litre drink bottle. This will allow you to syphon off around 900 ml. The remaining 100 ml and carbon is easy to deal with, just turn the bottle up over a jug or similar, loosen the lid and allow the drips of spirit to fall into the jug leaving the carbon in the drink bottle to be rinsed out later.

The 100 ml of spirit in the jug may be thrown into your still the next time you use your still. This spirit will be condensed on the next operation, so it is not lost. The advantage of this procedure is that you don't have to worry about any filtering.

 

 

     
Greg Young or "Younga" has won numerous national class wins including
MOST SUCCESSFUL BREWER 2002 - And QLD State Champion 3 years running
 
 
Homebrewers Warehouse
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