Question; Is making my own spirits safe and legal?
Answer; Our process involves the controlled manufacture of alcohol from a known mix of nutrient sugar and yeast. The distillate is then cleaned with activated carbon to remove unwanted flavours. Following the procedures will result in pure clean alcohol that in most cases has less byproducts than alcohol produced from more traditional sources. Home distilling is legal in some countries and not in others. In most situations local authorities appear reluctant to move against citizens producing alcohol for their own use. However in all countries throughout the world, authorities take a very dim view of anyone producing alcohol for sale.

Question; How long does it take to make each batch of spirits?
Answer; Depending on the type of yeast and nutrients as well as the type of carbon process used you can be drinking your own home made spirits within 7 days.

Question; Which type of still produces the most alcohol? Reflux or Pot Stills.
Answer; All stills collect alcohol from your wash at varying strengths. The total amount of alcohol collected is dependent on how much is present in your wash. Reflux Stills collect less in volume but this is much higher in alcohol strength. Alcohol should always be watered down to below 50%/V before filtering. After filtering, and watering down, the total amount of finished alcohol should be the same no matter which still you have used.

Question; If I add more sugar to my wash will I get more alcohol?
Answer; You may do, but do not add more than the recipe or manufacturer recommends as yeast varieties are selected for different properties. A yeast variety which can ferment rapidly may not be very resistant to alcohol. If this is the case, adding too much sugar may result in unfermented sugar remaining in the wash. This may cause the wash to froth during distilling. Most spirit yeasts/nutrients have a recipe printed on them. There are three Turbo varieties available from Still Spirits; Standard Turbo, Turbo Extra and Temperature Tolerant Turbo. Select the yeast which best suits your needs.

Question; How can I improve the quality of my finished spirit?
Answer; The following are recommended.

Pot stills collect all the condensate from the boil and condense it. Reflux stills have a seperate chamber which further purifies the condensate before it condenses it. This produces an distillate which is more concentrated and contains less impurities than pot stills and so it follows that they produce better quality spirit.
The degree of carbon treatment and type of carbon. Always use a reputable brand of carbon that has been designed specifically for the job. Any old carbon or charcoal will not do. Some distillers actually run the spirit through the filter twice or three times to improve its smoothness.
The type of wash used. It is essential to use a high quality yeast and nutrient to produce the wash and to maintain the correct fermentation temperatures. Distilling unwanted or excess beer, wine or other ingredients may cause equipment damage or failure as well as producing less than desirable or even poisonous byproducts.
Aging. By storing some of the spirit you produce in glass in a cool dark place for a long period of time it will mellow. Some distillers age their spirit in oak barrels to imitate the commercial brands. This process may be imitated by the addition of oak chips or essences to the spirit. Age spirit in bulk for best results.
The percentage at which the alcohol is consumed. For best results do not drink the spirit at greater than 40% alcohol by volume.


Question; Why can't I make my own wash recipe and my own yeast nutrient and or culture?
Answer; You may do this but it is your own responsibility and it may cost rather than save money in the end. All our brands of spirit yeasts, and/or nutrients and Turbo yeasts have been specifically designed for the job. They produce very low levels of byproducts and are safe and reliable.

Question; Will I make methanol when I distill?
Answer; You may produce extremely small quantites of methanol when distilling Still Spirits Turbo products. These will be removed in the first portion of distillate which is seperated and called the head. As we are only fermenting sugar with a known yeast and nutrient mix, the byproducts such as methanol are minimal. If you wish to distill other mixtures then methanol could be produced and could prove disasterous.

Question;Why don't I have to age my spirit like commercial distilleries?
Answer; Over the ages distilleries have been positioned as a result of excess raw materials. The excess raw materials have usually been inexpensive or in some cases like Rum have been a waste product and costly to dispose off. These cheap raw materials have been converted into potable alcohol and aged to improve their smoothness, sometimes in oak barrels to also remove unwanted flavours and any unwanted alcohols. Raw spirit from some of these products can be undrinkable and even dangerous so ageing is necessary for many reasons. Making alcohol using pure sugar, Turbo Yeast, Still Spirit Carbons and drinkable water produces an extremely clean alcohol. We then add essences to the drink to copy your favourite tipple.

Question; Why does the spirit drip through the continuous filter so slowly?
Answer; This may be caused by the following.

Too much high activity carbon has passed down the tube to the black cartridge after the tap has been turned on. Helpful Hint: Put a 25 mm spacer under the continuous filter, at the front where the hose exits to the continuous filter. This will tilt the container back, and ensure that the High Activity Carbon settles to the back of the filter. This will avoid any carbon from settling over the outlet to the filter cartridge which could block it.
It is important to let most of the High Activity Carbon settle before opening the tap and letting the spirit flow through to the filter cartridge. This takes 24 hours. If you open the valve too soon then too much carbon may flow down the tube and clog the filter paper making the process go much slower.
The Filter Cartridge may have been overfilled with Finishing Carbon. As the carbon reacts with the spirit it expands and heats up. Always leave a 10 mm gap for expansion.
Temperature: The filter system operates best at normal room temperature. As the spirit cools down it becomes thicker. As a result, in winter the whole process slows down. Try heating your spirit before adding it to the reservior or putting the Continuous Filter in a warm place.
Too many filter papers or the wrong type of filter paper.
A dirty or clogged tube, tap or cartridge. The whole Continuous Filter should be rinsed thoroughly after every use.
Impatience: Remember that the Continuous Filter is removing unwanted impurities from your spirit. Trying to speed things up too much will effect the quality of your spirit.
Question; Why does the spirit drip through the Continuous Filter too fast?
Answer; If the spirit runs through too quickly it is usually due to the filter paper not sitting correctly. This can occur when the continuous filter has not been cleaned properly after use. Always ensure all Finishing Carbon is cleaned out of the cartridge. The filter paper can also be dislodged by the spirit reacting with the Finishing Carbon. Simply repack the cartridge using the same carbon and paper. Helpful Hint: The carbons are designed to work in tandem. When you open the tap and start the flow of spirit to the filter cartridge, some of the HA Carbon comes down with the spirit. This forms a coating on the filter paper which then filters out any more carbon. If you reset the filter and don't have sufficient HA Carbon on the paper then the filter paper may not work correctly. To remedy this simply ensure some of the HA Carbon is mixed into the first lot of spirit that comes down the tube. Also ensure that you use Still Spirits HA Carbon as your first treatment in the Continuous Filter.

Question; Why does my filtered spirit have a grey tint or sediment after filtering.
Answer; Some traces of carbon have come through the filter. Run your spirit through the finishing carbon again making sure the filter paper is properly positioned.

Question; Why is my spirit coming out of the still cloudy?
Answer; The wash has not been allowed to settle with excess sediment dropping to the bottom of the fermenter.
Fermentation temperature is too high causing the production of unwanted but harmless proteins.
The distilling equipment is dirty or faulty.
The wash is not fully fermented.

Question; What measures can I take to guard against cloudy spirit?
Answer; The best method is to add some "distilling conditioner" to your wash in the still boiler before starting. This stops the excessive foaming in the boiler which is caused by high concentrations of proteins and unfermented sugars. Distilling conditioner allows distillation even if your wash has not fully fermented out.

Question; What can I do to make the cloudy spirit drinkable.
Answer; The usual carbon filtering process will in most cases remove the cloudiness, but a sure way is to redistill the cloudy spirit mixed with water, or, with your next wash. Helpful Hint: Make sure that you add enough water to ensure that the element will still be covered when all the alcohol has been boiled off.

Question; Why is my yield of distilled spirit so low?
Answer; Your wash has most probably not fermented out properly. Always check your wash with a beer, wine and wash hydrometer before distilling. Check your still for any steam leaks. Make sure you are following the operating instructions.

Question; Why does my Thermoplastic still run for about 2 hours then cutout?
Answer; These early model stills have a boil dry protect element installed to guard against improper use. The element must be installed with the flat pin to the top. If the element is fitted incorrectly then the boil dry protect will cut in early. If your element is fitted correctly and the problem persists then see your retailer. It may be that you need to replace your element.

Sediment forming in spirit after carbon filtration.
A fine sediment which develops in the spirit some time after carbon treatment.
This is a very rare occurrence. The fine sediment is in fact mineral salts which originate within the activated carbon itself. When spirit runs over activated carbon which contains some mineral salts, some mineral salts can be absorbed into the spirit. Later, once the temperature has dropped, these mineral salts start to become insoluble in the spirit and after a few days a fine sediment appears in the spirit. This fine sediment (sometimes looks like a milky haze, other times it drops to the bottom of the bottle) is the mineral salts originally from the activated carbon. These mineral salts are absolutely 100% safe (in fact essential for life!) but you don't want them in your spirit.

Under certain circumstances, some of this residual mineral content gets dissolved into distillate spirit as the spirit flows over the activated carbon. Think of it this way, as the spirit passes through the activated carbon, the carbon absorbs the vast majority of 'volatiles' from the spirit and holds them within the internal pore structure - however, under certain circumstances, mineral salts contained within the carbon may pass into the spirit. Whether mineral salts do indeed get dissolved into the spirit depends upon 2 main variables:

1. The amount and types of mineral salts within the particular batch of carbon.
2. The pH and chelate chemical (eg organic acids like citrate are a chelating agent) content of the spirit.

Obviously, we have no control over 1. In a perfect world we would persuade the supplier to first wash with an inorganic acid like they currently do and then wash with organic acids to remove the remaining salt content.

Regarding point 2, Turbo extra wash contains particularly high level of chelates and a particularly low (acidic) pH. In fact, of all 54 different Turbo recipes we manufacture, Turbo Extra has the highest level of all Turbos mainly because it is based on a Urea-free recipe and uses a high alcohol yeast strain which tends to produce more volatiles in the wash than a standard Turbo would.

So what? you may be saying - but this is where things start to come together! The 2% remaining mineral salts in the activated carbon are partially soluble in Turbo Extra distillate. Especially where the distillation performance has been poor and not removed many of the volatiles from the wash (leaving more organic acids in the spirit).

So as the spirit passes through the Carbon, it dissolves some of these 2% mineral salts. These mineral salts remain soluble in the spirit for some minutes or hours because the spirit temperature is warm and so has higher solubility. After the spirit has cooled, these mineral salts will begin to become insoluble. If you had a spectrophotometer to measure even the slightest haze, you would begin to 'see' the spirit 'go hazy' after just a few hours. To the naked eye, you will not start to see these solids until after 2 or 3 days (may be less or more depending upon the level of mineral salts present).

Re-filtering through activated carbon will not help, but 're-filtering' through an ordinary wine filter or even a coffee filter, say 1 week after the filtering through carbon would remove the insoluble mineral salts and hence solve the problem. But spirit should be stored cold (not frozen) during this week to ensure anything that is going to become insoluble, does become insoluble). If the spirit is left for long enough (3 or 4 weeks?), it should be easy to pour off the bright spirit from a white sediment at the bottom of the bottle.

This problem is likely to be more common with Turbo Extra. It is also likely to be influenced by certain environmental conditions like temperature and water quality. If the problem persists then it may be worth considering one of our other Turbo products.

Summary

The sediment is in fact mineral salts and as such are completely harmless. The sediment forming is caused by a combination of - the fact that mineral salts are present in small quantities in the carbon we use and the acid levels and pH of the alcohol being treated.

First Recommendations:- Always use Still Spirit brand Carbons.
Ensure that the temperature is kept as close as possible to 20 degrees C during fermentation of wash.
Filter spirit containing sediment with a wine filter or coffee filter paper..
Leave until sediment has all dropped out (cold temperatures will accelerate process) and decant off sediment.

Recommendations if problem persists:- Switch from Turbo Extra to Still Spirits Turbo or Temperature Tolerant Turbo.
Use a reflux still.

My Reflux condenser does not appear to work.
There are two condensing areas in a Reflux Still. The steam first passes through the Reflux condenser then into the main condenser.

If the condenser is not performing then check the following;

Fill the condenser with water then pull the hoses off the base of the main condenser. One of these will be the inlet for the water and the other will be the hose that transfers the water into the reflux condenser. The water should flow out of the condenser through the pipe that the inlet water pipe is connected to. If it flows out of the other one then the hoses are either on the wrong way around or the internal overflow outlet is missing or loose.
Take the marble out of the Reflux condenser and shake the whole condenser. There should not be any rattling. If there is then the overflow pipe may be loose.
There should be a marble in the Reflux condenser. This should be resting on four indentations in the inside of the Reflux chamber. The marble ensures that all the alcohol laden steam comes in contact with the inside of the Reflux chamber. It has happened that the marble is too small and drops right through the Reflux chamber and come to rest over the nut at the bottom of the condenser where it screws onto the still domed top. This cuts off the flow of steam into the condenser altogether stopping it from working. If the marble is missing, then the condenser works more like a Pot Still condenser.
Blockages can occur in the condenser. When the condenser is removed from the still, it should be easy to blow in through the spirit outlet tube. Any resistance here would indicate a blockage that will most likely be at the back of the nipple that the outlet tube is attached too. Using a 4 mm flat punch and a hammer just tap the punch up the outlet to push the inside wall of the main condenser away from the back end of the nipple. This should clear any blockage.
Water flow is extremely important for the correct operation of the condenser. First the water runs through the main condenser then into the reflux condenser. The water warms up in the main condenser as it removes heat from the condensing spirit. This hot water is then fed into the reflux condenser. If the flow of water is too high then the reflux condenser becomes too efficient which reduces the flow of steam into the main condenser. This reduced flow will also result in a higher alcohol content as more of the heavier molecules like water are returned to the Still and what does get past the reflux condenser is the lighter molecules or the alcohol.
When a condenser is running properly, the top two bands of the main condenser should be very hot. The bottom band of the spiral should be cool and the one above it should be hot but not be too hot to touch.
The water flow required with a Reflux Still is very low. Typically 400 mls per minute. This is required because the condenser is very efficient. In warmer climates where the cold water is above 20o C. it may be necessary to fit a cooling coil to the water inlet tube and to immerse this in a tank with ice added to bring the temperature of the incoming water down. The low water flow is a big advantage in area\’s where water is scarce or where water meters add cost to the process.

My Pot Still Condensor does not appear to be working properly
Not a lot can go wrong with this condenser other than the hoses being put on the wrong way around. It is important to have the water flow in from the bottom and the over flow to come out from the top. That way the condenser jacket fills with water. If the hoses are on the wrong way around then the water will take the quickest route and will not fill the entire jacket. This will reduce the efficiency of the cooling and could result in some alcohol lost in steam from the still.

Water flow.
The water flow required with a Pot Still is very high. Typically 2 – 3 litres per minute. This is required because the condenser is not very efficient. In warmer climates where the cold water is above 20o C. it may be necessary to fit a cooling coil to the water inlet tube and to immerse this in a tank with ice added to bring the temperature of the incoming water down.

My thermometer seems to give strange readings.
Make sure that the thermometer is inserted into the bung so that the red bulb of alcohol at the bottom of the thermometer is positioned at the point where the steam is coming up and changes direction to go into the main condensing chamber. If the thermometer goes in too far then a higher reading will result. If it is not in far enough a lower reading may result. Don\’t rely 100% on the thermometer as we are not providing laboratory quality instruments. The temperature is a guide only. If there are no steam leaks and the correct amount of sugar was added and fermented, then collecting the right quantity is the safest method of determining when to stop collecting. If the spirit is then at the desired strength then you can assume that all is well.
I have discoloured spirit or floaters in my spirit.

New condensers can sometimes produce discoloured spirit the first or second time that they are used. All condensers are acid washed to remove flux etc. after manufacture but problems can still arise.

Dark bits in the spirit.
This is more common in the Pot Still than the Reflux but can happen in both. It is almost always caused by collecting too much spirit. This usually shows up the next time the still is run to fix this problem clean the condenser as below and only collect the recommended amount.

Yellow spirit can also be produced if too much spirit has been collected on the previous run. Byproducts build up inside the condenser and are flushed out with the next run. The carbon treatment should remove this but redistilling gives the customer peace of mind. Clean the condenser before use.

How to clean the condenser.
Soak the element in white vinegar or Coca-Cola. Rinse it with a weak solution of dishwashing liquid and water then wash any residue off after treatment with plenty of clean water. This treatment should clean the condenser then start the oxidation process again which hardens the surface of the copper.

I get blue spirit from my still.
Blue spirit can be caused by a reaction from certain washes containing excwessive amounts of nutrients and the copper in the condenser. As some washes have an imbalance of nutrients certain by products like ammonia and Acetic acid in large quantities can form in the wash. This is then distilled and attacks the copper. This is extremely uncommon when using Still Spirits Turbo products. Do not add more than one sachet per 2 5litre brew.

My still does not seem to heat up as indicated in the instructions;
We fit two different elements to our stills depending on the size of the Still.
For the 5 litre still in Australia we fit a SS1000 which is rated at 1000 watts at 230 volts. In Australia the voltage is 240 volts which means the element will draw about 1040 watts.
For the 25 litre Still and the 3 in 1 Fermenter, we fit a SS1380 element which is rated at 1380 watts at 230 volts. In Australia this means the element will draw 1440 watts.

We originally fitted the SS1380 element to all stills but we found the higher wattage was too violent in the 5 litre stills. We also had a problem with one batch of 3 in 1 fermenters where SS1000 watt elements were fitted. If these were run as a still they would take excessive time to heat up and hours to distill anything. We have also had a couple of instances of elements not performing. A rough guide is to ascertain how long the element takes to heat the still up from cold to start distilling. For a 5 litre still it should be 35 minutes. For a 25 litre Still it should be 1 hour 25 minutes.

What do I do if my cold tap water is above 20o C.
When this happens you will need to run more than 400 mls of water per minute through your Reflux condensor. In your Reflux still instructions it tells you to run water at 400 mls per minute. This relies on the tap water being below 20o C and it ensures that your condensor is running efficiently. If you are in a warmer climate like Australia you may need to increase your water flow but this creates a problem with the efficiency of the condenser and excessive use of water. To overcome this problem, purchase 2 metres of copper pipe with the diameter small enough to fit into the tap line of your Reflux condensor. Alternately purchase 6 metres of the same plastic hose and fit this onto your tower. When you have done this all you need to do before you use your still is fill an old ice cream container or small bucket with water and make your own ice, place the copper pipe or the plastic hose into a bucket and cover with ice this will reduce the temperature of the incoming water and you will be able to reduce your flow back to 400 mls approx. This will also help you get a better return from your still as it will make your condenser more efficient.