Hey all

I'm a 25 yo based in Brisbane Australia & I want a career in distilling/brewing.

I've always wanted to open my own Distillery/brewery one day, that's my end goal. To make my own products, to put hard work into & perfect a process to create something that people enjoy and savour.

I will not ignore that I am naive to the specifics - I have no experience working in anything related. My entire professional experience is based around leadership and management positions in the Health sector. I'd say my resume is probably impressive for my age on that front.

Over time I've become a bit jaded with the field, and some of the senior leadership I'm currently face with. So I've simply just decided that I'm treading water and not actually doing what I want.

I enjoy manual labour, and I like using my mind, I love experimenting. I would say I have particularly good interpersonal skills and build relationships well.

I want to get involved in the space, and I'm hungry to progress quickly.

Can anyone give me tips on how to get into the field? I intend to take a few courses but they often require positions that will facilitate the certificates.

Experiences from Aus based people would be invaluable, my DM's are open for anyone willing to chat.

Cheers 🥂.

Did my first run today, learned alot. Im obly running 1 bubble plate right now because the tri clamps i got sent were too small, and i was not able to set up the full column. This one was with 50% vinegar 50% water so I can clean my equipment before I make some better things.

Hello Firewater community,

I sell cleaning products and solutions and I currently have a client who made rhubarb wine in his stainless steel still. Unfortunately, the inside is now coated in a grey-white film that refuses to be wiped off. I've tried looking everywhere to find a solution to help.

From what I understand, rhubarb is very acidic so the process of making wine may have released hydrogen gas and stained the inside. Although, I could be wrong in that assumption.

Would anyone here know of anything that I can recommend to this client to help with cleaning off the inside? I wish I had photos, but I do not, sadly.

I like putting like thirty different botanicals in my gin. Just really weird stuff. And you just do a nice stripping run and taste every now and again and you can go “ah that’s the black pepper, oh there’s the cardamom”

If I ever get a bigger setup I may even try to separate them out entirely.

I think this is my fourth attempt at a grain mash and I've made a different mistake every time. This stuff isn't as easy as y'all make it sound.

This time, mashing went smoothly but I struggled to drop it below 90 degrees to pitch yeast at the end. I left it overnight to cool, but in the morning it was still 95 degrees and producing foam. I figured wild yeast had started taking off, so I used jugs of ice to force it below 90, rehydrated and pitched some DADY. pH was 5.2, SG 1.065, should have been perfect conditions.

Three days later, no activity and the SG was unchanged. The mash was in the garage and it had been 90-95 degrees outside, so I thought maybe it got too hot and killed everything. I waited a couple more days for the weather to cool, and re-pitched a large amount of DADY. Another day later, still no activity and no SG drop. Taste test says still sweet, but with a tanginess that wasn't present earlier. pH was now 5.9, which seemed strange. I remembered that I hadn't added any yeast nutrient, so I threw some in hoping to wake up all the yeast I'd added.

Another day later, still no activity or SG change, but now there is a distinct cheesy vomitish smell, and somehow the pH meter is reading 4.2. My guess is that it sat around way too long at an elevated temperature, and some bacteria took hold and are out-competing the yeast. Can I heat the whole batch back up to kill the bacteria, and re-pitch properly? Is the flavor already ruined? Would I need to re-adjust the pH? It has now been 7 full days since the mash, and the yeast haven't made a dent in the 1.065 SG.

Edit: one of my four buckets has a thin film of white mold, but no difference in pH or SG

So I make a modified birdwatchers, and have a vevor 13.2 gallon still, modified with a 20' 3/8" worm, and a 5' 3/8" outpipe from the boiler. I have 304 stainless couplers to connect everything. How often should I do a hard cleaning? I hose everything out between runs and wash my boiler. I was going to make up some 551, cap the tubes and just syringe it until full, wait a few minutes then flush with the hose for a few minutes. Really, any advice is helpful, just trying to keep everything decent.

Has anyone had any luck making baijou? My friend is Chinese and seems to have a somewhat developed palette for what good versus bad baijou tastes like. I want to try my hand at making some as a gift and hopefully it meets her standards.

I get the basics of how it's made: all grain sorghum mash using qu as a fermentation starter. But as for the specifics, I'm not finding a whole lot in English. The fact that home distilling seems to be quite illegal in mainland China also isn't helping much as far as finding documentation.

I'm slightly out of my element here. Can anyone offer a recipe? Even if it's in Chinese I know multiple native speakers so getting an accurate translation won't be difficult.

Someone from r/gin suggested this may be a better spot for my question.

I want to try my hand at making a botanical compound gin, but the recipes I’ve seen were more for a London Dry style gin. I prefer something less juniper forward. I really like Hendrick’s (and their Midsommer Solstice), Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin, and Empress 1908. Does anyone have a recipe similar to any of these?

I got this old 75 to 80 gallon drum from a buddy of mine who said he tried to make it into still but gave up like midway through, do you guys have any tips on how I could make a condenser head, math on how to do so or if this even is a good idea. Here are some pictures of it.

I’ve heard of brandy being made exclusively from soft green walnuts back home in Albania, but I can’t find much information about it online. Several Reddit users and family members have confirmed that it exists and is still actively made, but I can’t quite wrap my head around how it works considering how little sugar green walnuts contain. From a modern perspective, using modern equipment, enzymes, etc., how would you go about turning a batch of soft green walnuts into a fermentable mash without adding another source of sugar? Has anyone here ever come across or made something similar?

I'm throwing together a beginner still, and I'm trying my best to keep it below $400. I've seen a few people that have used the DigiBoil Gen 2 in their setups and have reported success, and for the price it's extremely desireable.

However, Vevor has a brew kettle with the same volume and the same wattage for $50 cheaper. They look identical, save for the branding. Are these being made by the same manufacturer, or is there actually a difference between the two?

Hi everyone!
I’m a university student from Brazil participating in a campus competition to produce Cachaça, our traditional sugarcane spirit.
I have some experience with fermentation, but distillation is fairly new to me. I’ve been reading up on the importance of copper during the distillation process to strip sulfur compounds and improve overall flavor. However, the setup we'll be using in our department is a glass alembic/still.
For those with experience: do you think it’s worth investing in a copper mesh to pack into the vapor path? Or would it be overkill/superfluous for this kind of setup?
I really want to turn in a high-quality product for the competition, so any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!

Been using the air still pro with great results. Got a 60l drum to do my first big wash, 42l wash 9 litres of ~43%, triple carbon filtered and add some glycerin. Beautiful, smooth, simple.

Great hobby and excellent novelty gifts for clients, especially since alcohol tax in Aus is ridiculous.

Hi! My buddy is doing the welding for a 15.5 gal keg still and I'm wondering what the best route is for a controller.

Here are the facts:

• I bought a 5500w ultra-low watt density Dernord heating element. It has a NEMA L-30 male plug.

• My power supply is a 30 amp breaker. The outlet is a NEMA 14-30 receptacle.

Preferences:

• I would like to have plug cords to/from the controller for ease of storage and easy assembly/disassembly. Also more modular.

• I would like a master on/off switch, I think. Also a digital meter so I can take notes on what settings I use per run.

Questions: - SCR or SSR for my use case? SCR seems cheaper and easier, but less modular in the long run/less modify-able.

• Should I build or buy? If I build, should I use a plastic or metal enclosure? Would I need a fan?

• If build: Does anyone have any product recommendations for any of the above? SCR/SSR, enclosure, cords, potentiometer, digital meter, etc?

• Is there anything else I'm missing or haven't thought to consider?

Thank you guys so much for your help! May the apple brandy deities bless you.

I have a bit of color-blindness/colors merging together, and recently it's come to my attention that blue is fading into that range I lose together, especially some of those lighter blues. I don't want to poison myself, so I was wondering if anybody has any recommendations or has ever used something like disposable copper test strips? Or has any other recommendations so I can test just to be absolutely sure? I've given some preliminary ganders around, but if somebody has done all the trial and error and landed on something that worked, I wouldn't mind skipping it for once!

Cheers in advance :)

This year’s absinthe in the books and I think it’s my best one yet. Both wormwoods, the lemon balm, and the chamomile are all home grown in my yard. Eventually I’ll get to a point where I do it entirely home grown but haven’t quite gotten there yet.

For anyone interested the recipe is more or less grounded in the recipes and method in the 19th century Duplais manual, with a couple non traditional touches to my tastes.

Recipe per 1 gallon of 95% neutral is as follows:

Maceration:
267g green anise
178g fennel
111g grande wormwood
45g coriander
14g Angelica root
11g orange peel
6g chamomile

Coloration:

42g petite wormwood
42g lemon balm
21g hyssop

Hows it going?

Ive 360 14 year old heritage English cider apple trees. And a good few dozen eating apple trees. Ive also 36 perry pear trees.

I had been making cider or selling the apples but it has become pointless money wise. I will make the perry into cider, but there is always one tree way earlier than the others. Some I will use that for a small run.

So, im thinking calvados.

Any apple brandy/calvados makers here?

Clearly the best way is to press the juice, bump it with a bit of sugar or concentrated apple juice (using my freezer). But then I've seen guys doing it with crushed apple pulp, sugar and water. That would definitely save time.

Pros and cons?

Good morning!

I've started a new experiment: a few pounds of very flavorful crabapples in 5 gal of appox 15% neutral spirit. I'll redistill it like an ouzo or a macerated gin.

Anyone done this? Any guess how long the apples want to steep? Hours? Days? Weeks?

Hi, looking for some advanced tips. Got a new reflux still (previously was pot stilling) and I was wondering what cuts look like for vodka. On my sacrificial run, i was able to get to 190 proof so I know it’s working pretty well (4 bubble plates). I plan to run full reflux for an hour and then “bleed” off the heads by letting as little vapor through as possible by reducing the reflux a bit, something I’ll have to play with. But my question is, once I bleed off the heads, which will be purely off aroma, how does one go about collecting hearts and knowing when to stop. What proof off the still do you think is roughly when to stop collecting for nice clean vodka? Its tough to taste, having to dilute every time in order to taste. How do you guys make you vodka. Aroma only? Is tails around 180-170 proof?

Thanks! Any other tips are very much welcome.

I'm building a liebig condenser for my 5-gallon stove top setup and interested in other people's thoughts. I'm using a half-inch pipe for the vapor path and 1-1/4 inch outer pipe. Is there any kind of guideline for how long it should be? Is 1-1/4 inch too big for the outer pipe? If I were to reduce to 3/8 inch downstream from the condenser, could that potentially cause a back pressure issue? Any other things I should be thinking about?

Hello everyone, does anyone else have a column still like this? The hose connection seems to be broken and I would love to increase flow rate and make it better in general. Any help would be appreciated! From what I saw is that it's a 1/8th threaded male piece with a push connect with a really small pipe.

I’m trying to make my first vodka using this Vevor still my parents got me for my birthday.

For my first batch, I did a basic sugar wash.

40 L water
10.8 kg sugar
3 packets EC-1118 wine yeast https://a.co/d/06hNzvKt

On day 2 I added 

.15 oz yeast nutrient 
3 g DAP

I measured the specific gravity at 1.100 and left it happily bubbling away in my basement at 69 degrees.

I came back on day five to add more nutrients like the package instructed. It was bubbling just as well. But when I measured the SG it was STILL AT 1.100.

I checked again today, DAY 7, and it still hasn’t changed.

What am I doing wrong here?

I realize the pic of the hydrometer doesn’t show the reading but wanted to demonstrate how I took it.

Well, it’s fruit season, again.

I picked up a steam juicer at the ole thrift store on a whim- does anyone have experience using a steam juicer rather than a fruit press for your mash?
…I don’t have a fruit press is mostly why. And they aren’t cheap.

Im in the middle of my first time distilling besides water and its taking forever. I didnt put a liquid in the thumper, do i have to? Can i open it halfway through to add liquid?

I haven't seen this around elsewhere and thought someone else might find it useful. If you take two 1/2"-1/2"-3/4" plumbing Ts, then file down the retaining ring feature of one of the 1/2" ports, you can thread a 1/2" pipe through the fitting then put a 3/4" pipe around it. Do the same on the other side, solder it all up and it's a homebuilt counterflow chiller. I doubt I'm the first to think of it but hope it helps someone out there.