This review started a month or so ago...
Like the next person i enjoy the occasional drink so i decided to try a bit of homebrewing. After some searching most of the kits i found seemed to be fairly small scale - then i came accross something called 'the amazing plastic still'! After paypaling 60quid to the seller i soon had the kit in my posession...the basic components of which are;
- 30 litre plastic bucket and lid,
- 10 litre plastic bucket,
- 6 litre plastic bucket,
- spare lid,
- modified fish tank heater,
- assorted bungs and airlock.
For those not gen'ed up on brewing there are two types of still...a 'reflux still' (also called a fractional distillation column) which is what many industrial processes also use (i.e. oil refining)...its quick and produces excellent purity of up to 90-odd % and ultra efficient. The other type is a 'pot still'...much more basic in design and comonly used for whiskey distilling. Brewing using one of these takes far long and doesn't provide nearly the same purity but the principal is basically the same.
I won't bore anyone with further tech details but the amazing plastic still is a pot still...similar to what moonshine makers would have used back in the day. Using the above components it is assembled as below;
- sit the 6 litre bucket inside the 30 litre container,
- lay the spare lid (cut to size) on top of the 6 litre tub,
- sit the 10 litre bucket on top of the lid,
- feed heater wiring through a bung on the other lid so it will sit inside the 10 litre bucket when everything is closed up.
Onwards!
Before any distillation can to place you need to ferment some sugar using yeast. You get turbo yeast off ebay for 4 quid per bag and heres how you do it;
- take the 30 litre conatiner (temporarily emptied of all the other gubbins),
- add 6kgs of sugar,
- add water up to the 25litre mark and stir,
- add the yeast and close the lid,
- leave for 3/4 days at room temperature.
At this point you'll have an extremely smelly mix...a bit like sulphur...which weighs in at 10% alcohol, and can be used in the distillation so;
- decant the mix off into a suitable container,
- build the still up as described earlier,
- fill the 10 litre bucket up with some of the mix,
- set the heater to 50 degrees, close everything up and turn it on.
Leaving this to chug away somewhere cold you'll start to see condensation on the lid which will trickle down into the bottom of the 30 litre conatainer - this is the booze!
You can expect to collect 750mls a day at approximately 40% alcohol - enough to satisfy most hardened drinkers!
Normal practice is to leave the still running until the 30 litre container fills just below the inner lid then decant it off to a bottle before emptying the undistilled stuff out and refilling with new.
If you're impatient like me you'll be decanting stuff each day to check progress and drink. Heres tonights effort - its reading 36% as per the acohol gauge;
Good eh?
Yes, but its not the full story!
The first batch i did had a heavy yeast smell. To combat that i added some activated carbon at the end of the fermentation stage which has cleaned the spirit up substantially...less smell, better taste!
To further enhance it you can buy essence to flavour it like any other spirit on the market (i dont bother now as its good enough after carbon filtering);
Heres some costs per attempt and links;
- still = £60,
- turbo 48hr yeast = £3.50,
- sugar = £8 approx from tescos,
- activated carbon = £3,
- essence bottle = £1.50 (each does 750ml of liquid).
Some additional bits i bought;
- assorted funnels = £2,
- siphon = £5,
- 2 x 30litre camping water conatiners = £20
At the end of the day the actual cost of 750ml prepared bottle is £2-3!!
Source of parts/ingredients =
StillShop UK - For all your home distillation needs - rapid UK dispatch
I'm now investigating how easy it'd be to construct a relux column/still...apparently you can do it using copper piping and a beer keg...
