Is this home distilling hobby really for me?

Is this home-distilling hobby really for me?
This a question that distilling-curious newbies endlessly ponder over, most take months to years to decide. The idea that you can make a product that is superior and cheaper than commercial products with home distilling is very appealing, but there is a nagging elephant in the room.

Let's face it, making a quality drop in a pot still is not a trivial matter. Making authentic whiskey is far beyond a beginner, and a pot-stilled faux whiskey from a sugar wash is far from a superior product. Most people today just don’t have the patience to acquire the experience to make a good drop with simple tools. Here is the newbie dilemma: if you think you may fail or lose interest, you won’t want to spend more than the minimum to try, and if you try with a small crappy pot still and a crappy sugar wash you are likely going to get crappy result and fail, and considering you had to dedicate so much time for just a few drops, is it really worth all that effort?...no wonder the distilling-curious newbies are so hesitant.

This problem is neatly addressed with a reflux still, it is great, it almost guarantees that you can make a drinkable neutral spirit from even a fairly crappy sugar wash. You can use it either as a base for a decent vodka, gin, or liqueur, or you can use it to cut some aged pot-stilled whiskey, or you can even make a good faux whiskey. From when you decide to take the plunge to when you have your first decent sip can be less than 7 days.


Then why are distilling-curious newbies still so hesitant to take that plunge?

One reason is that some simply love the idea of pot stills and the beauty of the shiny copper, the tradition, and the moonshine nostalgia they represent. They love the idea of making authentic whiskies. It takes a long time to shift that mindset to accept that the practicality of a modern reflux still without the moonshine nostalgia is just as valuable as the nostalgia of the pot still.

Another reason is cost, basic reflux still costs five to ten times the cost of a cheap pot still, and that brings back the newbie dilemma: what if it is too much hassle and I lose interest, and I waste all that money? So they are stuck not choosing the pot still for the lack of experience and stuck not choosing reflux still for the risk in wasting their time.

But the big reason is the elephant in the room. Pot and reflux stills are not used in big industries, 90% of alcohol produced worldwide is not produced in pot and reflux stills, rather it is produced in continuous stills. Even some of the best pot still brands often contain only 30% pot still product, the rest is produced in continuous stills. It is almost as though the pot still label is just for marketing and aesthetic purpose to keep the tradition and nostalgia of the brand. But, newbies do not know this, so this is not the elephant but only the reason for the elephant in the room.

The efficiency of the continuous distillation process in terms of automation, lower costs, higher yields, lower labor, and consistent product quality simply obliterates any minor benefit you may find in pot or reflux distillation. Almost the only benefit you have in a pot still is nostalgia. ok, Ok, hold back on the hate, let's be realistic... there is a reason craft distillers drop big money on expensive reflux stills... sometimes very expensive very large reflux stills... if reflux stills were only for newbies such large craft reflux stills would not exist. And i.m.o. almost the only benefit you have in a reflux still is they are readily available at a small scale, while fractional continuous stills are not.


And the elephant is?

Just like the industry, the newbie simply does not want to waste time. Sure a manual still may be cheap but do you really want to spend so much time doing the mind-numbing tasks of siphoning, filling, and emptying boilers? Do you really want to spend all that time waiting for Mason jars to fill up and swap out? Do you really want to use half your garage to run a decent size rig, or spend even more time running a tiny rig in a limited space? Some people may say “Well that is what the hobby is about”...really? Really? Go and watch a channel like “Still it” and see how much time is shown in front of the still watching drops...very little. Now, don’t get me wrong, those mesmerizing slow-motion shots of drops coming off the still hits the nostalgia buttons in all the right places, but most of the actual productive time is spent on ideas for recipes and what you want to do with what you have distilled.


Ok, I get the convenience factor, but why are continuous stills technically better?

A fractional continuous still is basically three reflux stills in one, a stripper reflux section(the analyzer), a spirit reflux section (the rectifier), and a heads reflux section. It does the stripping run, and the spirit run with heads removal all at the same time. Allowing you to go from an un-cleared wash to your glass in one go.

A fractional continuous still reuses the energy it uses to do the stripping run at the bottom of the still to do the spirit run at the top of the still, then it reuses that same energy again in the condenser and in the reflux condensers to preheat the incoming wash. Compare this to a pot or reflux still where you have to heat all the wash in one go at startup, then you heat some external water for reflux and the condenser, and then you discard all that heat at the end of the run. Then you have to do it all over again for your spirit run. Consider how much cooling water you either waste or how much space you waste with a recirculating coolant system...never mind the extra costs, complexity, and failure points.

A fractional continuous still, as mentioned, pumps and uses the incoming wash as the coolant for the reflux and condensers, this forms an intrinsic safety feature so that if the coolant flow stops, it is the wash flow that stops, so even if the whole still malfunctioned, leaked everywhere and overheated there will be no risk of an ethanol vapor explosion because all your ethanol is still chilling in the fermenter. Compared to a pot or reflux still where all your ethanol is boiling so you simply cannot leave it alone...you absolutely have to be there to check for coolant or leak problems.

A fractional continuous still has a tiny boiler so it heats up fast, you can get the first drops in 15 minutes. You can run as much as you want, you can use it as a test and development still to test as little as a 100ml wash, or you can run a whole barrel. Compare this to a pot or reflux still where you have a minimum charge, so if you want to do a small test, you have to buy another smaller still, or if you want to run a production volume you must buy a bigger production still.

A smart fractional continuous still has complete process control and safety features such as detecting over temperatures, the boiler going dry, lack of feed, and cooling so it can watch itself and shut down if anything goes wrong. Compare this to a pot or a reflux still where you have to physically and regularly check up on it, leaving it and letting the boiler run dry can be an expensive repair.

A smart fractional continuous still has a built-in run-time limit, that you should set according to your collection jar size, and if you do not clear the jar it will shut down to prevent overflows. Using a 2-liter jar, and a 24-hour run-time means you don’t need to spend more than 2 minutes a day with your still to collect your drops. Compare this to a pot or reflux still where you have to sit there waiting for the jar to fill, you have to make the commitment to spend a day with your pot or reflux still... That is a commitment few distilling-curious newbies are comfortable making without endless contemplation.

A fractional continuous still is a reflux still, it does everything a reflux still does, but better, cheaper, safer, and with less fuss.


If this is true then why are continuous stills not already dominating home distilling?

In the past, continuous stills were only cost-effective to use in large industrial-size installations as they are far more mechanically complex than reflux stills and they require complex process control systems to run. Due to this complexity home distilling DIY attempts at making continuous stills were manual striping stills often with 2” or larger columns, from this history arose two myths. Firstly, you cannot make cuts on a continuous still. I agree that if you could not make cuts it would be useless in home distillation because you would need to spend more money on a batch still to make cuts. Secondly, you cannot run it unattended, and again I agree that a 2” manual still would be a dangerous thing to run unattended. So it would be pretty useless in home distillation because you would need to spend all day watching it anyway.


So, then why do I think continuous stills are going to be dominating home distilling?

Over the last few years with the progress of technology, we have seen products that were previously restricted to industrial applications such as CNC and 3D Printing become affordable and common for hobbyists. Now I have done the same for continuous distilling, bringing the efficiency and convenience of industrial scale continuous distillation to the home distiller, enabling you to distill 55-gallon barrels full of wash with almost no effort in the same space that you could only distill one gallon before. Now you can make as little or as much as you want with very little effort. Over time my still produces so much that If you wanted to keep it running full time you would need two 55-gallon barrels, one fermenting and another distilling, all with minimal effort. Just imagine the effort if you had to distill a 55gal barrel a week in your 5-gal still with stripping runs and again with spirit runs... you would spend the whole weekend every week distilling...this tiny little continuous still (22 x 24 x 34cm) will do all of this work for you.


In conclusion

So I hope this post can bring through the message that there is now a third option for home distillers, no longer are you limited to the choice of pot or reflux distillation...affordable effective continuous distillation has finally arrived at home.

If you really love your authentic all-grain whiskeys then continuous distillation is probably not for you.

If you are a distilling-curious newbie, the choice is clear and you could be sipping your first quality drop in 7 days from when you take the plunge.

If you have grown tired of your tiny pot still, the choice is clear. If you are an old hand and getting a bit tired of repeating the same old tasks on your reflux still...

the choice is clear.