Here's the 5-gallon fermenting container - a thin plastic cube supported by a box, originally for dispensing sherry in pubs - with fermentation lock fitted to the tap. Plus the 30-litre (~6-gallon) tub for the initial fermentation.

containers used in making wine

(For making 'wash' only the tub is needed - see below)

A note on The Air Still (as shown in this youtube)

The 35-min youtube explains in great detail precisely how to make spirit of about 60% alcohol - it's a very comprehensive video, almost too comprehensive. There are a couple of revealing points. At 25-mins in Richard Blackwell explains about removing 'heads', which he says is unnecessary with this still when using his recommended yeast kit, etc. The term 'heads' refers to the first 50ml from the still due, presumably, to methanol (and maybe other?) contamination. Methanol boils at 64.7 ºC and ethanol at 78.4 ºC so it seems obvious that if there is any methanol then it will vaporise and be distilled out first. Presumably the 'wash' from the kit contains virtually no methanol. As Richard explains at 26-mins in: there's maybe a tenth of the methanol in this spirit of what's in most commercial spirits.

 

commercial whiskey stills

I imagine there's a significant range of temperature these (gas?) heated stills operate at compared with the small electronically temperature-controlled still in the video, which is the one I have.

There's several plum trees in the back garden where I live, one of which is quite large. Last autumn, as lesser amounts the autumn before and so on, I made > 100 litres of wine from the plums. A few weeks ago I put 4-litres in Richard Blackwell's still and it gave about 800-ml of spirit. To be on the safe side I kept the 'heads' separate and when I measured the gravity of that first 50-ml it was 65% on the spirit hydrometer, whereas the other 750-ml was exactly 50%. It did have a slightly odd flavour, but after putting it through the carbon filter it was fine and tasted the same as Richard's spirit at 50%..... I NEVER dilute to under 50% except with whatever it's to be drunk with.

The other excellent point in the video is at 28-mins in where Richard brilliantly summarises the entire process in just 40-seconds.

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