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Website: www.ozbrew.comShop 17 Homemaker Village Millner NT

Before reading these instructions, make sure you have read the information sheet called“Distilling Overview” which is also available in the downloads section of the Oz Brew website. The“Distilling Overview” sheet will provide useful information about the legality of stills and their usages, aswell as outlining some good overall basics that will help provide essential information about this process.

There are many types of stills, boilers, condensers & carbon filters available on the market. Differentproducts and brands, may use different instructions. These instructions cover one of the most practicalmethods of distilling using a 25L boiler, a (super) reflux condenser and a Still Spirits Z- carbon filter,which we believe is one of the most effective value for money packages available.

Super Reflux CondenserTypically produces a high

yield of approximately 4-5L@ 80% - 90% V.

25 Litre Boiling Pot(3 in 1 Fermenter)

Z Carbon Filter

Stage 1 - Sterilisation1. Everything used in the fermentation process must be cleaned and sterilised before and

after use. This includes the 3 in 1 fermenter, airlock and stirrer.2. For optimum cleaning, we recommend Combo Cleaner Washing / Steriliser. Wash

through all of your equipment with this solution and rinse thoroughly with cold tap water.

Stage 2 - Fermenting the Alcoholic Wash1. Half fill your 3 in 1 fermenter with cold tap water and mix in 8 kgs of Dextrose.

NOTE: Dextrose is used instead of sugar for several key reasons:♦ Dextrose makes a cleaner spirit and ferments faster than other sugars.♦ Dextrose dissolves easily in cold water♦ & most importantly, dextrose produces less bi-products resulting in clenaer tastes and greater alcohol yield from each batch.

Although dextrose is slightly more expensive to buy than normal household sugar and will cost youapproximately $11 more per batch, you can get up to 4 litres more of 40% spirit per batch due to theoverall quality. This makes it worthwhile!

2. Add warm tap water to your fermenter to bring the overall volume up to the 25 litremark (about 4cm from the top of the container - where the top “pressed ring” is aroundthe fermenter). Stir thoroughly as you pour. A good starting temperature for your brew isapproximately 35 to 40 deg C.

Read through all ofyour instructionsincluding the HelpfulHints in each sectionbefore proceedingthrough the steps ineach process. This willensure you are awareof any tips that maymake the processeasier for you.

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(Super Reflux Condenser)

Distilling Instructions

3. For brewing in the tropics, add one sachet of Still Spirits Temperature Tolerant TurboYeast to your Wash (mix of dextrose and water) and stir in.

♦ If the Wash is too hot the yeast may be killed or weakened, therefore may not be able to fermentout all of the Dextrose. If the wash is too cold, it may take a lot longer to start fermenting. That’swhy a perfect starting temperature is between 35 and 40 deg. C.

♦ Each pack of Still Spirits Temperature Tolerant Turbo Yeast contains a mix of yeast andnutrients, to make 25 litres of Wash. This yeast along with your dextrose will produce an alcoholwhich is extremely low in bi-products creating a cleaner tasting spirit when distilled correctly.

4. Fit the Airlock to the fermenter by twisting and pushing it through the rubber bung. Insert it in thetop of the lid to create a tight seal. Push the airlock far enough through the bung so a completeseal is obtained. Drip some water into the top of the airlock until it is level with the two linesshown on the side of the airlock. Within 24 - 48 hours Carbon Dioxide should start bubblingthrough the Airlock, if the brew is working correctly and if the fermenter is sealed properly.

Helpful Hints:1 The element at the base of your boiler is secured by a collar on the outside where the power cord

plugs into. Make sure this is tightly nipped up to avoid any leaking.2 Check the temperature of your wash using your long glass thermometer once you have vigorously

mixed in your dextrose. Sometimes you may need to add warm water to achieve a startingtemperature of between 35 to 40 deg. C.

3 The more vigoursly you stir your wash before adding your yeast, the more oxygen you will createwhich means your yeast will start working sooner. So don’t be afraid to give it a vigorous mix.

4 Don’t overfill your airlock as you may find it will spurt out like a volcano during the first few days.5 If you find that you haven’t seen any bubbling within the first 2 days, open the lid and have a

quick look inside. The wash should be bubbling or sparkling on the surface and will probablyhave foam on top. In this case, just re-adjust your lid as you put it on and ensure your airlockbung is fitted nice and tight. If you don’t see much activity, stir vigorously with a sterilised plasticspoon (not wooden) to speed up the fermentation. Stir gently at first to avoid a froth build up.

6 Regardless of what your packet of yeast says, most Turbo yeasts will take 7 to 10 days to achievea complete fermentation and give you a Hydrometer reading of .980 to .990. (Hydrometerreadings are explained in the next section when you actually have to use one).

Stage 3 - The Fermentation ProcessYour wash should take approximately 7 to 10 days to ferment if fermented between 26o - 32o C.

At a higher temperature, extra bi-products may be produced and your yeast might die off early. Thiswould result in a high Hydrometer reading and you may need to add another yeast to re-activate the brew.

At a lower temperature, the wash will take longer to ferment & may even stop working altogether.For the first few days, heat is generated by the fermentation process, so it’s crucial to make sure thatyour temperature does not exceed 32o C where your fermenter is stored, as the activity of the wash willgenerate approximately 7-8o C more than your room temperature.

Fermentation is complete when the yeast has used up all of the dextrose. To check to see if your washis ready, sterilise your Hydrometer and drop it into the wash. The reading is where the line of the liquidcuts across the scale on the hydrometer giving what is called the Specific Gravity (S.G.) of your brew.The final specific gravity when your wash is ready to distill should be about 0.980 to 0.990 near the top tipof your hydrometer before the red area.

Helpful Hints: It has been found that if you ferment your wash in a separate fermenter first, rather than using your3 in 1 fermenter, you can discard the sediment on the bottom as you pour the finished wash into your boiler. This will giveyou a greater yield and a better product overall. Ask your local store about Turbo Clear. This product clears your washwithin a couple of days & gives you a crystal clear base to work from resulting in a very high quality distilite / spirit output.

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Points to watch out for:

Even if you do not have an airtight seal, your wash may still be fermenting, so don’t worry.Unlike beer brews, it is uncommon to see spirit washes go off. Leave it for a couple of days,then check your hydrometer to see if the reading is lower than when you first mixedeverything up. This means you need to have taken a hydrometer reading when you firstmixed in all of your ingredients.

b) In some circumstances the yeast can stop working before all the dextrose is used. This willbe indicated by a final Specific Gravity (S.G.) higher than .990. Any reading above 1.010 ona Wine & Beer Hydrometer suggests that something has gone wrong. In most cases agood stir to get the yeast back into circulation should get the Wash fermenting again but inserious cases you may need to add another yeast pack. The most common cause of stuckfermentation is low temperature. In this case simply move the fermenter to a warmer placeand stir the yeast up. An inexpensive stick-on digital thermometer, available from yourhomebrew shop, will help monitor the temperature, but only use one of these if you arefermenting your wash in a different container to your actual boiling pot ie: a secondfermenter.

Stage 4 - Distillation Assembling the Reflux Still:

1. Fit the Condenser to the domed lid by securely tightening the nut on the underside of the lid(metal to metal) to the reflux condensor. This is fitted to the hole in the lid where the bung andairlock were.

2. Situate the Still on a firm heat resistant base close to a cold water tap, drain and power socket.

3. Pour the whole packet of ceramic saddles into the top of the condenser by pulling out the smallblack bung where your long glass thermometer fits. Fit the thermometer so that the bulbappears on the inside of the black bung by 10mm. Then fit the bung & thermometer back intothe top of the Condenser.

4. Fit the lid, complete with Condenser and hoses, onto the Still.

Distillation:

1. You will note that there are 3 tubes on the condensor.

Tube 1 connects to a tap for water in.

Tube 2 runs into a drain or sink for water out.

Tube 3 is where your product / spirit drips out.

2. Plug the element cord in & turn on your boiler.When the wash has warmed up, but before thethermometer reads 50o C, start the cold waterrunning through the Condenser. It should takeabout 1 hour and 20 minutes before you shouldturn your cold tap water on and start the flow.

3. During most of the distillation process thecooling water flowing through the condensershould be flowing at about 400 mls per minute.This will always be dependent on your watertemperature. If your tap water is cool, the flow does nothave to be as much. If your tap water is warm, you’ll findthat you may have to increase the flow considerably or finda cooler water source. See step 7 for further explanation.

Thermometer

Water Out

CeramicSaddles

Spirit Out

Water In(connect to tap)

1

2

3Condenser Nut

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4. Collect the first 150 mls that comes out of your still and discard it. This is the Head. It is non drinkableand must be discarded as it may contain bi-products & methanol that will subbstantially reduce thequality of your spirit. The ‘head’ usually comes out between 66 - 76 deg C.

5. Collect 4 - 5 litres of the Body which contains the Ethanol (drinkable alcohol) at about 90% Vol. Makesure that the spirit outlet tube from the condenser stays well above the level of the spirit. Collect yourspirit in a 10L container with tap so you can dilute it later when doing the carbon filtering.

6. If using a standard turbo yeast do not collect more than 4 litres of distillate. Any spirit collected afterthis amount will reduce the quality and taste of your spirit. If you are using Turbo Extra or Oz BrewTemperature Tolerant Turbo Yeast with dextrose, you should be able to collect between 4 - 5 Litresof good quality spirit.

7. The more cool water that flows through the condenser, the lower the temperature will be in the refluxcolumn. This will show on the thermometer. The temperature of your tap water influences theamount you need. (i.e. In tropical / warmer locations, you will need more water flowing through yourcondenser than in cooler / southern states where tap water is actually cold). The slower the waterthat flows through the condenser, the higher the temperature will rise, producing a faster flow of spirit.In tropical / hotter regions, you will need to run your tap at a much faster rate than 400ml per / minute,as the tap water is likely to be quite warm.

8. The thermometer temperature will slowly rise as the alcohol is boiled off. Increase the flow of waterthrough the condenser to hold the temperature between 78 o - 86oC. The flow of alochol coming outwill slow towards the end of the distillation process.

From a standard 25 litre wash produced with 8ks of Dextrose & using a Super Reflux Condenser,you should collect 4 – 5 Litres of alcohol at approximately 90% Vol. in about 5 hours plus your warm uptime. Standard Reflux Condensers will collect approximately 4 litres of alcohol at approximately70% in the same period of time.

Helpful Hints:a) As a rough guide, a typical Wash will take about 4.5 – 6 hours to run through the Still. It will take

about 1 hour and 15 minutes to heat up before you need to turn your water tap on, and about 15 –25 minutes after that before any condensate / alcohol will drip out of the Condenser. It will thentake about 10 minutes to collect the Head, and nearly 5 hours to collect 4-5 litres of good qualityalcohol.

b) Make sure that the alcohol dripping out of the still is relatively cool. If the condensate / alcohol istoo warm or hot, the overall quality of the spirit will be compromised, which can result in you gettingless overall volume and more overall bi-products. The flavour of your base spirit will then not beas good, and as a result, you will get an underlying aftertaste to all of your mixed spirits andliqueurs.

c) If for any reason your Wash has not fermented completely, (i.e. your S.G. is above .990) then all ofyour dextrose has not been converted to alcohol. This means you will not collect the full amountof distillate through the Still. If you do not collect the full amount of alcohol, check the following fornext time:

♦ used the correct amount of dextrose in the Wash; and/or♦ the specific gravity is below 990 before distilling; and/or♦ there is no steam leak or frothing during distillation.

If the wash has not fully fermented out, then the unfermented dextrose can foam causing thewash to come through the condenser with the distillate. It will foam worse with sugar. In thisinstance Distilling Conditioner can be used to increase yield or avoid problems.

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Stage 5 - Carbon Filtering

The following instructions are specifically suited for a Z - Carbon Filter

There are several methods that can be used in order to successfully carbon filter your spirit and removethe excess impurities and aftertastes. However, because there are so many methods and various typesof carbon, it’s important to use the right carbon for the right method. Some carbons are treated andtherefore absorb impurities at a faster rate than others. It’s very important to know which carbons suitwhich methods. If you use the wrong type of carbon with the wrong type of method, it will be likely yourdistilite will contain aftertastes, smells, poisonous properties and other unwanted bi-products.

WARNING ABOUT CARBONS !

Fill all 3 channels with Z-Carbon leavingapproximately a 5mm gap for carbonexpansion.

Step 1 - Filling Your Filter

Unscrew here to fill channels

Fill all 3 channelsbut leave a 5mmgap for carbonexpansion at thetop of channels 1, 2& 3

1 2 3

Do not overtightenthe end caps whenputting them backon, just nip them up.

Undo the blacknut and tail at thebottom end of thefilter, and take outthe rubber seal.

Insert 1 filterpaper inside theblack nut and putthe rubber sealback in over thetop of the filterpaper to secure itin.

Re-attach the nutto the filter.

Step 4 - Inserting Filter Paper

The filter papergoes in this endbetween therubber seal andthe inside of theblack nut.

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Helpful HintUse thread tape towrap around all ofthe threaded endsof your filter to helpprevent dripping.Dripping will occur ifyou over tighten theends as thestandard seals arevery soft. If you findthat you are havingtrouble with the filterdripping, it would bebetter to upgradeyour seals to theharder, replacementseals that areavailable from yourlocal brew store.

Turn your filter upside down & flush out yourcarbon with tap water. The end with the meshdisc should be at the bottom, & the end whereyou flush your filter from should be at the top.

Step 2 - Rinsing Your Carbon

Using a hose, hold itsecurely over the topend of your filter andrun your tap for about1 minute. Wait a fewseconds, and repeatthe process. Makesure the water runningout through the meshdisc is completelyclear, othewise it willdiscolour your spirit &leave a sediment.

Using a gardenhose flush thecarbon from here.

Your endwith themesh discshould behere sothat yourcarbon isrinsedout. No filter paper should be

in your filter at this stage!

When the carbon is clean, turn yourfilter around so the mesh disc end ison top. Unscrew the black end withthe mesh disc and replace it withthe hose attached end supplied withyour filter. This is what your filtershould look like now:

Step 3 - Changing Ends

Take meshdisc end off.

Replace withhose attachedend.

Before using carbon to filter your spirit,ensure it is diluted to below 50% Alc. Vol..Your carbon will not work effectively at ahigher percentage.

To dilute your spirit to the correctpercentage, use an alcohol meter to seewhat your spirit is at before adding anywater. Once you know your undilutedalcohol volume, add 1 litre of water at atime and stir it in. Measure your alcoholstrength with each litre of water you adduntil you get a reading between 40 - 50%.Alc. Vol.. It is recommended you diluteyour spirit to approximately 40% Alc. Vol.

Step 5 - Diluting Your Spirit

Diluted Spirit

40% - 50%Alc. Vol.

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Stage 6 - Making Spirits & LiqueursOnce you have a good, clean, filtered spirit to work from, you can produce some of the finest spirits and li-queurs that specifically cater to your tastes. You can chose from a vast range of spirits and liqueurs to makeyour finished product. See below for some of the many available types:

Once you have dilutedyour spirit, you will beready to proceed tothe filtering stage.

Connect your Z-Filterto the tap of your 10Lcontainer where yourdiluted spirit is, byinserting the hardplastic piece from thetube end of your filterinto the tap.

Make sure it is firmlyinserted into the tap soyour filter can hangfreely without comingout. It will be quite atight squeeze, so don’tbe afraid to give it agood push to ensure itis securely fitted.

Diluted Spirit

40% - 50%Alc. Vol.

(unfiltered)

Insert the hardplastic piece intothe tap to allowthe Z-Filter tohang freely.

Step 6 - Connect Filter Step 7 - Start Filtering

Diluted Spirit

40% - 50%Alc. Vol.

(unfiltered)

Turn your tap on full and letyour spirit fill your filter. Youmay need to squeeze the clearplastic tube a couple of times(the soft tube between yourZ-Filter and container) to helpget the flow started.

Squeeze thistube a couple

of times tohelp get theflow going.

Filtered Spirit

40% - 50%Alc. Vol.

Pull thisleaver uprightto lock yourtap open in

full position.

Make sure you have a sufficient sizedcontainer underneath your filter so youcan collect the filtered product.

Your diluted spirit should filter through thecarbon at a relatively slow rate, producinga constant, but slow trickle into yoursecond container.

It should take approx. 4-5 hours to filterthrough 8-10L of diluted spirit. If theprocess goes quicker than this, run itthrough again. If you find that the processtakes longer than 4-5 hours, it is usuallydue to the carbon not being washed outenough during the rinsing stage and thefilter paper is getting blocked.

Spirit Essences only requireyou to add the essence to yourbase spirit. There are a hugerange of flavours available instandard form, premium & bulk.

Liqueur Essences usuallyrequire you to add a cream,schnapps or liqueur base pack withyour base spirit & essence. Thesepacks supply the sweetness andthickness that your liqueurs re-quire.

Oak Sacks are an enhanced flavoured oak pack housed in a straining bag. All you do with these is soak 1bag per / 1.125L of spirit like you would a normal tea bag. The enhanced oak smoothens, flavours and ma-tures your spirit to give you the highest quality of flavour possible.