Today in the Shed

dellae

The shed is now empty - i'll be offline for a while (stillin wise) all packed into a container off to the new home. Thought I had enough put aside to last me until I get setup again - Just about emptied a bottle already - damn I knew I should have made the woman allocate me a bit more space in the ready accessible storage.

FloridaCracker

Sad day indeed. Just saw where you listed your barrel. Hopefully your friends will remember your generosity and keep you hooked up whenever you need some hooch.

captainshooch

Darn ...bet Bourbon gal is not happy either.

Clickeral

@punkin said: Sad day indeed in the shed for me today. The business now takes precedence over the hobby and unfortunately the two can no longer coexist.

The bulk spirits were all gifted to friends, happier friends than ones with a beer keg full of bourbon or rum you'll never see. :))

But the feints collection from the last 8 years and all the was washed down the drain. A true shame to see the empty lockup in the shed.

You could smell the whiskey burning down copperhead road.

Good chance i'm gunna get drunk tonight.

I take it the ATO is coming down hard on you then? I gather that you don't have to release details of customers correct?

Granted I have moved but still.

No mr offical my milkcan is a hot water tun for brewing beer with :)

Still what still I just have stainless tees and fittings for my beer brewing and a water distillation setup my 5L boiler is being borrowed by a mate ;)

punkin

No mate, it's just a publicity campaign they are running at this stage.

Most all of my sales are for parts and the only requirement is that if i sell a complete still over 5l capacity that i must have permission to sell it.

I don't see any requirement to not sell parts and there has been no talk of reporting anything. That requirement is part of US law, not aussie law.

As far as your parts for your beer kit go, my view (i'm not a barrister obviously) is that unless your still is assembled as a still it is not a still.

jacksonbrown

There are weird ones here though.
With regards to firearms I was told by the local firearms officer that any part of a firearm is still considered a firearm so throwing a mag in the glove box with a round in it is still consider having a loaded firearm, regardless weather you even have the rest of gun with you. Lots of hunters in VIC getting done for that.

Point is, a lot of those regs are very open to interpretation.
If your getting done by someone with a common scenes deficit you may need to have a court case to clear it up.
Most cops aren't idiots though. If it's pretty obvious what you've been up too and they feel the need to do something about it it's unlikely you'll be talking your way out of it. You're just as likely to be digging yourself into a hole.
Failing the attitude test so to speak.

Clickeral

@jacksonbrown said: There are weird ones here though.
With regards to firearms I was told by the local firearms officer that any part of a firearm is still considered a firearm so throwing a mag in the glove box with a round in it is still consider having a loaded firearm, regardless weather you even have the rest of gun with you. Lots of hunters in VIC getting done for that.

Point is, a lot of those regs are very open to interpretation.
If your getting done by someone with a common scenes deficit you may need to have a court case to clear it up.
Most cops aren't idiots though. If it's pretty obvious what you've been up too and they feel the need to do something about it it's unlikely you'll be talking your way out of it. You're just as likely to be digging yourself into a hole.
Failing the attitude test so to speak.

Yeah I know what cops can be like, tbh one of the few things I miss from NZ is the fact I could brew unhindered.

Also if the ATO brought out say a licence for distilling product for personal use I would probably look into it just to be covered

Say $100 per year, I refuse to pay tax on product I make however especially if I am aging it long term :s

End rant, however if anyone is scared and selling a 200L boiler for cheap or a 6" column I could be interested (a new power controller wouldn't go amiss either ;) )

Gutted I missed out on Punkins Barrel (not that I have the space atm) I did pick up a brand new (2nd hand) 50L keg the other day for $30 however (its to new to cut up or modify however) I need to get a rattier one to put a ball valve into

punkin

Send me an email mate i have a fair few of them in 30l and 50l empty now. All with ball valves. Bought from the local tip shop, but i don't know if they were officially decommissioned or not. I can put a few on a small pallet if you have some mates that are interested. The 30l ones have a weird size top (2.5" or so) and so i have fashioned wooden bungs for them, but a silicon bath plug happens to fit perfectly too if you wanted them for storage.

@jacksonbrown said: Most cops aren't idiots though. If it's pretty obvious what you've been up too and they feel the need to do something about it it's unlikely you'll be talking your way out of it. You're just as likely to be digging yourself into a hole.

You won't catch me talking my way into anything i've dealt with them enough as well. No statement is my motto.

yurgle

@Clickeral said: Also if the ATO brought out say a licence for distilling product for personal use I would probably look into it just to be covered Say $100 per year, I refuse to pay tax on product I make however especially if I am aging it long term :s

ATO seem to be focused on the safety risk with home distilling rather than the lost excise revenue. I reckon if there was a way to link a home distilling licence to completion of a safety course, that would be good.

FloridaCracker

Here in the states, it is a hit or miss, kinda thing. We rarely see anything about some random guy in his garage minding his own business being busted with a still. Now if he is SELLING or being stupid, that is different all together.

Case in point: A good friend of mine occasionally will run some neutral outside of his garage. Lives on a very private piece of property behind gates. More coin than most of us can afford. A couple of weeks ago he gets his still out of the garage and cleans it. While he is waiting for it to dry in the sun (outside of the garage) he decides to drive to the store to pick up a few things. While at the store he gets a message that his security alarm at his house is going off. The security system is monitored and if they can't verify what's going on they send the law which is whatever local deputy sheriff is close by. Since he left his gate open, they enter and start searching. He pulls up to a couple of cars with big stars on the sides. He joins them as they search the property for the problem. He shits as they all walk around the garage to a nice, shiny still, glistening in the sun. Nobody blinks or says a word. Everyone keeps searching the property. My friend tells me that if a guy would have run out of the house and started shooting that it wouldn't have been as traumatic as 4 deputy sheriffs coming up on his still. They determine that there is no threat and that it was a false alarm. As they are walking to their cars, they ONCE AGAIN walk right by the still, all of them looking at it. They bid him a good day and leave. Not a word spoken about it. And just in case you think they didn't know what it was, this is a part of the US where they indeed do.

cooperville

so interesting to hear the thoughts of wether it is bad or not I for one love the modular design and to pack it a away nice a neat clean and obscure is one of the best things I love bout still dragon I don't regret purchasing the d2 ever and for this last week I have a done a spirit run that yielded 32 litres of 40% that's 53 bottles of the best vodka you can find for 45 bux I'm lovin it time to start lookin at the gin head process It's a slow process and you need the patience but this is something I enjoy Being able to hide/ obscure it from the law is a very reassuring trait I think perhaps your freind may have been lucky?

Unsensibel

@FloridaCracker - I think it's mostly a federal/tax issue. No surprise to me that the local PD doesn't do anything

Kapea

Overheard - the deputies talking amongst themselves as they walked back to their cruisers:
"Man, that guy's rig is really nice!"
"Yeah, it's one of those modular StillDragon models. I'm saving my OT pay to buy me one."
"Yeah, me too. I like my pot still, but those modular plated kind run so much better!"

captainshooch

Hahaha good one Kapea :))

punkin

@yurgle said: ATO seem to be focused on the safety risk with home distilling rather than the lost excise revenue. I reckon if there was a way to link a home distilling licence to completion of a safety course, that would be good.

Funny you should say that. As a qualified trainer i rang them up a few weeks ago and offered to work hand in hand with them to design a short course to suit distillers that need some training in order to get an excise licence.
When i told them it would include some hands on training they told me i'd have to apply for permission to own a still. :))

They made it pretty clear that they weren't interested in offering me an excise licence to do this.

FullySilenced

Cooperville is ALIVE!!! Figured maybe he had lost a leg and was off hunting a great white whale.... since i hadn't heard from him in such a long time.... :D

cooperville

G'day FS and crew I'm around but jeez I have been busy had to clean the shed oh the other day as it was full of mould. Had a date night with the mrs wanted to take her to the local home brew club meeting I packed the esky with 5 different styles of beer drove out to the meeting and when we got there there was no one to be seen .... It's next week damnit and I'm going to work again this week so won't be able to join next week. So we drive home and watch a movie and I sample my own beers I'm around fellas and am never to far away from the action but will be out of range a lot of the time over the next month also

Clickeral

@yurgle said: ATO seem to be focused on the safety risk with home distilling rather than the lost excise revenue. I reckon if there was a way to link a home distilling licence to completion of a safety course, that would be good.

I understand the safety issues, and while annoying would be fine doing a safety course for a cert in order to get a licence

Just like they do with firearms over here, more education is a good thing in my mind. Might stop people drinking straight methanol. Though I don't disagree with the Darwin awards haha

If safety is the concern why don't they do something about it, also nz no regs on this and has no issues

Maybe us NZERS have more sense ;)

cooperville

This was the run couldn't fit it in the shed as I ran a 500mm packed section with fine stainless scrubbies

yurgle

@Clickeral said: Maybe us NZERS have more sense ;)

probably :D

Kapea

I like how everyone has a different method of offsetting the cantilever tilt. StillDragon stainless modules are great, but when you stack them up their weight puts a lot of moment on the boiler connection. @cooperville's crutch is a nice solution.

SDeurope

I always vote for some weight support from above, a rope from the top bend to the ceiling usually should do. ;)

Kapea

My shed has 5m ceilings. That's a long way up!

The good news is, I can run 85 plates if I have a mind to... :))

Moonshine

@Kapea said: My shed has 5m ceilings. That's a long way up! The good news is, I can run 85 plates if I have a mind to... :))

Make it a winch that you can handle from the floor, also helps with assembling/disassembling. :)

cooperville

Yeah fellas she has a fair bit of weight on her in that config shoulda u get her up somewhere but wasn't in the mood for rigging around it was pretty level as it was with my bit of custom wedge

FloridaCracker

@Kapea said: Overheard - the deputies talking amongst themselves as they walked back to their cruisers:
"Man, that guy's rig is really nice!"
"Yeah, it's one of those modular StillDragon models. I'm saving my OT pay to buy me one."
"Yeah, me too. I like my pot still, but those modular plated kind run so much better!"

His is a 2" column still with a 8 gallon boiler so the conversation PROBABLY went like this:

"Man, that guy needs to upgrade that still, and how much hooch can you make with 8 gallons anyway"?

"Not nearly enough. Definitely small time. He needs to look into one of those StillDragon stills.

"Well, if that was a StillDragon, I would have confiscated it and kept it for myself.

Kapea

Now-now, let's not be cynical...

(But yeah, I know Florida cops; yours is probably closer to the truth) ;)

Kapea

Changing the alternator on my Honda (car). Damn thing is buried way down in there. This car was definetly built to be worked on by small Japanese hands. My big damn German hands won't fit in there. Gotta take half the frikin car apart just to loosen the belt adjusment nut.

Sometimes I think I'd rather eat shit than work on cars. This is one of them.

FloridaCracker

I have a jeep up on the lift right now that needs both lower control arms replaced. I already replaced the left CV joint and now this. It's been on the lift for over a week because I keep putting it off.

Feel your pain brother.

punkin

Spent 3 hours getting this out of the shed yesterday.

The pics don't show how massive and heavy this thing is. It's also on the opposite side of the shed to my gantry and wedged against a very large and heavy workbench.
It's too tall to lift properly with the gantry, too big to fit out the door standing up and the idiot doing the job was too stupid to take the heavy formply shelves out until it was impossible to access them because the doors were wedged sideways against the gantry beam (even though his assistant Bourbon Girl had advised that he should do this).

If anyone wants to purchase it, it's going on gumtree today.

On the upside my cramped shed is now enormous with it gone and i have a lot of room to think about how best to set up my brewery.