Hello From the Canadian Rocky Mountains

JettFuel

Hello all,
I thought I would introduce my self, I live in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and I have never distilled or brewed and I have been trolling around the forums for the last few weeks. There is a lot of info for a new guy to get a handle on, but I have to say I like the spirit of this forum. I would like to distill bourbon and rum with the eventual goal of a vodka, this is were I need some help. I really love the modular design of the SD componets and would like to get a great base set up that I could eventualy build up over time. I was thinking of a Hybrid system that would have a SD Milk can with DYI controller and 5500 watt element with 2 bubble plates. the question that I have is that should the colum and Depheg be 4" or 2" and how long? I have around a $1200 budget, what would you guys recommend for the biggest bang for my buck?
Sorry for all the questions very excited to start this.
Jettfuel

CothermanDistilling

with your budget, I would get the baby dragon... you know, if it ever shows up on @Smaug 's price list ;-)

Lloyd

Hi @JettFuel and Welcome!
@CothermanDistilling maybe right about the Baby Dragon. Low cost, easy to operate and a great learning still for a beginner. It can produce up to a gallon of high quality finished 40% ABV booze per hour which is plenty for most folks.

Hope you enjoy your stay here.

JettFuel

Thank you @CothermanDistilling and @Lloyd, I was thinking of that as well but I think I would like to have the ability to grow with my initial purchase and the baby dragon would fit the bill now but I am thinking it might limit my future options. But what do I know as this is all new for me.

jacksonbrown

I would start with a packed column and vodka. Why work up to it when neutral is the easiest? Making good quality flavored may require less bits but you need a whole lot more skill. With good equipment some dirty turbo and sugar will still come out A grade with little or no input, depending on your design.

Smaug

I would recommend the BabyDragon for all of the above mentioned reasons in addition to the fact that it is a very attractive little system.

We will have them up on the US site as soon as we have them in our inventory in about a month or so.

punkin

To answer your initial question, as i have just been asked the same by one of my customers, i would recommend the 4" reflux condensor. It will surely provide enough reflux to have a decent power level knocked down for stabilisation and it is future proof. If you want to start adding more tees down the track (and most do) it means you don't have to buy another condensor down the track. The Big Baby condensor will do it, but if you end up with 6 tees it will be very slow.

Your reasons for dodging the Ace of Hearts are sound. No point having redundant systems when modular is an option.