3 Gallon (12 Liters) Stainless Steel Home Distiller Kit for Whiskey, Vodka & Moonshine - Perfect for Home Brewing & DIY Alcohol Making

This still takes the idea that distilling does not need a complicated design to produce hooch. I've distilled twice out of this now and I feel like I've got a pretty good feel for it. There are things I wish it had, there are some inconvenient things about it, but in the end , you will have no problem producing shine from this still. The entire thing is stainless and copper which is a beautiful thing for this. All in all, for the price I don't see how this can be beat. If you are just starting out, this is probably the still for you. As it was for me. On my second run , after fermenting 3 lbs of brown sugar with a distiller's yeast, I got about 1500ml of shine. I separated them into two jars, the first one being 55%abv and the second being 30%abv. I straight up drank the 60 proof and it was perfect. The 110 proof went into a jar with an oak stick for aging. Very freaking cool. That was on a single pass, I could have done another run but no need. I was happy with the results. Make sure you read about fermenting and about the distillation process before you try because there are some very important things like throwing out the 1st oz that you distill because it's very bad for you. Read and read more.You will need a few things to get started. You need a burner plate or something to heat the bottom and get it up to 200F degrees plus. Some people use their kitchen stove but you're boiling alcohol which probably wont but could catch fire. I went to CVS and bought an Oster 900 watt burner that works just fine. You need a little water pump and bucket. You can get these at your hardware store. The still comes with hoses that will most likely connect to it. You probably need a half bag of ice or so to cool the water at some point because it transfers a lot of heat to your bucket. Or else a very quick way of tossing and refilling with cold water. You should clean everything with a half bottle of vinegar and some water before you actually start to use it to clean it up. I actually then added some water to the vinegar and heated it and boiled out some vinegar water so that it went all through the pipes and everything. This does come from China so a little bit of extra cleaning is a sensible idea.I saw others here said it failed a led test. I did get a test and tried it and it showed no led. It's not a bad idea if you are concerned grab a led tester and make sure your still is led free.Pros:-Stainless makes cleaning it a snap, it just rinses clean every time, very nice.-Seller will send you a huge amount of documents all about distilling that you should read through, you just have to ask-Although it seems like it won't seal, the thick food grade seals actually do a great job-The temp gauge appears to be accurate-You can mash in the tub and distill as long as you are keeping it around 2 galls of water. It's a 3 gallon still but I think that would really be a little overfull for this product.Cons:-The cooling system has an open top, so you have to rely on gravity for your cooling pump to drain it and if you have a powerful pump it might overflow. The workaround for this is to turn down your pump and you can also use the valves on the cooler to control the flow. Not a big deal but I wish they would have sealed the top so you can force more pressure through the cooler. Once you get it dialed in, it's fine though.-Some of the hardware is a bit cheap but it's not a deal-killer. The copper extension pipe that come off the outlet just sits on the nipple and it can easily fall off. I used an automotive hose clamp to hold it onto the nipple. It's not perfect but that's a workaround that works and it won't fall off unless you really put pressure on it. The screws that hold up the condenser have to be backed out to almost 1 thread to actually work. Again, this is a small thing, but if they were just 1/4" long it would have been prefect.-The general thickness of everything is on the thin side but again, this was engineered with the idea that it will work and it does work. So it's just one of those things I would have loved to see in an ideal situation, I'd love it if the stainless tub was slightly thicker.-All the white gaskets have a weird fit and look like they aren't going to seal. But they do create a seal, you just have to make sure everything is lined up and accept that it might not look perfect, that does not mean it's not sealed.Overall, I'm quite happy, for the money I feel like I lucked out. I do recommend this product and it's an ideal starter unit. It works like it was designed so I can't really give it any less than full stars.