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Posted

Hey Everyone! Just thought I would take a minute to introduce myself. Name's Connor and I'm a winemaker in Northern California. The winery that I am responsible for is going to be starting a distillery soon and I guess I'm going to be the distiller too! Exciting!

We have a 25hl Prulho Charentais cognac still and were looking into making some whiskey and brandy. If anyone has experience with a still like this please let me know! I am in the process of setting it up as we speak. It's very old and there a few parts we need to replace before we get it finished.

Looking forward to getting to know you all!

Cheers,

Connor

Posted

It sure is! It is a rescue project for us. We found it sitting in a yard corroding and the guy was very happy to let it go to a good home and get some use.

I'll see if I can dig up a picture of it.

Posted

Here we go. Sorry about the blackout on the last image...the owner would like to stay anonymous until we are ready to rock

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Posted

looks like you got a good amount of elbow grease into that beauty

Steve

Oh yes. And quite a bit more to go! I want to get the preheater stripped down to show its copper as well since the paint is in bad shape. The condenser's paint is looking good so I think I will leave that.

Thanks for the interest guys! I'll be sure to keep you updated on our progress.

Connor

Posted

So far it doesn't look like much if anything is missing. There are things that are broken or just need to be replaced though. Ours came with very bulky/ugly automated butterfly valves who's cords are all cut and would be a pain to hook up again. We'd like to get manual ones like the ones in this picture

image402.jpg

The wood supports for the condenser coils are all rotten and I'm working on replacing those right now.

If anyone knows how to make our copper shine like the one in the picture please let me know!!

Posted

If anyone knows how to make our copper shine like the one in the picture please let me know!!

Bar Keepers Friend, then Brasso.

Posted

That is a fantastic find! If you don't mind me asking, where did you stumble on this beauty? i would love to find and old still and fix it up.

Posted

Thanks! I don't mind sharing at all but unfortunately its not a very reproducible scenario, we just got really lucky with our find. We had already decided that we wanted to start a distillery and were looking into what kind of still we wanted when we were actually just driving down some backroad and saw this thing sitting in a lawn. We both just looked at each other and knew that this was our still. We found out who the property belonged to by knocking on doors and finally got a hold of the owner who was living in NY and he was more than happy to let it go to a good home.

Here's a new picture of its progress, just got the preheater stripped down!

mhNgPzB.jpg

Posted

After a couple weeks of elbow grease and sore shoulders I shot this yesterday, I think I'm finally finished (more or less)!

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  • 3 years later...
Posted

Oh wow that is a great story/find. Wish you the best Connor! Talk about putting your intentions out there for the universe and then wham, you drive right past that beauty.

  • 4 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Great restoration, Connor, and pick up the phone and call for some straight talk about fine brandy anytime!

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