Das Brewhäus ist geöffnet! Err... Das Brewhäus is up and running!

After stinking out the house with my fermenter going nuts for a week, I cleared out the back shed and set up a home for all the gear. Well, all of Mitch's gear - I don't own the AirStill or Filter.

The first run of spirits was coming out at between 45-55% ABV, with a lovely yeasty smell... ugh. After dropping it all down to 40%, filtering it all (and getting rid of that small) - I ended up with 4.75L of spirits for fun and profit.

The second run of spirits, which I've only just started today - is coming out of the still at 55-65% a much higher concentration of alcohol, and has less of a yeasty smell, which makes me happy. I'm expecting to get around 6L of spirits at 40% out of this run - which I'll use to find some other good flavourings.

• Brew 1: 6kg of Sugar with water to make 25L and Still Spirits Classic Turbo Yeast. Resulted in 4.75L of spirit @ 40% ABV
• Brew 2: 8kg of Sugar with water to make 25L and Still Spirits Classic Turbo Yeast.
• What's next? I'll be trying a different wash using grain or better sugars and not using a Turbo yeast, which should give me a spirit with more natural tones (the Turbo yeast gives it a slight chemical taste/smell).

From the left: Butterscotch Schnapps; Furbon; Furbon; Tennessee Bourbon;Tennessee Bourbon.

The Tenessee Bourbon is going to be about a month or so before I even think about trying it, however I've got some drinks on tonight where I'll be giving the Butterscotch Scnapps and Furbon a test run! Just in case, I'll take some Jim Beam ;)

After my initial foray into beer making a month or so ago (my super-sickly-sweet Pale Ale will be ready to drink in three weeks, yay!) - I've decided to try my hand at spirits.

With a minimum turnaround of <1 week (unlike beer), it looks like it's going to be a better hobby than beer with instant gratification, always a plus. Not to mention that I drink considerably more spirits than beer, I think this is a winner.

My first wash used a turbo yeast. This was not initially my plan, however some miscommunication, or as I'm sure my local brew store would have called it, enthusiastic marketing - ended up in me going down this path. Anyway, 7kg of sugar and 3 days of fermentation later - I've got something to distill.

And distill it I shall, as I type I'm using a 4 litre StillSpirits AirStill to distil my wash which is coming out at about 56% ABV.

From the exepected 4-5 Litres of 56% alcohol I'll get out of this, I'll be making 2.5 Litres of Tennesse Bourbon using Oak chips from recycled bourbon barrels, and 3.5 Litres of 'Furbon', my little joke as it's bourbon from off-the-shelf additive packs (Fake Bourbon).

I'll probably have the 25L of wash distilled down by Saturday morning, as pesky work commitments mean I lose valuable distilling time - at which time I'll re-sterilise my still and put on another wash for making some off-the-shelf liqueor.

Already I can see this becoming a pretty solid hobby in the background, which means next month I'll be moving up from sugar washes to preparing my wash from grain (a similar process from preparing wort for beer).

More to come, but in the meantime - someone please take some of these spirits off my hands, there's already more than I could reasonably drink here.