Making spirits at home, the five steps and where the law sits

June 12, 2024

Making spirits at home, the five steps

Read this bit before you spend anything

Owning a still is lawful in Australia and so is selling one, which is why the gear sits on shelves all over the country including ours. Running one to distil spirits at home is a different question, and it is not lawful unless you hold an excise manufacturer licence from the ATO. That is the ATO's rule and not ours, and we would rather you heard it from us before you bought anything than afterwards.

Flavouring a spirit you have bought, with an essence, needs no licence at all, and that is what a good number of people in this shop are actually doing. So it is worth being clear with yourself about which of those two you are getting into.

The steps below are how the process works, start to finish, because understanding it is useful either way.

Step 1. Gear and ingredients

The list is shorter than people expect. A still, a fermenter, a sanitiser, and then the makings of the wash, which is fermentable sugar, yeast and water. A hydrometer is not on that list and should be, because it is the only way to know what is actually happening in the fermenter rather than guessing.

Sanitise everything, every time. More home batches are ruined by contamination than by any other single thing, and it is the easiest of all of this to get right.

Step 2. The wash

The wash is the sugary liquid that the yeast turns into alcohol. Sugar, water and yeast into the fermenter, and then a week or two while the yeast does its work. Dextrose is the usual sugar because it ferments right out and leaves nothing behind.

Two things make the difference here. Keep the temperature steady, because yeast is fussier about swings than it is about the actual number, and use a hydrometer to tell you when fermentation has finished rather than looking at the airlock and hoping. When it is done, a clearing agent like Turbo Clear drops the yeast and solids out, and a clear wash is a better starting point than a cloudy one.

Step 3. Distillation

This is the step the licence question sits on. The wash goes into the still, it is heated, the alcohol boils off ahead of the water, and it is condensed back into liquid.

Temperature control is the whole craft of it, because what comes off the still changes as it heats, and that is what the next step is about.

Step 4. Cutting

The distillate comes off in three broad parts and they are not equal.

Heads come first and carry the harshest compounds. They go out.
Hearts are the middle and they are what you are after.
Tails come last and bring heavier, less pleasant flavours with them.

Working out where one stops and the next starts is done by nose and by taste, in small samples, and it is the part that takes practice. Rushing it is the difference between something you are proud of and something you quietly tip out.

Step 5. Bottling and flavouring

Sanitise the bottles, same as everything else. Then, if you are flavouring, mix the essence into the alcohol base at the rate the maker puts on the packet, because those rates are worked out for a specific volume at a specific strength and eyeballing it does not end well.

Ageing is optional and it is where oak comes in, either from wood or from an oak extract. Store the bottles somewhere cool and dark, and taste as you go so you know when it has got where you want it.

Shop related products

Turbo Classic Yeast. The most widely used turbo yeast, and it performs across a range of conditions.
Turbo Two Part Refiner, Turbo Clear. Clears the wash by dropping the yeast and solids out within a day.
Still Spirits Turbo Carbon. Liquid carbon used during fermentation rather than after it.
Coopers Dextrose 1kg. Ferments right out and leaves no residual sweetness behind.
Beer Essentials No Rinse Sanitiser 25g. Sanitising is the cheapest insurance in the whole process.

There is more in the homebrew range online, and The Definitive Guide to Getting Started with Homebrew Spirits is worth a read before you commit to any equipment. A fair bit of what we carry is in store rather than on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check the shelf. Brewhilder will talk you through a batch if you would rather plan it out at home.

Item added to your cart

Making spirits at home, the five steps and where the law sits