Distillers Conditioner, what it does in your boiler

The licence comes first

This is a post about running a still, so it's worth saying plainly before anything else. Owning a still is lawful, and distilling alcohol at home in Australia needs an excise manufacturer licence from the ATO first. That's a federal requirement rather than a state one, so it applies the same wherever you are. If you'd rather stay out of that entirely, flavouring a bought neutral spirit with an essence gives you something you made and needs no licence at all.

What Distillers Conditioner actually does

When a wash heats up, the proteins and solids left over from fermentation come to the surface and turn into foam, and if there's enough of it that foam climbs the column and comes over into your collection. A boil-over wastes the run, it makes a mess of the still, and it puts material into your spirit that was never meant to be there.

Still Spirits Original Distillers Conditioner is an anti-foaming agent that goes into the boiler before you start. It knocks the foam back so the wash boils evenly instead of frothing, and it helps hold the solids down where they belong rather than letting them ride up with the vapour.

When it goes in and how much

It goes in before you turn the heat on, stirred through the wash rather than tipped on top, because a conditioner sitting in a layer on the surface is not doing the job it's meant to do. The dose rate is printed on the bottle and that's the figure to use, since these things get reformulated and a number in a blog post ages badly.

Then you run as normal. You should notice the difference in the first 20 minutes, which is when a foamy wash would usually be starting to make itself known.

When you actually need it

A clean sugar wash with turbo yeast is fairly well behaved and you may never have a problem with it. A grain wash, or anything with a lot of solids left in it, is where foaming turns up, and that's where a conditioner earns its place. If you've had a boil-over before, you already know which category yours falls into.

The one that's often bought with it

Distillers Caramel is a different job and people mix the two up. It does nothing to the run and nothing to the flavour, it simply deepens the colour of a finished spirit so a whiskey or a bourbon looks the part instead of coming out water clear. If you're using an oak flavouring as well, add the caramel last, once you're happy with how it tastes.

Shop related products

• Still Spirits Distilling Conditioner 50ml. This is the bottle the post is about.
• Still Spirits Top Shelf Distillers Caramel 50ml. Use this for colour once the flavour is settled.
• Still Spirits purt Turbo Yeast. This ferments the sugar wash that goes in the boiler.
• Still Spirits Universal Z Carbon. Go here for cleaning up a neutral spirit after the run.

Did you know we also hold a fair slice of the Still Spirits and Edwards Essences range in the shop that never makes it onto the website, plus glass spirit bottles and oak soakers. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.

Where to go next

The homebrew range has the rest, and Brewhilder is there if you want to talk a run through before you set it up.

Worth reading next: What you need to make spirits at home, gear and licence and How to choose a still for making spirits at home.

I am the sort who reads the dose rate while the pot is already climbing, which is why I write it on the lid now.