Quick answer: to run the Still Spirits Create+ T500 Pro, fit it to a 25 litre Create+ boiler, fill the boiler with a cleared 23 litre wash and a handful of ceramic boil enhancers, and switch both elements on. Set the thermometer's high alarm 5°C above room temperature. When it sounds, turn the cooling water on and set the alarm to 80°C. Once spirit starts to run, adjust the water to 550–650 ml per minute and hold the head temperature between 78.5°C and 79.5°C. Throw away the first 50–100 ml. Stop when the drip slows to one drop every 5–10 seconds. A run takes about 5 hours and gives 3.4–4.5 litres at 90–93% ABV, or roughly 8 litres once diluted to 40%.
These are the complete T500 Pro instructions in the order you use them: setup, a spirit run, distilling water, cleaning and troubleshooting. They follow Still Spirits' official Create+ T500 Pro Column & Condenser manual, written out step by step with the numbers pulled to the top. If you own the original T500 rather than the Pro, use our Turbo 500 instructions instead. The water flow and temperature settings are different.
T500 Pro settings at a glance
| Setting | T500 Pro (AU/NZ 240V) |
|---|---|
| Boiler | Create+ Boiler 25 L, both elements on |
| Wash volume | About 23 L, never above the max line |
| Starting ABV of the liquid in the boiler | 40% ABV or lower, never higher |
| First alarm | High alarm at 5°C above room temperature (sounds after about 35 minutes) |
| Running alarm | High alarm at 80°C, or 1–2°C above your stable running temperature |
| Cooling water flow | 550–650 ml per minute |
| Head temperature while collecting | 78.5–79.5°C |
| Foreshots to discard | First 50–100 ml |
| Time to boil | Just over 1 hour from a cold 23 L wash |
| Total run time | About 5 hours |
| Output | 3.4–4.5 L at 90–93% ABV (about 8 L at 40%) |
| End of run | Drip slows to 1 drop every 5–10 seconds |
| Column packing | About 100 g copper saddles on top, 500 g stainless saddles below |
US and Canadian 110V units run slower: about 6–7 hours per run, around 70 minutes to the first alarm, and a cooling flow of about 280 ml (9.5 US fl oz) per minute, closer to a trickle.
What the T500 Pro is
The Create+ T500 Pro Column & Condenser is an all-in-one reflux column and condenser made from T2 copper, with stainless steel tri-clamp ferrules. It comes pre-packed with copper and stainless steel saddles. It has a thermowell at the top of the column for an accurate vapour reading, a beeping alarm thermometer with high and low alarms, 2" tri-clamp connections, a detachable product condenser and a removable copper cold finger cooling coil. Nothing plastic touches the spirit path; the seals are food-grade high-temperature silicone.
Still Spirits rate it at up to 93% ABV and 95% alcohol recovery from the wash, using up to 30% less cooling water than the original T500. The saving depends on your conditions. It is built to sit on the Create+ Boiler 25 L, which is sold separately unless you buy a T500 Pro kit. For what changed from the original, see T500 vs T500 Pro.
What's in the box
- Condenser with a short top loop connection tube
- Distilling column, pre-packed with copper and stainless steel saddles
- Beeping alarm thermometer with a 2" mounting bracket
- 2" tri-clamp with silicone gasket, and a 2" tri-clamp with sieved gasket
- 0.8 m white distillate tube
- 1.1 m cooling water in tube and 1.5 m cooling water out tube
- Ceramic boil enhancers
- Tap adapter flow controller (M22x1) with kitchen tap (M22x1 to M24x1) and laundry or garden (3/4" BSPP) adapters, plus three seals
Safety rules before your first run
A spirit run produces a highly flammable liquid, so these are not optional.
- Never let the white distillate tube sit in the spirit. If its end is submerged, a vacuum can form as the boiler cools and the boiler can implode. You should always see drops falling into the jug.
- Never put anything above 40% ABV in the boiler. It can cause a vacuum and other safety problems.
- Run it indoors in a well-ventilated room, not outside. Draughts hurt efficiency.
- Never leave it running unattended.
- Keep it away from flames, sparks, heaters and smoking. Earth or unplug nearby equipment.
- Keep a fire extinguisher suitable for alcohol nearby: water fog, foam, dry powder, CO2, sand or dolomite.
- The boiler and column get very hot. Keep children well clear during and after a run.
- Don't mount the thermometer on a hot column if the room is above 40°C, for battery safety.
If you spill spirit, shut off anything that could ignite it, soak it up with cloth, paper towel, sand or soil, seal and dispose of it, then mop the area with plenty of water.
How to set up the T500 Pro
Pick a level bench with power, a sink, a tap and good ventilation, usually the kitchen or laundry, where the still can stay put for about 5 hours. Rinse the inside of the boiler with clean water before you fill it. The T500 Pro itself doesn't need rinsing before its first use.
Attach the T500 Pro to the boiler lid
- Check the column is packed. It ships full. If you've emptied it, add about 100 g of copper saddles and 500 g of stainless saddles, with the copper at the top. Leftover saddles are normal.
- Take the DN40 nut off the threaded adapter that comes with the boiler.
- Stand the threaded adapter on the bench, threaded end up.
- With the inside of the lid facing up, fit the boiler lid over the threaded adapter.
- Screw the DN40 nut back on and tighten it firmly.
- Hold the T500 Pro upside down and check the sieved gasket is in place over the opening. It holds the saddles in and comes fitted.
- Lower the lid and adapter onto the upturned column, underside of the lid facing up, and join them with the 2" tri-clamp. Tighten firmly.
- When your wash is in the boiler, sit the lid and column on it with the thermometer where you can read it, and close the boiler clips.
Using an older Still Spirits boiler lid without a 2" tri-clamp fitting? You need the Create+ Threaded Adapter Set.
How to make spirit with the T500 Pro, step by step
Start with a fermented and cleared wash. For the cleanest result from the T500 Pro, Still Spirits recommend Turbo Yeast, Turbo Sugar and Turbo Carbon in the wash, cleared with Turbo Clear when fermentation finishes. Our T500 yeast and carbon range has the packs.
Load the boiler
- Put the boiler on a stable, level bench with its tap over a sink or drain, so you won't have to lift it hot later. Point the tap sideways or back, not at the front, so a knock can't send boiling liquid your way.
- Syphon or jug the cleared wash from the fermenter into the boiler. Leave as much sediment behind as you can, and don't go above the max line.
- Add all the ceramic boil enhancers. For high-protein washes such as potato, grain or molasses, add 3 capfuls of Distilling Conditioner to stop surging and puking.
Connect the tubes and thermometer
- Fit the short clear tube as the top loop connection on the condenser.
- Connect the longer 1.5 m tube to the water outlet and run it to the sink. Clip it to the holder on the back of the condenser bracket.
- Connect the shorter 1.1 m tube to the water inlet. This goes to your tap.
- Connect the white 0.8 m tube to the distillate outlet and run it into your collecting jug, above the level of the spirit.
- Put the battery in the thermometer, clip it to the centre of the column with the bracket, and push the steel probe into the thermowell, the small hole at the very top of the column. Tidy the lead with a cable tie.
- Seat the column and lid on the boiler, close all four clips, and check the gasket sits flat with no gaps.
Set the alarm thermometer
- Press ON/OFF to turn it on, and °C/°F/▼ to pick your units.
- Press HI/LO/SET, use ▲ and ▼ to choose the high temperature, and press HI/LO/SET to confirm. Do the same for the low temperature. Then press AL/▲ once for the high alarm only, twice for the low alarm only, three times for both, and a fourth time to switch alarms off. Pressing AL/▲ during a run silences the beep.
Connect the water
- If you have a T500 Water Flow Regulator, fit it now. It holds the flow steady when your mains pressure changes, which is the most common cause of a drifting run.
- Screw the tap adapter flow controller onto the tap with its valve fully closed. Connect the 1.1 m inlet tube to it (or to the regulator's outlet barb), and put the 1.5 m outlet tube in the sink. You don't need water running for the first part of the heat-up.
- Put the white tube into the collecting jug, positioned so it can't end up under the spirit.
Run it
- Plug in the boiler and switch both element switches on.
- Set the high alarm to 5°C above the room temperature shown on the thermometer. It sounds after about 35 minutes. When it does, turn the cooling water on and reset the high alarm to 80°C, or 1–2°C above the temperature your run settles at. A cold 23 L wash takes just over an hour to boil. A warm wash is quicker.
- Once the wash boils, spirit starts dripping from the white tube.
- Open the flow controller, or the regulator's valve, gradually until you get 550–650 ml per minute. Measure it: time how much runs into a 1 litre jug in one minute.
- When the thermometer passes 70°C and spirit is coming out, fine-tune the water flow to hold 78.5–79.5°C. Nearer 79.5°C runs faster but at a lower ABV. Nearer 78.5°C runs slower but stronger. If your tap water is warm and you are getting steam, switch the boiler to its 1100 W setting.
- Collect and throw away the first 50–100 ml. These foreshots can contain methanol, acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate and acetone. You'll know them by a solvent, nail-polish smell. Never drink them.
- After about 5 hours you'll have 3.4–4.5 litres at 90–93% ABV, depending on the wash. When the drip slows to one drop every 5–10 seconds, the alcohol is done. Your 80°C alarm will also sound.
- Switch off the boiler and unplug it, then turn off the water.
- Hold ON/OFF to turn the thermometer off. It remembers your alarm settings for next time.
- Let the leftover wash cool to a safe temperature before draining it through the tap into the sink or onto the compost.
Dilute, filter and flavour
- Dilute the spirit with drinking water to the strength your filter needs, filter it, then dilute again to 40% ABV and add your flavour. The Still Spirits PRO Carbon Filter and the EZ Filter both suit the T500 Pro. If you're keeping it for a later pot run, dilute to 40% ABV or lower and store it.
From there, Top Shelf essences each flavour 2.25 litres, so a full 8 litre batch takes three or four.
Prefer to watch? Still Spirits' own video runs a vodka batch on the T500 Pro:
Making gin and flavoured spirits
The T500 Pro makes clean neutral spirit, which is the base for vodka, gin and essence-flavoured spirits. For a botanical gin, Still Spirits recommend a spirit run on the T500 Pro first. Dilute it to 40% ABV or below, then redistil it with botanicals through the Alembic Copper Dome & Condenser on the same boiler. The copper pot keeps more of the botanical flavour. If you use a botanical basket, follow that basket's own instructions. For the botanicals themselves, see our gin botanical kits.
How to distil water with the T500 Pro
Distilling strips chlorine and chloramines from tap water. That helps the taste, and it helps with fermenting, because those chemicals can upset yeast. Distilled water has no minerals, so don't make it all you drink.
- If the column has been used for spirit, take the saddles out, clean them thoroughly and repack, copper on top.
- Connect the 1.5 m tube to the condenser outlet, into the sink.
- Connect the 1.1 m tube to the water inlet, and the white 0.8 m tube to the distillate outlet. You don't need the thermometer.
- Fill the boiler with up to 20 litres of water, below the max line, and add a handful of dry boil enhancers. Starting with hot tap water saves a lot of time.
- Fit the column and lid, close the four clips and check the gasket.
- Connect the inlet tube to the tap, switch the boiler on with both elements, and collect into a vessel as big as the water you started with.
- Before it boils, turn the cooling water on just enough that the distillate runs as liquid, not steam. Cold water takes about 80 minutes to boil.
- Output runs at about 3 litres an hour on a 240V 2000W boiler. When you have 18 litres from a 20 litre fill, switch off, unplug, turn the water off, and let the boiler cool before emptying.
A full 20 litre batch takes about 5–8 hours after heat-up. For the most neutral taste, Still Spirits recommend running it through the Filter Pro as well.
Cleaning the T500 Pro
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| After every run | Lift off the column and lid and rinse the boiler clean of wash and debris. Keep the boil enhancers. Use an unscented brewery cleaner and a soft brush for stubborn spots. |
| Every 5–10 runs | Run water through the column to rinse the saddles. |
| Every 20 runs | Take the saddles and cold finger out, rinse the column with citric acid solution (2 teaspoons per litre of water), soak the saddles and coil in the same mix, then flush with clean water two or three times. |
Citric acid is cheap and does the job.
Removing the condenser arm and cold finger
- Undo the screw on the back of the bracket that holds the condenser arm to the column. Take off the short top loop tube.
- Unscrew the nut at the head with a spanner, then lift the condenser arm straight up.
- To get the cold finger out, remove the tri-clamp and sieved gasket at the base and empty the saddles. Then remove the top tri-clamp and pull the coil upwards.
- If saddles are stuck around the coil, tap the base of the column on the bench to free them first.
T500 Pro troubleshooting
- Nothing coming out after the boil starts: the cooling water is probably too high, which stops the vapour reaching the condenser. Back the flow off and let the head temperature climb into the 78.5–79.5°C band.
- ABV lower than 90%: you're running too warm. Add a little water flow to bring the head temperature down towards 78.5°C. It runs slower but stronger.
- Steam from the white tube: not enough cooling. Increase the flow, or switch the boiler to 1100 W if your tap water is warm.
- Temperature drifting up and down: usually mains pressure changing. A Water Flow Regulator fixes it.
- Surging or foaming into the column: common with grain, potato or molasses washes. Add 3 capfuls of Distilling Conditioner next time and make sure the boil enhancers are in.
- Solvent smell in the finished spirit: discard more foreshots. The full 100 ml is safer than 50 ml, especially from a new wash recipe.
More fixes are in our Turbo 500 troubleshooting guide. Most apply to the Pro as well, except the water flow and temperature numbers above.
Is the T500 Pro legal to own and use in Australia?
Yes. Owning and using a still is legal in Australia. Stills of 5 litres or less need no permission, and stills over 5 litres need a free still permission from the ATO. Distilling water or essential oils needs no licence, and distilling spirit needs a free excise manufacturer licence, also from the ATO. The T500 Pro on a 25 litre boiler is over the 5 litre line, so apply for the free still permission before you assemble it. Our guide is it illegal to distil alcohol in Australia? walks through both applications.
T500 Pro instructions PDF
Still Spirits publish the official Create+ T500 Pro Column & Condenser instructions as a downloadable PDF, version DEC24V1. This guide follows that manual. The column carries a 36 month warranty against faults in materials or workmanship; claims go through the store you bought from, with proof of purchase.
T500 Pro FAQ
What water flow rate should the T500 Pro run at?
550–650 ml per minute on an Australian or NZ 240V boiler, adjusted to hold the head temperature at 78.5–79.5°C. US and Canadian 110V units need much less, about 280 ml (9.5 US fl oz) per minute.
What temperature should the T500 Pro run at?
Hold 78.5–79.5°C at the top of the column while collecting. Set the first alarm 5°C above room temperature to tell you when to turn the water on, then set it to 80°C for the rest of the run.
How long does a T500 Pro run take?
About 5 hours from switching on, including just over an hour to bring a cold 23 litre wash to the boil. US and Canadian units take 6–7 hours.
How much spirit does the T500 Pro make per run?
3.4–4.5 litres at 90–93% ABV from a 25 litre boiler, depending on the wash. That's about 8 litres once diluted to 40% ABV. Still Spirits rate it at 95% alcohol recovery.
How much should I throw away at the start?
The first 50–100 ml. These foreshots can contain methanol, acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate and acetone and should never be drunk.
How do I know the T500 Pro run is finished?
When the drip slows to one drop every 5–10 seconds. If you set the high alarm to 80°C, it will also beep.
Can I use the T500 Pro on a different boiler?
Yes. It's designed for the Still Spirits 25 L boiler but can be attached to other boilers. Older Still Spirits lids need the Create+ Threaded Adapter Set. Follow your boiler's own safety instructions.
How is the T500 Pro different from the original T500?
The Pro is a single copper column-and-condenser unit with 2" tri-clamp fittings, a detachable condenser, a removable cold finger coil, a thermowell and a beeping alarm thermometer. It uses up to 30% less cooling water. Both reach up to 93% ABV. The full comparison is in T500 vs T500 Pro.
How often should I clean the T500 Pro?
Rinse the boiler after every run and rinse the saddles with water every 5–10 runs. Every 20 runs, do a full clean with citric acid, 2 teaspoons per litre.
Can the T500 Pro make gin?
Yes. Make a neutral spirit run on the T500 Pro, dilute it to 40% ABV or below, then redistil it with botanicals through the Alembic Copper Dome & Condenser on the same boiler.
Where to buy the T500 Pro
We stock the T500 Pro Column & Condenser on its own, and complete kits with the Create+ boiler, fermenter and consumables: the Starter Pack, Starter Plus Pack and Super Starter Pack. If you're still choosing a still, our best home distilling kit guide compares the T500 Pro with the Air Still Pro and Pure Distilling. Questions about your run? Get in touch.
