New guy from Alberta

[WayNorthOf50]

Good day to you all from sunny Alberta, Canada.
I have been a lurker on this forum for a couple of years now, and have enjoyed building up my knowledge base on distilling. I have made beer & wine previously, so had a pretty good handle on the fermentation basics. I have built a copper 2" boka (40" section packed with copper mesh) and a pot still (2"x12" riser narrowing after the bend to a 3/4" over 1/2" liebig). I use a keg as the boiler, and a 20 gallon brute trashcan as my fermenter. I have run both stills for a year, mostly using Birdwatchers to produce neutral. I think that I've learned some of the basics on how to drive the stills, so it's time to dive into the tried & true SweetFeed recipe this spring.
I've come out of the woodwork to get move involved, as I've decided that this is a long term hobby for me.

Thanks for "listening", and I look forward to chatting with you

[dirtyshank]

do you have any pics of your stills?

[GrassHopper]

Nice post dirtyshank,
Glad to see someone doing the homework. You are well on your way and we are glad to have ya aboard. Look forward to your input on our site. Keep us posted on your progress.
Enjoy the adventure!

[piperdave]

Howdy from a fellow Albertan.

[WayNorthOf50]

[img]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201703 ... aab331.jpg[/img]
Here is the books in action after conversion from propane to electric


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[WayNorthOf50]

Should say "boka"


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[WayNorthOf50]

That was a stripping run with the boka head on the 12" riser. I have since changed to tri-clamps for all connections rather than threaded joints, and gone with a more conventional 90 degree bend to a Liebig for stripping & pot stilling. I'll post photos of it later today, along with my elect controller.


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[yakattack]

Welcome in. Sounds like you've got the basics covered.

2 small etiquette points to get out of the way.

1 post all pictures directly to the website. You will have to resize them to less than 800 pixels wide. You posted your images through tap talk. This is not available for anyone to see outside of tap talk. Which brings us to our second point.
2 there Is a setting to remove the tap talk signature at the end of your posts. Please do this as it is considered advertising which the owner of the forum does not allow. Search tap talk removal If you are unsure how to do this.

Now that those are out of the way- post your pics so we can all drool over some copper porn.

A fellow canuck
Yak

[WayNorthOf50]

Here is my current setup for the pot still

[WayNorthOf50]

Self built power regulator in a plastic ammo box, thanks to everyone on HD

[WayNorthOf50]

Brute trashcan fermenter with reptile heat tape & fan plugged into temp controller

[WayNorthOf50]

My still hand:

[WayNorthOf50]

Full boka column with copper scrubbers & product liebig doing 95% neutral off propane

[WayNorthOf50]

Boka head on short riser with product cooler for a stripping run off electric.
Element is running off 220v, man sure boils way faster than propane

[WayNorthOf50]

I hope that I posted these pics properly.
Thanks for the welcome and the tips .... all feedback is gratefully accepted.
Lurking on HD forums has helped a lot, but it sure is a steep learning curve.

[yakattack]

Wow! See looks like you've got quite the handle on what you're doing. Glad you've decided to join us. I like the temp controller. Did you make it yourself or is that a purchased unit?

[WayNorthOf50]

It's a home built unit running reptile heating tape on the fermenter to keep things warm, and a cheap CanTire fan to cool it down if necessary.
It's built from an STC 1000 controller with some 110v leds and standard household plug-ins. It's in an old repurposed oil field burner management box. I built it as a prototype, and plan to rebuild it with a power switch and move it to the same plastic ammo box as my power controller.
It works like a charm, but since the heat tape is only 25 watts per foot (4 foot lenght is 100 watts of gentle heat) it cannot keep up in a cold location.
Works great if your location is close to normal household temps, and will work for cool nights with a bit of insulation on top of the fermenter

[StillerBoy]

It works like a charm, but since the heat tape is only 25 watts per foot (4 foot lenght is 100 watts of gentle heat) it cannot keep up in a cold location.
Works great if your location is close to normal household temps, and will work for cool nights with a bit of insulation on top of the fermenter

Thank you for the pictures..

Have you tried wrapping some insulation similar to one used on the keg on top of the reptile heat tape.. that should increase the heat around the fermenter and not require insulation on the top..

Mars