hello from the PNW

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MM-Brew
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hello from the PNW

Post by MM-Brew »

Hello to all.
I've been reading topic this forum for a while now and decided to become a official card caring member. LOL. I've already been reading the through the Lounge, Novice Distillers as well as the what Not to do with a few more as well.
Here is a little about me. I've never made my own beer. I've help with a few runs and I did had fun doing it. Most of them came out pretty good. I currently don't have the means or the tools to build my own still, so I purchased one.
Da Set UP is a Bauhaus PSII High Capacity still with 8 Gal milk jug configured with a 3" column. In reflex mode I use ceramic rasching rings on the bottom that is about 2/3 way filled. I fill the rest of the column with 6 copper mesh plugs. In Pot mode I'm currently use 2 copper plugs. My current heat source is a 1500 watt Hot plate that I did mod to add a variable controller (thank you for helping with that). I believe that is VM still ( could be wrong in that) with the 3 cooling lines at the top with no valve at the condenser.
Yes I'm WAY new to this hobby. As with most new ones to this hobby I made my first runs with the GREAT stuff call Turbo Yeast (JUST KIDDING). On my runs It seams like I smeared my heads through my whole runs with the smell and taste of Acetone. After reading LOTS of post on how great those Turbos are, I've decided to make my first corm mash and do my first stripping and spirit runs. It a simple one some cracked corn, amylase, a little, sugar and some yeast (I have better notes at home). Then I 'm going to try a TFFV or different Vodka once I get done with all 3 of the stripping runs and the spirit run of this whisky i'm tying not to bastardize too bad.
What got me stated in this, is I like to make Drunken Fruit. Its a simple Infusing of fruit and boozy that do I canned up. Then I stated to make some Kahlua, and its getting better. Now I want to make it all with well crafted spirits at home. This is where I need all of your help. As being new to this and with my first runs are not really worth sharing, Yet. I'll have lots of question for you all. I've already read a lot of good info on here and I know there is a lot more information on here to help me. I'll do my best to search for these topics or at lease give what I did try searching for when asking for help or advice to get directed to them so we don't have to keep go over the same things.

I look forward to chatting with you all as I get past this HUGE learning curve and make some good spirits.
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MoonBreath
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by MoonBreath »

Welcome to HD!
Sounds like a nice little rig..Although ifn it's 3 inch and packed with reflux, your hot plate will not be enough for it.
Ones heat source should be strong enough to adjust from a slow drip, to fast drip, to broken stream, to twisted stream, to pencil tip stream, to full stream for strips.
Anything less, we'll you know...
Good luck, keep us posted.
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OtisT
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by OtisT »

Welcome Neighbor, from a fellow PNWer.

+1 to the comment regarding 1500W being low for the 3" column. I've run a 1500W hotplate on a fully insulated boiler and insulated 2" column and while it works for various stilling styles, I found 1500W limiting in some ways. My personal journey started with a 3" column, I was not happy with how it performed, and at the time I decided to make a new 2" column rather than upgrade my 1500W boiler.

Fractioning:
I think the hard issue for you with only 1500W will be fractioning (getting a descent refulx ratio) in that 3" column. If you are not insulated, IMHO you will need to do so and run your rig at/near max to get a descent ratio.

I'm not sure how well your modified Hotplate holds a steady temp, but if you notice vapor temp swings when you want a steady temp, consider a heat sync (metal plate) between your Hotplate and Boiler to even things out. This may not be necessary because of your modifications. For my rig, with an un-modified 1500W hotplate, I have found 3lb of mass to be the sweet spot. With no heatsync, I see an ~6 deg F temp swing in head vapor temps. with a 1.5 lb heatsync, I see an ~4 deg F swing, and with a 3 lb heatsync, I see no noticeable vapor temp swings.

Pot Stillin:
1500W It will work just fine for most of what you will likely do, pot stilling, it will just be slower than desired (for me.) 1500W Examples: It takes 2 hours to bring a 9 gallon wash to boil. Once boiling, stripping 9 gallons takes 4 hours.

Best of luck to ya. Otis
Otis’ Pot and Thumper, Dimroth Condenser: Pot-n-Thumper/Dimroth
Learning to Toast: Toasting Wood
Polishing Spirits with Fruitwood: Fruitwood
Badmotivator’s Barrels: Badmo Barrels
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Dantuss
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by Dantuss »

Welcome
My Build 2" CCVM
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 17&t=68341" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
My still up and running 1st and 2nd runs Yahoo!
https://youtu.be/KYZUiHw79vY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
MM-Brew
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by MM-Brew »

for my hot plate I by passed the thermostat and connected it to a heavy duty variable speed controller. I did a 45 min test boiling water then down to a simmer in a pot and I did not notice any cycling of the hot plate. I do away use the defuse plate that came with the still. My thoughts was more about even heating with less chance of scorching(not sure of the weight of it but it sits in recessed areas for it). Then tying to keep a stead temp. Its all about learning. When it get up to temp it will hold the temp very steady. The hotplate unit is at max or in the high range. Then I've made some adjustments to the water flow to try and increase the dribble to the trickle with no real success. Learned the hard way to leave the water alone. This may be no surprise to you, but Non of my runs have ever been in the 4 or 6 hours range. There all more like 10-15 hours for 5-6 gallons of mash. With 1.5 to 2.5 hours of heat up time.

I just found out about that I can insulate the boiler and column thank to this site and that is my next step.
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jon1163
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by jon1163 »

Welcome from another PNW'er
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nuntius01
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by nuntius01 »

welcome, drop us a pic of the set up
I'm just the bank and the mule

post your still pics here
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 16&t=66917
svodysseus
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by svodysseus »

Hello from Seahawk territory!
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cranky
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by cranky »

Welcome to HD :wave: . There are lots of us PNWers here, I'm wet side of the mountains myself.
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TDick
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by TDick »

Welcome Down The Rabbit Hole.jpg
Welcome Down The Rabbit Hole.jpg (6.14 KiB) Viewed 1065 times
:mrgreen:
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Oldvine Zin
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by Oldvine Zin »

Welcome -- lots of PNW stillers here

OVZ
OtisT
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by OtisT »

MM-Brew wrote:Then I've made some adjustments to the water flow to try and increase the dribble to the trickle with no real success. Learned the hard way to leave the water alone. This may be no surprise to you, but Non of my runs have ever been in the 4 or 6 hours range. There all more like 10-15 hours for 5-6 gallons of mash. With 1.5 to 2.5 hours of heat up time.

I just found out about that I can insulate the boiler and column thank to this site and that is my next step.
Good news on the insulation. That will increase the efficiency of your still and because Power In = Power Out, your product output will increase a bit (and run times shortened) when you run at full power.

How is the cooling flow configured on your still? Does cooling water flow through your Reflux Condenser (RC) and Product Condenser (PC) in Series, or Parallel? (Series = water output from your PC feeds the input to your RC, and there is only one flow valve to control cooling water.)

I have not seen your rig but with 10-15 hour strip runs for that size of wash, I am guessing your cooling water flow is run in Series and you are not removing the RC from your rig when you strip. If this is the case, you should be able to shorten run times significantly with a switch to Parallel cooling water flow with independent valves for each condenser. Either that or you can remove the RC entirely from your system when Stripping to achieve the same results.

Otis
Otis’ Pot and Thumper, Dimroth Condenser: Pot-n-Thumper/Dimroth
Learning to Toast: Toasting Wood
Polishing Spirits with Fruitwood: Fruitwood
Badmotivator’s Barrels: Badmo Barrels
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fizzix
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by fizzix »

Hiya there MM-Brew. I've got a PSII as well, but the smaller 2" model. Nothing but pleased with it.
Welcome from another new guy & fellow ex-turbo user.
MM-Brew
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by MM-Brew »

Good day to you all. Thank you for the warm welcome
ATM I'm doing a 2nd stripping run of 3 run batch for my 1st whiskey. Maybe I should have started with a small batch. With only one or two stripping runs. Its a Simple it's a corn and sugar whisky recipe.
Otis
Not sure on how to answer your Water question. But here gose. The Water comes from my 44 gallon reservoir it's a hits a T for the inlet of the condenser. Then short piece of hose to a ball valve for controlling the 3 reflux cooling pipes. The return comes out of the top cooling pipes hits a T grabs water from a top of a condenser and back into the reservoir.

Also For Those runs I did use turbo washs. (Yeah I know best stuff ever). Those runs were ran in reflux mode. I have found to get any product worth consuming from them. I needed to run it twice as I do not have a carbon filter. Also any run I do reflux is at least 8 to 10 hours.
Currently I have half the boiler and the column insulated in pot mod for this stripping run
The next mod will be separating the water lines with a ball valve and needle valve for the reflux condenser.

Still working on the lingo while I'm reading through the mountains of information found here.
MM-Brew
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by MM-Brew »

Quick newbie question.
When doing stripping run with a pot still. Do you not pay so much attention to the temperature at the top of the still. Then just run it as fast as you can or do you try to run it and the temperature zones for heads, hearts tails? I have found some conflicting information and the interwebs
if there's links that will answer this question. I have no problem adding that to my growing reading list.
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jon1163
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by jon1163 »

More knowledgeable people please correct me if I am wrong.

I run a 2" column dual purpose still with an electric element.

Don't run a still by the temperature, it won't be consistent. For my stripping run I run it to where I have a broken stream, right when drips turn to a stream. The distillate is cloudy and oily when done. I strip with a parrot and run it down to 10% and collect it all in one large jug.

For the spirit run I'll not use the parrot and run it slower. I collect foreshots very slowly and speed up once into heads (1-3 drops per second), when close to hearts (roughly 2-5 drops per second or just under a stream. I'll collect spirit run in pint jars labeling each jar with a consecutive # and %ABV which I take with an alcoholometer straight from the jar (parrots smear heads, hearts, and tails).

When all my jars are collected I use kiwis method of making cuts after putting paper towels over the jar openings and letting the jars air out for a day.

My spirit runs take much longer than my strips. In a spirit run it is okay to break up the distilling into several sessions, your low wines shouldn't go bad by sitting in the still.

And seriously don't use turbos. It's not hard to get a good fermentation using yeast and malt. Why put all that time and work into a product and use an inferior ingredient that will adversely affect the taste of the final product. It doesn't save any time or money as you have to go to great lengths and add steps to try and strip that nasty flavor out, AND those extra steps strip good flavor from your product too. Like a lot of members, I used turbos to start and it was so frustrating I almost quit the hobby... Then I started reading homedistiller.org.
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ShineonCrazyDiamond
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

I love that everyone helps here. But please move this good conversation outside the welcome forum.

Welcome to HD brew.
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You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
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OtisT
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Re: hello from the PNW

Post by OtisT »

MM-Brew wrote:Quick newbie question.
When doing stripping run with a pot still. Do you not pay so much attention to the temperature at the top of the still. Then just run it as fast as you can or do you try to run it and the temperature zones for heads, hearts tails? I have found some conflicting information and the interwebs
if there's links that will answer this question. I have no problem adding that to my growing reading list.
IMHO. ignore temp. For stripping, I recommend that’s you Run it hard and fast. Full power, with the VM port open fully. Insulated if you have it, and no reflux. Don’t worry about collecting foreshots. Do that in your spirit run. Good luck, and as SCD says, just start a new thread for future run questions. We got ur back. Good luck. :-)

PS. When you learn what ur doing with your rig, you can pretty much ignore temp for any runs. IMHO.
Otis’ Pot and Thumper, Dimroth Condenser: Pot-n-Thumper/Dimroth
Learning to Toast: Toasting Wood
Polishing Spirits with Fruitwood: Fruitwood
Badmotivator’s Barrels: Badmo Barrels
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