My first pot still design.

[Zeotropic]

This is where I discover that my tubing cutter is too small.

[Zeotropic]

[Zeotropic]

I wont take any close ups of my soldering. It is horrible but sealed.

[Saltbush Bill]

I've seen a lot worse...solder looks fine to me.
A few mins with a small file or two will clean it up.

[Zeotropic]

I've seen a lot worse...solder looks fine to me.
A few mins with a small file or two will clean it up.

That picture was after a lot of filing.
It ain't pretty but it is functional.

I shure didn't get those perfectly fillet joints.
I will say after brazing with sil-fos 15 all the time I really thought that soldering would be easier. Turns out solder flows too easily and doesn't bridge the gaps nearly as well.
Also it helps if the torch stays lit. My propane torch kept going out so I used oxy acetylene in stead and it heats so fast that it made it harder to get the joint full to the edge.

[Zeotropic]

I have two 5 gallon batches of shady's sugar shine going for when I get the still done.
I was wondering how much potential alcohol it will have. I used 12 lb of sugar in 10 gallons of water. So from my past research I was thinking that I would get a bit less than 6 lb of alcohol. Is that right or am I way off track?

[Zeotropic]

Looks like that works out to 7.2% potential alcohol.

[Zeotropic]

Looks like 4.74lb of ethanol so I guess my memory failed me. Sorry I asked the question and then figured out how to answer it.
Thats 0.72 gallons of ethanol.

[Zeotropic]

I was prepared for the worst soldering stainless and it was easy. I used a 60 watt temperature controlled iron and oatey safe flo lead free solder with bernzomatic water soluble flux.

[Zeotropic]

[Zeotropic]

After a couple re do's it is finally done.

[Zeotropic]

[Zeotropic]

Who needs small collection jars?

[Zeotropic]

For a vinegar run. hehehe

[Zeotropic]

My overly instrumented vinegar run.
I was curious what temperature vinegar evaporates at.
It looks like right around 207°

[Zeotropic]

Stilling by the light of the moon.

[Zeotropic]

So I finally got around to tasting my moonlight moonshine and it was surprisingly good. It was a shady's sugar shine with 1.2 lb of sugar per gallon and it is impressively clean for a single run. Now I just need to get time to dilute and re distill it. My ultimate goal is to make a gin that resembles tanqueray. I don't think that sugar shine is going to be good enough but it is good practice.
I have been thinking about making a malt extract wash and running it until it is fairly neutral. That way the flavor that I can't get rid of with my pot still will be good flavor.

[Saltbush Bill]

I have been thinking about making a malt extract wash and running it until it is fairly neutral. That way the flavor that I can't get rid of with my pot still will be good flavor.

https://www.diffordsguide.com/en-au/pro ... distillery
The link above tells you a little about the base spirit used to make Tanqueray.
Other sources say that it is a wheat based GNS.
If that is the case the chances are that it has little to no flavour.
https://www.theginguild.com/ginopedia/g ... n-dry-gin/
Quote: "The only flavours you will get after the distillation are those of the botanicals and you should get no flavour from the neutral spirit, only strength."

I don't think that sugar shine is going to be good enough but it is good practice.

Shadys sugar Shine is one of the cleanest neutrals I have ever made, if it falls short in anyway its not the fault of the wash, more the fact that you are using the wrong tool to make the neutral.

[Zeotropic]

I have been thinking about making a malt extract wash and running it until it is fairly neutral. That way the flavor that I can't get rid of with my pot still will be good flavor.

https://www.diffordsguide.com/en-au/pro ... distillery
The link above tells you a little about the base spirit used to make Tanqueray.
Other sources say that it is a wheat based GNS.
If that is the case the chances are that it has little to no flavour.
https://www.theginguild.com/ginopedia/g ... n-dry-gin/
Quote: "The only flavours you will get after the distillation are those of the botanicals and you should get no flavour from the neutral spirit, only strength."

I don't think that sugar shine is going to be good enough but it is good practice.

Shadys sugar Shine is one of the cleanest neutrals I have ever made, if it falls short in anyway its not the fault of the wash, more the fact that you are using the wrong tool to make the neutral.

Cool thanks for the links.
I will at some point build a ccvm reflux column but for now I will make due with the pot still.
I might have to stick to wiskey until I get a reflux going.
Of course I guess I could just buy Everclear and use that to make gin.

[Saltbush Bill]

You think Everclear is a good substitute for good home made neutral? You could do better with Shadys Sugar Shine run a few times through a pot with tight cuts each time.

[Zeotropic]

You think Everclear is a good substitute for good home made neutral? You could do better with Shadys Sugar Shine run a few times through a pot with tight cuts each time.

I don't have a clue. [emoji3]
I know less about commercial liquor than about moonshine. (If you can imagine that)[emoji3]

[Zeotropic]

On the wiskey side of things I just discovered that wiskey can be so good that you don't have to just use it as flavoring in tea with milk.
I tried bushmills and I was very impressed. That got me looking into making wiskey. (Talk about a rabbit hole)

I acquired a 2 gallon bain marie and I am trying to find some white oak but I am coming up short on the oak.

[NZChris]

Have a talk to your local firewood supplier. I have two good sized rounds of heart oak from two different firewood suppliers.

[Corsaire]

Have to agree with sbb, everclear is no good.
You can use a pot still to make a good gin base. Just keep in mind that you won't be able to strip out all flavor from it, so pick a ferment that has a taste that complements the gin you intend to make. Triple distilled should be good, you can always run it again if you're not satisfied.

[Zeotropic]

Have to agree with sbb, everclear is no good.
You can use a pot still to make a good gin base. Just keep in mind that you won't be able to strip out all flavor from it, so pick a ferment that has a taste that complements the gin you intend to make. Triple distilled should be good, you can always run it again if you're not satisfied.

Good to know.
I think that the shady's sugar shine is very nice tasting and impressive after my previous experience helping a friend distill some cornmeal mash he made following a really bad recipe from YouTube. [emoji3]

I bought some everclear today for cleaning a sensor on one of my tools because I can't get 91% isopropyl and from the smell I think they left too much heads in it. Would I be correct in that assessment?

[Zeotropic]

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I figured i would update.
Soldering the copper flat on the stainless was not a very good idea. It was very solid but it didn't hold up to thermal cycling. It has s crack half way around. I hadn't thought about the sheer forces of the thermal expansion of the copper against the stainless.
So i guess I am going to need to change the design a bit.

[Zeotropic]

Well here's my repair I think it'll work.

[Zeotropic]

I cleaned and fluxed everything and then put it together like a evaporator coil manufacturer would. I put rings of solder everywhere I needed soldered, put everything together and then just heated it up