Did I run it, or it me?

[ga flatwoods]

In years past I have had the opportunities to build and run several still heads to include two differing pot still as well as a boka. One of the pot stills was 1-1/2" and the other was 2" that had a long enough column and built modular to receive my boka head. I have had excellent results on all of those as many of you well know having tasted my spirits. But I am wondering today if I really knew how to run them optimally, or, ran them as I allowed myself to always leaning to the cautious, low and slow as a general rule. I have been and arduent student of the pencil size solid to broken stream for pot distillation and do not see that changing any time soon. The problem I now have in my mind is that when doing a beer strip from these same columns and stills, did I allow myself to run the still to its max capacity to get the desired result, or, did the low and slow carry over and lead to a longer time spent than necessary? If that is the case, how far below optimum was I?
I arrived at this conundrum today after doing the first "real" beer strip on my new IStill Base 50 Manual. For this I had five gallons of corn, wheat, and rye wash, 6 quarts of low wines from the first run on the same wash a week ago, two gallons of Muckalee Creek Water feints, and five gallons of water. No, I didn't measure the abv going into the pot of all combined ingredients. Maybe I should have but I knew I was in the safe range for stripping and second runs. The room temp was 56*F so the liquids weremtoo except for the five gallonsmof water that I ran hot from the sink +/-120*f.
The beginning column temp was 55*f. For this run, I left the power turned on high the entire time. Comparatively speaking, the IStill Base 50 is far superior to the manner in which I had ran any of my past stills. Now, I must say for the record that I ran on lp. But with a 250k banjo burner I could get what I wanted and more! I now wonder if the high gas flames and volume deterred me from running "all out". The output from the IStill barely gave me time to record the individual quarts before the next was ready to be taken off. Here are my records:
300 ml foreshots taken at 1325 hrs no measurement on this
1st qt 1331hrs@150pr
2nd 1337 @146
3 1341 @146
4 1347 @144
5 1352 @ 140
Refluxed next quart some here
6 1358 @152
7 1402 @128
8 1408 @126
9 1416 @114 began to smell tails here bottom column temp @ 202*f
10 1422 @105 bottom column temp 203.9
11 1428 @95 205.0
12 1435 @86 206.3
13 1443 @75 208.0
14 1448 @65 208.4 middle was 208.1 and top was 79.2*f

So in 1:23 minutes I got 14 quarts from 75 abv down to 32.5! Speaking only from past experiences, I am amazed! Had anyone suggested it would not take any longer I would have argued with them against it being possible.
So now I wonder is it simply the difference in gas to electric, the efficiency of the IStill Base 50, perhaps both, or my reluctance to rum my lp set up in the past as high as I could that has me bewildered as to why I haven't experienced this type of output before? Granted it is only a beer strip and the main test is yet to come, but damn it I was impressed today!
Ga Flatwoods

[shadylane]

There's a big difference in efficiency between heating with gas and a well insulated electric still.

[ga flatwoods]

I suppose you are right. The other thing I noticed is a larger demand for coolant water!
Ga Flatwoods

[HDNB]

damn, that is fast.

my well insulated 54"x 2" with 5500 w wouldn't touch those numbers. even with a 20" x 2" 4tube shotgun i run out of cooling at 17 amps (around 4000w) and not much more than 4 L an hour.

[GrassHopper]

That is really fast. I stripped yesterday a 5 hrs on a 2" pot head with propane full out. Trying to wrap my head around why that thing is that fast? I looked at the site and read a bunch, but I don't get it. Really impressive stuff and technology. I want some. The price is 1.265 EUR for yours? Forgive the ignorance....is that $1,400 +. Shipped anywhere?

[ga flatwoods]

Grasshopper ever since my first batch, all afterward have been 1.5, 2, or more distillations. Never seen this type of speed before but I like it!

1.03 conversion last time i checked so yes about $1400. Includes shipping. I think it took four days door to door! Shipped in several different packages, unmarked of course. The catalyst is additional.
Ga Flatwoods

[GrassHopper]

Thanks GA,
I hope you'll keep us posted as to the results of the final spirit / reflux run for comparison. I'm very interested in this still.

[cranky]

So now I wonder is it simply the difference in gas to electric, the efficiency of the IStill Base 50, perhaps both, or my reluctance to rum my lp set up in the past as high as I could that has me bewildered as to why I haven't experienced this type of output before? Granted it is only a beer strip and the main test is yet to come, but damn it I was impressed today!
Ga Flatwoods

When I strip using the full 5500W on my setup I collect at a rate of 1qt every 4.5 minutes but I don't think the ABV is quite that high, but to be honest I don't usually pay much attention on strip runs.

That new still of yours is really something. I was quite impressed by the reasonable price, I think when word gets out Odin is really going to have his hands full keeping up with orders.

[ga flatwoods]

Ok well today I finally got to do the spirit run I had been waiting to do. It was Odin's birthday as well so it seemed appropriate! A summary of the run goes as follows:

I used 17 qts of low wines @55% to 10 gallons of wash. Ooops this is almost 54 liters on a pot built for 50!
Turned power to high with a base column temp of 60.3*f.
Boiled and rose in column in 55 minutes. Cut power in half.
Allowed column to reflux for twenty minutes.
Began collect of heads with 3-4 drips per second. Over 20 minutes I collected 300 ml. The base temperature was 174*f when this was completed.
Opened valve wide open for first quart to find bottom temp of 194. With the charge I had I could not get that high as alcohol was 85%(+).
At the end of quart #1 the bottom temp was 190.6. I cut the valve down from wide open but not enough to prevent a nine minute quart.
I did not move the valve for 7 quarts. The bottom temp was 194.6 at this time with 74% results.
Quart 8 I attempted to close the valve to keep the targeted 194*f with little success. This quart ended up 85%+.
I played with the valve for three quarts and I either undershot the 194*f or overshot it. The valve is very sensitive and the reaction is slow to come.
The temp of 194*f is the base temp of 90*C Odin suggests in his run describing a 1.5 distillation on the IStill Base 50 Manuel.
At quart 11 the proof began to drop and I closed the valve some more . We were getting tails are here.
Quart ten was 85%.Quart 12 was 78% at a bottom temperature of 203+.
Quart 13 ended at 205.2 and 51%.
Quart 14 ended at 206.6*f and 35%. I shut off the power here.
Quart 13 had a clear discernible tails smell.
Conclusion:
The run took 3hr 37 minutes start to finish. Averaged 15 minutes per quart.
Trying to hold any temperature constant is very difficult with the slow column response per minute valve adjustment. Odin's target was 194*f of 90*C in his example to get 65% ready to barrel.
The tails came in at 206*f as expected by the example.
I will blend all later and dilute to 60% for aging.
All collected had a good flavor even the 85%+ quarts.
Next time I will set the valve and leave it in one spot. I can say that this was very easy to run. However the knowlege of what is happening in the column isvery good to know to be able to read the temperatures and know what to expect with the output. This run was a lot quicker than my old lp gas version and the percentages held more constant as well.
I am very pleased with the use of this still, even on its maiden usage it is an enjoyable piece of equipment with results to impress. A run of my Muckalee will tell the tale though. That will have to be later this spring.
Ga Flatwoods

[ga flatwoods]

So, after combining all the 14quarts, I had a batch of 78%-almost vodka strenght. However, it had a lot of flavor. As per the calculator found in Rad's conversions in the Calcs portion of the parent site, I added 3.5 qts (I actually added 4) of water to proof it down to 60% for aging. I placed this in one of my corney kegs along with a large handful of cherry chips and a double handful, half recharred, of JD bbq chips and closed the keg. I wrote the product and date on the sticky note on the face of the keg and set it in the corner. Now we wait. Good thing about corney keg aging this time of year is the heating and cooling cycles the product will get even at garage room temps. We should be good about June on this one but we will see as time will tell.

I used the ag left over grains for a sugar head by adding 50 lbs of sugar and two quarts of blackstrap molasses and ten gallons of backset. It is not in my insulated box but has working away for about a week now at a moderate constant rate. It should make a good batch. Sourmash corn, wheat, rye, gumball whiskum!
Ga Flatwoods

edit: Correction-I only used the first twelve quarts and only half of the 13th (the other half I used to store the copper spp).

[Odin]

GA, I will be shipping you two things soon and want to ask you to test them out:
1. A power manager;
2. A new, enhanced column design I am working on.

The power manager gives you the choice of dialing in any power from 0 to 100% (0 to 4 kW), in steps of 1%. This will give you much more control over your power input and (hence) vapour speeds. You could do a strip run at 4 kW and a finishing run at 1.5 kW instead of the standard 2 kW option you now have. That way you can create more or less smearing on your Muccalee Creek Water. More early Tails for more taste and longer aging, less smearing of early Tails at a lower power setting, for a product that comes to age faster.

On a vodka run, you could use the power manager to push the power from 2 kW to 2.5 kW or a bit more. More power is more gases is more reflux is lower HETP is more destillations for an even more pure vodka at a faster production rate.

The new enhanced column design is not finished yet, but first tests on my robotized still proved me today that I can then even run a vodka run at full power (4 kW). Got me 6 liters of azeo per hour on a 30% low wines charge!

Regards, Odin.

[ga flatwoods]

I thought abot running mine through my ssr for curiosities sake. I ran a 1.5 cook last week. Got 10 quarts before I stopped the run with heavy tails at 50%. It took 1hr 52 min from completion of 300 ml of foreshots. Heat up took 45 minutes on high for 12 qts of previous run on 9 gallons of mash. I then cut to half power and refluxed for 30 minutes. Bottom of column temp was 173.5 when I began to collect the foreshots. The foreshots were 96.5%. The run averaged 12 minutes per quart. I sped up the drip after fores which by nature caused the temps to rise. The bottom of the column was 190.4 at the end of quart one and 202.0 at 1:52 on the tenth. I like the short smearing from hearts to full tails.
Again, this was a corn, wheat, rye sugarhead (50lb/50 gal). And, again, I will say that there was a lot of flavor present. This mash tastes better white than my Muckalee at this point! I still have 10 gallons of mash. I am thinking about throwing these ten quarts into the next and last run from this barrel. Further, I think I will disgard these grains now and prepare a vodka mash of only the wheat and rye mix for the next runs.
I have some of the corn wheat rye on oak already and it is progressing well to date. Time will tell.
I remain impressed every time I turn this unit on!

I too flooded my column when on high power before I realized that I didn't have enough coolant running through it. It took a lot to cool it down so I cut the power and restabilized. I look forward to the challenge Odin!

Ga Flatwoods

[ga flatwoods]

Guess what I am doing tonight?