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The problem. Bringing a container of 30 to 100 Lt of wash up to temperature quickly and efficiently without burning/charring any solids in suspension. I have been looking at this issue for some time. Currently I use a large gas burner which is rather inefficient. Yes it will bring the boiler to temp...

Good day and Happy (belated) New year to you all. Has anyone tried developing a boiler at hobby level using steam injection as the heating source? If so, how successful was it? Putting together a monotube boiler for steam is relatively easy and considerably safer than other boiler types, especially ...

Just out of interest, what kind of production would you expect out of a 6 inch flute?

I had thought about rolling my own tube but it has its own challenges. How did you find the work? Did you anneal the copper plate a lot before getting the tube shape right? Lots of questions are running through my head just now.

I too am toying with the idea of a 6 inch flute and would be very interested in real world figures. The beast that you are building harley is very impressive although I will probably go down the Stainless steel route as that diameter of copper will require a new mortgage! I first have to learn to TI...

A quick question gents, is anyone running a 6 or 8 inch flute and if so what is the real world product production at a given strength?

Both washes are the same. Although I added bakers yeast, I am not convinced that the second wash has not been inoculated with wild yeast and that it may be the wild yeast that is fermenting at lower temps. That is why I would like to keep a batch of this yeast until I am ready to brew again. Whilst ...

A question to the wise on the forum. I have recently managed to grow a vine in the West of Scotland which has produced enough white grapes to extract the juice for wine. The juice was extracted using a Finnish steam extractor and the yield was 25Lt. I then decided to take the mush that was left and ...

Having cut and burned peat all my life I can say this much. Not all peat is equal. 'Young' peat is brown when cut, darkens to a very dark brown when dry and burns with a red glow and much smoke. Without a lot of air getting under it it 'smoors'; that is it barely burns. Old peat is black and smooth ...

Hi Waylyn, I went for stainless steel and I have to say its been perfect. Copper prices have been so high that it has to be cheaper to use stainless.

Just a quick note for the guys in the UK. I keep a couple of horses and just looking at one of the labels for 'horse and pony' it looks ok. The pellets you may find in some of the feed is dried sugar beet. We feed the Clydesdale quite a bit of sugar beet pellets in the winter and yes, if when soaked...

Im thinking at buy a 100ltr fermenter and us BW recipe...... Currently i use 30ltr femrmenters and i have 5 on the go. I was thinking if i can do a 100ltr batch i can get my neautrals up on supply and let a heap soak on chips untill xmas..... I was wandering how much ingridants shall i use and what...

That is very similar to what I am building at the moment. The real difference is that I have replaced the Grahams with a 54mm shotgun condenser.

Some of the issues mentioned here may have to do with the speed at which the material loses heat. One way to deal with this is to build a small hearth using vermiculite blocks and vermiculite granules to keep the heat in the material . Firebricks are no good as they absorb too much heat. Model engin...

Ah, this game is all about choice and beauty. OD, the product is at 95%. I could probably drive her a little harder but she was starting to growl. The flute is on.Stainless due to cost of the 4'' pipe. One of the first threads I read on this forum threatened that once you built one you would not sto...

Looking good Sam. Keep up the good work. I think your Highland flute may well get a stainless companion. I have been making plates on the drill press, so far its been easier than expected.

A quick update on this question. Having tinkered with centring rings and restrictions before the reflux condenser with varying results, I have now managed to achieve 4.74Lt an hour from a 26Lt wash at 40%. This was achieved by fitting a restriction collar of approximately 20mm five cm above the top ...

A work of art. I have decided to take the flute plunge, however I will be building out of stainless as it is considerably cheaper than copper. The plates and 'vitals' will of course be copper. One question though; can someone please patch me a link to a drawing for the plumbing for a flute. I am sur...

I am currently running a 3'' column which is 1.9m from boiler to takeoff and another 40 odd cm to the top of the column. My column reduced from 3'' to 2'' (actually from 76mm to 54mm) into an equal tee and remains 2'' to the top of the column. Initial runs gave me exactly 2 litres an hour at 95%. I ...

Gardening vermiculite works great as a heat shield too. It also has the advantage of filling columns. Up until recently I have been using a bog standard gas torch and had to plan things through. Having just got a Rotherberger torch using Mapp its a piece of cake, even on the larger pieces. Yeah, I ...

Evening Samohon, if you don’t mind me asking, where did you get hold of 4 inch copper pipe in the UK without a mortgage? :esurprised: I split a 3M length with another member (thepatchworkdoll)... We paid £49 per meter... 1.5M @ £49 + 20% VAT = about £90... If we had found someone else to share it w...

Gardening vermiculite works great as a heat shield too. It also has the advantage of filling columns. Up until recently I have been using a bog standard gas torch and had to plan things through. Having just got a Rotherberger torch using Mapp its a piece of cake, even on the larger pieces.

Before charring soak your oak in port or sherry for a few weeks. Remove from port or sherry and allow to dry for a while. Char or use as is. I have found that in the cool damp climate that I live in this works a treat. As for old barrels, I use barrels discarded by the distillery’s. The fire service...

Thanks for that rad1401. My understanding is that the restricted column of vapour going through the 2'' would 'want' to move upward due to vapour pressure. I would have thought that you would require to induced turbulence to vapour to ensure a good feed into the 2'' tee . From my (limited) understan...

As I am waiting for bits I have had way too much time to think about the layout of 3'' reflux column heads. Now, I am not an expert in fluid dynamics, my knowledge of hydraulic behaviour comes form the fire service and my knowledge of the movement of air/vapour comes from parachuting and paragliding...

Good day, I have a question for the learned heads that occupy this forum. I have built a stainless 3'' VM, height from barrel to bottom of take off 190cm, height from top of take off 30cm. Connection to barrel is a 3 to 2'' reducer connected by triclover clamps. Packing is stainless steel wool with ...

After the water treatment, why not give them a soak with sherry before loading with the good stuff? A lot of barrels used in Scotland have previously held sherry. I have a batch at the moment sitting in glass but with charred lengths of old sherry barrel. After six weeks it is not unlike Bowmore in ...

Quite a few of the distilleries up North sell on their old barrels. There is even some on fleabay. Highlands and Islands fire brigade use old barrels staves for hot fire training!!!! To be honest, there is no shortage of used barrels if you are in the UK.

A quick question gentlemen (and ladies); has anybody tried to make a wash of over 150 litres with Birdwatchers recipe and if so were there any temperature problems? I would like to make a big wash but am concerned that this quantity might generate a bit too much heat. The ambient temperature in the ...

Many thanks for your kind greetings. I have built a stainless valved reflux which has already produced about four gallons. In the future I hope to build a nice copper beast. Its very interesting that the flavour of the clean spirit is much improved by the addition of the local water: not the rubbish...