Home Distiller

As a homebrewer who makes a lot of sour beers, I'd like to correct some of the info here. Most bacteria's do not create alcohol, they create acids (usually lactic acid from lactobacyllus). It's what gives yogurt and sour kraut it's sour bite, and gives Berliner Weiss styles of beer their tangy tartn...

Last weekend’s run went quite a bit better than the first run. The first several jars I was pulling 92-94% and had solid bubbling on all the plates through most of the run. The abv started to drop down in the low 80s once I got into the hearts though. I think my problem is that my cooling water bin ...

I got home from work today and installed the 90 degree elbows on the output and patted myself on the back for finishing the job. Then after dinner I read the new comments here and realized it probably didn't work like I had hoped so I went back out and hooked up the pump to test water flow. Sure eno...

I don't think I explained it very well in my last post. I've actually got 2 ball valves on the coolant control arm. One controls the product condenser drain, and one controls flow to the dephleg. By slowing the flow out of the product condenser drain a bit I can divert a small amount of flow to the ...

Yeah, I do have a ball valve on the coolant control arm that controls the flow from product condenser to the depheg. I just need to add in the 90 bend on the output to stack up the water coming out of the dephleg so it remains mostly full. Thanks.

Well I picked up a couple extra 90 degree elbows from Home Despot at lunch and will re-configure the output so that the water will get stacked up coming out of the dephleg to keep the dephleg filled up most of the way. It should provide similar results as putting a ball valve on the output I think. ...

Well that explains why the damn thing ain't workin right, lol :crazy: . Coulda swore I read somewhere that the flow was supposed to be opposite of the vapor direction, but maybe I confused it with the product condenser. It'd be a pain the arse to re-run the copper tube to flow the water in from the ...

OK, looks like I'm on my own. To try to keep a bit more water in the dephleg and force partial reflux during a run, I put in a 45 degree elbow pointing up on the coolant output. This should keep around 5/8 - 3/4" of water in the bottom of the dephleg, and hopefully the additional reflux will al...

Question - how high up on your dephleg to you all have your drain tube (how deep should the water be inside the dephleg during a run)? I think my drain tube is sitting to low on the dephleg so that the water just flows right through and doesn't really give me as much reflux as I should have during a...

My corn/barley beer is fermenting out really well. I should note too, that the cracked corn I bought from the local feed store had prioponic acid as one of the ingredients - I didn't know until I had paid for it and they guy loaded the sack into my trunk. The 5.2 stabilizer, mineral additions and th...

I ran my vinegar run Saturday morning and found a small leak in the soldering on one of my ball valves - fixed that pretty easily. I also did about 5 wraps of teflon tape around my PTFE gasket (that I had previously ground smooth) and had no leaks from the tri-clamp connection, sight glasses or from...

If this is your first go, you have done well grasshopper. The flange in your last pic looks like it has a leak point (right hand side). Are you sure its good? Looks like it will make a nice drop. Thanks EG. I got a PTFE gasket with my tri-clamp and I ground off the ridge on the gasket to make it fl...

Thanks NC, I'm actually in NC as well. I think reading your 3" flute thread actually inspired me to try this, since your instructions made the build very easy to understand. I'm using 4", but still used your thread as a guide. I got my copper plates from Metaliferrous, and was going to use...

My chuck falls off my drill press too. I was going to heat it and bang it back on like the ape I tend to be, but after research it seems clean is the answer. Here is a short video on drill press chucks I found, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KbI_7IHAsyw" onclick=&qu...

I was able to shave enough off the top of the center pipe tonight using a 1/2" bit to where I think the puddling on the top of the dephleg should be minimal. It's not pretty looking, but it should do the job I think.Thanks for all the ideas. If I have any problems with smearing after a run or t...

You don't happen to have access to a Dremel with flex shaft, do you? Put on a sanding disc and drop the long, thin handle of the flexible shaft down on top of the middle tube -- would not take too long before it was flush with the plate. Looking really nice all around by the way. Sounds like a cool...

Yes if could grind one down that would work. Idea. What if you took say a 9/16 drill bit. And drilled straight down on the center tube? Stopping at the plate? Mite be a lot easier then trying to grind it all off. I like that idea, although my crappy drill press is limited to 1/2" bits. But I c...

Forgot I had these pics on my laptop - I know you all love copper pron. Here's the plate tree parts and the guts from the recently built dephleg. The plate tree will be held together with a McMaster SS threaded rod.

Thanks guys! I can't wait to get this thing up and running. I'll have to figure out a way to file at least 1 of the tubes down on top of the dephleg to help it drain better - I hate heads. I'm scared to remove the reducer though, since I had to remove the reducer on my product condenser a couple tim...

Hello HD, I've been bumping around here for a few months, but this is my first post. I built a pot still a while back and ran a couple batches of whiskey and rum through it with some success, but wanted to build a still that could knock out the final product with a single run. After reading through ...