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It all depends on vapour speed and surface area. There is one real easy way to know if it makes any difference. Simply measure the vapour temperature going into the arm and coming out. If they are the same then you know the arm is doing nothing. Remember the purpose of the taper on the big onion sti...

I do like Woodford myself. This is somewhat reminiscent of the old discussion regarding a 1/3rd cut and a 1/5th cut. A similar process is used in distilling cognac where the HEARTS is split into two factions. One is prime quality and the second is not as good and is re-processed in the next batch. T...

Anyone with any sense at all would have told you that if it wasn't good enough to drink, it could be re-diluted and run again.

You say it's a waste of energy yet some people wait 2-3 weeks just to get a measly 10%abv. Why doesn't it make sense to at least run your still to the point that it's nearly putting out what you normally put in it? Sorry did not understand that. It does not take much energy input to do a fermentati...

If you are following the clasical pot still sequence of beer (strip) still producing low wines, low wines producing either high wines or product depending on if it is 2x or 3x run, then you charge the boiler with low wines at 27 to 30% ABV. Now many folks run so far into their strip run that their l...

All fair comments but especially the one about water flow. I once had an issue that I could hear the pump was on but no water was moving. Because I couldn't see the water return line I did not know. Turns out the pond pump I was using just couldn't lift the water high enough. At that time I had not ...

Honestly whilst the turbulators inside the vapour tube do work, if you need them it means the condenser design is wrong or that you aren't using it the way it was intended to be used. Is it a liebig condenser or is it a tube in shell "shotgun" condenser? Air cooled liebigs will work but th...

It is entirely up to you but I like to go in the branch and out vertically, similar to this.

Take your nice alembic and stick it in a double boiler. Depending on what is inside the boiler some of those heating belts will burn just as fast as a naked flame, because the surface temperature gets so high. Double boilers don't have to be liquid, they can be dry or filled with powders like sand. ...

I always put one on a pot still in the highest point on the vapour path. For me it only has one real use. It tels me when to turn off the power at the end of a strip run. There are other ways to decide the same thing, but it is just convenient. However, if you are running any sort of double boiler w...

I put legs on my kegs using stainless coach bolts. They look slender but are for stationary boilers, so it is just a vertical load and each bolt could support the filled keg so they are fine. I bolt a bracket to the skirt and the bolt passes through the bracket. Rock solid. MN still1.jpg 200mm x 12m...

Stationary or moveable? If stationary put it on bricks and insulate it.

After doing construction or repair work on a copper still or vapour path you should do a deep clean with acid or vinegar. This is to get rid of flux and solder residues. To be honest though after that it shouldn't need deep cleaning. Copper oxide on the inside of the still is good because raw copper...

I like to use brass fittings and never pickle any, there are other alternative methods. Plus virtually all brass these days is lead free anyway. Simplest is to drill out the depth stops so the copper passes straight through. The brass is then functional but not exposed to vapour. Or you can line big...

Just thought i would update this for you. I stored my dunder in my 220 litre drum outside in the barn over a UK winter. This was some time ago. When i opened it up and took a sniff i thought i was going to die. Vomiting, headaches ill for several hours. Probably got a lung full of spores and god kno...

Ok assuming this is a standard encapsulated SSR it consists of a diac and a triac, or equivalents to do the same job. The diac and a capaitor (both internal) are in the trigger circuit for the triac. So is your pot. The pot and the capacitor are a timing circuit. The pot setting determines how long ...

Actually that was a valid comment posted a bit higher up by Danespirit.

The answer is that the bigger worm is NOT just condensing the vapour. It is also acting as a product cooler - hence the desire for the thermal gradient in the water bath.

Beautiful work Myles. Why not put the smaller tubings inside first and then bend the whole lot together? Easy answer. I already had the outer coil, salvaged out of a domestic hot water cylinder. Have a couple more also that I haven't used yet. Just used it because it was available and I didn't wish...

When running rum for example I save the tails from every run and add it to the next rum run. Lots of flavour in them. They don't seem to build up either. The heads from all my runs get saved for neutral runs. Are you splitting your tails into different sections with the rum? Have you seen the topic...

Feints = heads and tails mixed together. Now off my pot still the feints are mostly ethanol contaminated with other stinky alcohols and ARE worth re-processing. They get run through my VM packed column which separates out MOST of the ethanol at 95% for use as a feedstock for infused products. That r...

I'm sure your test will show packing over a plate ends up improving over just the same amount of packing. What I wonder is this. how much space is the plate section taking up? Are you better off with the plate or adding that much more packed area? Would be tougher to test though. Not really contest...

Funny one Hound Dog. Not what i said at all. There is some ethanol there, its just not worth processing compared to preparing a fresh fermentation. Trying to separate out the last portion of ethanol from other alcohols just isn't worth the effort. Same principle on the strip run. I leave a little bi...

One other thing to help put it in perspective. In the heads and tails there are other alcohols that are not ethanol. In beer circles they have developed yeasts that produce low quantities of those alcohols because you don't want to drink them. Its the same on your rectification column. You don't wan...

Ok lets add a bit of clarity here. We are talking about a spirit run on a reflux column. If your product is neutral or azeotope then your still is doing a good job and there is very little useable ethanol in the feints. I don't even bother running the tails - i just leave them in the boiler and ditc...

Lets just stress this again. During fermentation the yeast makes a small, and I mean REALLY SMALL quantity of methanol. Not enough to hurt you. Some eastern european spirits make no cuts at all. If it comes out of the still it goes in the bottle. Bad headache but not death. Any time you hear about d...

Valid, especially when running at high vapour speeds. More of an issue when you are taking product as vapour in either a VM or a CM rig.

No, where I shop the cost of the muscovado makes it not viable compared to the other cane sugars. Would love to try panela but would probably need to import an entire pallet.

Trying to get 2000lb of SugarDaddy Columbian powder in 50lb bags through customs might be problematic though!!

You mentioned a spiral still. Traditionally spiral stills are not packed, they just use natural induced reflux caused by heat loss through the copper wall of the spiral. The vapour / liquid interaction occurs on the wet copper surfaces. They work but are effectively restricted to low power applicati...

There is more than one type of lava rock.

Pumice is fine, and it is cut into pellets in various sizes for use as a filter media in all sorts of applications. I have graded pummice gravel in my column at the moment.

I have used small quantities of Muscovado but I try to mainly use Demerara. I would have thought Demerara would make very light rum. Is that what you are after? Still experimenting. For me it is easier to make a mostly Demerara based wash and add in some fancy catering grade treacle to the recipe t...