Home Distiller

Am thinking of using a double boiler on the new build. Came across a few threads reffering to steam baths and had a thought. I can work fibreglass easy enough, so how about building the outer pot for the boiler in fibreglass? Obviously I am talking electric heating for this, but the idea is that the...

A tapered Leibig condenser? Wouldn't that be a treat to put on a still. Found a diagram of an Allihn condenser on Wiki too, that would be a bit of work but a nice challenge. So I suppose the ideal answer would be to taper the arm going into the thumper from the pot, and the arm from the pot to the c...

Expanding this a bit, could you use a gas boiler to provide the indirect heat for a double boiler setup - possibly even to generate steam? Is it practical to run a steam heated still in the sort of sizes that are used at home. I know you can do this with big stills but what about in the 5 to 50 gall...

Some of the homebrew wine recipies need to be aired for several months - for the sherry and madeira types. They often call for a plug of cotton wool. Think this would work with ageing spirits?
Myles

I suppose you could fit a second hot water cylinder to use as your boiler, with the coil supplied by the heating main line but would it get hot enough? Most heating circuits don't actually boil. I supose you could use a heat pump to boost your domestic hot water to heat your mash. Could be a problem...

Would just love to grow morrels. Set up some logs with dowels for various forest mushrooms last year, shitake, lions mane, oysters etc but not harvested any yet.
Myles

Just to open this again I have been searching through the old posts to try and find an answer to these: 1. Is there any point in putting on a tapered column / lynn arm on a pot that is going to a thumper? 2. Is there an optimum size column / pipework for a 3kw element on a pot still with respect to ...

I started with a 5 litre pot. Could be that I was doing it wrong but it never worked the way I wanted. Sure I could produce neutral spirit OK with a few runs, but for flavour runs I never could get decent separation. Everything came out tasting contaminated with heads. Am now building a 20 litre pot...

Hello folks. Can anyone comment on the issue of pipe size relative to heat input on a pot still? There is info on column sizing for reflux stills but that is not what I am looking for. The 5 litre pot still that I bought earlier has been stripped out. The 440 watt element is in the bin and the pot w...

I’m a newcomer to the distilling lark, but have been fermenting for years. I always follow the same technique no matter what fruit I am brewing. Pour boiling water on the fruit and any added sugar in the fermentation vat to get the right mix. Let it cool add the yeast and any nutrients and ferment o...

Hi folks, I am awaiting delivery of a set of new stainless steel stock pots. Going to use the 20 litre one as a boiler, and the 11 litre one as a thumper. Have a lot of fruit to use and am thinking of eau-de-vie and plum brandy. Anyway back to the thumper – does anyone use a diffuser in the bottom o...

Thanks for that. Actualy because I didn't know better I ran everything through an amazing still first and loaded the mini still with 40% for a final run. Won't be using the amazing still set up again EVER. Its going back to being a fermentation vat. I got a decent enough %age out but it tasted awful...

OK. Thanks everyone, I may play with it for a bit to see if I can get it to run at higher flows without putting a valve on the lynn arm. That would no doubt put the pressure right up!!! I currently have about 50 gallons of (mostly plum) wine cleared with another 200 lbs of fruit in the freezer, so i...

Currently runs a reflux rate of between 2 and 3. Based on the calculation for output flow rate compared to heat input. But bear in mind this is with no coolling. When you add that in it changes the vapour pressure at the top of the Lieblig and you can hear the condensate flowing back into the tower ...

Thanks to my son for showing me how to post pictures!!!! Built with domestic solder "T" junctions, reducing couplers and copper pipe in 22mm and 15mm sizes. I know it didnt need to be symetrical but I had the junctions available and was thinking about the ballance of the weight on the towe...

Can't figure out how to paste in a drawing. What I built was a small Liebig that takes off a sample (about 50% of the vapour at the still head)and returns it into the column at the top of the copper packing. Variable water flow is available for the Liebig although the air is so cold here it runs wit...

1st post and 1st still :D Just put together a mini still. Only takes 3 litres and intended to run as reflux at first then without reflux cooling for the main run as a pot still. Built a 22mm dia head on top of a 60cm long column filled with copper scrubbers that ends up in a T junction. 1 arm (15mm ...