the bourbon made of a proper concentrate

[VLAGAVULVIN]

Lucky you

Not sure if they ship to the overseas and have no idea how to send it out as the borders are under the strict lock / air couriers mostly landed for months...

[Durhommer]

I usually add some glucoamylase enzyme to my concentrate mashes to try and help along with some of the unfermentables. Some guys will do a boil on the mash to try and kill the foaming on the strip...some of the old heads on here taught me to run my concentrate runs low and slow like smoking meats

[VLAGAVULVIN]

A good idea with amylases, but they were added to my whisk(e)y yeast by the manufacturer.

Yeah, I was running it low and slow, safe and easy and... the old heads on here turned out to be absolutely right!

[zapata]

From the neutral thread, seemed more appropriate to discuss here

And I could share how I do get them fatty acids. High boiling thangs...

Here is my build for the 2nd run / classic distillation. As you see, I have a bladder above there (before the condenser). It works more like Scottish purifier than American thumper.

There's an adiabatic expansion happens in it. And kind of flegma is formed. All run long the AbV of this liquid stuff is in average 10% lower than I get it from the product output. In the beginning of the run there's a lot of fusels concentrated inside (I have to drain them out constantly). So, I’m getting my heads from the spout and the same time – the concentrated fusel funkies (thru that purifier’s separate ball valve).

I drain it the last time during early tails getting. When my tails are done then the most of the purifier’s contents are “dramatically changed” to fatty acids. Very low alco, not fusels but fine bread-ish (hello to some furfural?..) and honey odor, acidic pH. I proof them up to 50-60% AbV and they get matured separately rather fast on oak staves. Then I drop them back to the main product.

Very interesting device, and use. Of course you know the scotts typically plumb the purifier so it just recycles back to the pot. But in your case that would mean that your later fatty acid cut would be tainted with fusels.
Is this a known design in Russia, or something you came up with?

[VLAGAVULVIN]

Of course you know the scotts typically plumb the purifier so it just recycles back to the pot.

Sure. Like that?

But in your case that would mean that your later fatty acid cut would be tainted with fusels.

Not in fact. Just drain the ball valve [last time] after the pot temp exceeds 95C / the AbV gets lower than 40%...

Is this a known design in Russia, or something you came up with?

Widely known, though the narrow-focused bokaw*nkers do hate the things like these:

[VLAGAVULVIN]

The most of users don't drain them (for cleaning the vapors from re-vapored nasties) and have no idea of collecting the last fraction as "food fraction".

Some of them are hardly cleansable at all during the process...

The doubled as above should "clean it" better than single but why the heck the intermediate tank is no-open when used?..

Jars, jars, jars... which haters gonna hate:

By the way, that right/front one is more like thumper and the left/back is kinda purifier, right?

Some more rural idiots as below...

And that last one, a mix of the "Polish buffer" (just above the pot) and the "steam-dome" parody following by... that's one is more or less OK but still not universal.

[zapata]

Super cool!

[VLAGAVULVIN]

Not sure as some of these installations might turn the product to a worse, not better

[zapata]

Oh yes, I can see that. What is interesting to me is that it is apparently so widespread, and applied in several ways.

Honestly your idea of using it to capture later heavy fractions separately is the most interesting application. I've read of purifiers in Scotland for years, and never given them too much consideration. Especially for the passive ones that are little more than just dips in the lyne arm I guess I thought that whatever small effect they have is probably within the range of any other still to still variation. But by collecting the contents separately, you are doing something categorically different from just creating a little passive reflux and sending it back to the pot.

And honestly I can see why "bokaw*nkers" might ridicule them. But it's obviously an accessory for a pot still, categorically different from a boka and not aimed at the same goals. Well, the multiple thumper jars might be seen as a bad attempt at achieving boka level purity.

Aside from any passive reflux they create, it seems that most would also create a kind of cyclonic flow of vapor which would help drop entrained fluid fall out of the vapor. I have long felt that entrained droplets are a big problem in small pot stills. Personally I tend to run very tall risers to minimize it (2" x 4 feet tall). But a smaller offset "purifier" is probably equally or more effective. I have a "scotch" barrel to fill sometime this year, I may make a small passive purifier chamber and see what I think of it. I was planning to build a boil ball shaped helmet though. I guess we'll just have to see whichever seems more fun to build at the time.

[NZChris]

A cyclone separator isn't a new innovation and they are easy enough to build. I haven't bothered yet, but a couple of my small stills do have vanes at the bottom of the riser to initiate cyclonic action to separate out any droplets that make it into the riser.

[Twisted Brick]

I was planning to build a boil ball shaped helmet though. I guess we'll just have to see whichever seems more fun to build at the time.

Out of curiosity, what dimensions were you thinking of for your boil ball/helmet? I'm assuming it would have 2" ferrules top and bottom?

[zapata]

Honestly I've got access to a new shop with new tools to learn, so exactly how the copper lets me shape it will influence this build. A loose goal in mind would be a 2 or 4" TC base, an 8 to 10? inch "ball" and a tall taper above that. Either a 90* bend before a 2"TC, or maybe just terminating on top with the a 2" ferrule attached on the horizontal front/back face at the top. There will definitely be a viewport, long and skinny the full length of the upper taper would look sweet, so I'm loosely looking for the right glass. Tall, but more Strathmill or Talisker than Glenmorangie? IDK.

Practically, my big kettle deserves a proper hat some day, so this is as much practice run for that as anything else but at roughly half scale. It'll probably be a different shape just for fun, but that's an expensive scale to experiment on. I expect both will be worth a build thread. And to bring it back on topic, either could get a "purifier", I think Talisker has both boil balls and purifiers.

a couple of my small stills do have vanes at the bottom of the riser to initiate cyclonic action to separate out any droplets that make it into the riser.

I remember you've mentioned that. I've wondered how much of that effect I actually get, my riser is tall but it is just a straight sided column. That's one of the reasons I want to build a more interesting shape and I think a ball and a taper on top will have a similar effect.

[NZChris]

A taper increases the rotational speed as the diameter decreases so it's much better than a straight pipe. I think it's a good idea to induce some rotation at the bottom rather than relying on dumb luck or the mythical Coriolis effect.

[VLAGAVULVIN]

Honestly your idea of using it to capture later heavy fractions separately is the most interesting application.

It works (and you got it right) for no-reflux systems only. It's a good way to catch something fine that has boiling point over 100 in centigrade (at atmospheric pressure). Imo, not bad for all those peaty things, too.

But it's obviously an accessory for a pot still, categorically different from a boka and not aimed at the same goals.

Definitely, so.

Well, the multiple thumper jars might be seen as a bad attempt at achieving boka level purity.

They just smear the entire range from heads to tails into the jars. And leave it "boil" there.

I was planning to build a boil ball shaped helmet though. I guess we'll just have to see whichever seems more fun to build at the time.

It could be a cylinder or a hypercube... doesn't matter. The fast "adiabatic" extension... it needs room, not shape

A cyclone separator isn't a new innovation and they are easy enough to build. I haven't bothered yet, but a couple of my small stills do have vanes at the bottom of the riser to initiate cyclonic action to separate out any droplets that make it into the riser.

And how does your cyclone, vane or taper looks like? And where are they located?

[NZChris]

A cyclone separator isn't a new innovation and they are easy enough to build. I haven't bothered yet, but a couple of my small stills do have vanes at the bottom of the riser to initiate cyclonic action to separate out any droplets that make it into the riser.

And how does your cyclone, vane or taper looks like? And where are they located?

I don't bother with a cyclone separator, if I did it would be fitted at the top of the gooseneck like some of the slobber boxes in the pictures in this thread. Search the web for images of cyclone separator.
A simple vane can be made by cutting out a circle that will fit snugly at the bottom of the riser, then cutting it to make blades which are then twisted.