Chartinaise style still

[Jr-dist]

Been reading about the chartinaise stills. Have come across some info on here about them as well. Drew this up while doing a stripping run. What are your thoughts

[Single Malt Yinzer]

The pre-heater is meant to warm up the beer. The way you have it setup there it would end up boiling. You need to reduce how much heat you're putting in there. And make sure the beer can't pressurize the vessel so leave something open.

Also the "slave boiler" will smear vapor the way you have it. You'll end up mixing heads from the slave with hearts from the main boiler.

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[BoomTown]

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Been reading about the chartinaise stills. Have come across some info on here about them as well. Drew this up while doing a stripping run. What are your thoughts

What is a ‘chartinaise’ still?

[SaltyStaves]

There are a few problems with your illustration and returning vapourized product from the preheater to the main boiler is certainly a recipe for losing track of your run and not knowing what to expect at the business end of the still. Heating from the top down is less efficient and you'd end up with a cold bottom. I have my tubing entering and exiting near the bottom of the preheater, but if I could have gone lower, it would have allowed me to do smaller spirit runs from the preheater.

The illustration in SMY's first link is missing an important feature. The bypass tube. You can see a valve illustrated at the end of the swan neck. It is in fact a Tee-Valve and there is a tube that runs around the back (outside) of the preheater and joins back in just before the condenser (also valved).

The stillman can open and close the valves and bypass the preheater once it has reached the temperature they desire.
There are obvious complications and dangers with such a setup.

I have a dedicated condenser on my preheater that has no return. I just let it produce (or not produce, whatever the case may be. Believe me, it differs from run to run). It often allows me to take off a foreshot before the primary boiler has finished stripping. If it produces more than a foreshot, I can recycle it back into the next strip.

[NZChris]

If you build that, you'll convince yourself that it doesn't work and that it's not for you.

The worm needs to be very low. Heat rises. Look at old drawings to see how it should be designed.

Condensate needs to be taken off separately unless you have very cold wash, no insulation and don't plan on running different products on the same day, something I did a couple of weeks ago. Old drawings show condensate going into a tee before the condenser, but this can cause problems when you have warm wash or a hot day and you get a lot of condensate coming from the preheater.

Running wash in a condenser worm isn't necessary and is likely to give you problems.

Unless you have access to a plentiful and cheap cooling water supply, water to the condensers is best automated as the demand is constantly changing during the day.

Personally, I don't run a bypass, preferring to take the foreshot and some low wines if it gets up to temperature. If you do run a bypass, the valve should have a 'gate' making it impossible for some idiot to turn the handle to blank off the main boiler, then taking a holiday in the Burns Unit.

[Jr-dist]

Good points about coming in low for heat. Havnt decided to build it or not just thinking about it, . Was thinking that this would work very well as a stripping still. Spirit runs would be trickey unless slave was left empty for the spirit rum

[NZChris]

Spirit runs are exactly the same as normal, but you have the choices to; not include the preheater, leave it empty, fill it with water, fill it with Low Wines. I've done all of those.

With Low Wines in the preheater and wash in the pot, more alcohol is coming from the preheater than from the pot. You can get quite a way into the spirit run before it goes into the pot.
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