Small gin pot still boiler size?

Simple pot still distillation and construction with or without a thumper.

Moderator: Site Moderator

Post Reply
Oatmeal
Site Donor
Site Donor
Posts: 355
Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2021 5:28 am
Location: Colordo

Small gin pot still boiler size?

Post by Oatmeal »

Tonight is a stripping run of my first bourbon. After the breakfast cereal sugarhead piggybacked on the grains, I am planning on a vodka cycle before my season closes.

This will primarily be for gin. As such, I would like to start building my small gin still out of this stainless steel cylinder salvaged out of the scrap bin (on the left).
20210917_183250_copy_907x1612.jpg
It is 9.25" in diameter. From an aesthetic sense I would like to make it 4" tall (making a mini version of a round scottish copper still), which would give me a 1.1 gallon capacity.

From a pragmatic sense a 12" height would give it a 3.4 gallon capacity, making it more versatile.

I would appreciate some perspectives from those that run small pots for gin. Would I be crazy to make a 1 gallon pot?

Cheers!

(If the pot works the rest of the cylinder will become a thumper....)
Through the magic of alchemy, our spirits live on.
User avatar
Saltbush Bill
Site Mod
Posts: 9647
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2011 2:13 am
Location: Northern NSW Australia

Re: Small gin pot still boiler size?

Post by Saltbush Bill »

1 gal = about 3.7 L .....I often do 4 L gin runs....in a 25L boiler.
Id make it 1.5 gal....so that you have a bit of extra room for head space and if you ever want to do slightly more at one time you have the extra room.
User avatar
Yummyrum
Global moderator
Posts: 7596
Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2013 2:23 am
Location: Fraser Coast QLD Aussie

Re: Small gin pot still boiler size?

Post by Yummyrum »

Agree with Salty , a bit bigger would be better .Gin doesn’t last long around here , a bit bigger helps :D
Dug out my little Gin boiler . It is 5litre , perfect for a little Gin run .

Its 9” diameter and 6” high .
90287FC7-A524-4131-85CD-B800A283C7CE.jpeg
AACE39BE-0C31-4394-82FE-DC3E88D1CC98.jpeg
LOL , as you tell , I haven’t used it for a while :oops:
User avatar
NZChris
Master of Distillation
Posts: 13038
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 2:42 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: Small gin pot still boiler size?

Post by NZChris »

My largest mini is a 3l copper alembic I scored second hand at a very good price. The most I've run in it is 2.2l. That said, I have doubled up on the botanicals and made essence for twice as much finished product once it was diluted with neutral.

My smallest was 1300ml and I often ran 5* the botanicals and made 4-5l of finished gin, but only after I had a Bokakob that could make very fine neutral to dilute the essence with.

If you want to run a variety of small gin experiments, small is very good, but the same small still can put out a substantial amount of gin if you want to use the tricks available to you.
User avatar
Demy
Master of Distillation
Posts: 3073
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2020 1:45 pm

Re: Small gin pot still boiler size?

Post by Demy »

I built (indeed improved) I recently my little still, I will make a short post, it is only 4 liters, more than enough for me. It also has a set-up bain-marie
howie
Site Donor
Site Donor
Posts: 620
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2020 7:34 am

Re: Small gin pot still boiler size?

Post by howie »

my dedicated gin set up is max 5l.
TBH most of my runs are only 1-2l.
after OEG, then experimenting with all the botanicals and trying to developing recipes, i thought i would scale up to 10l/20l runs.
but today was gin recipe #20 with only 1.6l, i'm enjoying the ride, and probably will never go over 5l.
a small gin still is so easy to use.
so a 3.7l boiler should be fine, especially if you become a 'gin tinkerer' (like me) :D
User avatar
jonnys_spirit
Site Donor
Site Donor
Posts: 3623
Joined: Wed Oct 21, 2015 7:58 am
Location: The Milky Way

Re: Small gin pot still boiler size?

Post by jonnys_spirit »

10l alembic here for gin, macerations, small batch spirit runs, and cleaning up feints. Run on a modified hotplate so a liter or two up to a couple gallons. For stripping runs I use the bigger boiler.

Cheers!
-j
————
i prefer my mash shaken, not stirred
————
User avatar
NZChris
Master of Distillation
Posts: 13038
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 2:42 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: Small gin pot still boiler size?

Post by NZChris »

Something I have found really handy, is having a still about a quarter to a third of the size of my stripping still, so that I can do a spirit run from one strip. It's great for experiments, or if I'm given only enough fruit for one strip.
Oatmeal
Site Donor
Site Donor
Posts: 355
Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2021 5:28 am
Location: Colordo

Re: Small gin pot still boiler size?

Post by Oatmeal »

Thanks for chiming in everybody! 5ish inches would give me 1.5 gallons, while 9 would give me just over 2.5. The larger size would just about accommodate a strip from the keg, so probably makes more sense.....there's plenty of time to find and modify as my processes matures....

I really appreciate the insight.
Through the magic of alchemy, our spirits live on.
Post Reply