I currently do rum in a pot still. I use two beer fermenters of 13% sugar/molasses wash at a time. In three batches I strip 45 litres back to about 12 to 15 litres and run it through a second time. Comes up to about 80% on a hydrometer.
Anyway, I am in the process of building a fractioning column for my boiler (20 litres). I intend to strip the 45 litres of wash with my original condenser and do the second distillation with a Nixon-Stone style column. I found a needle valve and measured its maximum flow rate at about 60ml per min. My question is - considering the high % in the pot and my 2400W element will I be restricted in any way by the flow rate of the needle valve? I want to be able to minimise the run time by driving the apparatus as hard as possible.
i think 2400W is too much power, it would work for initial temperature raising but try to get a second smaller element for the run, or maybe get a rheostat
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--Fishing and Distilling... What else is there to do???.--
I'm with Jose, here. You can have fast and you can have good, but you can't have both.
But a more basic question is what you are trying to achieve. What do you want as an end product? If you want wash flavoured rum, what is wrong with your current setup? If you are looking for high abv, you will lose the rum flavour.
If you can say what you are trying to achieve we can offer more specific advice.
Josesillo wrote:i think 2400W is too much power, it would work for initial temperature raising but try to get a second smaller element for the run, or maybe get a rheostat
Ive built a Triac based power controller which works very well. It's based on the the Sutronics burst fire Triac control module and a 16A Triac. My stripping runs are usually done at about 65% to 70% of 2400W. I have tried going harder but the wash foams up.
After Ive done the stripping runs there is not much chance of foaming up into the column. According to the pages a 2" column should handle 2400W no problems.
So if my pot strength is around 40%, initially I could get away with a low reflux ratio - say 1 or 2. If I am condensing 213 ml/min at 2400W, theorectically I could collect at over 100ml per minute early in the run.
linw wrote:I'm with Jose, here. You can have fast and you can have good, but you can't have both.
But a more basic question is what you are trying to achieve. What do you want as an end product? If you want wash flavoured rum, what is wrong with your current setup? If you are looking for high abv, you will lose the rum flavour.
If you can say what you are trying to achieve we can offer more specific advice.
(Was that gentle enough?? )
I'm trying for high purity. I can get molasses cheap so I will continue using it for it's yeast nutrient value. My washes are about 2:1 sugar/molasses.
If you will be running 15L through at a time (like with your potstill), I would to use the 2400w for heat up, and then I wouldn't run it at any more than 700-800w .
What kind of packing are you going to use in your collumn?
Anonymous wrote:If you will be running 15L through at a time (like with your potstill), I would to use the 2400w for heat up, and then I wouldn't run it at any more than 700-800w .
What kind of packing are you going to use in your column?
Stainless scrubbers in a 1200x50 column.
I can't see why I can't run it at 2400W if all aspects of the still can handle it.
After pricing up the copper and fittings (Cheap!) I'm going buy a bigger needle valve and build two columns and two heads - one with a small needle valve and one with a big needle valve. I'll see which one works the best and then give the other one to my Dad. A plumber friend of mine has agreed to braze everything up.
Believe me, if you are aiming for high purity and high abv you can't run anything like 2400W. You are concentrating on the wrong thing (valve). You should be thinking vapour speed (low) to arrive at lots of reflux action in the column.
I know you can find power figures for 2" columns that indicate they can easily handle 2400W but this just means that they won't flood at that power. But to get high purity/separation/abv you can't run anywhere near that power. To get high purity/abv I run my 2" column at 824W with lots of reflux. The take-off rate is only 9 ml/min so it takes a long time!
If you run at max power your output will be fast but it will be like pot-still stuff i.e. low purity and lower abv.
linw wrote:Believe me, if you are aiming for high purity and high abv you can't run anything like 2400W. You are concentrating on the wrong thing (valve). You should be thinking vapour speed (low) to arrive at lots of reflux action in the column.
I know you can find power figures for 2" columns that indicate they can easily handle 2400W but this just means that they won't flood at that power. But to get high purity/separation/abv you can't run anywhere near that power. To get high purity/abv I run my 2" column at 824W with lots of reflux. The take-off rate is only 9 ml/min so it takes a long time!
If you run at max power your output will be fast but it will be like pot-still stuff i.e. low purity and lower abv.
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