Home Distiller

Hello all,
I introduced myself about a year ago as I was first reading a lot on the boards. Life got in the way, but I'm finally getting ready for my first build, and am going to do a stockpot pot still w a ss bowl.

I've been intending to go with a worm in a five-gallon bucket in part because it seemed like an easier set-up and also reasonably simple to keep cool through regularly refreshing the water. I like the idea of a Liebig, but it's unclear to me whether it pays off with water consumption.
My plan right now is keep it as modular as possible. I'm going to go with the lock-nut system S-cack has described to attach a 2" male adapter, and then immediately step that down to 1" or 1.5" for the column. The idea here is if I start at 2" then later on I can use the same ss bowl setup to run a boka. But I don't need that diameter on a pot still, so i can make it smaller and cheaper.
I'll keep the column short and then put on my 90* elbow. My plan there is to use a union straight off the elbow for a lyne arm and condensor.

Now, my questions so far are two:
1) is it alright pressure-wise to immediately reduce the diameter tubing right as it emerges from the boiler-lid? I don't see why not, but I'd appreciate thoughts from wiser heads.
2) SS boiler and bowl? ARRRRGGGHHH! Any advice on what to look for when you're buying the material for the boiler? I've seen different type of pots with the top having a small lip running around it where the lid fits IN, but have also seen them where the sides are flat all the way up with no lip. If you're putting on a salad bowl, which type seems more useful? The pot with the lip, so you can clip them together? Anybody have any good combos/set-ups they're working for pot/ss bowl connection? I've see lots on gaskets, tape, and paste, with binder clips or other holding it all together. But I haven't seen a dicussion of how to choose a bowl for a pot, or a pot for a bowl.

Thanks for your thoughts!

I use the lid that came with the stock pot on mine. It’s flat and it clamps on to the pot with mini binder clips. I wrap the lip of the pot with plumbers tape for a seal and clamp the lid on.

I don’t see the need for or advantage of a bowl top. It’ll be challenging to find the right size and sealing will be tough. Also, mechanical attachment of the bowl to the pot leaves builders wondering, “how?”. The lid that comes with the pot works great.

Just don’t try to overfill your stock pot boiler because the flat lid doesn’t add headroom to reduce the consequences of a puke. I use a 20 quart stock pot but never put more than a couple gallons in it. This small boiler is used for a gin still, so I don’t distill a lot of wash with it and what I do distill with it has been run already once or twice through my 15 gallon keg still.
ss

Hi, on my first still I bought a stainless 20litre pot and used the lid for the good seal but I then cut out a large hole on the lid to take a stainless bowl that was about 2" smaller than the lid, I then attached the bowl to the lid using stainless nuts bolts n washers.
All the seals were done by using
Samohans everlasting gasket
And flour paste where needed on other bits. 1" Binder clips were the clamps, all very cheap n cheerful for some great results.
Cheers.
Will

It does seem like connections on anything but a keg are a pain in the [...]. I live in an apartment, so space is minimal. Plus Mrs Drava is more likely to freak out when she sees a keg than if she sees a stockpot...

The lid makes a lot of sense in your case, but I want to run fruit mashes and any extra headroom is helpful. Plumbers tape seems like a good solution--I guess a lot of guys are using extra wide tape to seal so it makes it easier to do several runs because you're not cleaning flour paste? Are you wrapping the plumbers tape just around the lip of the pot and using that as a gasket instead of wrapping it around after it's closed up? or both?

I'm sure it's buried in here somewhere, but do you have any tips on how to tell if the thing has puked? Is it obvious?
I'm paranoid about pressure.

I'm going to dig a bit more for the boiler and see what happens. I went to some restaurant supply stores two days ago. They're cool in general, but I couldn't find what I wanted--seems most big restaurant stockpots are aluminum and the stainless ones were crazy expensive.

Thanks for the thoughts and ideas!

Stainless wrote:Hi, on my first still I bought a stainless 20litre pot and used the lid for the good seal but I then cut out a large hole on the lid to take a stainless bowl that was about 2" smaller than the lid, I then attached the bowl to the lid using stainless nuts bolts n washers.

I like it!

savadrava wrote:
I'm sure it's buried in here somewhere, but do you have any tips on how to tell if the thing has puked? Is it obvious?
I'm paranoid about pressure.

Read, read, and read until your eyes bleed - all of your questions are answered here on this site but you have to be willing to learn and not be hand held.

OVZ