Well i got my 10 gallons of corn mash done finally and extended my pot still arm to 4'. Well my neighbors are part of the local law enforcement, my other ones will call the police on me no matter what, and i cant fill the house with propane fumes.. So im stuck with making my distillate in the woods. So how would i cool this? Theres no power supplys for a water circulation system? Would a 4' arm be enough to cool the vapors? I was also thinking about adding a coil to help it? but wouldnt this get hot after a while? Another idea was to get a large pvc pipe with a small drain hole and use it as a jacket, but dump ice water through it? Yeah i know this is very impracticle. but what i enjoy distilling and cant even do it in the privacy of my own home.
Why don't you just use electric heat? Then you could do it in doors. If you are set on using gas and doing it in the woods then you would be better off using a coil in a bucket condenser. Make sure your condensing bucket is as big or bigger then your boiler and you should not need to change the water in it.
... I say God bless you, I don't say bless you ... I am not the Lord, I can't do that ... Dane Cook
do you have a little waterfall in the area,
you could take water from the top of the fall,...
or, for a potstill, a big bucket should do
and use a real fire, just dont let the woods burn.
well, you are a real moonshiner, doing it in a forest,...
I say go electric. Even use your stove top if you have to. 100$ for an electric burner far out weighs the hasstle of stillin in the bush. Otherwise, depending on your boiler size, a huge copper worm in a big bucket, even a barrel would meet your cooling needs.
I run my 5 gallon rig on the stovetop.
If you really want to do-er in the woods, look for copper pipe with aluminum fins. The pipe I'm talking about is used in hot-water baseboard heaters. I don't know how much cover you have in the woods, but if you use electric in the house, and LOCK THE DOOR, uninvited visitors need probable cause and a warrent to crash your party. I feel your pain, I hate busy body nosey neighbors.
Your in the "Home" Distiller Forms. It sounds like a LOT of work. Ive heard people doing it on the portch and in the garage. Cant say Ive read any one stillin in the woods where any one could happen by like a game warden. In the woods they will see you long befor you see them.
If I had to go into the woods to run the still I'ld give it up.
I also do 5 gal. washes on the gas stove with a leibig condenser (water jacket). Its not hard to keep others from seeing.
Salus populi suprema est lex. [L.] The safety of the people is the highest law.
well the place im doing it is deep in a hallow where its very thick and if anyone came you would hear them from a long ways away from crunching sticks. Ive seen propane used alot? Whats that matter with that? And yes i tried the fire, it worked good for a stripping run but after that its just too hard to control, and smoke is not a good thing because people would think of forest fires first. I completely forgot about the old bucket and coil. I have alot of propane burners and and tanks so i thought that would work fine? Only problem with electric, (which i would love to have) is it takes a long time to heat it all up, and neighbors smell the alcohol alot since my vent is practically aimed to there 2nd story window.
I've wanted to do that just for fun, I can spend some time sittin around a river... making a mash with the spring, Ferment it out and run it sounds like a good long weekend...
Naw, I live in the center of the state. There are a few nice hotsprings out in that part of the state...wonder about hotspring whiskey?? How did you like El Paso? I always felt the best part of that town was the mountains nearby in the mexicos. new and old...
no not new york, deep in the pennsylvania mountains. but with alot of neighbors. Theres NEVER any game wardens around here. It just seems kind of fun doing it the old fashion way for a few days. Syphone might work actually, but i was thinking running a coil down through the stream and coming out of the part where it drops like a waterfall and collect it on a rock maybe or something. And did anything ever think of poking a tiny hole in a mason jar lid, and sealing a copper tube in the jar, and surround that with ice so the vapors that enter tha jar would condense?
My guess is that you wouldn't be able to condense the vapors fast enough to stop the pressure from building and popping the lid off the jar or worse. If you use the waterfall condensor idea, take photos, please. It's a cool idea.
man this thread is makin me wanna pack up the truck and go off to the river... there'd be some challenges to setting up a still and condensor like that... but I think it would be a lot of fun. probably best if you could drive to the place you wanna do this... Id probably use a still like the oldtime copper potstills like the Col. makes. Use a coil in a bucket. Then all you need is access to some water and some buckets for filling things up. course...mucho style points for making a potstill with a waterfall condensor.
Well im using a large copper tube and the pipes on the still are 1''. I was also thinking rigging it to a creek to condense it with a platform in the middle holding a mason jar. Well im off to find the right spot
I loved El Paso, nice people. Yo tengo suerte, porque hablo espanol. I was unemployed however, because there were so many people looking for jobs. I lived on the side of the mountian, and could see across into juarez. One thing that blew my mind was the plants. It is so dry there, and everything was like yucca and briars with spines. I think it waas in 94 or 95. No problem with allergies to pollen, It was soo dry. I'm glad to be back on the east coast near my family, I get along with my kin most of the time.
i don't know if you can have enough pressure on your water input if you want to use the fall idea.
and please take pictures
I want to live in such an area
I found some pretty good spots, but theres a real draught now. Me and a couple people might just hike out into the woods and setup my still below a large pine tree and distill for a few days.
CopperMan wrote:And did anything ever think of poking a tiny hole in a mason jar lid, and sealing a copper tube in the jar, and surround that with ice so the vapors that enter tha jar would condense?
Nearest I got was a crude bottle condenser for oils - pipe goes to the bottom of the bottle, bottle is surrounded by ice or water and it ISNT sealed. They work ok, they're more efficient when part full and they are very noisy.
You also loose all your distilate if the boiling stops at all during the run.
i found a nice little spot that looks like noones been there for a while. Im not sure how im condensing, but if it rains im using the little stream and waterfall idea.
so you made a sour mash that smells and your worried about runninig it off? hmm well if they couldn't smell that to start with where is the problem in running it off?
i just put my ss pot still on the gas cook stove using a turkey deep fryer as the pot and used the perferated inside thing to wrap the copper coil around for a form, 30 feet of 3/8 copper wrapped around a 10 inch strainer. i did use a fan to blow air across the coils to help keep it cool. i'll have to figuare how to post the pic so you can see my setup,
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well here's another point. so you got a 10 gallon wash. is it all fluid? if so water is 8.34 lb per gallon, so you haul that to the woods, 83 pounds of wash. then you gotta haul the burner and fuel. then you have to pipe the setup far enough away from the waterfall to keep the cooker dry, or haul water to a condenser tank to keep it cool. now 5 gallon of water is 40 lb and it wont take long for it to get warm. on my house cook stove it took me at least 3 hrs (just done this twice so i'm new too) heating it up and then babying it to 173 degrees and running it off. just some things to think about
Well i bring the mash out and let ferment. Setup the still. Fill up the condenser bucket with creek water with a slow drain hole and have someone keep filling it up with cold water. Long process im still figuring out. And where can i get heating elements? Im useing electric for my 3 gallon still.
CopperMan;
I use a 55 gal drum full of water and 12 volt bilge pump to circulate the water. Use the trolling motor battery from my boat for power.
Scavange around old mobile homes and get as much copper line as you can find and locate your cooling water as far from your still as you can, that way your hot water coming from your still will actually cool some before it even reaches your water barrel.
you don't have to buy connectors to connect you copper lines just use that soft plastic tubing that most home supply stores sells. I just stick the copper tubing in a coupla inches and it don't leak as there is really little or no pressure.
i have a ton of copper tube, probably over 200' i got from a scrap yard. Right not im just looking for the heating elements or maybe a propane burner. My idea was to dig a small hole in the creek, put the coil in that and where the water runs off the fall put the collection jar on a rock
So how would i cool this? Theres no power supplys for a water circulation system? Would a 4' arm be enough to cool the vapors? I was also thinking about adding a coil to help it? but wouldnt this get hot after a while? Another idea was to get a large pvc pipe with a small drain hole and use it as a jacket, but dump ice water through it? Yeah i know this is very impracticle. but what i enjoy distilling and cant even do it in the privacy of my own home. 
I'ld give it up.
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Right not im just looking for the heating elements or maybe a propane burner. My idea was to dig a small hole in the creek, put the coil in that and where the water runs off the fall put the collection jar on a rock