Pressure Cooker Still

WhiteLightning · Post by **WhiteLightning** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 9:33 am

I was wondering hows the best way to set up a pressure cooker still, keeping in mind it'll be a pot still. I saw the one on the website, and I might try to mimic that one, although it be more compact, but I could use any imput, thanks

strangebrew · Post by **strangebrew** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 8:26 pm

I wouldn't use one all together. Too damn small! That is unless you are talking about the really big one which I have found to only be made out of aluminum which is out of the question for me. The first still I made was out of a stainless steel pressure cooker. Total waste of money. Took forever to run 5 gallons of wash. Only made 3 batches before I said F-it and haven't used it since. Not to mention how damn expensive a SS pressure cooker is. There are way better and cheaper ways of doing things. To me when things become to time intensive it just sucks all the fun out of it. Not to metion SWMBO didn't like me taking the whole weekend up making rum.

Just get a cheap-o SS stock pot from anywhere and go from there. You can remove the little handle from the lid and then use a some 1 1/2 inch copper pipe and mount a SS sink drain (about 7 bucks) to the lid, which has a lock nut on it so the copper pipe will fit right in and snug up and your half way home.

You want to go the pressure cooker route be my guest but I really think you will be happier with something larger in the long run. Tha is unless you plan on only making very small amounts at a time.

Just my $.02

WhiteLightning · Post by **WhiteLightning** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:12 pm

i found a 6qt stainless one for $30, my still i have now is a 2l still, it took a really long time to run 32gal. The reason for a pressure cooker is i'll be using a hotplate indoors, and eventually i'll buy a Copper Mountain Still for $675, but till then i need to run off 20gal of wash.

strangebrew · Post by **strangebrew** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:35 pm

If you have to run it inside, then I would consider using a heating element from a water heater in conjunction with a large stock pot. Even if your cooker is 6 qts that will still take forever to run 20 gallons. Besides that it's going to be sooo much easier making the cuts properly on a 5-20 gallon batch than trying to do it on a tiny one gallon run......over and over and over (repeat 17 more times) Like they say, each to their own...

Dr. Alfredo · Post by **Dr. Alfredo** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 3:50 pm

http://olliver.family.gen.nz/schnapps.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

you should try that if youre distilling on a big rate, its a co ol method and it works

pothead · Post by **pothead** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 4:32 pm

I used a pressure cooker stil for quite some time, I also used a 6qt cooker. It didn't take too terribly long to cook a 5 gallon batch. I only had a couple hours of spare time her and a couple hours there, so it was convienient for me. I would run a strippin run here and there until I had enough to do a second run.

My boiler was aluminum. After a while I upgraded the boiler to a 3 gallon SS stock pot that I would use for the strippin runs, then use the 6qt for the final run.

Crusty · Post by **Crusty** » Fri May 12, 2006 9:02 pm

I've been using a stock pot as well, and all I say is what a piece of crap. Such a long process just doing 18L

fahdoul · Post by **fahdoul** » Sat May 13, 2006 6:28 am

Shucks. Just picked up a nice 8-qt SS pressure cooker at the local barn sale for $2. Figured it would make a nice little pot still for redistilling already distilled stuff like absinthe. Bad news is it turns out a new gasket will cost 5X what I paid for the pot.

Been looking for a good stock pot but nothing has turned up. Funny a few years back there were loads of nice big cheap imported SS stock pots for $10-30, and the $30 ones had thick bonded alum bottoms. Now everything seems to be alu/teflon, or have glass lids.

Thorin · Post by **Thorin** » Sat May 13, 2006 6:43 am

if you are planning on making a pot-still, you dont have to make it enormous... you can probably make a continous that will do just as well..

it seems that the important thing with continous pot-stills is to pre-heat the wash (run it through vapor-path or something) and bring it into the boiler itself (not dripping from the boiler-output)... you would also have to make a drain-valve to drain the excess wash...

the lab-grade still we have at school is continous, and it has a output of 92%+ (one of the teachers uses it to make hooch sometimes)

all this said.. i'll go play with the idea and see if i can come up with a design that can work without spoiling the taste of the product (wich is often the case with continous, right?)

EDIT: heres a quick design of what i was thinking of
(i'm only linking, because of the pixel-size of the pic)
http://thorins.net/continous.PNG

am i on the right track with this one?

WhiteLightning · Post by **WhiteLightning** » Sat May 13, 2006 4:53 pm

Well, I built the still finally and its a "Gallon" boiler holds about 5 quarts, but i can process a gallon of wash at a time. Its stainless, and then it has a 3/8" copper tube that comes out the top and into a 4" ABS condenser with coilded 3/8" copper tubing, then flows out an into a 1gal moonshine jug. The heads and tails are controlled by separate subtractions during the process. To heat it i use a regular electric hotplate. and to cool the condenser stack which is 10" tall, i use a 350gal/hour submersible pump located in a 10gal plastic container, and its a continious flow design so i turn the pump on and it flows through the condenser and back into the bucket, all while staying cool. When i run the distilliate through again i need to add ice to the bucket because the water tends to heat up faster.

CopperMan · Post by **CopperMan** » Sat May 13, 2006 7:59 pm

How did that 1 gallon still work?? My 7 gallon still is still in the process of being converted into a reflux (possibly) and i have 20 some gallons of stale beer? I was thinking of just making a potstill out of my 8 qt pot and distilling that a few times and get it to maybe 60%? I have a LOT of time to do this so i really dont even care. And how hard is it to do the cuts?

WhiteLightning · Post by **WhiteLightning** » Sun May 14, 2006 11:18 am

Well i love my 1 gallon still, i wish it was a 5 gallon, because i do all my mashing in either 5-10 gallon batchs. But as the 1 gallon still goes its great. (I wish i knew how to put a picture on here.) The subtractions of the heads and tails are really easy. The way i do it is i stick the hotplate on "medium" and let the "transfer column" heat up, thats the column that leads from my boiler to condenser, and when that its real hot i turn the hotplate down to "high low" which is where the still operates for the rest of the distillation. To do the subtractions I take a glass cup and i let 50-100ml of distilliate flow into it and usually throw that away and then just start collecting after that. If you look closely into the glass cup where the distilliate flowed you can see the "heads" which are like an oil slick ontop of the alcohol, then i usually burn them, cause its amusing. How long the run takes depends on your hotplate or how much alcohol is in ur wash. The wash i use is generally at 15-20% because of my "special high gravity" yeast. I generally cut the heads and tails on the second run, because its easier to notice the differences in the spirit. To cut the tails i just "proof burn" till i dont get a flame easily, and let it run for a bit after that then, because I can notice the "tails" forming ontop of my spirit, and also the spirit lost its "fruity" smell and is into more of a sour grain smell. I usually put my spirit through 3 distilliations to extract all the "heads" and "tails" and to get the spirit up to 85%. The first run puts out i believe a very stinky 35-40% spirit, which then goes through again and puts out 72% and the final distillation puts the final spirit at 85-90%.

CopperMan · Post by **CopperMan** » Wed May 17, 2006 5:00 pm

how long does it take to heat up and what source of heat do you use? When you run it off how much distillate do you get?

WhiteLightning · Post by **WhiteLightning** » Wed May 17, 2006 7:34 pm

I run it off a electric hotplate, and out of a 5gal wash i get about 2.5 gallons of 50% alcohol, of course my wash is between 16-20+% to start with. "results may vary"

Watershed · Post by **Watershed** » Wed May 17, 2006 11:37 pm

My 1 gal pot still runs off the gas hob, a stripping run from 15-20% wash takes an hour and a half. A slow run to final product ( which may be a first or second or third run depending on what I'm after ) can take as long as three hours.
Typicaly the first run gets me 65% ABV in the pooled distillate, second run 85%, third somewhere in the 92% region ( I don't often run it that high ).

I don't have the space to build or operate a larger still and I'd never be able to use the larger volume of output - I give away half of what I make anyway.

I'm dubious about one comment on that NZ site - "Do not attempt to block the gap around the rim of the big pot beacuse this is the escape route for methanol."
I simply don't believe that it's capable of selectively condensing the ethanol to such a high degree - I susapect it's simply that there's not that much methanol present in the average wash anyway.

possum · Post by **possum** » Thu May 18, 2006 6:33 am

Yea, the wok method dosen't remove methanol, and is good for stripping. Always use my real still for 2nd distill, and make cuts there. Advantage for wok style is the small batch striping when I don't have enough time to fill and run a 5 gallon batch.