moonshiner Refflux

Post by **stillvodka** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 9:42 am

Hello All,

Have anybody ever used the moonshiner reflux condenser, Designed by Ray Toms, moonshine.co.nz, i bought one from him about 4 years ago and yesterday i ran a 25 ltr wash with it, my aim was to use it to do a stripping run, out of the 25ltr run i got just under 1Gallon of spirits, i just let the still run up to 92 degrees and i stopped,

Would 1 gallon be about right for a 25ltr wash?

He no longer has these for sale on his web site, but they do seem work.

Enlikil · Post by **Enlikil** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 11:07 am

Well, I belive that if you had 20% abv then you would have 1 gallon of alcohol after 5 gallons.
Which is close to 25 liters.
So its fairly close.

level Joe · Post by **level Joe** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 12:14 pm

But that is without any cuts.

Post by **stillvodka** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 12:48 pm

Yes that is without any cuts,
What would the quantity of cuts add up to in a 25ltr wash?

Level joe,
Are you thinking i should of got abit more than i did, i do think so myself, could be down to my inexperience though.

level Joe · Post by **level Joe** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 4:27 pm

First of all, how much you get depends on what % your 25ltr wash is when it’s done fermenting. In a stripping run you will collect down to 30% or lower ABV, so the longer and faster you run it the more you collect. Assuming a 16% wash collected at about 75%, yes you stopped a little soon. An alcometer will tell you whats going on.

Beginning cuts for neutral spirit:

Remove and discard 60 ml foreshots (metho).
Collect 30% of remaining etho as heads.
Collect 40% of etho as heart.
Collect last 30% of etho as tails.

Collect in small separate containers and keep checking it. When you’re done you will have less than 1/2 gal of 92-95% ABV. You can change the cuts as you gain experience. The cuts will also depend on the wash, yeast and fermentation temperature.

Post by **stillvodka** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:46 am

Thanks Level Joe,

I cooked up another wash today 24ltr, and i got roughtly the same amount out, i don't have anything to test alcohol as it's coming from the still, must get one though, just taste smell and see what it burns like, it all seemed OK to me, the still head i used i don't think there are many of them around, but i thought it should be OK for the stripping purpose, all i want to do really is strip the wash down through the temperature range of the various alcohols then stop around 90 degrees or there abouts, then when i collect about 5 gallons of rough spirits and get my new copper boiler from Colonel Wilson i can connect my Amphora PDA-1 and do a proper job of distilling the good spirit

hornedrhodent · Post by **hornedrhodent** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 5:06 am

I did a run of 26L of wine for neighbour who said his wine was 10% A/V - I collected it in 300ml bottles until no more was coming out - I measured the A/V for each bottle and calculated from the total collected his wine was only 7% A/V.

Should he believe me or have I been losing eth somewhere?

He should be here for any future runs - even if it takes all day.