Glass carboy for a pot still?

[Scribbler]

Just a thought that I had:

if I plan to double boil me kettle instead of applying heat directly to it, would a glass carboy used in wine making work for this?

possible advantages:
it is clean,
readily available
and large enough for the quantities that I would be doing (Ie: home brew wine into brandy)
when disassembled there is no proof it was used as a still

possible disadvantages:
would it crack when heated by the boiling water?
Sealing the condensing coil (plastic is a no-no... how about rubber?)
hard to clean (can't get hand inside opening... maybe my 2 year old child could clean it for me... oh, darn, arms are not long enough!)
no handles to mount double boiler suspension... -could possible make a chicken wire basket attached to a suspension frame


since the spout on the carboys I have seen are not smooth but have pretty aggressive lips on them, I could easily make up a thick copper flange, use the flour dough trick as a gasket and then use a clamp similar to the ones on grolsch bottles to hold it down...

any thoughts? I would LOVE for this to work as it would appear very elegant!

JMK

[Tater]

Would be to dangerous to use glass . Stick to safe metals A ss beer keg is usually easy to get .

[Ugly]

Glass like pyrex that can handle expansion usually has a fair amount of ceramic materials in it to make it heat compatible.

There are a few references here on this forum of glass carboys cracking or breaking when exposed to hot liquids etc.... I've also seen breakage stories at the brewing sites from heat and so on....

I too would like a giant glass still... maybe I can find the worlds largest beaker somewhere

[dixiedrifter]

Even with a double boiler I would highly doubt a carboy would survive its maiden run.

Stick with metal.

[Scribbler]

awesome advice! thankyou so much. I really appreciate it!

JMK

[Husker]

Even with a double boiler I would highly doubt a carboy would survive its maiden run.

Stick with metal.

I tend to agree with dixie on this one. The worse thing is that glass from a carboy is HEAVY, and broken shards are very sharp. You have one of them explode on you (even if the bottom simply gives out, and the walls 'fall down'), that heavy glass falling will likely be able to damn near cut your leg off. This is heavier glass than plate glass and when it breaks, it stays in large chunks.

Broken glass like this is a serious danger to life and limb. It is NOT worth the risk.

Now as for glass stills, I have seen pictures, and even some video of large round pirex boilers being used in stilling. But that is a 'special' form of glass. However, those nice round ones do work to do vacuum distillation, which allows stilling at a much lower temp.

But like others said, a metal keg is cheap and the PERFECT solution for a home distiller.

H.

[Scribbler]

GRRR! I sure wish I had better luck at finding a metal keg! The closest thing I have come to are kegs from restaurants that used to contain the pepsi and cola syrups for fountain drink machines... the internet pictures of these make them look a little on the small side (they are tall, but quite narrow... kind of remind me of fire extinguishers...


a 10 gallon pyrex vat is probably really expensive eh?!!!

JMK

(one of the things that I am thinking is that if I end up having to buy my keg/pot on the internet and pay for shipping, I might just be better off buying a sheet of copper and making my own... even if it is just a rudimentary cylinder, I can at least get exactly the size I want!!!

JMK

[Husker]

My first keg, I bought off ebay. I paid $15 for it, and $28 for shipping.

Since then, I have put a number of adds on craigs list, and other places, and scored 6 full sized kegs and 2 ponies for free (well, paid $10 for one of them from a bar).

They 'are' out there, you just have to find them.

H.

[eternalfrost]

A pyrex a.k.a borosillicate glass vessel would work A-ok with a double boiler. but thats going to be expensive as hell, 5-10X just a plain metal one easy.

normal plate glass is completely different then the borosilicate pyrex. I blow glass as a hobby so i know a fair bit. lab ware glass is all made out of borosillicate. it has a coefficient of expansion of about 33, normal glass is in the range of 100-150. this is a measure of how much the glass expands per degree. glass is very strong but insanely brittle. that means that under the slightest bit of sheer stress it will fail. glass is also a good insulator. that means that it is easy to get high thermal gradients within it, plunge a hot piece of glass into cold water and due to the low thermal conductivity, one side will get very hot while the inside stays at the same temperature. if you do out the math, its easy to get thousands of pounds of pressure built up within the glass.

this thermal gradient means that certain sections are expanding more then others, causing stress, which will break your glass. borosilicate is used in labware because it has the lowest COE of any normal glass, this means that it expands less for a given temperature and can therefore withstand more extreme temperature gradients.

as an example, when blowing normal COE glass, dipping it directly into the flame will cause it to literally explode due to thermal gradients and expansion. borosillicate has no problem with this for normal situations

[HookLine]

A pyrex a.k.a borosillicate glass vessel would work A-ok with a double boiler.

Most Pyrex brand glass is no longer made from borosilicate. All lab glass is still borosilicate.

Pyrex is a brand name for glassware, introduced by Corning Incorporated in 1915. Originally, Pyrex was made from thermal shock resistant borosilicate glass. In 1998, Corning sold its consumer products division which subsequently adopted the name World Kitchen. Pyrex kitchen glassware, that is manufactured and licensed for sale in the United States, is now made of tempered soda lime glass at the World Kitchen facility in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, except in the European Union, where it is still made of borosilicate glass in France. Pyrex laboratory glassware is also still made of borosilicate glass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[myles]

I use about 50 1 gallon glass demijons as part of my wine making exploits and I have managed to explode one. It had a flaw that I had not spotted and I just was unlucky enough to pick it to make some elderflower champagne. Not that much pressure involved but it was enough to make me jump when it suddenly went bang.

I would not like to use one for a boiler - far too much potential danger from flamable vapour, if it did crack on you. I have broken a few when washing them out with hot water. Far too risky.

[goinbroke2]

As I posted in another thread;

"After picking up my new burner to replace my old rim burner, it dawned on me how available everything is, and cheap too!

If your starting out from scratch, get a keg. They are on kajiji/e-bay/scrap yard. ($30-50).
Get a triclover fitting and furrel from any dairy store/farm supply house. ($20.00)
Get a outdoor propane burner from Rona/HD/CanTire/etc ($59.00)
Get your 2" copper pipe from local scrap yard ($8.00)
Get your copper tubing at CanTire/HD/etc ($25.00)
Get a HDPE garbage can from CanTire/HD/Lowes ($12.00)
Get glass mason jars ANYWHERE ($8.99 for 12 500ml)
Get a glass carboy for product at a brew/wine place (19.99)

Stick it all together and get er done!

I made out better cause the keg and copper were free and I raided the wifes huge collection of mason jars. I had the glass carboys from my beer making days.
So I've got about $79.00 invested and have drank GALLONS of shine.

I can see why the government doesn't want to ease restrictions!

Seriously, if your new and are thinking about building something, save your penny's and time and just buy the aforementioned stuff and your in business. No muss/no fuss/ no dicking around with "I heard this will work" or "can I do this"? Once you sit back and look, you'll be WAY farther ahead and making product quicker."

[jody]

put an ad on kijiji - it's free....I had been looking for a while with no luck too, posted a waanted add on kijiji and the next day I got two for 20 bucks.

GRRR! I sure wish I had better luck at finding a metal keg! The closest thing I have come to are kegs from restaurants that used to contain the pepsi and cola syrups for fountain drink machines... the internet pictures of these make them look a little on the small side (they are tall, but quite narrow... kind of remind me of fire extinguishers...


a 10 gallon pyrex vat is probably really expensive eh?!!!

JMK

(one of the things that I am thinking is that if I end up having to buy my keg/pot on the internet and pay for shipping, I might just be better off buying a sheet of copper and making my own... even if it is just a rudimentary cylinder, I can at least get exactly the size I want!!!

JMK