Thinking of a new coulmn for my potstill a couple of ?

[booger68]

I have a pretty long column on my potstill it is about 30 in tall.

1. Would i be better off putting a 2in elbow or should i reduce it down like i have in my present column at the top?

I am thinking that my new one will be about 12 in tall just gonna do some playing around to see which one i like best.Any thoughts and insight will be appreciated.

I wont be able to start on it untill monday because my wife and son have the flu bug.So i will have a little bit of time to get some imput from the board.

thanks
booger

[HookLine]

1. Would i be better off putting a 2in elbow or should i reduce it down like i have in my present column at the top?

As far as I know it will not make any difference to the quality of the final spirit, or how the still runs.

[booger68]

Thanks Hookline for the fast reply.

As long as it does not make a difference i guess that will save me a little bit of cash then.I will be doing mostly whiskey and such so this is a big help.
thanks
booger

[MashMan]

hey booger can you tell us what your 2" column is reduced to, condensor specs, this is going to be your limiting factor on your output and this will influence flavour carried over on stripping runs. you pic makes it look a tad small in diameter.

[ImaDKrook]

Mashman mine looks similar I went from a two inch elbow then straight to 1/2 then then a 1/2 elbow to get the 45 degree down angle into liebig for thirty or so inches. Are saying that going from two inch to 1/2 inch makes a difference on flavors carried over or the fact that he went down in size before making the turn?

Krook

[MashMan]

the turn makes no difference. what I am getting at is (in your case) that the take of rate of a 2" "column" will not be able to be used (with a "typical" liebig condensor) because the vapour speed through the 1/2" will be so great (on a stripping run) that it will puff steam before it can nock the vapour down.
which means you can only apply a given amount of heat that suits the condensor, which is always the case.
BUT your 2" column has a large surface area as well as low vapour speed to suit your condensor giving lots of reflux which = higher % abv which also = less flavour. IMO.

[olddog]

Most standard leibig conensers are 1/2" centre with a 3/4" water jacket and about 36" in length, I have been using one for a long time with no problems. It knocks down everything, no steam whatsoever.

[MashMan]

Most standard leibig conensers are 1/2" centre with a 3/4" water jacket and about 36" in length, I have been using one for a long time with no problems. It knocks down everything, no steam whatsoever.

hi olddog, so you have 1/2" coming off a 2" column or 1/2" off the boiler?

[olddog]

Do a search fro "Frankenstill" and you will see my rig. Its 2" off the boiler reducing to 1/2" to the thumper then 1/2" direct to the leibig, its running now, for the last 3 hours, still no steam or overheating, the water is supplied from a 60lt plastic garbage bin via an aquarium pump.

[MashMan]

and i don't see how using a thumper producing higher abv (condensing less) than what we are talking about, which is doing stripping runs, has to do with it. ?

hook your liebig up to your column without the thumper, run the same heat and wash and then see what happens.

[olddog]

I have done stripping runs and spirit runs with this leibig with just a plain 2" column, no problems, knocks down everything.

[HookLine]

My pot still reduces from 2 - 1 -1/2". Doesn't seem to be a problem. Main thing is to make the reductions relatively smooth, and those standard copper reducers seem to do it fine.

The kind of vapour speeds we run are relatively low (on the spirit runs at least), compared to what these pipes sizes can handle. So I doubt it is going to make that much difference. Though I certainly would not go below 1/2".

the turn makes no difference. what I am getting at is (in your case) that the take of rate of a 2" "column" will not be able to be used (with a "typical" liebig condensor) because the vapour speed through the 1/2" will be so great (on a stripping run) that it will puff steam before it can nock the vapour down.

hook your liebig up to your column without the thumper, run the same heat and wash and then see what happens

My Liebig is 1/2" inside 3/4", x 20" long, with no thumper, and it easily handles 2400 w of vapour, with plenty of room to spare.

[MashMan]

olddog, booger68 started a couple of threads, this one is sort of connected to the other http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=11967
it's all in relation to producing lots of flavour doing stripping then spirit runs. and "design" so to speak. you use a thumper charged with wash for flavour.
i am talking collection rates ( without thumper) around 1 liter every 10 min to carry over as much flavour as possible.

if your 1/2" liebig can do that then maybe your one olddog that can teach me new tricks.

cheers.

[olddog]

You had better come over to the west and I will show you

[MashMan]

this is what i love about this hobby/forum, we all have different experiences doing the same thing, opinions based on what we have achieved, and no matter which path we follow we usually end up with something the creator is happy with

Hook i think you missed my point. what i was getting at was for a given amount of heat that a 1/2" condensor can handle reflux will be taking place in the 2" column. so why use the 2" ? my full post below your quote.

the turn makes no difference. what I am getting at is (in your case) that the take of rate of a 2" "column" will not be able to be used (with a "typical" liebig condensor) because the vapour speed through the 1/2" will be so great (on a stripping run) that it will puff steam before it can nock the vapour down.

what I am getting at is (in your case) that the take of rate of a 2" "column" will not be able to be used (with a "typical" liebig condensor) because the vapour speed through the 1/2" will be so great (on a stripping run) that it will puff steam before it can nock the vapour down.
which means you can only apply a given amount of heat that suits the condensor, which is always the case.
BUT your 2" column has a large surface area as well as low vapour speed to suit your condensor giving lots of reflux which = higher % abv which also = less flavour. IMO.

[Hack]

Without any packing in the 2" column, any reflux would really be minimal, most likely unnoticeable.

[booger68]

Hi All,

Looks like i left a few things out that you folks need to know.

My current coumn reduces down to 1\2 in at the top.

My leibig is 3\4 in over the 1/2 in it is 30in long.

Thanks for all of the replies it makes me think alot.I dont think I am getting a whole lot of reflux as i was getting 8 min quarts on my strip run.I probably shoudnt be tasting that stuff anyway but it was kind of segragrated out in quarts so what the hell.

The parrot worked pretty well also as i caught everything down int the 20 abv also.

Thanks for all of the thoughts i will probably try the reducer at the top again as it would save me from buying a tee.

booger

[ImaDKrook]

With out posting more pictures to board here is a link to my new post with pics that are relevant to both of your recent posts booger.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 32&t=12013

My copper ain't sparkling but it works bydoggie!

Krook