Making Bourbon from a VM Reflux Still

[turkey55]

any suggestions, how much if any packing should i use. what ratio reflux should i have the valve set at. Thanks; turkey55

[kiwistiller]

I'd say that using a VM for a flavoured spirit is a hard path, and fraught with disappointment

If you can, remove all packing, insulate column, remove reflux condenser, and cap the top of the column, then you've got an expensive pot still. might be easier to build a pot still

[turkey55]

i want to make several flavors including neutral . Thanks

[olddog]

You can make near neutral by double or triple distilling with a potstill

[kiwistiller]

Well the best option would be to get yourself a pot still head then. you can make them modular so that the product condenser from the reflux is used on the pot still head. The reason that it's hard to make flavoured stuff on a vm is it's hard to get them to produce at a reflux ratio less than 1:1. hard enough that most people just build a pot head.

[HookLine]

i want to make several flavors including neutral . Thanks

As others have said, by far the best thing is to have a tall reflux column, and a short pot column.

[Maynard]

You could cut the column down and use a coupler in the middle when you want to run in reflux mode. I have a 1' head that i can attach directly to the pot or add the 4' extention for reflux.

That being said, I am going to run my first real batch of UJSM soon. The highest alc content i got during the first stripping run was only 65% running wide open. And I am going to hijack the thread here and kind of ask the same question as the original poster........

What settings are people using when running stills like this. Do I need to add a couple scrubbers or use lower heat (high heat was used for the stripping run)? If I want to collect at 70-80% alc as recommended in the recipe.

[kiwistiller]

I have a 1' head that i can attach directly to the pot or add the 4' extention for reflux.

By stills like this you mean a pot still? It's unclear.

If you charge a pot still with 40% low wines you'll almost certainly find yourself pulling around 80% at the start, dropping over the run.

[Maynard]

Hmmmm, good point. I was going to add the 1st sweet mash strip into the mash of the next run and try and finish it in one go. But i could just strip the 2nd mash and combine them together.....Then do a final spirt run.

The "pot" still mode is 1' of 2" column before it gets to the two slant plates (Bokabob, LM) and then condenser on top.

[kiwistiller]

ok, you should get rid of the packing and run with the valve wide open then. then just run it like a pot still, so you'll be going a bit slower for the spirit run (less heat).

[olddog]

You would need to cap and seal the top of the column for potstill use, flour and water paste would be best, this could then be removed when reverting back to reflux mode.

[turkey55]

Thanks guys. I'am still in the building stage, thinking about putting a 2" pipe coupling in the middle of a 4' column to convert from Pot still to Reflux.

[kiwistiller]

if you're still building, I'd definitely be building two different heads while you're at it. then you won't have to wreck your packing pulling it out and stuffing it in all the time, and you'll probably have some spare pipe anyway so the pot still will only cost you a couple of fittings really.