Thought i would introduce myself.
Been madly reading newgroups etc trying to get up to speed on distilling but got heaps to learn
Have done a few beer homebrews and made wine in commercial quantities.....but making wine and making a wash are two different things
As the Head Winemaker I learned the trade from used to say
"Making good wine is easy......making bad wine is even easier"
Just been given a Nixon/Stone (think thats the right name) reflux still head. I made a boiler from 50 ltr beer keg. Fitted it with 2 old electric kettle elements and everything seems ready to roll..done a couple of cleaning runs but the temp here has been over 40c for a week so waiting for a cool change to try my first spirit run.
Have no "mains" water so will be recirculating water from a 1000ltr tank alongside the still. hope thats enough without the use of ice etc.
Require a bit of help guidance on the following:-
1) Need help on the circulation path of the water through the still.....being an old refrigeration mechanic (also how we chill/heat wine in the winery) I set the flow up so the water entered at the bottom of the condensor.passed through the condensor to the highest part of the column cooling jacket and the return water came from the bottom of the column.Thus the warmest water meets the warmest vapour....or does it go the other way so as to give max reflux???
2) Almost that time of year again when I can lay my hands on tons of grape marc for nothing...got a few spare 1000ltr fermenters.I have been wondering if it is worth and water and sugar to get marc to get a high alcohol wash with lots of "body".....Did an experiment on a small 300 ltr batch and with EC1118 yeast and doing pump overs and air injections finished up with a "dry wine" of about 22% alc...............did not have a still at the time so could not turn into spirits. Any of the experienced members used grape marc like this......could supply me with enough wash to last me all year
.Lots of interest articles on this site.....thanks to everyone on their input
