Pot Still / Beer Stripper Head

[gravityflux]

I've been a long time lurker watching distilling as a hobby grow from the unknown. About 11 years ago I built a small stripper and reflux column using Ian Smiley's book. 11 years ago I was working in the basement of my house with nothing more than some hand tools and zero budget. Today I own a machine shop, have a bigger budget and desire to make some better equipment.

I've started by building a new Pot Still head / Beer Stripper and I decided that I did not want to deal with threaded tube fittings for the condenser because of leaks etc. I also wanted a really solid connection for a still head thermometer.

Here's a photo of the complete unit:

(Note: the bottom cross piece is "dead" and just provides stabilization.)

For the condenser water connection I machined brass 1/4 NPT connectors.

Into the 1/4" NPT connectors are quick release connectors with shut-off. They don't drip, leak or squirt when disconnected.

For the thermometer connection I used a 1/4" tube connector to 1/4" NPT. I turned a custom ferrule for the tube connector side to fit the thermometer probe. The ferrule is epoxied onto the thermometer probe.

[gravityflux]

The assembled thermometer connection.

[Bayou-Ruler]

Welcome

[exon]

Nice work gflux !

Very interested to see what your take-off rate will be.
Hope to see you do a big write - up on your wash, and your first run.
exon




.

[gravityflux]

I did a clean out run with vinegar and then another with water. I was getting about 4 liters per hour with no gas escaping the condenser. I wasn't totally paying attention to the details and the power was something less than full on. I'm guessing somewhere around 1000 watts of input. Next step is to fermet a sugar wash and I will test out all those dirty details with it.

[Samohon]

Welcome to HD gravityflux...

Man thats a tall pot/stripper ye got there... Maybe the longest Liebig I've seen...

Good luck te ya man, glad you dropped in...

Have fun and Stay safe...

[gravityflux]

I brewed up a "rum like" molasses / sugar wash and ran it through this new head. I have to say that for a "pot still" I'm impressed with the performance. First run came out initially at 60% (from a 12% wash) and tailed down. I think the batch as a whole finished around 40%. I ended up distilling the three times, making the cuts on the third run. I after the head cut, the main run came out at 80% and worked its way down to 50% before rapidly falling off. I collected in 375ml increments so I could gauge and blend them later.

Tonight I diluted some of the distillate to 80 proof and taste tested it against Bacardi. My stuff is NO Bacardi and it's much sharper but is is surprising how rum like my hooch really is.

[exon]

@ gfx...
Perhaps fresh off the run it may benefit from airing out a tad ???
..and how about introduction of some potato water with the wash???
exon

[gravityflux]

@ gfx...
Perhaps fresh off the run it may benefit from airing out a tad ???
..and how about introduction of some potato water with the wash???
exon

True it is un-aged, but to the best of my knowledge neither is light rum. I was also overly anxious to get a ferment going and I used "instant" yeast from Winco and I'm sure that the yeast choice has something to do with the flavor. It's pretty well known that bakers yeast does not make the greatest flavors.

Really the point of this exercise was to find a fast fermenting sugar wash formula that doesn't stick and to exercise the new still setup. The bonus is that something palatable came out of this run and I'll now run this through a column and turn it into vodka.

The next step is to see if I can tweak the ferment with some better yeast and make a better tasting pseudo rum.