Water cooling system

[pistachio_nut]

I'm scratching my head tonight thinking about how to go about running my still in my new home. It's a suburb where the houses are packed very closely together, fairly affluent, and would notice something like a rivulet of water running out of my garage. Sooner or later the HOA would come knocking on my door about water wastage or something like that. I need to compartmentalize my activities to my garage and my garage only.

My water flow system can be controlled at the tubing about a foot away from the actual column itself regardless of the water pressure behind it, so I can use any kind of low-pressure water pump to get the water about nine feet in the air and move it through the cooling apparatus on the column.

Then the warm water comes out the other end, and that's where my problem starts.

Essentially, what I would like to do is to fill a 20 gallon water bucket that would continually recycle the water, and add some kind of cooling element to it to keep the temperature low enough to run as a pot still. So, I have several questions.

1. What is the optimal temperature to run into a pot still?
2. What is the optimal temperature for the runoff to be if I want to make a full flavor Deathwish at about 160 proof or so?
3. What can I use to sink into my 20 gallon water bucket to chill the water to that temperature?

The floor in my garage is definitely cold to the touch, but that's going to vary from summer to winter. Maybe it's 55 degrees or so. That would aid in the cooling, I would think. The air temperature in my area is a little cool, and I'll have the garage door cracked open a foot at the bottom with a fan blowing to keep the CO2 moving, but I doubt that would have much effect on the temp in the water bucket.

Is there some kind of submersible water cooler I can use to chill the water?

[blind drunk]

Maybe I'm missing something, but why don't you just use a worm and bucket? I can run my pot still a really long time with about a 7 gallon (I think) bucket. If you have a lie big, ignore it and take the business end right into a worm.

[Skoot]

I tapped my output of my still into my sprinkler system. It cost me ~$40.......

Skoot

[Buteo]

You could run a closed loop system with a fan and radiator.

[rubber duck]

1. Colder then the steam your trying to condense.

2. I'm sure there's some optimum temp but i just run mine tepid.

3. The radiator idea is a good one you could run that on your output back to the cooling reservoir, you could also just get a 30 gallon trash can that would be more then enough water.

[Titus-a-fishus]

Living in the tropics you would think that cooling water would be a real problem for me
I've got an old 16 gal copper my mum used to do the laundry in when out bush.
Have a fountain pump hooked up to the 1.2mtre liebig and run that.

Over about 4 hours it does warm the water up but still plenty of cooling ability left in it.
Oh and the average daily temp is 28 degrees at the moment.

So you would easily be able to use a recycling system and a liebig

TAF

[maheel]

swamp cooler and fan

run the water down a old towel on a frame into the holding tank with the fan on pointed at the towel

you will loose a bit to evap but will cool it quick due to surface area

[rad14701]

Not sure where you're from, pistachio_nut, but around here every garage has a floor drain that runs somewhere other than into the street... At any rate, you've been given several options and there are even more than have already been listed... Members here have come up with some pretty creative ways of addressing similar situations without much difficulty so I'm sure you should be able to come up with a viable solution...

I have a tough enough time renting from someone so I sure as hell couldn't ever put up with an HOA having their nose up my ass about what I do on my own property... That's just crazy talk... Crazy I tell ya...

[pistachio_nut]

Not sure where you're from, pistachio_nut, but around here every garage has a floor drain that runs somewhere other than into the street... At any rate, you've been given several options and there are even more than have already been listed... Members here have come up with some pretty creative ways of addressing similar situations without much difficulty so I'm sure you should be able to come up with a viable solution...

I have a tough enough time renting from someone so I sure as hell couldn't ever put up with an HOA having their nose up my ass about what I do on my own property... That's just crazy talk... Crazy I tell ya...

No drain! I love the sprinkler idea, but my patch of grass is about the same size as my old lady's. I have an idea though, I think I can make this work. I'm just going to lay a coil of copper tubing on the garage floor and pump the water through that. It's about $20 worth of copper coil at Home Depot or whatever, that garage floor is cold and can soak it up pretty good. It would work even better if I could slide it out under the garage door and lay it on the driveway in the rain.

My old lady feels the same way about HOAs, but they do keep out the riff raff. Having had riff raff neighbors for the last fifteen years I wanted a break. I do love me some freedom, but at some point I want to get some sleep at night and not have to explain to people on the phone that that yes, those are real gunshots. Last house I at lest could yell out Cease Fire when taking the baby for a stroll and homey would hold up for a few minutes, but in the ghetto it wasn't that simple.

It's been an interesting ride.

So, thanks for brainstorming with me gents, it's plenty enough to get me started.

[blanikdog]

What is a HOA?????????????????

[Mud Mechanik]

I am assuming Home Owners Association

[pistachio_nut]

I am assuming Home Owners Association

The President of the HOA lives directly across the street from me and prides himself on running off his next door neighbor.

Sigh.

I gotta keep things on the down low.

In any case, I think I've got it figured out. It's time to go to Lowe's and get ready to buy some tubing and fittings, but here's what I'm thinking.

I've got a copper coil zip tied to the back of a box fan as it is. That will be under the garage door to ventilate the CO2 from the propane and double as a cooling mechanism for the outflow. Run the output from that copper coil to another copper coil that lays on the garage floor to further cool the water back to the 20 gallon bucket.

I used to use the fan/copper coil as a ghetto rigged air conditioner in my bedroom for the 1-3 weeks it was actually hot in the summer where I lived.

Anyway, I can add the swamp cooler thing if I need to. FIne ideas gentlemen, I appreciate your feedback.

Hopefully I'll be back in production in the next month or so.

[junkyard dawg]

I can tell your having fun with it...

but I would just do the worm in a bucket.

[pistachio_nut]

OK, I think I have it sorted. It's going to cost me some time and money to finally get this whole apparatus worked out, but there have been so many good suggestions that I think I've got it. It will be a partially closed-circuit water cooling system that will keep a 15.5 gallon Sanke keg boiler condensing for 4-5 hours. I have a water input apparatus that connects to cold water coming from a hose, which is located directly outside my garage door. The input is regulated by a water flow valve, so I can trickle the water in so that it soaks up the heat and comes out fairly warm. At the output is another hose.

I can connect that hose to my ghetto air conditioner, which essentially consists of a copper coil zip tied to the back of a box fan. I need to ventilate the space anyway, there are no windows and I'm not planning on venting the co2 from the propane into my house. I have to have a fan to circulate air into and out of the garage anyway. So, the ghetto air conditioner will not only blow co2 out of the garage, it will also cool the water as it returns to the 20 gallon water reservoir. From the box fan, I figure I'll have the fan drain into another bucket that will feed the swamp cooler.

I can easily construct a frame that will hold a towel and use that as a swamp cooler. That was a great idea. If I have one box fan blowing air out of the garage and another blowing cold air into the garage from the outside as a swamp cooler, that will increase the rate that co2 will leave my garage, and that's a nice safety measure. I have a nice big Disney beach towel that's just begging to have its image tarnished by a moonshiner. I figure I can run the water to a pipe that can have a 1/16 hole drilled in it every inch or so to make sure the beach towel gets saturated from end to end as the box fan blows cool air through and mount the pipe at the top of the frame.

As a backup, I have a 6hp submersible pump I can sink into my reservoir to pump warm water upstairs to the kitchen sink. If the fans don't cool the water fast enough, I can always pump water out of my reservoir into a draining receptacle in the house and replace the volume by increasing the flow from the cold hose.

Gentlemen, this has been an exercise in fun, and I can't wait to share a pic or two of how I pull this off. Give me a week or two, work has been crushing me so hard I've been reduced to paying for the swill available at my local beverage store. Balancing the inputs and outputs of this system should be interesting, but distillation should be constantly monitored anyway, right?

[maheel]

reckon your overthinking it

kick off with the one fan system on the coil and box fan throw the wet towel over that coil and every 20 mins or so take the towel off and wet it.
or just safely pour water onto the towel or something

see how that goes 1st i reckon

[dougyethanol]

if the water temp starts climbing you could also use an ice block/blocks(like a 2 litre plastic milk container) to keep it in check.

[myles]

I think you are getting too complicated. Yes i did say that

Pot still right? Go for a decent worm in a bucket with a secondary water store so that you can replace some of the water on a long run if you need to. If you aim for a worm bucket capacity of about half the size of your boiler you should be OK.

It can be convenient to go a bit smaller to keep the weight down, but then you do need the ability to slowly (or occasionally) pump cold water in at the bottom and drain hot water off from the top of the worm.

Just stick a 55 gallon drum somewhere under a worktop as your primary water store, and you should be alright. It is far easier to cascade 2 or 3 water containers together for your water store and do away with the fan / swamp cooler. Why not just put a big water store outside your garage and pretend it is connected as a rainwater store for the garden.

Big container outside, smaller container inside (with a float valve and the pump) working as your primary, and return the warm water to the outside tank. With enough capacity you don't need to bother with anything else.

[Prairiepiss]

I think I could cool my house with the system you have come up with.

[myles]

Connect one of these into your rainwater gutter system.


Put a water butt and pump inside the garage, to stop the pump getting frozen up and in a few years you could have upgraded to this





No? Well it is worth looking at the proportions of worm to bucket to boiler for inspiration.

[maheel]

myles

i that a blue plastic bucket in your pic !!!

SHAME ON YOU....... lol

[myles]

myles

i that a blue plastic bucket in your pic !!!

SHAME ON YOU....... lol

yes but I thought it was under the coolant drain not the product output

[Prairiepiss]

I to was going to make a smart ars remark about the blue bucket.

That is a large bucket and worm.

What are the 2 kettle things in the floor in front of the still?

[dougyethanol]

I to was going to make a smart ars remark about the blue bucket.

That is a large bucket and worm.

What are the 2 kettle things in the floor in front of the still?

i imagine they would be mash tuns?

[rubber duck]

I think they're actually collection containers.

[Prairiepiss]

I was thinking mash tons but why would they be lower then the boiler?

Collection vessels would make more sence. But still why would the be that low. they look like they are built into the floor? Unless the bottling is done in a floor under this one.

[rubber duck]

I was thinking mash tons but why would they be lower then the boiler?

Collection vessels would make more sence. But still why would the be that low. they look like they are built into the floor? Unless the bottling is done in a floor under this one.

Yep, that distillery is upstairs.

[mash rookie]

Myles, You do always know how to make a point.

The very first time I ran my rig I was shocked at how fast it heated up a thirty gallon garbage can of water using a circulating pump.
I switch to the garden hose and dump warm water in my yard. Water is cheap here.

That being said. I love the idea of using an Auto radiator and fan. They are already engineered for best cooling efficiency. You could probably find one at a auto junkyard cheap that included its own attached fan. You would have to convert 12 volts for power.

If I was working in a small area with water issues that would be my route. You don’t have to over think things.

Most new homes in Alaska use hot water floor heat. It would be sweet to have the ability to pump distilling coolant water through a floor imbedded system, heating your home as you made booze. That would take some advance planning

[Prairiepiss]

That makes sense RD. It's a nice looking setup. I like it. In a few years after the wood gets weathered it will look a lot better. I think I would distress the wood to make it look even older.

[myles]

The still in question is actually a shochu still.
I gather the use of wooden stills is common practice for this particular product. I don't know much about it, but I understand the large ceramic pots are used to age the product and soften and round out the flavour.

[pistachio_nut]

Turns out I'm NOT overthinking it. The A/C is connected to the garage, so whatever happens in the garage makes its way into the house. Boiling mash drives up the humidity, so I have to crank the A/C into overdrive to keep from sweating the kids up. I think I'm going to have to get one of those three pointed stainless steel fans and blow the heat out over the top of the garage door so it doesn't raise my bills too much.

It'll be great in the winter for keeping the heat bill low, but this ain't the winter now, is it.