Just getting started

[Queen of hearts]

Hi, Just getting started. New to this whole world. Started out by getting ready to build a world class home distillinag apparatus then started to do some more research. Six months later and after reading everything I could find and forgetting 90% of it I have decided to build a 2" boka reflux. I am more of a tinkerer than a distiller but I just build my condenser and have all the parts to build the packing column and plates as well as a parrot. The condenser is a double coil on a cold thumb. Wrapped 1/4 in tube on a 1/2 pipe then wrapped my second coil around a 1" iron pipe that fits nicely around the first coil and sits perfectly in the 2" pipe. I am going to have a ton of questions but hopefully only after I have searched everywhere for the answer. I live somewhere's in New England close to Boston.

[rubber duck]

Welcome aboard.

Nice looking coil, looks like your well o your way.

[Bushman]

Looks good so far, you obviously have lots of patients and have been researching the site for building tutorials. Welcome to the forum

[rad14701]

Very nice condenser, Queen of hearts... You really went overboard with those water valves, however... You only need to control just over 1 liter per minute through the condenser to knock down 100% of the vapor... Might just be me but I've never figured out why folks want to have heavy garden hoses dangling off their still heads...

If the rest of your rig turns out as nice as the condenser you'll have a real looker...

Good luck...

[Queen of hearts]

Thanks, As a newbie I have a couple of question? I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying this and how much in the long run this is going to save me. So I see there is a place to make a donation which I want to do. My question who gets it the money is it the guy who started the site or the actual server. Also when I post a question on one of the forums and it has not been active say for a year or so but my question is germane to the topic discussed in that forum who will actually see it and try to answer it? Or do I just post under a totally new topic. I used to have a site for something completely different so I know how much a PIA it can be when people ask questions without doing any research or in the wrong places.
You will be hearing more from me as we go forward. Thanks again for all you help and comments. Rad I bought some SS wrapped hose with red and blue banking so I thought it might work great, but as you say it may be too much. Easy to remove those valves and start with something else. If that is my only mistake I make I will be in a good place, but thanks for you comment.

[rad14701]

Thanks, As a newbie I have a couple of question? I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying this and how much in the long run this is going to save me. So I see there is a place to make a donation which I want to do. My question who gets it the money is it the guy who started the site or the actual server. Also when I post a question on one of the forums and it has not been active say for a year or so but my question is germane to the topic discussed in that forum who will actually see it and try to answer it? Or do I just post under a totally new topic. I used to have a site for something completely different so I know how much a PIA it can be when people ask questions without doing any research or in the wrong places.
You will be hearing more from me as we go forward. Thanks again for all you help and comments. Rad I bought some SS wrapped hose with red and blue banking so I thought it might work great, but as you say it may be too much. Easy to remove those valves and start with something else. If that is my only mistake I make I will be in a good place, but thanks for you comment.

If you click on the Donate button at the bottom of these forums the contribution goes directly to Uncle Jesse and will be used only for maintaining this site, which has just recently been migrated to commercial hosting by the way...

As for asking questions, some members, including myself, read each and every post every day, or ASAP, and answer any that we can... So, whether you post in an old and somewhat stagnant topic or start a new one, you will get the same degree of response...

[Queen of hearts]

K, took care of that right off the bat.

[Queen of hearts]

Hey, guys I need some help. My boca slant plate still is built, I am just in the process of finishing off the cooling section. I am very computer savvy but for some reason I am having real trouble navigating this site. I made notes and saved posts and views on all the building section. I have read everything I can. Now I am getting ready to make the wash or mash using sugar and yeast. I read all about it and did not save any of the info. Now I am having to go back and sort through all the posts about yeast etc. Is there some search portion of this site that I am missing. I have gone to yeast and mash section and have started going through post by post but there has to be another way. I put in sugar it says it is too general. Typical question is I see some columns with insulation and some without is there some way to research that without going through post by post and hoping I hit the correct search question. I want to make a pure alcohol as I can to start out. as I want vodka and then I will move on to try other things. Maybe I am being dumb but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get answers quickly and concisely. I am going to post pictures of my build as soon as I can get my camera out and pictures downloaded. I have tried not to bother anyone while I built my still but I am pretty darn happy with it and all my ideas came from this site. When you see it you will know that I am not dependent upon people to do my work or research but right now I am flummoxed. Have a great Memorial Day. QofH :

[rad14701]

Queen of hearts, the forums are broken down into sections... If you are looking for neutral spirits then got the Board Index and then navigate to the Tried and True Recipe forum... For neutral spirits check out the All Bran, Gerber, Birdwatchers sugar wash, Wineos Plain Old Sugar Wash, Deathwish Wheat Germ recipes...

Bookmark them... Then head over to the New Distillers Reading Lounge because much of what you need to know is in there...

Never stop reading...

We'll get you there...

[Braz]

QoH,

In addition to the forum search button there is a "HD Google Search" link near the top of the page. I prefer it to the standard search function.

Welcome, BTW. I run a 2" Bok on a keg and it is a wonderful machine for making neutral spirits. You are going to like yours I suspect.

[Samohon]

Welcome to HD Queen of hearts...

Nice condenser... Your gonna love it here...

[Smokehouse Shiner]

QoH,

In addition to the forum search button there is a "HD Google Search" link near the top of the page. I prefer it to the standard search function.

Welcome, BTW. I run a 2" Bok on a keg and it is a wonderful machine for making neutral spirits. You are going to like yours I suspect.

+1 Its the only resonable way to search the site. Although Google now knows that I'm a distiller And where I live and reminds me of that quite often.

[Smokehouse Shiner]

Oh and welcome Queen of Hearts.

[Queen of hearts]

Thanks guys, I appreciate your help and I am sure I am going to need it again. Again I will post pictures of my still in the next few days and get a few comments before I really crank this baby up see how she weeps.

[Queen of hearts]

A little help would be greatly appreciated. I have built my 2" slant plate column, built a water cooler using a 100 gal container, with a sump pump. Ran it with the vinegar run, worked like a champ, then did a cleaning run also worked great. Then I just finished making up a 100 L bird watcher's sugar wash, which came out beautifully and is ready to distill. The more I read the more complicated it gets. If I want pure vodka, I am reading different things. But it sounds to me like I really want to do a stripping run first using a pots still before using the reflux column. So what I really want to do is build a simple pot still using the condenser which I included a picture of when I started this thread back in April. I have plenty of 2" copper left over, so my idea is just to pull the condenser off the reflux column and slide into a pot still type column. I don't want to have to remove the packing etc from my reflux column every time I make a new batch. Could someone point me to a thread that might have a picture or an idea for such a pot still. I am so overwhelmed from reading thousands of posts I just need a little direction. So I think my plan is to undo the tri-clamp remove the reflux column, and pull out the condenser. slap on the pots still, slide in the condenser, hook up the water cooler lines and strip away. Am I making this more complicated than necessary or should I just do the stripping run with the reflux column, leaving the packing in and the output valve wide open. I am so much a perfectionist that I can no longer see the forest for the trees. It is like I have come down with ADD. I was going to post pictures, but I have just not been able to get the whole thing in the right light with my camera. This whole thing is so exciting but now I just need this final little tweak before I go into full production. To pot still or not for the stripping run. Thanks for any imput.

[LWTCS]

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 1#p6890658

[rad14701]

Queen of hearts, you probably wouldn't get good results attempting to do strips with the packing in place due to unintended reflux... And if you only have a 1/4" needle valve you will get too much unintended reflux due to the low flow rate of the needle valve... You would have better luck by pulling the packing and removing the needle valve... Or run a dedicated stripper...

[Braz]

Since you have 2" copper left over, just go ahead and build a pot head for your boiler. You will be better off and happier in the long run. (I speak from experience here.)

The link Larry posted just above goes to a good, simple design that works fine as a stripper or as whiskey/rum/brandy still. The drawing is metric but conversion to available inch sizes is easy.

Your idea of dropping your coil into the top of a pot column won't work. It will just create reflux back down the column tube. A 24" (or longer) Liebig condenser on your output tube is a simple, effective condenser for a pot head.

[Queen of hearts]

Thank-you guys for your answer to my question. Obviously you all know way more than I know. I hope you don't mind me asking this question. In the links that Larry posted there is a diagram by Samohon » Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:48 pm for a Nixon / Stone Offset Head. So if I built the same outfit, without the Boka slant plate and dropped my condenser in the offset, and then just caught the distillate as it dropped down from the coil into a container would that not work? I might put a reducer on the end of the 2" offset so that maybe the output could be funneled into a 3/8 or 1/2" pipe/hose. I am not adverse to building anything, in fact that is my problem I hate to build something and find out later that there was something much better. If you guys tell me the best stripper for my needs is a simple pots still with a Liebig I will build that. I was just wondering if my idea would not also solve my problem. I was thinking of the offset and did not really know how to describe it until I saw the Nixon/Stone Offset Head. I remember running across it a couple of times but did not pay attention because I was focused on the Boka. Again I cannot thank you enough for your time to answer my questions. I have been designing and building since April and have still not made a drop of anything drinkable. Once I strip this 100 L Birdwatcher's mash I am going to go to town.

[Torp]

I am fairly new here myself but if you are running a Boka I'm pretty sure you don't need to run it through a pot still first. I run a boka and just run once. I get over 90% every run I make.

I think you are confusing a pot still with a boka. In a pot still many people run twice, stripping and spirit runs but with a boka there is no need as the reflux acts the same as multiple runs.

[Braz]

I am fairly new here myself but if you are running a Boka I'm pretty sure you don't need to run it through a pot still first. I run a boka and just run once. I get over 90% every run I make.

True, you don't NEED to do a strip run first but in my experience it is much more efficient to do so. I ferment in 5 gal. batches and still in a 15 gal beer keg boiler. I'll charge the boiler with two batches of wash (10 Gal.) and strip it with the pot head, hard and as fast as my condenser can handle. Then do another, combine the two strips diluted to 30% and run through the Bok. I let the low wines from the strip runs set with some baking soda for a week or so 'cause I think it helps reduce the acids and compress the heads.

I have done it both ways and have settled on doing the strip - spirit run method. Works for me and if there were awards for illegal vodka I'd enter the contest.

[Queen of hearts]

Quick question. I have looked through the whole plastic debate but cannot seem to find the answer. I want to make Vodka. I built the Boka, then a built a pot still to do my stripping. I made a 100 Liter wash of Birdwatcher in two 50 liter batches in food grade plastic. It came out beautifully. I racked one of the 50 liter batches and charged by 50 Liter stainless steel boiler with about 35 L and put the other 15L in a glass car boy. My question is when I do my stripping run can I store my low wines in food grade plastic carboys or not. I am going to do all my final high abv reflux runs in glass gallon jugs or glass carboys. The reason I am asking is I am going to try to keep 100 liters fermenting while I am stripping the previous batch and then also refluxing the previously done low wines. It really means I am going to need a lot of storage for the three phases and would rather not be buying 25 glass carboys. AT this point I have cleaned both the boka and the pot still with vinegar then a cleaning run with left over alcohol and wine. Working like a charm. I am going to strip what is in the boiler now but the one glass carboy I have is holding the extra 15 liters of mash. Can I just run the low wines into the empty 50 L plastic container I just washed out after making the mash or should it be glass. I think from what I have read that the low wines are probably not going to react with plastic and it has to be re-distilled in my boka anyways. Its tough being so anally retentive and a perfectionist. I want everything right with all the equipment at hand. Thanks for your thoughts. Q of A

[rad14701]

Queen of hearts, only the initial fermented wash is of a low enough alcohol content to be stored in plastic... No distilled spirits should be stored in any synthetic container... Glass and stainless are the safest storage container materials... Even copper can prove problematic with low wines which is why I did not include it along with glass and SS...

[Braz]

I wouldn't. Your low wines are probably going to be around 40% ABV and I don't think any of us know how that % might react with plastic, food grade or not. Since we don't know, the safe answer is to not put it in plastic. Even though some 80 proof spirits is sold in plastic bottles, I am given to understand that those bottles have some sort of coating inside and are not intended for a second use. I'd just feel a lot better using glass. Can you find some gallon glass jugs?

[rtalbigr]

One of the difficulties with this hobby, if ya get serious about it, is indeed containers. I store my low wines in glass gallon jugs. I can get em for about $4 each. Plastic for low wines is so iffy I definitely wouldn't go that way. Glass carboys above 3 gal present their own problems for storage, weight, difficulty in transfering fluids, etc. As Braz has suggected glass gallon jugs really are an inexpensive and practical solution.

Big R

[Queen of hearts]

Perfect just what I wanted to hear. Thanks for all your help. QofH