Salutations all from yet another newbie

[Linguaphobe]

This site's been indispensable to me for the last month, so it's high time I join. Just finished a second batch on my newly-constructed offset head still (modded from the rig described in Smiley's "Making Pure Corn Whiskey") attached to a 12 gallon 1500 watt water heater. (Pic attached...) Starting to get the hang of it, and having tons of fun doing my runs. Got my curiosity about Turbo yeast AND table sugar permanently out of the way with my first batch of neutral (hangover potion!), and yesterday I finished up a 2L batch of plum brandy that today seems closer to neutral than any sort of heritage slivovitz. Next up, potato vodka.

The as-yet-nameless rig easily produces 1L/hr of 92-93% abv ... I'm wondering if I could get up to 95 if I wrapped the column with a little insulation? I see a lot of units of similar design, and some have it and some don't. Also, the cooling water in and return uprights are point-soldered to the column, and now I'm wondering if they are dragging down the reflux efficiency to any degree by cooling the column unnecessarily. If they are, it's not by much...

My ambition has been to run this rig in either pot or reflux modes, but because I've got hard solders attaching the threaded mount I can't easily remove the packing for pot mode. I did build a 2000 watt dimmer unit to modulate my element temp, and used it with some success in my brandy run yesterday. I'm thinking now, after reading up on the topic here, that I'll build myself a simple pot still head to do my flavored runs. Dismayed to have spent so much effort and skrilla designing and building the reflux rig only to realize I just might prefer using a simple pot still. Good thing money grows on trees! (er, doesn't it?).

[Braz]

That is a pretty good looking rig. Insulating it would probably help some if you are looking for 95% neutral. It made a difference on mine, anyway.

Good idea to build a separate pot head for your boiler. it is just a lot easier than having to remove packing and stuff every time you want to switch.

[rad14701]

I would suggest NOT having those coolant lines mounted directly against the column because they can definitely have an effect on the columns equilibrium...

I'd also suggest adopting me... You have a lot of money tied up in extra fittings that I could put to better use... The money, not the fittings...

Welcome, and good luck...

[Linguaphobe]

Just to clarify, the cooling lines have very minimal contact with the column... there is an air gap between the uprights and the column. I like having everything tidy and self contained, but your point is well taken otherwise. I'm thinking maybe I'll remount them with spacers for maybe an inch of standoff.

[Prairiepiss]

Just to clarify, the cooling lines have very minimal contact with the column... there is an air gap between the uprights and the column. I like having everything tidy and self contained, but your point is well taken otherwise. I'm thinking maybe I'll remount them with spacers for maybe an inch of standoff.

Better yet do as Braz suggested and put insulation around the column and the cooling lines on the outside of the insulation.