Dan's Flute x2, 4" x 5 plate 42" column

[freespirited]

Very nice build! I hope to joint you soon. For your question. I believe you want to hold a steady temp in your wash of around 85* F (depends on yeast used). When the wash has finished then remove the heat and apply cool temp to clear.

I noticed in your video you have very good action on the bottom plate. Did you do this plate different than the other plates? Also what hole size and count did you use? Sorry I have been reading all day my eyes are worn out.

[freespirited]

Never mind read the whole deal tonight and watched the video. 180 holes luckily I only have to make one flute, FOR NOW. If I may add. If you run a piece of 1/4" or 3/8" tube, a couple inches above the parrot, at an upward angle 45* or so. It should allow pressure to escape and get rid of the surging your meter is experiencing. I was also wondering did you soft or hard solder the easy flanges?

[dan]

Never mind read the whole deal tonight and watched the video. 180 holes luckily I only have to make one flute, FOR NOW. If I may add. If you run a piece of 1/4" or 3/8" tube, a couple inches above the parrot, at an upward angle 45* or so. It should allow pressure to escape and get rid of the surging your meter is experiencing. I was also wondering did you soft or hard solder the easy flanges?

Soft Solder on the entire flute build. I did not use any hard solder just careful heat management.....

-Dan

[Dan Call]

Great job on your build. I'm following yours instead of the other one's for a few reasons. You have more pictures than the others. You don't obsess over specific areas. You err towards heavy duty. I also think your leibig/secondary condensor is better built than the others. And, you make it a point to shine up your copper very well, I like that. Thanks for documenting your build, and for such a high quality build. My first build was just a fractioning collumn with packing, based on the Smiley book, but I made everything larger.

The only thing I wonder about your build is why you don't bump your boiler size up to about 100 gallons and do "no playin' with it" run and really see what that still can do over a larger batch with larger cuts. You'd really find out what your sweet spot is, and how the equilibrium states span out over time. Would be nice to have some data on that for a larger run. I don't really think a still of this size gets much of a workout on 20 or 30 gallons. These perforated plate stills can really do the business.

Another question. Have you considered a bottom feed of steam and a slow top feed of wash and see what your take-off is. That would be very interesting and just like the commercial setups do. It would populate your plates very quickly and your product would be more all at once. Just a thought.

[rad14701]

The only thing I wonder about your build is why you don't bump your boiler size up to about 100 gallons and do "no playin' with it" run and really see what that still can do over a larger batch with larger cuts.

That would be well beyond what we consider "hobby scale"... Anyone attempting to run a boiler that size had better have gone legal and possess proper permits... You're talking about producing a lot more spirits than what could be considered as being for personal consumption...

[Dan Call]

Just in case you didn't notice.....one of the stills is going to Canada....and it would be okay to make large batches, so we're not talking about American laws and limitations for that one. But the truth of the matter is.....stills like this are more suited for larger boilers and larger runs. It's like having a 454 in your riding lawn mower. That's not such a stretch of reasoning to wonder how these things would do on larger runs. That was the only point being speculated.

So I think I'll wait for Dan's answer. And besides.....is that your own personal assessment of what batch is too large or is it written down somewhere?

[rad14701]

Just in case you didn't notice.....one of the stills is going to Canada....

Last I knew distillation was illegal in Canada as well without proper licensing... Are we, or am I, missing something here...???

[Dan Call]

Well.....that's my mistake. And all these years I thought home distillation was legal in Canada. Not so.

[bentstick]

so you are sayin my 4" column should be more around the 2" size for for my 15 gal keg or smaller dont understand, splain it lucy

[Dan Call]

Why certainly not....I've neither built nor used a perforated plate still. From what I'm reading, diameter gets taste and height get purity. But diameter also gets you more vapor volume, which naturally means you can put more in there. My point was simply that it would be interesting to see how large batches spanned out. You have much longer run segments, to wit, you'd have a longer middle cut, which would potentially make for some interesting taste characteristics when you got to the middle of the middle cut on a larger, longer run.

Does that make sense? The volumetric capacity of the still is constant in that there can only be so much vapor in there at one time, but the batch size, being larger, would likely show us some different flavor characteristics. That's why I would speculate that large batches would be a good thing, and that these stills, being made more along the lines of large commercial stills anyway.....

I ws completely missing the threads on "flute" stills while dilligently searching for exactly that build. Compound fractioning still, perforated plate still, Coffee still, collumn still, any of these names would have clued me in, but not flute. I didn't get it and finally look at the "Flute Talk" thread until about two months ago and I've been on here for several years.

[bentstick]

Thanks Dan, is understood better now

[emptyglass]

Dan call, you can do a lot with the flavor profile with a flute. Run it through twice if you want. Add remove plates. Lots of things

But you don't have to worry too much, just about anything that you make from a flute will be better than store bought stuff.

[Dan Call]

Empty. Could you give us some specific examples of how to do that as I'm getting ready for my second build and it's going to be a flute.

[Prairiepiss]

Empty. Could you give us some specific examples of how to do that as I'm getting ready for my second build and it's going to be a flute.

Maybe you could start a thread about this? As not to hijack Dan's build thread. And so others could find the info better.

[Dan Call]

I'd be happy to except I can't really converse authoritatively about perforated plate stills until I build and use one. I detest the term "flute" because it's nowhere else used but here and it throws everyone off. I looked for two months for "plated collumn" and the like before I just happened to open the "flute" still thread and bingo....that's what I've been looking for. But that doesn't matter. What does matter is getting some folks to speak intelligently about "tuning a perforated plate still,' which I guess I could start a thread on that.

[Prairiepiss]

There is one. It's called flute talk.

[bentstick]

Intelligence or experience? Need to build one to tune it and understand it as it is built not just Theory!
Dan please continue with your build thread sorry for another off topic post,also to you PP!!!

[Dan Call]

The flute talk thread is not intended to be a linear information thread, it's experiential, and it is not detailed in specific areas, so no, the flute talk thread is not it, and I think we were all aware of it before, and that is why it was suggested in addition to me in the first place. That's why I jumped on Dan's thread, and build, because it has tons more pictures and is a little more chronologically laid out. Besides, that thread has big interupts of arguments and what not and now the man has spun off a company from all that and he doesn't seem to be forthcoming with putting much more into the thread.

I'm talking about specific metrics and things to do and look for in getting taste, flow, and the mechanics of operating a compound fractioning perforated plate still (CFPP) still. I don't think it should be called "flute" either as that is the most casual and superficial of descriptions. He does call it that on his site but he calls it a "flute collumn" which is better. But that's a product name anyway.

I'll start a thread once I get rolling and up on these things.

[effyeah]

great build Dan...loving the triclamp sightglasses. i was going to buy SS ferrules for the sight glasses but your 2 inch copper flanges look amazing. cheers

[dan]

Hey Guys,

Thank you for all of the input on my perforated plate 4" flute looking column build. I guess I can answer a few of Dan Calls questions first. Dude this is a hobby not a vocation at least for me so I guess I do not see the need to ramp up my boiler size to 100 gallons from 15.5.... I was able to get 16 x 750ml bottles of Birdwatchers vodka from a 80 liter wash which I ran in two 10 gallon batches in my still. I don't even drink a bottle a month of vodka and have given most of it away. I guess I am more interested in the art of craft distilling than I am in the volume. I want to keep my costs in line as well and the $$spent on raw materials for my washes. If I ran an 80 gallon wash in a 100 gallon boiler I would end up with over 5 cases of vodka. It doesn't matter if you can do it for $3-4.00 per bottle all in if you don't need it. If you start giving that much product away you will really draw attention to yourself and if you try to sell it you are on the wrong web site.

The only thing I would do differently on my entire build would be to change my temperature controller.
You do not want to chase temp and 5500 watts is to much for a 15.5 gal keg to run full bore for the whole run. You want to bring your wash up to temp as quickly as you want and then throttle back for steady reflux. My controller is set up to hold temp by blasting on and off and this causes surging in the parrot even with a vent in my final product condenser. I had this fancy idea in my head and did not listen to much more experienced people on this forum..... I also learned from doing it my way but it would work much better with an MK5500 style controller (MuleKicker is on this web forum). Lesson learned time to move on.

The other column I built went up to Alaska NOT Canada, eh! My fault for not clarifying that but I wanted to be a bit vague. It is illegal to distill your own spirits in North America period and many other countries of this world. As much as we may want to believe it is okay to do what we are doing Johnny Law does not and you can get arrested if you are not very careful.

I do not have any construction plans for the perforated plate 4" column that I build. I would be more than happy to answer any specific questions about how I constructed portions of my distillation column but I think it is well documented in pictures on this thread. I had a great time with the creative process of building my column and I do need to give credit where credit is due. I was surfing thru you tube and saw a video of Mike from Hillbilly Stills cranking out some white dog to a rocking song and was hooked.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u2WEdux0Q8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Like it or not the guy has done a great job for himself. After that I started doing my own web research and came upon this Home Distiller website and saw what olddog (another Mike) was doing with copper pipe in Australia and I knew it was possible for me to build my own version. That is what I did by modifying what other people had done and to make it my own..... I OWN THAT BITCH! Just take a look at what Mash Rookie has been able to create without any plans and just a seed of information.

Stay safe and Have fun with it - Dan

[Prairiepiss]

Fine job Dan.
For the love of the hobby.

[dan]

Fine job Dan.
For the love of the hobby.

Cheers Prairiepiss !!

Forgot to mention that I make a kick ass bourbon whiskey that is made with Mike's Sweet Feed Whiskey (Wet COB) recipe and has only been aged for 30 days on re-toasted Jim Beam white oak barrel stave's. If you make your cuts right and force age it with the right amount of heavy toasted oak it is very smooth...

Good Stuff!! - Dan

[wendellbaker]

Dan,

Thanks for taking us on that trip. What an awesome job. Setting the bar high. Enjoy!

[Dan Call]

@ DAN


I was merely speculating on the flavor relative to cut size. These things have the capacity, and are clearly suited for larger batches. Larger batches give you, I'm thinking, TWO THINGS. 1) A longer flavor curve because the size of your cuts, the middle of the middle, is, as I speculate, hopefully going to have a better/more complex flavor profile by virtue of it's size. There's another one too. You'll have a chance to get your "flavor oils". Capture and keep separate what comes off between 40% abv and 20% abv and add them back to subsequent runs and they will eventually make it into the middle run and bump up your flavor. They will also do well with oaking. Pugi, in his "Pugirum" recipe talks about the "rum oils" that are where your flavor really is. You add those low abv isobutyls that come out in the tails, and eventually that strong flavor shows up in the middle run. You can of course get these in any size batch, but you get more with a bigger run.

<SNIP>

(April Fool)

[emptyglass]

@ DAN


That's all I was talking about. I don't understand the big deal about making 100 gallons vs. 15.

1. Its a hobby
2. start your own thread, you might get a more diverse response.

[Dan Call]

Empty.....read the last line of my message.

[Prairiepiss]

Dan call there may be enough disk space for it. But this is a prime example of you not being able to find the info that you were searching for. By you posting it in Dan's build thread. Which is to be about his build and what he wants to do with it. Now this info will be barried and no one will respond to it and it will be lost.

So let's not take the thread off topic any more. I already asked once. You will get much better responses to your questions in your own thread that is properly titled to reflect your questions. And placed in the appropriate sub forum.

Please and thank you.

[Dan Call]

Prairie....I"m not sure I understand what you mean that it is that is being buried. And did you notice that it was an April Fools? It was a joke, what looked like a rant, but was a joke.

Nothing inteded to take away from Dan's build at all. I made the point I wanted to make, but in a light hearted way.

I'm hesitant to start threads because they just get ignored anyway. There are plenty of people that have much more offer than I do.

I'm not sure what you mean, but I certainly intended nothing ill.

[hacksaw44]

This is a nice build log. Great Work.

[dan]

This is a nice build log. Great Work.

Thank you!!

- Dan