Medusa - another 4" flute build

[acfixer69]

You will still need to regulate the flow out of the reflux condenser with a valve of some type. Good luck
AC

[Beer Baron]

Yeah, I do have a ball valve on the coolant control arm that controls the flow from product condenser to the depheg. I just need to add in the 90 bend on the output to stack up the water coming out of the dephleg so it remains mostly full. Thanks.

[acfixer69]

it needs to be on the output of the deflag to control the temp correctly. You will need the product condenser full flow at the same time restrict the deflag for reflux ratio and take off rate.
AC

[Beer Baron]

I don't think I explained it very well in my last post. I've actually got 2 ball valves on the coolant control arm. One controls the product condenser drain, and one controls flow to the dephleg. By slowing the flow out of the product condenser drain a bit I can divert a small amount of flow to the dephleg, and fine tune the flow with the other ball valve. It allows for full flow through the product condenser with just a trickle going through the dephleg. There's some pictures on the previous page that shows the coolant arm setup.
The problem I had was that nothing was holding any water in the dephleg, so I was not getting any real reflux. I was basically running a slightly higher performing pot still. The 90 degree elbow I'm planning to install on the output will stack up the coolant in the dephleg to provide reflux, and I can control the coolant flow through the dephleg with the 2 ball valves.

[Saltbush Bill]

and one controls flow to the dephleg.

It seems from this that your trying to control water to the dephleg on the water entry side of the depleg, My understanding of this is that your control valve / needle valve should be on the exit line. From memory the reason for this is to stop water siphoning out of the defleg.

[acfixer69]

I understood you have the valves. The problem with metering the inlet of the deflag is the condenser is suppose to stay full of water and rate is controlled not water level. Siphoning is going to be a problem in your system of piping IMHO. Also when metering the inlet it causes a turbulence in the condenser that causes it to fill with the air in the water and cause it to become air bound. Run it as you wish. look here if its still a problem. Let me know Im interested in this stuff.
AC

[Sungy]

I meter the water going into my dephleg BUT I fill in the bottom and out the top so that it will self vent of air. Shoulda , Woulda,Coulda, dont know but mine works very well in all flow conditions.

[acfixer69]

i think KS does it that way to and it works. The cross flow is the better for heat transfer and most controllable. want to tell him straight not the only way. his way wasnt working. A









ac

[Beer Baron]

I got home from work today and installed the 90 degree elbows on the output and patted myself on the back for finishing the job. Then after dinner I read the new comments here and realized it probably didn't work like I had hoped so I went back out and hooked up the pump to test water flow. Sure enough I was having siphoning problems, probably had air pockets and it was hard to control. So, I unsoldered the whole run over to the dephleg and completely redid it following NCHooch's plan and plumbed it so it would fill from the bottom. Hooked it up to the pump and she works great now - the dephleg fills right up and it's very easy to control the flow with no turbulence, and no burping and farting of air from the return hoses in the water bin.
Thanks again everyone - I'll post back after the run this weekend and let you know how she works. I'm expecting much better results than last weekend.

[NcHooch]

sounds like it should work much better .

[Beer Baron]

Last weekend’s run went quite a bit better than the first run. The first several jars I was pulling 92-94% and had solid bubbling on all the plates through most of the run. The abv started to drop down in the low 80s once I got into the hearts though. I think my problem is that my cooling water bin is too small (25 gal) so when my water heats too much the dephleg is not refluxing as well, even if I speed up the water flow. It never got below 80% though, until I hit tails and the output really slowed down. Seems like the distillate should be carrying over more flavor if I’m running in the 80-85% range, which should be better for a whiskey anyways. I aired the jars overnight and made my cuts on Sunday afternoon. I’m up to about 2.5 gal in my barrel now at 60% – half way there. I'll keep running batches each weekend until the barrel is full.

Question – should I be adding some oak cubes into my used whiskey barrel to contribute more oak flavors? The barrel was used once by Balcones distillery from Texas. It held Blue Corn whiskey in it at 62.5% for 8 months before I bought it from them. I’m concerned that the Balcones whiskey may have stripped most of the good flavors out already – not sure if I should be adding more oak or not.