Length of time for a run

[kevin 82]

What is the general length of time it should take to do a five gallon run in a pot still

[MitchyBourbon]

It depends. It depends on the alcohol content of your wash/mash. It depends on the characteristics of your pot still. Diameter and length of your still head. How are you planning to run... Fast for stripping, slow for spirit run or somewhere in between for a single run. How much power can you bring of to temp with. Lots of variables. I have a 26 gallon milk can with a 3" diameter 12" tall still head. I usually run 15 gallons of 8% mash. I have 5500 watts at my disposable but I only use half. It takes me an hour to bring it to temp/boil. And about another 2.5 hours to complete, running for a single run. Wish I could give you better info.

Cheers

[Prairiepiss]

Somewhere between 3 and 14 hours.

+1 above. To many variables. Until you run your still. You won't know. Good to block off a whole day for your first run. That way you don't have distractions. Of get rushed to finish the run. Things happen. You will forget something. The lid won't seal right. The wife is using the stove. Whatever you van think of.

After you get a few runs under your belt. You will have a good idea of time frame for your setup. The cleaning runs all three of them are a good indicator of how long it will take you. So you will be better prepared for your first drinkable alcohol run.

[fowlmouth72]

As long as you don't use a cycling electric heat source (as prairie teaches) you can expect 3.5 hrs from the time you flip the switch for a wash high in apv(15-20 percent). Cut that by an hour for a lower apv wash (7-10 percent) times are approximate of course.

[tturner161]

I have a 15.5 gal keg with a 24" pot still head on it. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get my wash boiling. You can hear it boiling when it does. But it doesnt start producing for about another 30 minutes. The reason behind that is because my still head is so tall it takes a long time to heat up. While the head is still cold it condenses it back into my wash. If it was shorter it would start producing earlier after i got it to a boil. So about 2 hours for my still to start producing but I run slow and low. And then about 4 to 5 hours of collecting. My wash is 11% i think. Its starting gravity is 1.07 and FG is .99

[kevin 82]

It took about 13 hours on my stove top my still is a five gallon pot still with the half inch copper line connected the the Centre of the lid and the thermometer soldered in next to it. It's a very crude set up but it worked great for the two runs next step is a thumper to save having to distill twice then a bigger pot and a better heat source.