Distilling question

[ralphpossa]

Hi, new to this forum and have a question about distilling. I did my fermetation in sterilized 5 gal. bottles. 5 lbs. corn meal, 20 lbs sugar, 20 gal. water, 1.25 oz. yeast proofed. Let stand 12 days. Tried distilling and got nothing. Water temp. got to 125 according to therm in top of still. Let it cook for over 2 hours and nothing came out. Built this still according to the Blume book. 15 gal. stainless steel beer keg with copper on the rest. The only thing I can think of is I used copper / brass brillo type pads in my column instead of the pall rings. Did I mess up? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Ralph

[bellybuster]

Pot still??

"Water temp. got to 125 according to therm in top of still."

not quite getting this statement. Run your process by us.

[jholmz]

125F is not hot enough to get anything out, if its a pot still a thermometer is not needed, heat it till you get product out of the condenser then adjust the stream and no packing is needed in a pot. someone else can tell you about reflux stills as i dont run one. I am afraid you have a lot of reading ahead of you. everything you need to know is in the forum and you need to do some research to enjoy the hobby safely

[texashine]

Ralph,
You jumped into it head first, didn't you? Fortunately, I think you lucked out. You have the right pot size. Unfortunately, you decided to make it a reflux rather than the basic. But, that's still okay, for you can run it almost like a pot still-but only almost.

That having been said, you remind me of myself about 30 years ago. My first advise to you is to forget most of what you thought you know about temperatures. Since you are mashing in such small pots, you will have a very wide spread of alcohol potential. But that is no problem at all. Actually, you should throw away the hydrometer right now. Throw it away, for you will never use it again. Throw away any other device you have to measure the alcohol potential as well. You won't every miss it and you will never have knee jerks to a funky reading.

By the way, your recipe is correct. The most critical is your water to sugar ratio. 1:1 is perfect. (I don't like such small tanks though). Take the words turbo yeast out of your vocabulary, in case you don't already know it.

Rule 1: Every mash maturing is different. there are so many variables that influence it's yield, the rule is it's ready when it's ready. The best way to tell when it's ready is to taste it. If it's got any sweet taste to it, it's still working. When the sweet taste is gone, it's ready to go. And if you don't take her then, you're not gonna like it. There are some general guidelines on predicting it's delivery time. (FYI: Unless your temperatures were really low, really low, 12 days was too long. I would have anticipated 5 days).

Rule 2. No two runs are exactly alike. It has it's own release temperature secrets that are impossible to pinpoint precisely. True, this release point will generally fall into a certain range, the truth is it will happen when it happens. (FYI: you probably won't get any condensation until you hit the 200 degree mark. My pot still gets happy at 203).

Post your results using the above.

[ralphpossa]

Sorry about that, the temp. got to 225 in the keg not 125. What I have is a stainless steel 15 gal. beer keg for the kettle and built the reflux column according to the one in the Blume book. The recipe I used came from an online and was for 100 gal. of water. We wanted to go small just to see if we can get this to produce ethanol. I split the recipe into 5ths as thats what I had 5 lbs. of corn meal. I was at 225 for over 2 hours and nothing distilled. As I had said I did pack the column with copper like brillo pads instead of the pall rings. Also I had 8 bolts holding my column on the keg and took 4 out this time so I was seeing steam come out of those holes and thats where I put my thermometer. I did this once before and fermented in a large used water tank and it also did not turn out good. So this is my 2nd try and this time I sterilized and cleaned every thing before mixing or distilling. I am a retired sheet metal worker and doing this for a fun project. I am in Northern Cal. Gilroy is the town. Again thanks for any info. one what I did wrong.

[bellybuster]

No leaks are acceptable, alcohol vapour is flammable (closer to explosive).
Vapour will take the path of least resistance. 4 bolt holes don't offer up much resistance.
Post a pic of your rig so we can properly help you get'em runnin.
Respectfully I will disagree with the advice to throw away your hydrometer. You will never ever know the outcome of your wash without one. You'll be close but......
All depends on if you want to know what's going on or just fly by the seat of your pants.

[oliver90owner]

All depends on if you want to know what's going on or just fly by the seat of your pants.

I think BB is right ... but...

I make mostly wines and while a hydrometer will tell me if a fermetation is stuck (so will taste, usually), there are other indicators. I control my ferment temperature and I know when things are going smoothly - the airlock bubbles are a good guide with time and temperature and experience.

With mashes, or washes, for distilling the same applies. You don't need them very often, once experienced, but they are there for the novice to use - as long as they are competent in a) using the apparatus accurately/appropriately and b) interpreting the results correctly.

It may not be flying by the seat of your pants, but just a little different - flying blind.

[Richard7]

the temp. got to 225 in the keg not 125.

Maybe some pictures or drawing of who your still is put together would help.

You should not be able to get to a temp of 225F without a lot of pressure. You should have almost no pressure. You may have been sitting next to a pressure bomb! Or your thermometer may be way off.

Are you vented over your condenser? You mentioned your packed column so I'm thinking reflux still here.

[stillin]

Rule 1: Every mash maturing is different.

This is not a mash, mashes are cooked. This is a sugar head wash. Corn is for flavor sugar is for alcohol.

+1 on the hydrometer BB, it can be a very useful tool. I don't always use one but they do come in handy from time to time.

[ralphpossa]

Hi, finally got a pic. to take on the formum. I used ebay to save my pic. and then browsed the pics. saved on the computer till I found it. Hope you can see it. I want to thank everyone for the help on the still project. I will plug the holes on the reflux flange so there is no leaks. But what I am trying to find out is why there was no ethanol produced. This is my sencond try at this. If I can be of any help on my end I have done sheet metal work for 30 years and was a certified welder. If I can answer any questions on those topics I would be happy to do so.

[texashine]

There's something wrong here. It is for certain your thermometer is incorrect. Get a digital, they are more likely to be more accurate. How do we know this? Because you cannot exceed the boiling point of water unless it's sealed and under pressure. That's why you can boil water in a paper cup.

Someone here with reflux pipes need to jump in. If you do not have cool water circulating in the top of your reflux pipe, any vapor there will partially fail to condense. And, if you do not have the pressure vent open in the pipe, there will be no flow. (But there will be a hell of an explosion caused by the pressure build up. So, there are three possibilities: 1. Very big leaking from the top of your boiler, or 2. No cooling in the reflux chamber, or 3. No venting of the reflux chamber, or some combination of all the above. If I had to guess, I would choose no. 3 and thank the spiriting gods for the leaks in the lid of the boiler that saved my life.

When you find your mistake, please post it. Some of us would like this mystery solved.

By the way, when I first assembled my rig, I just used water and turned it on wide open and ran it for several hours that way, looking for leaks.

[gonagin58]

Sorry about that, the temp. got to 225 in the keg not 125. What I have is a stainless steel 15 gal. beer keg for the kettle and built the reflux column according to the one in the Blume book. The recipe I used came from an online and was for 100 gal. of water. We wanted to go small just to see if we can get this to produce ethanol. I split the recipe into 5ths as thats what I had 5 lbs. of corn meal. I was at 225 for over 2 hours and nothing distilled. As I had said I did pack the column with copper like brillo pads instead of the pall rings. Also I had 8 bolts holding my column on the keg and took 4 out this time so I was seeing steam come out of those holes and thats where I put my thermometer. I did this once before and fermented in a large used water tank and it also did not turn out good. So this is my 2nd try and this time I sterilized and cleaned every thing before mixing or distilling. I am a retired sheet metal worker and doing this for a fun project. I am in Northern Cal. Gilroy is the town. Again thanks for any info. one what I did wrong.

Your thermometer should be above your packing, sounds like you've got a bad thermometer. With the thermometer above the packing you should be reading around 174F or a little above.

[ralphpossa]

Ok thanks for the replys. I iwll work on getting this resolved. There is cooling in the reflux. That blue barrel is full of water for recuculating, one in (top) one out (bottom) the very bottom there is a clear hose going to a 1gal. jug where the ethanol is suppose to be. There is another thernometer in the top of the reflux pipe & I belive that was up over 174 also. I will get a better therm. for the pot. Does the pot require a vent like a pressure cooker? Where would I install that. I don't remeber the Dave Blume book talking about that??? Thanks again.. Ralph

[CCDL]

Ralph,
I think it is very likely that you are running too much cooling water through and are in full reflux mode, making sure your condenser is fully cooled reduce or stop the flow through your reflux. I cant tell from your picture but you should have valves to regulate where and how much coolant is flowing.

[rad14701]

We can't tell much by that small image... Please try uploading a picture directly onto the forum... There is an upload section down below the normal post Submit button... If you need to resize smaller to get it to upload, do it...

Water boils at 212F/100C so there is something going on... If you are building pressure in the boiler, which is the only way you could get a reading higher than 212F, then your column is packed to tightly... You should be able to breath freely through the packed column...