I was playing around with a proposed LM/VM head and came up with this arrangement.
The LM speaks for it’s self.
The VM is operated by sliding a tubular diverter along the (1.1/2”) horizontal take off, this has two purposes; firstly to open the path to the product condenser and secondly to restrict the flow to the reflux condenser, I think that this combination will make adjustments a lot more responsive. I have a couple of options for adjusting the position of the diverter.
Pot Still – time will tell if I am able to make a perfect seal on the path to the reflux coil or not. Does it matter if there is a slight passing of vapour? My thoughts are that it will not and will simply reach the coil, condense and end up being routed to the slant plate take off.
Would this make life easier? I like your idea. I hope you keep us informed on it. Does it keep lined up OK? I assume you have starts and stops on your pull right?
That doesn't look any fun, but it does look expensive.
Yes, with having the cross piece continuous everything, more or less, self aligns, I do not think that the cross tee in your picture would be as forgiving.
I am short of space in the shed so I am using a vertical lieberg, 22 mm over 15 mm by 1.0m long.
I have dimpled the inner core to increase turbulence in both the cooling and vapour paths.
I got all of the plumbing sorted and the temperature probes fitted, filled it up with water and switched on.
It does what I hoped it would do. With the diverter parked in the cross tube you get 100% reflux that can be drawn off through the LM needle valve. Winding the hand wheel until the diverter is blocking the column makes the still a Pot still, with 100% output from the Lieberg. It easily knocks down the vapour from the 2.5Kw boiler.
These two modes seemed fairly predictable, but it is what happens when I turn the hand wheel that was impressive. The transition from LM output to VM output is so smooth. I can see the LM needle valve slowly drying up and the VM Lieberg slowly starting to produce.
As I said this is just water that I am playing with at the moment. I will strip it down and give it a good clean , then the vinegar / sacrificial runs etc, then I will try it with the proper stuff and take some readings, but it is looking very promising indeed.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow * Between the crosses, row on row, * We are the Dead. Short days ago * We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, * Loved and were loved, and now we lie * In Flanders fields. -- from a WWI poem
I spent a long time yesterday with water / vinegar / water runs cleaning up the build.
Today I put some junkahol through it to see what it does.
I loaded it up with 15 Litres of 15% ABV, and wound the selector out as far as it would go. This actively blocks off the vapour to the reflux coil and creates a pot still.
2.5kw took 30 minutes to produce the first product, and three 0.5litre cuts at 10minutes each.
First 0.5 litre 68%
Second 0.5 litre 62%
Third 0.5 litre 56%
I put the cuts back in the boiler and wound the selector in as far as it would go, cutting off the lieberg and diverting 100% of the vapour to the reflux coil, making it a Bokakob.
I cut the power to 1.0 kW, opened the needle valve and dumped the first 20ml or so. after that collected three x 0.25 litre cuts. I do not have a narrow band spirit meter but with the cheap one I have and correcting for temperature they were all over 95%.
Once again I put the cuts back in the boiler, closed the needle valve and wound the selector out until condensate started to appear from the Lieberg ie a VM still. Once the product was flowing I adjusted the selector until the flow rate was around 1.0 litres an hour. Making the adjustment with the selector was very easy and positive. Again three 0.25 litre samples this time 94 to 95% ABV, this was my first effort with a VM so a little learning to do here .
It was at this point the selector valve jammed solid, don’t know why but I will find out. I left it all to cool down before I investigate.
All in all I am so happy my socks are jumping up and down. It is a lot better than I ever expected.
I am going to have a large Rum and Coke - I deserve it.
I have just realised that I never posted this I wrote it a few months ago--------------
Life just gets better, yesterday I had a run that was totally clean and completely tails free, am I happy or what?
I diluted the strips from 3 TPW’ I ended up with 22 litres of 31% in the boiler
Closed the VM take-off and let the column stabilise for an hour at 0.6 kw.
Opened the LM needle valve and took off 150ml fores at one drip a second.
Then opened the valve to 2 drips a second and took off a further 750ml as heads.
Closed the LM valve, increased the power to 0.9 kw.and let it stabilise for another 30 minutes
From switch on to this point it took 5.1/4 hours, it was boring.
Now for the good bit. I opened the VM valve to around 1 liter an hour and collected 4.95 litres at 95+%. This made it all worthwhile, the temperature never moved and I did not need to make any adjustments throughout the run. No smearing, very clean tasting. The temperature spiked at the end, the output more or less dried up without any sign of tails. All in all it is a big improvement on the Bokakob hearts extraction
I will let the angels have their pick for a couple of days, but it is so clean tasting the cuts have more or less made themselves, I will reserve judgment on the first cut from the VM but the others are all keepers.
9.1/2 hours for 17 bottles of neutral at 40%. Tired but very happy indeed.
YHB wrote:I have just realised that I never posted this I wrote it a few months ago--------------
Life just gets better, yesterday I had a run that was totally clean and completely tails free, am I happy or what?
I diluted the strips from 3 TPW’ I ended up with 22 litres of 31% in the boiler
Closed the VM take-off and let the column stabilise for an hour at 0.6 kw.
Opened the LM needle valve and took off 150ml fores at one drip a second.
Then opened the valve to 2 drips a second and took off a further 750ml as heads.
Closed the LM valve, increased the power to 0.9 kw.and let it stabilise for another 30 minutes
From switch on to this point it took 5.1/4 hours, it was boring.
Now for the good bit. I opened the VM valve to around 1 liter an hour and collected 4.95 litres at 95+%. This made it all worthwhile, the temperature never moved and I did not need to make any adjustments throughout the run. No smearing, very clean tasting. The temperature spiked at the end, the output more or less dried up without any sign of tails. All in all it is a big improvement on the Bokakob hearts extraction
I will let the angels have their pick for a couple of days, but it is so clean tasting the cuts have more or less made themselves, I will reserve judgment on the first cut from the VM but the others are all keepers.
9.1/2 hours for 17 bottles of neutral at 40%. Tired but very happy indeed.
Brian,
From your post I realized that my take off rate is not too far from yours. I just got impatient at some point and took out faster and so my temp would go up. I will use your take off rate as a guide.
I have 4 carboys (about 75 liters total) of Birdwatcher's that will be done fermenting in 2 days' time, then off it goes to the pot still for stripping. Each carboy takes me about 2 hours to strip. After that I better be prepared for >10 hours of distilling time on the VM column to make 95% neutrals from the low wines.
That's about 18 hours total distilling time for 4x carboys...... but it's worth the effort.
I managed a few runs with flavoured spirits, 2 Cornflakes and 3 generations of Sweet-feed, these I took the heads off really slowly using the LM valve, then closed the reflux and took the hearts off with the Pot setting. They are both very promising. I put them on Oak, packed up my still and came to work in the middle east. Looking forward to my next vacation in a couple of months when I can try them.
It took me a few days to understand what you were saying, it seems I got stuck on the VM concept for a while.
So it was potstill mode for these flavored spirits! I hope it works out well..... I thought the packing will be doing some reflux all by itself and that would strip the flavors off....until you run out of alcohol and so the tails dominate the vapors. Would like to hear about your tasting experience when you go home for vacation!
I have a small 10-liter batch of baby cereal (different brand than Gerber) wash that will be good to go this weekend. After taking out the foreshots & heads with the LM, I plan to take out the hearts with the VM then switch back to the LM to get all of the remaining alcohol plus some tails. Depending on the outcome, I might blend in some of the tails with some of the hearts after the run. Does this sound like a good plan? Or is it better to run this batch on my potstill? I have no clue how this wash will taste like so I'm just making sure I don't end up with nasty tails in the pure stuff and the VM offers some assurance that it will not happen. It seems keeping the cuts separate will give me some margin for error..... which is what HD has been saying all along.
With my slide valve pulled out, it completely shuts off the path that allows the vapour to reach the reflux coil.
This diverts 100% of the vapour through the product condenser, once the packing gets up temperature there will be very little reflux and the still becomes a pot still.
I like it because with the LM I can compress the heads to around 10% of the total alcohol. If I have 6 litres of alcohol in the wash, I take 600ml of fore’s and head’s and dump it, if the flavour has been stripped off then it does not matterit just leaves more flavour in the still.. I then take two small cuts , maybe 50ml each and save for tasting later. Then I pull the slide valve to create a pot still and take off the hearts with all the flavour, until the tails come through.
This is very much distilling by numbers which is frowned upon by many, but when I make cuts by touch, taste, smell - I usually screw-up.
I don't know how I originally missed this thread, but DAMN! This is a very impressive design. Is it still working well for you? Do you have any regrets about the design? I really do not need another rig, but seeing your build makes me want to try it. Excellent work!
Life member, representative, and proud supporter of the Hobby Distiller's Association.
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