New to distillation, or simply new to the HD forums.
** Your first post MUST go here. Introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your interest in distilling. Any posts asking distilling questions will be deleted. **
Completely new to the game, done a bit of reading and stuff and that's about it. Looking to build a still in the coming weeks.
I'm basically looking to make a neutral spirit, but it' the technical side of things that I'm most interested in. I'd like to eventually make a fully automated still that you basically push a button and walk away from (using a PLC).
As I said before I know nothing really about home distillation aside from what I've read. I do have a degree in chemical engineering, so I hope that helps From Aus!
Welcome to the forum. You might want to think long and hard about that "automated still" thing - especially the part about "walking away from it". There's some reading here that we consider "required reading" which are the links in my signature. You might also want to add the "Safety and Related Issues" forum to that list.
Good luck to you and stay safe.
Every new member should read this before doing anything else:
If you're thinking about walking away from a running still then your degree in chemical engineering isn't worth squat... We take safety very seriously here, and you should too... If your previous education didn't teach you that, doing your mandatory research here will... Never leave a still unattended - period...!!!
I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot here. When I said "walk away from" I meant "not have to interact with". I certainly wouldn't leave anything with flammable vapour in it to do its own thing for a few hours.
The goal isn't necessarily to run an automated still, but more to learn the fundamentals of automatic control and develop logic for a PLC. This would include sending alarms when things start to go wayward and even fault shutdowns, but I will ALWAYS be there to ensure nothing goes wrong.
Da Yooper, when you say there's no fun in running an automated still, I agree. The fun and education is in developing/tweaking it, once I've done that I'll probably just run it manually.
So yeah, sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. If it turns out I can't do it safely (or it is prohibitively expensive to do it safely) then I simply won't.
Noodrid you have to know what hou are doing first. After some years of practice you may know enough about it to automate but after that you may never wish to. Perhaps a flute build would perk your interest later instead. Be safe and enjoy the site whichever route you take.
GA Flatwoods
p.s. itmhas been done before and it does costs lots of time, sweat equity, and money.
The hardest item to add to a bottle of shine is patience!
I am still kicking.
Ga Flatwoods
Yep, if you don't know how to run a still manually, and be fully experienced at it, complete with those intermittent hiccups, you're not prepared to design and build and program the associated automated processes... Put the idea on the back burner until you have a few years of manual operation under your belt... Literally multiple dozens of runs... If you've never seen anything even marginally go wrong, and adequately corrected manually, you won't be prepared to account for it in an automated way...
Don't know why you would want one you would walk away from, that is part of this hobby watching listening smelling tasting.Treat it like a good woman and she will treat you good if you don't give her the attention she wants and needs she will burn ya!
Buy the ticket and ride the lightnin boys !!!
Impatience is the root of all bad things in my book of makin likker!
The sound of a thumper is the heart beat of the rebel" Warden Pappy"
rad14701 wrote:Put the idea on the back burner until you have a few years of manual operation under your belt...
This was exactly the plan, and it will probably have changed by that time. The plan I mentioned above was a very long term one. To start with I just need to learn the basics and operate a simple still manually. Once I do that I may have so much fun (or difficulty ) that I throw the automation idea out altogether!
rad14701 wrote:My significant other calls it getting my mad scientist fix... Automation just wouldn't cut it...
I concur with that Rad it is an addiction!
Buy the ticket and ride the lightnin boys !!!
Impatience is the root of all bad things in my book of makin likker!
The sound of a thumper is the heart beat of the rebel" Warden Pappy"
From Aus!
