Stirring boiler charge while stilling?

[Chroi]

Anybody running a magnetic stirring rod or recirculating pump for stirring the wash/mash in the boiler during heatup?

Prob not much sense if you're refluxing but for pot stilling could make cuts more well defined?

[shadylane]

Tried using a drill powered stirrer on a electric pot.
Did it in the hope of being able to distill on the grain.
Ruined the heater and the mash.

[rad14701]

I see very little benefit at the hobby scale... Just more complexity for very little, if any, benefit... I prefer a well cleared boiler charge... True moonshiners only ran dirty because they fermented and distilled in the same vessel... I'd rather leave the yeast and their poop out of my boiler...

[Chroi]

I see very little benefit at the hobby scale... Just more complexity for very little, if any, benefit... I prefer a well cleared boiler charge... True moonshiners only ran dirty because they fermented and distilled in the same vessel... I'd rather leave the yeast and their poop out of my boiler...

My wash is always cold crashed and gravity racked.

I was thinking more along the lines of making the various compounds boil off more evenly and completely, ie less smearing

[woodshed]

I see little benefit to the cause but could be wrong.
Learning to make well defined cuts will make it easier as well. Often the answer is putting in the time.

[Chroi]

Sorry for the necro-post but I'm revisiting this issue as I'm about to go electric and adding a stirring rod will be infinitely easier than when I used natural gas.

I'm surprised by the resistance to this idea. Stirring while heating is standard practice for most labratory distillation regardless of scale. Doesn't this go hand in hand with power management ie running too fast= unwanted smearing? (Yes some smearing is going to happen and to a certain extent is desirable or it wouldn't be a pot still)

To clarify I'm not worried about scorching wash or solids on the element. This would be strictly to see if there is any better separation of the compounds. Since boiling point is the only way for a potstill to separate fractions, I definitely see a benefit to making the temperature change in the boiler as even and steady a process as possible.



Woodshed I hear you loud and clear but I'm not sure how this runs counter to learning to make good cuts. Seems like this would augment your ability to make those good cuts.

[shadylane]

For heating thick mashes, stirring is a necessity.
A thin wash will begin to stir itself once it comes to boil.

[Chroi]

A thin wash will begin to stir itself once it comes to boil.

Exactly!

However......

It will move according to convection, the way the system wants to move it. The whole point is we want every ounce of wash to heat as evenly as possible. So, no hot or cold spots

As someone who cooks for a living I can tell you an unstirred pot of liquid, even pure water, will have a noticeable difference between the outside and center vs one that is stirred a few times.

Overly simplified model but you get the point.

[S-Cackalacky]

Interesting idea. Keep us posted on how you go about implementing this.

[Brutal]

[DAD300]

My wife splits hairs without a knife.

[S-Cackalacky]

Brutal, that's funny. I had to look at if for awhile before it all clicked.

[Chroi]

Lol touche, I may be concerned about nothing.

That said it seems fairly easy to try. Just gonna super size a standard magnetic stiring plate. I'm on the lookout for a simple electric motor which ill make the stiring plate out of, and I'll either wrap a large neodymium magnet in PTFE or encapsulate it in copper or stainless for the stirring rod

I have access to a standard size lab plate. I suppose I'll try that first in a keg and see how much it moves

[shadylane]

A thin wash will begin to stir itself once it comes to boil.

Exactly!

However......

It will move according to convection, the way the system wants to move it. The whole point is we want every ounce of wash to heat as evenly as possible. So, no hot or cold spots

As someone who cooks for a living I can tell you an unstirred pot of liquid, even pure water, will have a noticeable difference between the outside and center vs one that is stirred a few times.

Overly simplified model but you get the point.

When heating water in my pot, there's a big temperature difference depending on where it's measured.
Once it comes to boil it's all almost the same.

[rad14701]

Given time, convection will do the stirring - eventually becoming a homogenous mass of virtually the same temperature... However, if that mass is too thick to allow convective motion to take place then stirring may be required...

[Steep-n-Rocky]

The one place I have seen stirring as a part of distillation is with palinka. Here is an example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1wbgireQWw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow. I can see it as a help where you are distilling something thick like fermented fruit washes.

[bellybuster]

that still is wicked!!! I want one

[Brutal]

That is awesome! Its not a stirrer though its a rake. Love to have something like that. Worm looks weak though.

[Johnny6]

Sorry if this is too off-topic, but what do you think is the story about the seals on the still in the video? To me those look like liquid seals at the top of the boiler, and at the top of the condenser. Perhaps they pour some (high boiling point) liquid into the cup area of each seal before they start the run. Since the vapors are never pressurized, the liquid (perhaps cooking oil?) would prevent leakage.

Anyone every seen anything like that?

[shadylane]

Just add water.