Backslider from Australia

[Siren Song_76]

Greetings folks,

I have been thoroughly enjoying reading the immense wealth of information on this forum. I built a pot still after a motorbike pilgrimage from LA to Savanah via New Orleans a couple of years ago, with mixed results. I recently reignited the passion by building a reflux and have started on a new improved pot. The first few runs in the reflux have been surprisingly good - however I have a long way to go.

Attached is my reflux - yes I know it isn't text book and many will rightly point out some limitations - however it does work and I had great fun building it.

Looking forward to adding to my knowledge via you fine folk.

Cheers

[yakattack]

Damn... and I mean damn. I don't know much about the reflux condensers yet but that is sexy. If nothing else that column is a a work of art, that should be your avatar.

Hats off, beautiful craftsmanship.

Yak ( still drooling)

[googe]

Welcome mate, good to see another Aussie!. Gota say that's one of leftmost unusual stills I've ever seen!, very unique!!. Can you give us a run down on the workings of it, pic doesn't explain much. What sort of abv does it produce. Good luck, have fun!.

[Siren Song_76]

Damn... and I mean damn. I don't know much about the reflux condensers yet but that is sexy. If nothing else that column is a a work of art, that should be your avatar.

Hats off, beautiful craftsmanship.

Yak ( still drooling)

Hi Yak - many thanks for your kind words mate! perhaps a good thing you can't see my soldering in any detail! A bit of a gamble throwing your project out to people a lot further along the journey than yourself, so I appreciate your comments and look forward to learning from you all.

Cheers..

[Siren Song_76]

Welcome mate, good to see another Aussie!. Gota say that's one of leftmost unusual stills I've ever seen!, very unique!!. Can you give us a run down on the workings of it, pic doesn't explain much. What sort of abv does it produce. Good luck, have fun!.

G'day googe - stoked to find some Aussies on here too! Where are you based? I'm in Sydney so if you are ever in the area I would be pleased to pick your brains! I certainly didn't copy this actual design and can be quite confident no one will ever copy me so will no doubt be a one off! I based the basic design principals gleaned from wherever I could, however the operation instructions for a reflux I found on this very forum - they are without peer in detail - I will reference this of course, however will continue for the time being. The drum is a beer keg with the top cut out. I use gas to heat it. The large structural tubing is from one the best scrap metal yards in Sydney (he is a nutter!) and the cooling / collection tubing and taps from Bunnings! The still comprises of I guess twin condensers in as much as the cooling water travels up the primary column and then arcs into the shepherds crook shape and loosely coils to an exit above the collector T section in the secondary column. The primary column is packed with some copper scrubbing material and the secondary heavily so. I normally run around 15 - 20 litres at a time and have a number of idiosyncratic indicators to prompt me for adjustments! I achieve around 80 - 90% with the reflux ratio set to about 3-4:1. The reflux control tap is on the left of the T section and collector obviously on the right. The results have been ok so far...however I'm sure a lot of you may disagree!

Anyway mate, I'll post a couple of close ups when I get back home. Thanks for your interest.

Cheers..

[Siren Song_76]

Ok so here are some pictures of the build. Needless to say the design was fluid and there was a lot of 'yeah I reckon that will work' happening. I may have gone overboard with the curves but it is how the tubing came out of the flat packs! The copper ball at the base is indeed from a ball cock valve of some sort! I know it impacts the vapour rising out of the keg into the column however it makes the setup very ridged - the copper in the ball is thin and cutting it up was asking for trouble. I used a stainless steel bowl as a base during construction as it was more practical. I just ran a corn mash through it tonight and it tastes mighty different to the usual sugar wash - I thought the reflux would strip all the flavour however I have been pleasantly surprised. I'm not the world's best at soldering, so feel free to throw in your observations!

Cheers..

[googe]

I'm in Melbourne mate. Not sure if there's any others in Sydney here!. Interesting design!. So the coolant line goes all the way from the bottom of the column through the centre and up into the other column?. Did you design it?. How do your temp gauges work when there curved like that?. What are the other gauges?. So it's a lm design?. Thanks for the pics!.

[HDNB]

I love the complications of it! don't even care if it works, it's magnificent to look at.

[SassyFrass]

I love the complications of it! don't even care if it works, it's magnificent to look at.

+1

I agree with HDNB.

[googe]

I love the complications of it! don't even care if it works, it's magnificent to look at.

Reminds me of something from.avatar or star wars or something

[Andy Capp]

Welcome aboard, enjoy the ride.
That still looks super cool, well done.
Kind of looks like it was in a Dr Seuss book. You know the one. " Horton hears a pissed who making whiskey"

[Tassie Tiger]

G'day from Tassie Tiger, no brainer to work out where I'm from. Hobart, know a few refluxers from this way but still to meet any potters so to speak.
Saw a similar shaped unit in Europe last year think it was called a pan pipe design.
Cheers