First boka run with issues

[Blackbicbiro]

So i have built a new boka still with 2" copper pipe and a 50l stainless still milk churn with a 2.8kw burco heating elment. This has all come togeather quite nicely.

I fermented out 2 washes and charged the boiler after doing some cleaning runs. My cleaning run seemed to go ok.

I filled the boiler with 2 washes and was having real issues to get the column to equalise. I checked for leaks but everything seemed find. i later found that my condensor seemed to be huffing a little out of the top of the still. i checked the temperature of my cooling water and it was stone cold. Was a little bit confused by this. i was only putting around 800watts if power into the boiler

I ended up turning the power down and just running the column as pot still mode and collected everything i could.

Did abit of reading and others had simular problems. i ended up putting some copper mesh in side and wrapped around the outside of the condenser. The condenser is 7" long and double coiled made of 6mm / 1/4".

The column was fully packet with copper mesh to just under the slant plates.

I didn't bother with cuts or anything like that as it wasn't running all that great. I had some tails from a few years back when i had a lot smaller still and decided to pour them in and make up another wash to charger the boiler again with a condenser mode. I also replaced the flour paste around the 2" coupler with PTFE tap that was food safe. Make things alot cleaner and sealed better.

The second run went to plan. i put in around 800watts of power no problem. the condenser was knocking everything back fine without the cooling water getting hot. I turned the water supply down gently until it become lukewarm. I left the column for a good hour to equalise. The temperature raised straight to 77.69c ( a bit low but this could be thermometer tolerance will need to do some side by side testing). I was assuming that most of the foreshots had vented it self out the top from the first run that was not knocking back the vapour.

Everything seemed to go to plan this time and with the parrot in place i was getting a steady 95-96% proof for most of the run with a drip rate of about 3drips per second. the ABV dropped right at the end of the run and the temperature walked up over a 10 minute period. This is what i was expecting.

So soon as i finished i cleaned up straight to the shops for more supplies and set up a another 2 x 23lt buckets of birdwatcher mash. gotta getting it right.

I have also decided to remove the 2" coupler from the column and going to put a tri clamp flange on there. i have made one before for the column pipe to boiler with a bit of 5mm copper wire and lots of filling and can get a good flat seal. i cut my own PTFE seals out of a flat 1.5mm PTFE sheet. This will also allow me to put the head directly onto the boiler so i can do stripping runs without having to make a pot still.

I have added a few pictures of the setup parrot and condenser

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