Sous Vide Distillation

[Budapest8485]

I've read a lot about the basics of distilling: Safe materials, pot/reflux still, cleaning a new still, making cuts... More to learn, but I have a good start thanks to the experienced members of this site.

I realize a keg with a condenser column is probably my future, but I wondered if an experienced distiller has any thoughts about a different concept that will make use of stuff I already have on hand. My thought is to put a glass 6 gallon carboy full of homemade wine into an insulated cooler and fill the cooler with water to the same level as the wine. Then put my soux vide in the water and heat it all to the necessary temperatures to distill. I tested the unit and it will easily take the full cooler to at least 190 degrees...probably higher, I didn't test it beyond that level.

So I would have a copper column that's sealed into the carboy opening with a combination of PTFE tape and/or flour paste. The copper pipe sits in there nicely about 1.5 inch in and then makes contact preventing it from dropping in further. There's about an 1/8th inch gap between the neck and the copper pipe that I'd make up for with PTFE tape and/or flour paste. From there, everything is copper over to a copper worm inside a 5 gallon bucket to be filled with ice.

While inferior to the keg designs on this site, I wondered if anything looks like trouble. I have precision control over temperatures...I can raise and lower it one degree at a time and leave it for a long time at whatever temp I select. The temperature inside the carboy will adjust and reach an equilibrium with the surrounding water.

Glass isn't a material listed as safe...I assume it's safe. I don't think thermal shock is a problem at these low temps and slow adjustments. See the rough diagram attached.