15 gallon Keg still rate of flow??

[Ghostpepperman]

15 gallon with 5 gallon thumper

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I just did my first test run with my 15 gallon keg still with the thumper attached.
Once it was going and JUST WATER timed 1 hour and got 3/4 of a gallon.
I turned down the heat a little bit and my next hour I got 2/3 of a gallon of water.

My question is has anyone ever measured the rate of flow from a setup like mine??
If so what was yours?
And what would be the rate of flow for Whiskey per Head, Hearts, Tails??

Any Info would be great.

Thanks,
Ghostpepperman

[corene1]

I have never done it with water but on a stripping run I collect at about 12 minuets per quart and on a spirit run I collect at about 20 minuets a quart.

[Truckinbutch]

I'm in line with Corene and I use a keg for boiler and thumper . Every rig and wash/mash will run a bit different . The more you do it the more comfortable you get with it .

[StillLearning1]

I was striping in an almost identical rig last weekend at 8 min a pint. Never timed just water either.

[corene1]

Just saw the second part of your question. When I start my run I bring the heat on pretty hard and when I get that sweet smell starting to come from the condenser I know I am about to start producing . At that time I back the heat off and bring it to boil slowly and collect the fores in drips to almost a tiny stream. When I am satisfied I have gotten all my fores I bring the heat up a bit and start collecting the heads. Just a small slow stream. When I sense that the late heads and early hearts are coming I will bring the heat up a touch more and bring the stream up to about a # 2 pencil lead size. When the tails start to show I will turn the heat up again and collect at a faster rate and put all the tails collected in my feints jug along with the early heads . When enough is collected I will do a spirit run with all the feints . Some times this has been some of my best tasting liquor. You have heads and tails from whiskey runs, rum runs just about anything will be in my feints jug. There are many ways to run your still and as mentioned earlier by others it will take time to figure out how you want to run it for your own particular tastes.

[Ghostpepperman]

Thanks guys. Now I have a better idea

[jb-texshine]

It comes down to is- its your drink,run it as fast or slow as YOU like.don't worry about how much or how fast.play with it until you find out what you like the flavor of,then remember how it was ran to make that.then repeat.the only time right or wrong comes to play is when discussing safety.
example: The correct way to make jack Daniels is not the same as the correct way to make MY white dog...

on a single run I average 11 min a pint. Stripping,a gallon every 45 min. Spirit run on low wines,7 minute a pint .
That's on a single keg w pot still head.

Just my feelings,
Jb

[Danespirit]

+1 Corene..

Excellent advice..it's almost identical how i run my potstill, with my little milkcan boiler.
Ghostpepperman...you should be aware of running water and running a actual wash, is very different.
The wash will boil much further than the water...on a spiritrun the difference is even more significant.
If you follow Corene's advice, you will have a success.
The funny sweetish smell she wrote about, are uncondensable gasses that comes off the wash prior to the distillation.
So don't panic and think your condenser is not working...it just shows you laws of nature are valid..
A piece of mesh at the end of your Liebig , might be useful to you...pack it very loose.

[30xs]

Not meaning to bring an old one back from the dead, but it may help other newbies as well. I have a question regarding the collection rate of 7-10 minutes per pint, on low wines, stated above. Would this apply to a 2” column? I have 36” riser, two 90s, and straight into the shotgun 2” all the way. I ran some about 15-18 minutes per pint. Very little flavor until about pint 20 and thought I may have been hitting tails. I shut down and decided to strip out the remainder the next day. Took about 6 pints slow before stripping the rest at about 25-2700 watts. After airing the jars from the next day have a very smooth grain flavor compared to the flavorless stuff I collected the night before. I have another wash about ready that I can throw everything back in and dilute with fresh wash and try learning again. I’m just trying to get and idea of timeframe I should expect for a 12 gallon of 30-40% wash?

[Chauncey]

Low wines being stripped, run balls out. Spirit run, A broken pencil lead size stream, low and slow. That easy.

Dilute down under 35 for a spirit run. Dilute that distillate to barrel/aging proof and let it sit and flavors will come out. Even more after age and dilute to sippin proof.

Spirit run Timeframe will be long. Plan a day for it. Run that stripping run hard af tho and fast.

[Chauncey]

I'm at work bartending and it's slow but when I'm off I'll come with some more info if that ain't nuff

[30xs]

I strip hard, but not wide open. I had read in a couple places that they thought a hard strip had an effect on flavor. I tried a broken stream that translated into a pint every 15. Being a newbie I shut down after I started noticing flavor coming over after about 7 hours and 2 1/2 gallon collected. Oddly when I stripped off the remainde it took 2 gallon to get to 35%. Tasting of the jar that was stripped at 25-2700, after airing, seems to have a good grain flavor. It has me questioning if I had a half gallon of fores, and just short of two gallons of heads and stripped my hearts into jars for later recovery? Reading some more had me finding collection rates up to double what I am getting. I understand boiler size and column diameter dictates speed. Even in the newbie guide to cuts Kiwi mentioned gaining a couple extra jars of hearts, from the heads side. I did have to use a piece of copper stripped wire to give something to direct the distillate into the stream. It was thin, maybe sub pencil lead, for about 2” and broken below that.

[Chauncey]

Did you toss fores on strip and spirit runs?

[30xs]

Tossed 8-12 ounces per stripping run, and then another hour pint, and a half hour pint prior to collecting into jars.

[Chauncey]

Ok, maybe dilute and rerun it all and collect everything in 200ml increments till you hit cloudy... You'll need a shit load of small jars but it'll really help you get a better feel for the process. It sounds like madness but there is a method.

In the future, strip balls out and do your spirit run in 200ml increments. Adjust your stream and taste and feel the liquor. Is it only? Does it taste like acetone? Keep collecting 200ml jars nice and slow

[kimbodious]

good questions and well considered responses show that you are well along the learning journey 30xs

I too practised making cuts on stripping runs, not a waste of time at all if you gain confidence for managing later spirit runs.

Play around with your power controller. Start a stripping run with power fully up. Once you’re getting a steady stream output turn the power down until you have no output. Then slowly bring your power back up until you first start getting a steady stream output and notice how you’ll have to marginally increase power during the run to maintain the steady output. If you can finesse operating the power controller your spirit runs will be a breeze.

2” pot still 2200W 240AC,
stripping runs are flat out achieving 3.5 litres output per hour, after discarding first 150 mls of fores

spirit runs are around 1450W achieving 1.2 litres of lovely liquor per hour, cuts into 300 ml samples, after discarding first 150 mls of fores

[30xs]

good questions and well considered responses show that you are well along the learning journey 30xs

I too practised making cuts on stripping runs, not a waste of time at all if you gain confidence for managing later spirit runs.

Play around with your power controller. Start a stripping run with power fully up. Once you’re getting a steady stream output turn the power down until you have no output. Then slowly bring your power back up until you first start getting a steady stream output and notice how you’ll have to marginally increase power during the run to maintain the steady output. If you can finesse operating the power controller your spirit runs will be a breeze.

2” pot still 2200W 240AC,
stripping runs are flat out achieving 3.5 litres output per hour, after discarding first 150 mls of fores

spirit runs are around 1450W achieving 1.2 litres of lovely liquor per hour, cuts into 300 ml samples, after discarding first 150 mls of fores

Judging from the fore toss I’m guessing you are running 5 gallon runs? My 11 gallon charge was running about 2 liter an hour with around 1000W at about 9.3A, if the cheap Chinese gauge is correct. It is reading the draw of my 12 volt fan as well. I can finesse the power well enough to make the first pint jar come off taking about an hour, somewhere around 600W. Trying to learn what hearts should taste like, or how far into the run I should typically find them is what I’m still trying to figure out. On a stripping run I run around 3-3500W at a rate of 2 gallon per hour. I did a few a bit hotter on an early attempt but didn’t let it clear very long and had some white on my element afterwards. I’ve held it to the 3500 limit and haven’t seen anything on it since.

[kimbodious]

No, I am running 44 litre charges, beer keg boiler. I must have the same cheap gauge because my pot still runs are at 9.3 Amp full power but 2200W 240VAC.

Temperature gauges and power meters can be a distraction for new distillers. Concentrate instead on the rate of output and the quality of the output for spirit runs. Break your output down in to regular samples in a series of sequentially labelled jars to assess changes in the quality over the run.

Determining the cuts between heads hearts and tails is easier the less smeared your product is. You reduce smearing by gently bringing your wash up to boil and maintaining a gentle rate of boiling/ rate of vapour flow and thus lower rate of output i.e. that point where you have just achieved a steady unbroken stream of output. You can’t eliminate smearing but you can certainly reduce it making it easier to detect the cuts in a few days time

You might be lucky and have robust keen senses of smell and taste or you’ll be like most of us with easily fatigued senses. Always dilute spirits for taste assessing and spit and rinse your mouth between tastes. Start from the middle jar and work out to the jars at either end. If you are using smell, hearts have less bouquet than heads or tails but the change between heads and hearts is mostly pretty subtle and your sense of smell with neat spirits gets quickly fatigued.

I could tell you what volumes/ proportions I get for heads and hearts from the two types of low wines I use but your low wines / still may produce different proportions and I’d be misleading you.

If time us a limiting factor for when you can fit in a spirit run leave it until you do have the time, this hobby rewards patience. When you are sipping product that is a year or so old the only thing that you will care about is its quality and not how long the spirit run took.

As for stripping runs I run the boiler flat out and quit the run once I have collected 10 litres (44 litre charge)

[30xs]

Our stripping runs produce pretty much the same. I get 5 1/2 gallon jars on a stripping run. As for the gauge, I hit the 20s once I’m in the upper range of my 5500W element. I’m running a Schnapps Stills SSVR based controller, I believe the same as Cranky? I’m setting a little below 20% on the dial. Right now I’m sticking to the tried and true sweet feed until a get a grasp on everything. I threw my first “learning experience” back in pot pot with some fresh wash and stripped it out again. I’ll cut that with some more fresh tomorrow and give it another attempt. While stripping it at 3 gallons per hour I did pull just a couple high speed taste samples. First halfway though the second jar, and again in the middle of the third jar (half gallons) at full proof. The flavor and smoothness of the third jar surprised me just letting it air out as it cooled.

[BamaBill]

Hello Kimbodious, long time no see.
I built a shotgun styled condenser and I can run a 5500 watt element on straight 220 power without a controller. I run a second element to get up to temperature fast and then unplug it when my thumper gets to bubbling. Normally, I will yield 2-2.25 gallons of 50 abv (100 proof) in about an hour and then shut it off.