Copper stills for making Rakija

Simple pot still distillation and construction with or without a thumper.

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shadylane
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Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

Here's one that uses water to seal the top
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

I like this one because it's easy to empty
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

I wonder how well it could handle a corn mash
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

Portable moonshine still
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

Check out the false bottom/percolator
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by NZChris »

I'm impressed with the amount of effort they put into clearing the wash. :D
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by jonnys_spirit »

Nice perspective! In one of the vids it looks like they were mixing low wines in with some grape pomace for the 1.5 spirit run.

Love this.

Cheers!
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

NZChris wrote: Sat Nov 30, 2019 11:56 pm I'm impressed with the amount of effort they put into clearing the wash. :D
I think brandy fermented and distilled with the fruit pulp has more fruit flavor
Than brandy made with cleared wine
A friend of mine always adds some lowines to the next stripping run
He claims it extracts more of the flavors and decreases the odds of scorching
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

This one uses a hand cranked rummager.
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by Chauncey »

The water seal thing is weird and crazy but smart af in a way
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

I used a water seal on the steamer still I made awhile back
It's real handy, the only down side is it can't hold back very much pressure.
If I try to use more than 1 plate the boiler pressure will start blowing bubbles in the water seal
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by Kareltje »

Can you not just make a higher seal?

Nice movies, by the way! :clap:
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

I could, but the steamer is mostly used for stripping

Have you noticed how shallow some of the boilers are.
They almost look like a skillet.
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by Kareltje »

shadylane wrote: Thu Dec 05, 2019 12:00 pm
Have you noticed how shallow some of the boilers are.
They almost look like a skillet.
Now you mention it: indeed, strange.
Maybe to prevent scorching by providing for a large surface? For that they also have a double bottom, I suppose. Or to keep the working height nice? Or to keep the centre of the weight as low as possible?
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

It looks like the fire box and the lower half of the boiler is kinda standardized
For burning wood from the orchard I figure they decided that's the best way to do it
For draining, some have a big valve, some just tip over to dump out.
For scotching control, Some put a layer of straw on the bottom of the boiler and poured the fermented fruit on top
Some used a hand cranked rummager, or a false bottom with or without a percolator
All the stills had a big cap, helmet or whatever Ya call it :lol:

Last but not least, and this is only my opinion, for homedistiller needs, this design is better than the classic moonshine still :wink:
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by Kareltje »

And to move the helmet they made a lever, so they can lift it and put it aside with ease and without burning the hands.
Clearly developped for intense use on a movable chassis.
I understood that these carts move from farm to farm to legally distill the surplus fruit.
The moonshine stills are designed to sit in one place, and are only moved to avoid discovery.

I asked some member of a Dutch forum, who often stills in Rumania and has a Rumanian wife, if he could shed some light on this designs.
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by Birder4life »

That shape of still would probably woek for on grain distilling to with a false bottomed like that. Wide and shallow like that might allow fast hest up times with low relatively low heat density on the bottom of the boiler. I also really like the tip-over clean out method.

Now I just need to get back out of this apartment so I have some were outdoors to use it. . .
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

Kareltje wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2019 8:45 am Clearly developped for intense use on a movable chassis.
I understood that these carts move from farm to farm to legally distill the surplus fruit.
The moonshine stills are designed to sit in one place, and are only moved to avoid discovery.
Once homedistilling is legit
There will be a need for a versatile still, one that can run anything
Not just the classic moonshine sugar wash
And there will be multiple versions of a turbo 500 for that :lol:
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by Kareltje »

I got an answer of our colleague: in Romania he has not seen stills like the ones in the movies you linked.
Some other answers talked about traditions and local customs.
We all were nicely surprised by the social character of legal small scale distilling. Like harvest fests.
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

This ones a little bit different
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

The more I dig the more I find
Seems like the good video's have cooking and distilling :wink:

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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by cayars »

Pretty cool set of video.

You guys notice what type of containers they all seem to collection into?
How about the way they make cuts?
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by zach »

Here is a Serbian manufacturer for some of the stills in the videos.

https://www.des-kazani.rs/kazani-za-rakiju/hobi/

I'm impressed with the designs.
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

I haven't a clue what is being said or where it was done :lol:
But I'm thinking it was legal :wink:

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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

Instead of saying "Copper stills for making Rakija"
I should have called it "Copper stills for making Brandy"
Here's another video I'd like to share with Ya'll
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

Would someone Please translate what is being said :!:
Looks like some kinda steam rig
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

Two steam rigs with one boiler :?:

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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by shadylane »

Google search is working tonight
I'm on a roll :thumbup:
Sorry my screw up This ain't about brandy
But It's still worth watching :lol:
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Re: Copper stills for making Rakija

Post by Corsaire »

Bookmarked for when I'm done working. I can have a go at the french ones. The others, not so much. Isn't home distilling legal in Hungary?
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