First Still Advice

[jfowler99]

Geez Im picking another keg up for $10 on monday lol

[Tummydoc]

Cant have enough. Now you've got a thumper, or a feint storage vessel, or a 15 gallon fermenter! 15g boiler and thump for $30! Great job. Anytime I see a keg for under $30 I buy it. Currently have 6. If you add a drain and valve near the bottom of your boiler, you've got a hot liquid tank to drain into your mash vessel (cheap insulated cooler) and can mash larger volumes to save time. I ferment in Brute garbage cans. Dont go cheap on that one, the less expensive (thinner walled off brands) dont hold up more than a season.

[NZChris]

Geez Im picking another keg up for $10 on monday lol

My first addition to my pot still was a charentaise style preheater using a cheap vessel the same size as my boiler. That was my second best decision after getting a fermenter that could hold four ferments worth of wash. It has saved me a lot of time and money in the three decades since I built it.

[Corsaire]

Yes, the boiler is where you put your fermented wash in. Cleaning isn't terribly difficult, usually a rinse is good enough. A bigger fill port comes in handy.
Flip the keg upside down, use the standard neck as a drain port, cut a big hole on the other side.
Or do like still it's rig, retain the standard ferrule for your column and add a big fill port.

I have to agree with the others, there's lots of uses for barrels.
Thumpers, brew kettles, preheaters, low wines and feints containers...

[Saltbush Bill]

Geez Im picking another keg up for $10 on monday lol

See how easy that was
A few ways you can go here, if you don't want to spend to much you can just clamp your still straight the the original flange on top of the keg using a tri clamp.
That is the very cheapest way, just means you have to siphon or tip the backset / dunder out of the keg when you want to empty it. You get sick of that pretty quick...I know that from experience. A drain with a tap is worth its weight in gold.
Keeping them clean isn't usually a drama, A good squirt with a garden hose or if you want to get really fussy , a pressure washer is quite enough normally.
How far you go with a boiler build is only limited by two things ....money and your imagination.....you can always start out with a basic boiler and work on it and add more things as time goes on.

[jfowler99]

Im going to research electric heaters and controls to put in as well as prob a drain. ill get my silver solder practice in!! its getting excitinf

[jfowler99]

How cool do you need to keep your condenser? Ass cool.as possible? or at a certain temp?

[jfowler99]

What would you all recommend using the other keg for. I was considering a thumper. but from what I've been reading, it should be smaller than my main pot? Whats your recs on this?

[Tummydoc]

my thumper and boiler are both 15 gallons. Cant really see any advantage for a small thumper other than it will heat up and come on line faster.

[jfowler99]

Ok great. Now Im picking up a 55 gal drum for condenser cooling. I saw a 8x8 copper heat exchanger. If I attach a fan to that run the out going line through it before emptying back to barrel, think that will be enough cooling? or I can run hoses through my pol lamo

[Tummydoc]

What is your product condenser? Are you planning on using the 55 gallon drum as a flake stand with worm or are you building/buying a Leibig or shotgun condenser? I run a 2 inch x 20 inch shotgun, and use a 40 gallon water softener tank as my water reservoir to recirculate. For pot runs it is fine but an 8 hour reflux run it will get up to 115F. I think with a 55 gallon drum and an additional air cooler you will be just fine.

[jfowler99]

havent researched condensors yet. Im using the 25 gal keg, going to make it modular to do pot and reflux. does the condenser need to keep a certain temp or keep it as cold as.possible

[Tummydoc]

Coolant temp only matter in a CM reflux still. Otherwise cool as reasonable. If too cold (iced) you'll get some huffing in your output from vapor collapse, but in general start at ambient temp. That's anywhere from 40f to 85f in my garage depending on time of year.

[jfowler99]

what temps are needed in a reflux

[Corsaire]

Depends what kind of reflux rig you're running.
Cm needs to be as cool as it takes to get total reflux, no reflux or anything in between.
Lm and vm needs everything knocked down.
Please read up some on different designs, takes some time but it's worth thinking about what you need.

[Yummyrum]

LM and VM reflux stills will work well over quite a range of coolant tank temp and need little if any adjustment go flow throughout the run .

The Defleg in a CM reflux still is ultra critical to coolant temp and will need constant readjustment throughout the run as the coolant tank water heats up .
Emptyglass and others have a car radiator and fan in the return to the coolant tank and find they can reach a point of equalisation where adjustment is minimal .

But if you are just going to use a Pot and or Thumper , so long as your coolant tank is bigger than your boiler then you’ll be pretty right

[jfowler99]

ok cool. I plan on making a ccvm modular so I can run both pot and reflux. I have 2 kegs so far so will make 1 a thumper. planing on 1 more keg for making the mash. I picked up a 55 gal drum today. So for the cooling Ill run the return to tank line through a 8" x 8" copper heat exchanger with a fan blowing through. The pump I have at work is 1/6 hp i believe. Ill add a copper meter out needle valve on the exit side of the condenser in case I need to control flow. Hopping Im getting all this right lol Im learning alot. Im going to also make the thumper modular and removable in case I dont want to use it in some case.

[Twisted Brick]

Looks like you are well on your way, jfowler99! The advice given here has been excellent and you're really making the most of it!

I was in the same boat as you when I started and I ended up collecting 5 kegs during my build. Now I use 'em all, on NG. One 15.5, I cut the top out and use as a mash tun/fermenter. The other two 15.5's I use as a boiler and almost-finished thumper. The last two are short pony's, one that I use to store low wines, and the other I use as a boiler for refluxing since I need the ceiling height. I couldn't stop and ended up buying a tall pony, a corny keg for storing wash and low wines, and a lastly a 13gal stainless conical fermenter, more for clearing and collecting yeast. I almost bought a 40gal stainless tun for fermenting, but didn't. I hope there's a 12-step program for this. I still need a bigger fermenter.

I can't tell you how much time and money you're gonna save putting your rig together the way you are doing it. Going modular is addicting.

[Saltbush Bill]

You have come a long way from this ,
You won't regret it.

51-f03Zbr3L._AC_AC_SR98,95_.jpg (3.13 KiB) Viewed 1875 times

[jfowler99]

Yes its very addicting! My wife had already said don't talk any more just give her some to drink when its done lol!!! Yea I didn't even remember that little stove top is what started all this lol. Thinking of making the mash and the boiler heater interchangeable as well. Maybe have each unit their own element and plug the controller in to well control. Im in a rental house so was looking today and will prop have to run the ext cord from laundry room as only 120v outside everywhere. Im guessing usinng the 220 is cheaper and easier. Just bout my stuff to shine my kegs to a mirror finish, will be a display piece when Im done. I like the all ss and add copper inside when needed. Ive been seeing its only limited by ones own creativity. Buy my impatience is unbearable I want to post pics NOW!!!! LOL

[tombombadil]

I've been happy with my mile hi economy dual purpose still.

I built my own 2" copper column and shotgun condenser because I thought it would be fun to learn about soldering/brazing but definitely did not need to.

If I was doing this again I would buy the mile hi boiler and build two columns, 1 packed column and dephlag for neutral, 1 for everything else.

[tombombadil]

Brewhaus boilers seem to offer similar benefits so I would also consider their offerings.

[Tummydoc]

Yes its very addicting! My wife had already said don't talk any more just give her some to drink when its done lol!!! Yea I didn't even remember that little stove top is what started all this lol. Thinking of making the mash and the boiler heater interchangeable as well. Maybe have each unit their own element and plug the controller in to well control. Im in a rental house so was looking today and will prop have to run the ext cord from laundry room as only 120v outside everywhere. Im guessing usinng the 220 is cheaper and easier. Just bout my stuff to shine my kegs to a mirror finish, will be a display piece when Im done. I like the all ss and add copper inside when needed. Ive been seeing its only limited by ones own creativity. Buy my impatience is unbearable I want to post pics NOW!!!! LOL

Mirror finish looks pretty, but you'll never see it if you insulate your boiler (which you should). Also if you run CCVM, no need to have a valve on your coolant lines. Run from your coolant reservoir to the product condenser, from PC to the CCST reflux condenser, then back to the reservoir. Make sure your pump has adequate head lift to reach the top of your reflux column.

[Twisted Brick]

Mirror finish looks pretty, but you'll never see it if you insulate your boiler (which you should). Also if you run CCVM, no need to have a valve on your coolant lines. Run from your coolant reservoir to the product condenser, from PC to the CCST reflux condenser, then back to the reservoir. Make sure your pump has adequate head lift to reach the top of your reflux column.
[/quote]

What tummydoc said.

[Saltbush Bill]

Lots of people don't insulate a boiler. In fact I'd say the majority.

[kimbodious]

Heck, if you run a CCVM you aren’t lots of people j/k. I insulate my boiler, it does make a difference but then I am only running a 2200W element. But what is more important with a skinny 2” reflux column is to keep that part insulated.

[Yummyrum]

Lots of people don't insulate a boiler. In fact I'd say the majority.

Guilty of that one .
Not an ideal way to run a still . So much wastwd heat

[Saltbush Bill]

Looks like a hillbilly shroud and insulation to me Yummy.

[jfowler99]

One odd thing, I havent been able to find any pics of a thumper being used on a ccvm? is it just not widely used? what would be better keeping 2 inch since the keg has that or go to 3 inches

[still_stirrin]

A thumper adds one reboiling. A reflux column, including the CCVM, can add many reboilings (reflux). So why use a thumper with a reflux head? It’s not much benefit unless you’re trying to stretch boiler capacity.
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