Adult's Meccano Set

[kimbodious]

A new addition to the configuration, a Stilldragon long condenser for greater cooling efficiency now that I am using recirculated cooling water. I am very happy with the new configuration.

[Yummyrum]

Good to hear that new shotty is working Kimbo

Is that on your pool recirculating or the Air cooled tank system you made ?.... sorry forgot its name .

[kimbodious]

thanks yummy, all good, using the pool water at the moment. I think the wet season high temps and humidity would seriously test the BBC evapourative water cooler system especially seeing as the reservoir is only 220 litres.

I am actually running the CCVM at the moment, cleaning up someone else’s junkahol

[kimbodious]

I get the odd PM about modular construction designs. I am more than happy to help out. I am thoroughly engaged with this hobby and totally believe you don’t need to spend a heap of money of to have building skills to start out on this hobby - I have none of either I reckon I have now settled on two still configurations that will see me through.

I’ve had some false starts along the way and some disappointments but if you don’t have a crack you won’t fail but you won’t learn anything either. I don’t call them mistakes anymore - they are learning opportunities!

[citified]

I get the odd PM about modular construction designs. I am more than happy to help out. I am thoroughly engaged with this hobby and totally believe you don’t need to spend a heap of money of to have building skills to start out on this hobby - I have none of either I reckon I have now settled on two still configurations that will see me through.

I'm thinking about putting together a similar modular system to what you have put together here. I see merit to both the VM and CCVM modes, and it would seem from this thread that you've settled on running as a CCVM currently. Which mode do you prefer and why?

[kimbodious]

CCVM, by far the easiest still, for making neutral, to operate, in conjunction with a power controller.

[citified]

Thanks for the quick response! I think that's the direction I'm going to go.

[kimbodious]

all good! With a reflux column of any sort you need to have adequate control of the rate of vapour being pushed up the column. If you are running electric then a power controller is a must. Most people’s initial issues running reflux stills is to do with either the reflux condenser being overwhelmed by the amount of vapour and/or the condensate from the RC not being able to return to the boiler quick enough; both conditions are solved by slightly reducing the rate of heating to the boiler.

[kimbodious]

I made some notes for a friend recently on how I run my CCVM, hope it can be helpful

Running my CCVM - used only for spirit runs

Usually 40 litres of low wines, around 35% ABV plus 5 litres water

Equipment list
50 litre SS beer keg boiler with 220VAC element and thermal layer insulation
Power controller with SPDT switch, SSVR controller and digital meter
Packed column - 48” x 2” SS spool packed with SS potscrubbers,insulated with a polarfleece sleeve
Sightglass tee - 2” SS tee with SD sightglass kit
Offtake tee - 2” SS tee
Reflux Condenser Housing - 12” x 2” spool
Reflux Condenser - 6’ of 1/2” OD corrugated stainless steel tubing (gas heater hose) twisted into a spiral
Offtake Elbow - 2” SS elbow
Product Condenser - 20” by 2” SD shotgun condenser
Product Outlet - 2” endcap with 1” ferrule and 24” 3/4” copper pipe
Collection Jars - 22 x sequentially labelled Moccona Coffee jars (200g) with lids and graduations marked for 300ml 600ml and 1000ml

Cooling is via a recirculating system using 3/4” hoses from a sump pump in an inground swimming pool. The condensers are plumbed in series, inputs to PC which then outputs to RC.

Operation.
Pour low wines and water in the boiler
Place insulation around boiler
Connect power controller to the boiler
Turn on power to the boiler
Set power level to part way, roughly 1400 Watts at 240VAC

.... while it is heating up - usually takes about 1.75 hours
Assembling the still
I assemble still taking care to remember to put insulating sleeve on column section.
Put RC in lowest position
Connect up cooling plumbing between condensers and the sump pump.
Turn on sump pump
... while waiting for the heating up
I lay out the collection jars in label order.
... I am listening for change from heating up sound to the quieter boiling sounds

Reaching total reflux
When the heating up sounds diminish I start watching the sightglass, if I’m lucky I’ll see the glass momentarily fog as the first bit of vapour condenses on the cool surface. I am ready to reduce the power level if I notice there is a rising level of condensate building up in the sightglass. I usually end up with the power level at this stage at down around 400 Watts! The RC is in the lowest position and the column is now in total reflux (equilibrium) requiring very little vapour flow (controlled by power controller) to keep the system in this state.

End of total reflux ... some time later
There is a point when I notice things change i.e. odours, boiler sounds and the amount of condensate visible in the sightglass, I use this as the prompt to start drawing off fores.

Drawing off the Foreshots
I raise the RC about 3/4 of an inch.
I increase the power level to around 1250 watts or until I am getting 2 drops per second of fores.
I collect 100-150 mls fores.... about 30 minutes

Drawing off the Heads
I raise the RC about another 1” to start collecting heads at a faltering stream
I collect heads in 300 ml samples.
When I have collected 4 x 300 ml samples of heads I raise the RC to the upper position... about one and a half hours

Drawing off the Hearts
I increase the power level to roughly 1400 Watts or the level required to maintain a steady stream of output (roughly 1.2 litres per hour)
I collect in 300 ml samples until I am sure I am getting hearts (usually by sample #6) then I start collecting hearts I collect in 600 or even 1000 ml sample
..... swapping jars for the next 12 hours, product is a temperature corrected 95% ABV

I can speed things up a little by turning the power up to say 1600 watts and achieve maybe 1.5 litres per hour output but the column is then on the verge of flooding

At some point I’ll start to hear the boiler heating sounds get louder and smell the odd whiff of tails, so faint I think I am imagining it. Nonetheless I switch back to collecting 300 ml samples.

Usually before I am on to the second 300 ml sample the rate of output drops slightly. That is a good enough signal to shut down the run.

[777]

I am collecting also pits and pieces for modular build. First I will put together CM still here rough drawing

I know dephleg will be hugely oversized but that gives possibility use that in LM configuration
And I have planned using needle valves and flow meter for controlling reflux
Then I got idea for continuous stripping column with almost same parts it needs only couple of more needle valves pump
PWM controller and chinese LM module here rough drawing

[kimbodious]

Looks good. You could put the dephleg above the offtake and run it as a VM, you’d need a valve after the offtake. That is the beauty of modular construction. If you are in Australia I have a Stilldragon Big Baby condenser for sale if you haven’t got your dephleg yet?

[777]

Yes that is possible too I have ordered both condensers already and I'm not near Australia

[777]

Yes that is possible too I have ordered both condensers already and I'm not near Australia

I did get condensers today 2pcs 16" long shotguns with 7 inner pipes id 12.5mm

[eStill]

Anyway now I have my own construction set to play around with!

What are the half-round clampy things called and where can I get some, please?

[kimbodious]

Anyway now I have my own construction set to play around with!

What are the half-round clampy things called and where can I get some, please?

The clamps are mostly referred to as triclamps, mostly ebay from China but also locally from StillDragon

[kimbodious]

final version of the pot still

[kimbodious]

Final version of the CCVM

[Yummyrum]

Nice Kimbo . See you ditched the thermometer and added a bigger PC .

Do the Maccona lids help keep the Mortien spray out of the booze

[kimbodious]

Nice Kimbo . See you ditched the thermometer and added a bigger PC .

Do the Maccona lids help keep the Mortien spray out of the booze

My old eyes couldn’t read the thermometer anyway
Ha, actually not much in the way of flying biting insects. The lids are to keep out the bloody Robber Flies. I have removed most of the plastic seal, just leaving enough of the ring for a bit of a seal.

[kiwipete]

image.jpeg
image.jpeg
Stripping run tonight but I have added on the completed gin head (left side vertical piece). Sal has mixed up one basket of lemongrass stalks plus kaffir lime leaves. The other basket has cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and cardamon pods. Once the product is flowing, I will first drop in the herb basket and collect one litre. Then I will replace that basket with the spice basket and collect one litre. Tonight this is about proving the concept and not so much about the finished product.

Hi Kimbo,

I'm pretty much a newbie here, and am in the process of getting all the bits together for a modular CCVM still pretty much like yours. I have a question with regards to the gin basket setup. So you are using the two Tees on top of each other, I get that. With regards to your mesh filter baskets: how far do they go down? Do they go all the way down to the bottom of the bottom Tee? (and if so, isn't that a problem because the botanicals may not be fully in the path of the vapour, which comes in through the middle of the bottom Tee and rises). Or are you somehow suspending the basket so that the bottom of the basket is above the middle of the bottom Tee?

Otherwise, enjoying this thread.

[kimbodious]

gday Kiwipete2

No probs about the question. Good observation. I made a little stand out of left over SS mesh to hold the bottom of the basket just at the top of where the vapour enters the chamber. This also serves to keep the basket up away from any condensate that comes from passive reflux.

The 2” tees are really too narrow for a decent-sized basket. It would be great if you used 3x3x2” tees. I just worked with what I already had.

[kiwipete]

Hi Kimbo,

That makes perfect sense now.

Whilst thinking about it, I came up with a super minimal alternative (and cheap.. ): Have a mesh washer / seal between the two Tees, so the top Tee functions as the container. Downside would be that you can't swap botanicals in mid stream like you did in the earlier post.

[kimbodious]

I swapped baskets out the top of the chamber. My stand was way fancier than it needed to be, a simple stool of a couple of loops of SS wire would be sufficient. I would try and make the baskets as long as required for maximum exposure to the vapour.

[kimbodious]

Quick update for those who have been playing along, I have sold the packed column, sight glass and reflux condenser. That just leaves me with a pot still. I hadn’t run the reflux column in nearly two years, we really don’t use much neutral spirit.