I use a recycling pump and a 20 liter bucket for the cooling water. the hot water comes out the top of the condenser and into a system of pvc half-pipes attached to the wall - back and forth, and the water waterfalling down into the next pipe. a very feng shui feeling. with it, i can run my 50 liter pedal to the metal for a stripping run with only popping in a frozen pop bottle of ice from time to time. i also put aluminum cooling fins in the pvc to absorb heat and disperse it. It kinda works and i love the sound.
Both me and my whiskey are ageing. I hope my whiskey finishes first.
5 g. clawhammer
50 l. homemade pot still
5 l alembic for alchemy and experiments
vernue wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 4:46 am
I use a recycling pump and a 20 liter bucket for the cooling water. the hot water comes out the top of the condenser and into a system of PVC half-pipes attached to the wall - back and forth, and the water water-falling down into the next pipe. a very Feng Shui feeling. with it, i can run my 50 liter pedal to the metal for a stripping run with only popping in a frozen pop bottle of ice from time to time. i also put aluminum cooling fins in the PVC to absorb heat and disperse it. It kinda works and i love the sound.
New guy here but I've done home brewing for a bunch of years. With beer you want to cool it down a fast as you can. I'll be distilling at a buddy's house that is on a well, during the dry season we were wondering about how much water we will be using. What we came up with is a 2-part plan. To start off with we have a 60 qt cooler with a 25 ft coil filled with water and ice. the chill water goes through that and gets down to about 38 to 40 deg F. When we hit the dry season, we have a rain collector (250 Gal) and pump it through the in line with the ice chest. The out-flow goes back into the rain collector, and it hardly changes the temp. When brewing we never really checked on the flow other than feeling the temp differential.
For what it's worth it looks like the cooling water temp might change the end flavor for some runs. try it out and see what you like. I know I'll do 5 or 6 runs with different temps just to see how it changes the taste.
I was told when I started that the cooling water should be ice cold, with bags of ice in it. I realized that was probably because the person who sold my friend his still knew that the product condenser was tiny and weak and needed all the help it could get.
Duffbrew wrote: ↑Wed Mar 30, 2022 5:09 pm
For what it's worth it looks like the cooling water temp might change the end flavor for some runs. try it out and see what you like. I know I'll do 5 or 6 runs with different temps just to see how it changes the taste.
The only way I can see that working is if you are trying to selectively condense the congeners. In which case I think you're going to need a very long condenser and some fairly warm water. I'd be very intrigued if you got a noticeable difference in flavour that could be solely attributed to coolant temp.
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo
I remember asking this question previously and I was told absolutely not to add ice to my flake stand/condenser. I was using frozen water bottles and changing them out as needed. I was told that this will negatively affect the spirit. Is this still the case?
1 - Turn the water from hot to cold very quickly. Note the experience.
2 - Turn the water from hot to cold very slowly - crank it towards cold just a notch then let everything normalize. Including your body. Do this until it’s cold. Note the experience.
Which do you prefer? Which do you think the spirits prefer?
Now, pour your regular measure of likker into a nice clean glass and throw it into the fire-pit as a sacrifice to the ethanol gods… Note how that feels - this is proof that the ethanol gods do exist if it hurts you somewhere deep down inside to do this with good aged likker.
I know this is an old post, but I just did my first stripping run yesterday. My mash was a sweet feed mash. Even though I was planning on keeping all but the foreshots, I still labeled all my jars and did the cuttings like I was going to pick and choose. Just for the fun and experience. It was exciting. I put my pump in a small pot of ice water, but also add ice to the condenser. I collected in pint mason jars. the first 2 came out warm, but third came out cool. the cooler it was the smoother and sweeter the taste. Because this was my first time, I thought that was the difference between the heads, heart and tails. (I ran out of ice toward the end and it became warm and not as tasty). Maybe it was the difference of the ice in the condenser, or a little of both? In total I used about 5 small bags of ice, but I only ran it for 2 hours hot and fast (4 gal run).
I couldn't read the article posted above. the print was too small. When I tried to make the print larger, the text in the magazine got smaller. Not sure why.
I have a hunch that what you’re experiencing is heads/hearts/tails, and little or nothing to do with temperature. But in general, there’s not much point in collecting in separate jars for a stripping run. I use a couple large jars just because they’re convenient containers, swapping them out and emptying into glass carboys. I only separate out the spirit run.
Also, I’ve used that same flake stand. I found it a PITA pretty quickly. That was what started me on the path of building my own condenser. That one change made a huge difference in my ability to enjoy running the still.
Learn from the past, live in the present, change the future.
Steve Broady wrote: ↑Sat Jan 07, 2023 8:33 am
I have a hunch that what you’re experiencing is heads/hearts/tails, and little or nothing to do with temperature. I did my first spirit run the other day and you are correct. I don't think it had anything to do with the temp of the water in the condenser. For the spirit run I did not add ice/snow in my condenser and had the same outcome. I know how to run it more efficiently now and haven't had any warm collection jars. But in general, there’s not much point in collecting in separate jars for a stripping run. I use a couple large jars just because they’re convenient containers, swapping them out and emptying into glass carboys. I only separate out the spirit run.
Also, I’ve used that same flake stand. I found it a PITA pretty quickly. That was what started me on the path of building my own condenser. I can't wait to build my own condenser, though I get mine to work better now, it is too small That one change made a huge difference in my ability to enjoy running the still.
so I just wiped out my original post and put this in
