1 litre alembic pot still huffing on vinegar run?

[AppleWood50]

Got this 1 litre alembic copper pot still a few weeks ago specifically for making 500-700ml of gin at a time. Finally got around to running the vinegar run tonight and this thing huffed like nothing I ever have heard before!!

Not sure if everyone is familiar with this type of still but the condenser runs entirely on ice. You simply top the condenser up and the ice gradually melts and the hot water exits the top hole on the condenser.

I ran a 50/50 water vinegar run tonight on a 500w hot plate run at 50% power using an SCR controller.

This thing sounded like a miniature jet turbine engine, it was huffing like crazy.

I thought the power may be too much but whenever I reduced it below 200w the condenser would stop dripping.

Will I likely have this same issue with alcohol runs? And is huffing actually dangerous? After all it’s sucking oxygen into a boiler of high abv ethanol vapours. Does this not pose a fire hazard on actual alcohol runs?

[Saltbush Bill]

Don't put ice in it, just cool water, your shock cooling the vapour, that is partly the problem.
It will also run differently with alcohol in the boiler, no still ever performs the same with water and vinegar in the boiler.

[NormandieStill]

You really want it filled with water with an overflow (I think I can see that) and an inlet feeding to the bottom. The ice will always float and keep the top of the work coldest which will lead to huffing. Letting the flake stand form a natural temp gradient where the coldest water is at the bottom will most efficiently condense and cool the distillate.

[jonnys_spirit]

You ideally want to run your product condenser with a temperature gradient. Cool at the product output and hot at the vapor input. This will help prevent huffing along with power management using a power controller. If your hotplate uses a temperature thermostat and cycles. The cycling will also encourage huffing. A heavy duty diffusion plate can help alleviate the power spikes into the boiler along with a power controller.

Cheers,
-jonny

[Bee]

You don't need to condense it on a vinegar run.

[Salt Must Flow]

When I did my vinegar cleaning run, I just blasted the hot vapor out a door or window. I didn't bother condensing the steam. I just wanted it clean from end to end. I can see how this might not be possible for everyone.

[Yummyrum]

And don't forget to Immediately rinse it out with fresh water . Vinegar will start corroding copper very quickly .

[AppleWood50]

Well you guys definitely had it right, thanks guys!

Didn’t have the huffing issue with the condenser whatsoever when running alcohol in this little 1 litre alembic still. The ethanol condenses so much easier.

And this was running the still on ice. I know it’s not recommended due to the temperature gradient but it seemed to work just fine. Maybe because it’s so small?

Only gone through about 1.5kg of ice making a 700ml bottle as well