Life got busy, with moving to a new house, knocking up my lady a couple more times, and working my ass off.
I drank all my drop years ago except for the gallon of honey locust aged shine that was dumped (black locust, actually. it's toxic. no bueno)
100 gallons of wash has been aging 8 years in the basement. Lost 20 to a failed barrel.
I've been catching up on reading, and it seems like:
Most people are choosing 4" flutes over 3".
@googe 's flap plate didn't get past proof of concept.
The sieve plate vs bubbler debate continues.
CCVM on plated columns is still pretty rare.
A steam wand will make calvados much easier this year, and it's an easy build.
I still have 6 feet of 3" copper to play with, but I finally have more money than time, so I'm spending a little coin with Peter to get a 3 section, 4" glasser for just a little more than I would have to spend to get unions for sight glass and copper for plates.
Planning on running it as is to deal with that backlog of apple and pear wash this winter, then experimenting with PTFE flap plates and sieve plates running UJSSM this spring
Picture a 2" tee on top of that with a CSST RC dropped through a cap on top, and a 2" CSST dimroth PC with a short 90.
Both run on tap water for cooling. Not enough space for a barrel to run a recirc pump
Boiler is just waiting on twist lock plugs and for me to finish wiring the stealth controller, both of which should be finished this weekend.
My distilling corner has a 220v plug for a welder and is 10 ft from water.
What else did I miss?
