Higgins 4" 3 sieve plate column build

[higgins]

...
It's been almost a year since your last post here, how's the flute treating you?
Are you still keeping constant power after initial heat up followed by only making dephleg cooling water adjustments throughout the run to control reflux/product flow?

It is treating me quite well, thank you. I do keep the power constant and adjust cooling water to control takeoff rate, but it doesn't really require much adjustment.

I did a couple of bourbon runs on the flute earlier this year - 2 identical grain bills, one using standard mashing and one using YLAY.

I recently held a tasting session to compare the results of my 4 method experiment after a year of barrel aging, and the run using low wines in the flute is still slightly preferred by the tasting group over the pot run. But I'm still of the mind that the pot run will be better after another year or two.

For bourbon I will probably continue to alternate between pot and flute. My batch size is such that I get enough to fill a badmo, then another 2-4 liters that I put in glass on sticks and add to my solera system. That way I have several single barrel bourbons and a blended solera 'house' bourbon.

I'll stick with the pot still for single malts.

I need to do a malt whiskey - one with the majority grain being malted barley, yet having a good sized portion of corn & wheat. Maybe around 65% malt, 25% corn, 10% wheat, fermented on grain, steam stripped, and run on 2 plates.

[higgins]

I finished my shotty (2" x 20", 4 1/2" tubes) this past week ...

Roughly 18 months later I discovered a water leak in my shotty.

On my last neutral run with my 2" VM I could not get the ABV up to azeo ... 94.5% is about the best I could do.

After my run I turned off the power but (accidentally) left the PC water running. After a bit I noticed an occasional drip from the PC so I checked out my shotty and discovered a water leak at the bottom end baffle.

So I'm rebuilding my shotty - but have to wait until I get more silver solder delivered. If I can't get it sealed up I may need to get some of TB's baffles to use instead of my homemade ones.

[higgins]

I completely disassembled my shotty and cleaned everything up real well. I reassembled it yesterday and it appears to be leak-free.

Now for my vinegar run ... I plan to mount the shotty directly on top of the keg boiler, then add my dephleg above that to allow reflux to fall back thru the shotty.

I'll hook it up in standard pot still config for the sac run.

After vinegar/sac runs I will double check it for leaks, fully prepared to rebuild again if necessary, but using TB's end plates instead of my DIY end plates.