Glass Still For Making Moonshine...can it be done?

[Alchemist75]

At the risk of sounding like I'm making excuses.....
After I was visited by the DEA one of the agents looked at me and said "we'll never bother you again". I took the statement at face value but I also saw it for what it was: a veiled warning. If they're never going to bother me again that implies they know who I am and perhaps my name exists in a file or database somewhere. I don't think they're "watching" me per se but I think I need to mind my step. These forums are anything but private, I lurked here for about 2 years before I ever joined and joining for me was a bit of a bold move. I've posted no photos here or on the artisan forums for a couple reasons:
1. There is, or at least was a standing misgiving regarding the use of glass particularly on HD. I had no desire to provoke any rebuke or negative reactions.
2. The DEA will "never bother me again". Right, assuming I keep my nose clean. There cannot be too many others quite like me in the town I live in, my name is known locally and I've helped a lot of people.
Posting photos.....hmm, not sure I trust that geotags or any other possible identifiers can be fully removed to my liking. The internet is not anonymous which is why I'm no longer active on any social networks shy of these forums and a deviantart account.
I'm awaiting a knock on my door that I sincerely hope never comes. Sorry, I'm a bit paranoid.

[Alchemist75]

Oh, for the record kareltje, the all glass thumper required that I employed bungs. There are no pre blown glass pieces that would have worked and dishing out the money to have them custom made would have been silly. If I'm using bungs I employ either cork or white silicone. In the case of my thumper kit it's actually a separate apparatus from my alcohol distilling set up. It employs a simple 3 liter flask as the boiler which is connected up via borosilicate glass tubing I bent using heat to a 2 liter flask which then has it's own glass condenser. It only gets employed in the production of hydrosols/essences and is never used as a doubler. Once I get my all metal rig set up (happening soon!) I'll set up a thumper kit that can be detached for regular running. Once that rig is set up, glass will go back to being used only for applications that require it, all alcohol production will be done on ss and copper.

[Alchemist75]

Interestingly enough, the information available regarding the use of silicone vs standard butyl rubber bungs actually states that the rubber ones are more alcohol compatable than silicone. I found that curious especially because butyl rubber is claimed to be unsuitable for food safe application as where silicone is. When in doubt, use cork, it works just fine.

[Kareltje]

Oh, for the record kareltje, the all glass thumper required that I employed bungs. There are no pre blown glass pieces that would have worked and dishing out the money to have them custom made would have been silly. If I'm using bungs I employ either cork or white silicone. In the case of my thumper kit it's actually a separate apparatus from my alcohol distilling set up. It employs a simple 3 liter flask as the boiler which is connected up via borosilicate glass tubing I bent using heat to a 2 liter flask which then has it's own glass condenser. It only gets employed in the production of hydrosols/essences and is never used as a doubler. Once I get my all metal rig set up (happening soon!) I'll set up a thumper kit that can be detached for regular running. Once that rig is set up, glass will go back to being used only for applications that require it, all alcohol production will be done on ss and copper.

Thanks for your answer. I was wondering if I missed a piece of normal equipment, but you made it yourself. Good for you, but I do not have the skills or equipment to do that.
I am very happy with my copper/ss thumper and also made already good use of my Erlenmeyer/Vigreux/Liebig glass equipment. It is very nice to see what is going on inside!
But only 2 L Erlenmeyer, so just a small production.

[hefezelle]

Excuse me, pau Maui distillery uses 100 liter glass boiling flasks, not 20. Now THAT'S a big flask.

Borosilicate glass? That'd be worth a fortune. If it's soda lime glass, then i'm interested what the wall strength is and how they heat them.

[Alchemist75]

Actually kareltje, manipulating borosilicate glass tubing is very easy. You can do it with the simple flame from a gas stove. Heat the area you want to bend and gently apply tension in the direction you want it to go and within just a few minutes of heating the glass will flex very easily. Cutting glass tubing is tricky without special tools but you can use thermal shock to get it to break off fairly cleanly. If you have a gas stove or propane torch you can do it. Also, there's nothing to say you couldn't simply employ narrow copper tubing as well. It's quite simple really.
@hefezelle: yes, I'm sure they're lab grade borosilicate boilers. They have graduations painted on the side and tall glass packed columns clamped to the top. Definitely unique as large scale distilleries go. Cool stuff. Even with the introduction of my new all metal rig I may still employ my glass set up as a spirit still. Use the vigreaux column with the glass dephlag to get the product very clean.

[Copperhead road]

Very interesting thread.....

I came across one of these through a forum member elsewhere, it cost me $350 and is great for the last step of gin with botanicals and herbs. It has a 4L capacity.
I use an all copper 5 plate CCSC modular flute for the first step of making base spirit for the Gin.

BTW the Gin recipe is known as stubbydrainer Gin.

[hefezelle]

Actually kareltje, manipulating borosilicate glass tubing is very easy. You can do it with the simple flame from a gas stove.

That might prove trickier than you think! Soda-lime-glass can perhaps be brought to working temperature, but i'm scecptical if one can achieve the 1600°C/3000°F required for "duran"/"pyrex" without at least pressurized air added to the flame. In the glass workshop i visit semi-regularily, we typically use air & natural gas for soft glass (=soda lime) and oxygen & natural gas for hard glass (=borosilicate).

I have annealed sharp edges on broken soft glass at home on my cooking stove (natural gas), but that flame has failed me even on very thin hard glass. Would be another story if i had a torch that pulls more air in tho, is my guess.

Alchemist, how long is the steam path in your condenser, and how fast can you run your glass still? For me the mediocre heat transfer in the condenser is what's limiting my speed heavily.

[Alchemist75]

That's curious, unless the glass blower who sells me my tubing is pulling my chain I'm pretty sure the stuff is borosilicate. It's very thin and fragile, fraggle rock status, I've had no problems bending it.
That bulb on top of that boiler (bio mass flask) is the same I use to get copper contact with my rig. Cut up copper scrubbies and put them in there and it works great. Acts like a boil ball too. Using a thumper for gin is more versatile. How hot I can run my rig depends on the bath I'm using, the abv of the contents, degree of reflux and the hight of the riser. My liebigs functional cooling path is about 12". In general, a strip done in a sand bath without a long riser I run at a middling heat. I use a propane gas stove for a heat source so a medium low to medium flame. Honestly that runs my wash off pretty fast, 1 1/2 hours at worst once I'm up to heat (45-60 minutes in a sand bath). I gauge by where the vapor stops condensing in the liebig. If I had to I could always connect a second liebig to the first one and run hotter but I can't imagine why I would. If I'm running the heat full blast I'm probably fooling around with destructive distillation and you don't use glass for that. On spirit runs I run the flame at it's very lowest in a water bath and I collect at a 2-3 drip a second rate giving about 85% abv. I'm going to try the vigreaux and reflux condenser thing on my up coming spirit run to see if I can push the abv up higher. That'll amount to using somewhat greater heat to overcome the reflux

[Antler24]

Also it should be fine to heat the glass by gas, much cheaper then electicity and easier to control the heatinput.


PP

How expensive is NG and electricity in your area?

I was using $20 propane per run, now I'm using about $2 worth of electricity for the same run.

[Alchemist75]

I think if you're employing a bath the heat source doesn't matter as much as baths tend to maintain a more stable heat especially sand. A pulsing heat plate still sucks just the same, I hate that feature