No experience distilling, wanting to do first build
Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2022 12:58 pm
Been reading about distilling now looking to try it out by building my first still. I have a buddy that's owned stills before. He's going to work with me on this project. I've done wine and mead in 5gal demijohns before but that's about all I've done with making alcohol in the past.
Goals:
I want to build a still that's efficient time, money, and cleaning wise. About 13 gallons in capacity, electric, and can be easily used/converted for both stripping and getting to ~190.
Current equipment and plan:
No current still. My buddy that I'll be doing this with has had stills before and made/modified a couple from copper years ago, has none currently though. He knows more than I do about it but it was mostly just doing hobby grade stuff as well.
I was going to buy some crap, but was shown enough quick enough to want to avoid some of that.
Now I'm thinking (open to suggestions) I'd like to make one mostly out of stainless tube w/ ferrule ends and clamps:
A 3” packed column about 3-4ft, coiled copper in the tube for reflux w/ copper scrubber packing, condenser w/ copper coil in stainless tube packed w copper scrubbers, temp gauges+ports. A 13-15 gal pot w/ electric heat element in side bulkheads and 3” ferrule ez bulkhead in lid. And get a shorter 3" column to run it as pot still. ~5500 watt element. Maybe an auto pressure relief on the boiler for safety?
Additional information:
Probably do this in the garage, got extra space for it there and ceilings are extra high. Sub panel there also makes it easy to do 240v.
Don't want to waste too much money or time. Would be nice if total expenses to start with a DIY still was in the $600-800 range, $1000max.
Ugly sketchy sketch since I like seeing them when other people post plans to forums: Looking for all the good advice I can get!
Currently I'm wondering if my condenser plan is good or if I should do the worm or something else. Generally anything critical analysis is probably going to help me out.
Goals:
I want to build a still that's efficient time, money, and cleaning wise. About 13 gallons in capacity, electric, and can be easily used/converted for both stripping and getting to ~190.
Current equipment and plan:
No current still. My buddy that I'll be doing this with has had stills before and made/modified a couple from copper years ago, has none currently though. He knows more than I do about it but it was mostly just doing hobby grade stuff as well.
I was going to buy some crap, but was shown enough quick enough to want to avoid some of that.
Now I'm thinking (open to suggestions) I'd like to make one mostly out of stainless tube w/ ferrule ends and clamps:
A 3” packed column about 3-4ft, coiled copper in the tube for reflux w/ copper scrubber packing, condenser w/ copper coil in stainless tube packed w copper scrubbers, temp gauges+ports. A 13-15 gal pot w/ electric heat element in side bulkheads and 3” ferrule ez bulkhead in lid. And get a shorter 3" column to run it as pot still. ~5500 watt element. Maybe an auto pressure relief on the boiler for safety?
Additional information:
Probably do this in the garage, got extra space for it there and ceilings are extra high. Sub panel there also makes it easy to do 240v.
Don't want to waste too much money or time. Would be nice if total expenses to start with a DIY still was in the $600-800 range, $1000max.
Ugly sketchy sketch since I like seeing them when other people post plans to forums: Looking for all the good advice I can get!
Currently I'm wondering if my condenser plan is good or if I should do the worm or something else. Generally anything critical analysis is probably going to help me out.