Home Distiller

Hi I am one of the new guys to this site.

After spending a couple of weeks looking at this site I decided to have a go at building a still.
Unfortunately there is so much information and differing opinions about designs, it has taken me some time to decide what to build. Add the confusion about metric & imperial measurements and the problems finding supplies the right size, my brain has been slowly melting.

Due to the small size of my kitchen everything must be compact.

My pot is going to be similar to GingerBreadMan's v3 ( 11ltr pot with a bowl soldered/welded to the top ) with a 22mm compression tank connector.

I have made 2 small lyne arms 22mm dia. ( probably will not notice any difference between the 2 due to there small size ).

I have decided to make a curved liebig condenser, 15mm core and 18" 25m water jacket. Hopefully this will make the vapour/liquid make more contact with the copper surface and take up less space.

The most complicated part to build is my parrot, so I built it first. I am very happy with the result.




My first batch of UJSM is happily bubbling away after 4 days, I'm not sure how long it will take to finish, so I should hurry up and solder my pot together.

Looks fine so far, I guess you'll have a piece of copper tubing inside the plastic jacket on the liebeg?

"I have decided to make a curved liebig condenser"

Consider wrapping a 8-12 gauge copper wire around the outside of the inner copper tube of your condenser. Tack it with solder at several places to hold it in place. I am not sure if it was Hook or someone else that posted the idea but I did it. The idea is that it disturbs or "swirls" the cooling water around the inner condenser tube (a.k.a. spirit tube). This should move hot water away and cool water in around the hot spirit tube. I do not have scientific evidence but it seems to me that I use far less cooling water now than before.

My liebig condenser has a 15mm copper pipe down the center.

I have seen the post's about adding copper sections in the water jacket to create turbulence but all the leibig's I have seen like this were straight.
The extra copper sections probably increase the hot surface area and act as cooling fins as well as disturbing the water flow.

I am hoping the curve in my condenser will create enough turbulence and my re-circulating pump will allow me to pump the water as fast as I want.

At the moment I am trying to keep things nice and simple but eventually I would like to make a nice long spiraled leibig condenser.


Last night I soldered the rim onto my pot.


Now the top fits on nicely.


I have filled the pot right up to the top with water and found no leaks.
Hopefully the cleaning runs will go as well.

I have made all the parts I need and now have to treat all the brass connectors and clean & test the entire system.

My UJSM has been fermenting for 6 days now and the bubbling has started slowing down. If I leave it to rest for a couple of days after it stops, hopefully my still will be ready to run.

mouse,
thats a slick looking pot you put together there.
you are on the right track. welcome to the board and keep us informed.

Mouse, ya wash seems to be way too slow, six days on UJSM and still going.
When I was running that, I was stripping every four days.
Looking at ya set up you might be running the wash too cold.

Wouldn't worry about wash taking different times to ferment.Temp and other reasons can slow one down. Long as they finish out the main thing

Sticking it on top of my fridge probably wasn't a good idea.
It's temperature is staying around 25C, not sure if this is too low or not.

Of course being a noob I just had to mess with the ingredients.
I have used 7lbs "Demerara" molasses-rich raw cane sugar to add colour and more flavour. ( trying to sound like I know what I'm doing )
I also used 2lbs of whole corn with 5lbs of cracked.

From 2-4 days it was bubbling almost constantly, on the 6 day it was bubbling every 2 minutes but now on the 7 day it only bubbles every 5-10 minutes.

When I added the yeast to the wash it was around 36C, not sure if this would cause a slow start.
I also washed and boiled the corn for 10 minutes, can't remember how long I left it to cool down.

Going to do a couple of cleaning runs tomorrow.
If everything goes well I will get come cheep booze to practise with on Sunday.

dont worry too much mouse.. it all usually works out and if it doesn't , you just add more yeast later. Dont follow the packet instructions too much... for distilling they're usually totally wrong

My wash finally stopped fermenting after 7 days.

I syphoned 10l off and did a stripping run with my 45' lyne arm and only got 1.5l @ 41%.
I syphoned off the rest and did a stripping run with my 90' arm and got 1.75l @ 39%.
I'm going to have to find a better way to support my liebig instead of balancing it on a plastic bottle.



Before anyone mentions the plastic jug, it is only there to catch the output while I take a picture of my system shutting down.
Here is the picture.



For a pot still it is very clear. Trying to add colour during ferment seems to be a waste of time.

I put 7l of backset back into my corn and added 3Kg of white sugar and topped it up to 20l of liquid.
It started bubbling almost straight away.

During all my runs (cleaning,testing & stripping) I haven't used any flour paste.
The top edge of my pot has been slightly bent out so that it presses on the inside of my pot head when fitted.



I haven't seen any vapour or liquid escaping.

One thing I have noticed is that the water in my bucket supplying my liebig gets very hot (10l bucket for a 10l pot).
During the stripping runs, 3 times I had to syphon most of the water off and add cold water.
I am beginning to think my lyne arms are too short and the heat from the pot is being conducted to my condenser along the copper pipe.

Or is this a usual effect ?

I normally use 20 gallons of cooling water for approx. 5 gallons of wash. The copper just gets hot because of the hot vapor running through it.

"For a pot still it is very clear. Trying to add colour during ferment seems to be a waste of time."


As far as I know, everything comes out clear...except the time I was running a grain based wash and I pushed too hard and the boiler puked into the pot column and lyne arm...then everything was the color of the wash...brown. Most color comes from aging on wood.

FeralPig wrote:everything comes out clear...

Certainly should.

Well I have been using UJSM/UJSSM (delete where applicable) for some time now.
It must be the easiest and cheapest system to use.
All you have to do is to buy sugar and replace a hand full of corn and add a small amount of yeast for each new batch.
I don't bother about ph levels or temperature but a batch will ferment & clear in about 10-12 days, so every 2 weeks it is ready for distilling. I have two 20 litre batches running so that every weak there is something to process.

Usually on Saturday I do two quick 10 litre striping runs and then do one slow spirit run on Sunday.



I have added sections of insulation to my pot to both reduce wasted heat loss and to prevent injury from burning hands on hot metal. I have left a good 1-1.5 inch gap at the bottom so nothing will catch on fire.
All the sections are removable for cleaning and altering of insulation.

There is a distinct change of flavour running with and without insulation on the arm. (less reflux with insulation)

I have decided to try some other recipes to see what flavours they produce.
My first experiment was with a basic sugar recipe but when it had been fermenting for 5 weeks and still hadn't finished I gave up on it.
Last Saturday I started an All Bran recipe and it looks like it will take my usual 10-12 days to ferment and clear, which is fine by me.

I have produced some nice colouring using roasted oack chips.



Unfortunately I haven't managed to get the flavour I want yet.
I'm experimenting with different flavours but I'm still at the "chuck every thing in and hope for the best" stage.
Adding a pepper corn seems to produce a nice result.
I have just ordered some oak chips made from old whisky barrels which sound like they might prove interesting.

I've got to start ageing properly.
If it's drinkable I end up drinking it all.
If it's undrinkable it's rerun though the still.
I have to get organised.

You learned to drive the rig you got. This thread is a good read from where you started to where you're at. Not in a big rush or hurry. Slowly learning and experimenting as you absorb the skills needed. Good for you and good luck as you move forward.

ww