Home Distiller

Does anyone know of any plans, or schematics for the still developed by Anneas Coffey for whiskey distillation in Ireland?
It would be interesting to see if it could be scaled down for home distillation.

Was that a diagram that you posted on the "bubble cap" thread? I found a diagram but it's really criptic. And certainly no scale references. I'm gonna keep looking.

That would be a really ambitious build. Shit loads of wow factor too

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mOsqmOB4z3s/R ... ystill.JPG" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Most detailed rendering I could find so far.

http://www.lexic.us/definition-of/Coffey_still" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Nudern

Thanks LWTC that has definately got my thought juices flowing. I can feel another build in the wind , I just have to adapt it for home use. I have got to work out how to simplify it.

Not exactly a coffey still, but this might work, any comments
It will make a twin column head, firstly a potstill column leading to a refluxing thumper, with multiple plates, with drains from each plate draining to a lower level. It should be quite an interesting build.

Where will you position the drain tubes in relation to the top side of the plates?

In other words, how much potential fluid will you allow to pool on the plate(s) before it drains?

Do you think it will need a return to the boiler?

I'm thinking the design will be just fine.

I'm almost more interested in how your going to solve your mounting aesthetic. You've created a high standard with the Frankenstill. Gonna have to give it the "olddog" touch. No pressure ......... and perhaps an intergrated (and matching) parrot?

olddog wrote:Not exactly a coffey still, but this might work, any comments
It will make a twin column head, firstly a potstill column leading to a refluxing thumper, with multiple plates, with drains from each plate draining to a lower level. It should be quite an interesting build.

Suppose, instead of slant plates to collect and re-evaporate distillate that were shown in the 'home-build' diagram, you used something that looks like half a hollow doughnut? ('Cut side' upwards.)
Perhaps a poor description, but anyway the slant plates offend my sense of the way things should look (hey, just the way things seem to me, no big deal) and so because they 'don't seem to look right' (being asymetrical in shape and in placement, and each coming from a wide top down to a little narrow bottom, maybe, and holding a relatively deep pool of distillate) it doesn't appear to me that they would work as well as some other configuration.

This suggested 'half-doughnut' shape of reservoir would hold distillate at an even depth and extend all the way round the column so its operation, the process of evaporation, should be 'smooth and even', not 'uneven' because of the irregular shape of the pool of distillate in the slant plate and the irregular positioning of the plates. Evaporation would be very efficient too because the small, shallow pools of distillate would vapourise much more readily.
(Every other plate still I have seen has had plates that each cover the whole of the column, but I am using your idea of little pools, with room for the vapour to pass them, rather than the traditional, perhaps more efficient but undoubtedly more complex to make, still with vapour bubbling through collected condensate.)

You could set up any number of the 'half-doughnuts' one above the other, fixed to each other by three light rods up the centre, and drop the whole thing down (poke it up?) the middle of the column. They could be made to a tolerance that would allow easy insertion but with very little vapour by-pass.

And it would be practical to stick copper mesh between the 'plates', and even through the 'holes in the doughnuts', if you wanted to. Probably would work well.

I know my story would not get good points in an engineering test but you see what I mean?
I would love comments from people with more knowledge and experience than myself.

olddog wrote:Not exactly a coffey still, but this might work, any comments
It will make a twin column head, firstly a potstill column leading to a refluxing thumper, with multiple plates, with drains from each plate draining to a lower level. It should be quite an interesting build.

<lol> Look familiar?

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =1&t=12638

Yessir, it works just fine! Adding two more plates today, in fact.

olddog there is a good schematic on. http://www.whisky-distilleries.info/histoire_EN.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow the header is history of whiskey-scotch whisky- . the spelling of histoire is correct as it appears in the address. sorry i havn't a clue how to post a link. .

barney fife's mods on his boka got me thinking like the baker. i have copper foil that can be cut and punched into washers with lips. a second hole in the flat for drainage clocked for non alignment with the one below. i have a couple different thicknesses of foil to try. just an insert for an oversized column. but in mid september i got my 4 yr. old grand daughter on an almost daily basis, so my full steam ahead on a vm build changed to itsy bitsy spider and abc's. i am thinking 4 is a little young for still building. i'll have time for my build later. believe me the trade off is worth it.

my question about this partcular picture is why not stack the columns like barney fife's work? is there a purpose for the out the top in the bottom vapor path or only a solution to fitting a very large still in a room?

edit: looks like i accidently learned how to post a link. cob

You posted a URL correctly but I think their server may be case sensitive so it didn't work correctly for me. I had to link to this version to work http://www.whisky-distilleries.info/Histoire_EN.shtml

cob wrote:my question about this partcular picture is why not stack the columns like barney fife's work? is there a purpose for the out the top in the bottom vapor path or only a solution to fitting a very large still in a room?

The vapour path going from top to bottom would give a thumper type, using the liquid drained from the plate returns, giving a rectified second distillation.
The main difference with a Coffey still is that it uses vapour from the first column to pre heat the second column, I use a similar principle with the Frankenstill with the lyne arm wrapping around the thumper, using the vapour to pre-heat the thumper from the outside, rather than the internal heat tubes in the Coffey still.

Post deleted

Chasin' Tales wrote:Would something like this work?

You could add as many thumpers as you wish.

The only problem with chaining too many thumpers is that you end up having to build excessive pressure within the boiler in order to adequately drive vapor through those thumpers and that spells "danger"...

If you had 10 thumpers, each with 12 inches of water, that would equate to a 10’ hydrostatic head that the vapor would have to overcome. Assuming you have 8.3 pound per gallon water in the thumpers, the 10’ hydrostatic head would be 4.3 psi. Operating the boiler at 4.3 psi does not sound dangerous to me at all.

Chasin' Tales wrote:If you had 10 thumpers, each with 12 inches of water, that would equate to a 10’ hydrostatic head that the vapor would have to overcome. Assuming you have 8.3 pound per gallon water in the thumpers, the 10’ hydrostatic head would be 4.3 psi. Operating the boiler at 4.3 psi does not sound dangerous to me at all.

Perhaps not... But when you consider the volatility of ethanol vapor, and the fact that natural gas coming into your home is at a much lower pressure, at about 1/4 psi, at what point does it become a safety concern...??? Whether distilling inside or outside, the safety risks are the same... The only thing that changes is the value of asset loss... Numbers by themselves mean nothing if not correlated with other factors...

Can a flour paste seal withstand ~5 psi...???
Should we expect everyone coming to this site to have the ability to think ahead of the curve...???
Would you pressurize you cars gasoline tank to ~5 psi and light a match next to it...???

Safety first and foremost... Sure, it can be done, but is it the safe thing to do...???

rad14701 wrote:

Safety first and foremost... Sure, it can be done, but is it the safe thing to do...???

Safety first absolutely! Yes it can be done and I'm confident it could be done very safely. What I failed to think about was those who may have to improvise do to lack of materials, tools, or fabrication skills. I work in the oilfield. It is not uncommon to deal with natural gas at pressures of 2000-3000 psi. For me, alcohol vapor at 5 psi is manageable. Would I operate at that pressure with a flour paste seal? Wouldn't even think of it.

Please forgive my oversight. I will delete my post with the design.

No need to delete the post, Chasin' Tales... This dialog is good information for novices who may not have the skills or wits that some of us have... You have them due to your profession... I have them due to prior profession and thinking outside the box... Even potentially bad designs are good information to have on-hand if it helps avoid potential catastrophe... Someone with proper skills and safety precautions might even be able to make it work... From the safety aspect I just have to interject the "what if" components...