Home Distiller

So I decided to do a diary. I was originally going to put it in Column Distillation and Design forum. But figured since I'm a novice and this may help out other novices to put it here instead.

First I want to start with a little bit about my history and current situation.

Back in the day I had a hobby. And it was good. I was happy. Lost my job of 9 years, then my girlfriend and eventually my jeep, my house. That was maybe three years go. Anyway now I'm back to living with my parents. I can't get back into my old hobby here.

My Mom used to make fruit wine back when I was young. So I decided I would try my hand at wine making. When my banana wine finished and I finally took a drink it was way dryer then I would have liked and I could barely taste the fruit. With hers the fruit flavor was always strong. Anyway I never really got into the taste of wine so decided to look into distillation.

So I decided to build an internal reflux still, you know the one from that infamous site... I started pricing out copper. Once I knew I wasn't going to save that much by building one, and wanting one that other people would feel safe drinking the alcohol from, I decided to buy one from Brewhaus. Me being me I knew I was going to want to upgrade eventually so I went with the High Capacity model with the keg fitting.

I had ordered my keg earlier so I had some time to install a 1500w water heater element in it. Just after ordering my Brewhaus equipment I found this site. Once I started reading I realized that I could have built a still that was easier to control and at a fraction of the cost.(bold for other novices thinking about buying one) I came across Rad's Gerber recipe and then his Allbran one and decided to try the Allbran.

At this point I only had one fermenter which was a five gallon plastic water bottle, and that was filled with banana wine. I remembered how much of a bitch it was filling up. I found this http://www.eckraus.com/WINEMAKING/Wine_ ... TT140.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow Although I liked the idea it seemed over priced. So I searched for the manufacturer of the container itself.

I Found out that its actually sold as an air tight container for pet food. I cant remember if its PetSmart or Petco that sells it but online it was on sale for thirty something dollars, its called Vittle Vault. I couldn't wait for shipping so I went to the store and in-store it was $44 and not on sale. I picked one up and attached a $4 dollar valve, 99 cent air lock and cheap aquarium thermometer on the side. I'm really not sure of the capacity Eckraus says 14 gallon, Gamma says it will hold 13.5 gallons of bird seed... I can't imagine this hobby without this, being able to dump ingredients in, drain to my keg and clean up is sooooooooo much easier.


Test/Cleaning Run(How not to do it)

So I got My PSII HC still and set it up minus the reflux lines and the packing, filled up my keg with about 10 gallons of water and plugged her. Water was boiling in maybe an hour or so it was way fast got maybe a quart of distilled water out and shut her down. At that point I was thinking 1500w was too much and would probably need to build a controller.

Next day I mixed about 2 gallons of the banana wine with enough water to be sure my element would be submerged the whole time. And basically did the same thing as with the water.

What I did wrong and how I could have done it better.

The water run was ok except I probably should have kept it going and collected more water. The "test" run was a big screw up as I didn't really test anything.

I should have had my packing in there for a few reasons. Packing changes the speed, if I had the packing in I would have known before my first real run how long it takes to get to temperature. Also I would have known then during testing if I had packed the copper too tight or not. As it is I had to find out I did it right during a real run.

I should have had the reflux lines hooked up and running so I knew what to expect during a real run. I would have learned that the 5 gallon bucket I had for recirculating water was way too small. I would have learned a better way to run and control the lines.

I should have used a thermometer to help me star getting used to the temperatures. This wasn't really my fault, I accidentally broke the glass thermometer and was waiting for a digital replacement. I should have waited to do the test run.

Allbran Run #1 12/21/09

20lbs sugar
1 box Allbran
28 tbsp Red Star Dry Active Yeast
??? water


So I inverted my sugar and simmered my Allbran as I dumped the sugar into the fermenter I was adding cold water and wisking. It took multiple pots to invert that much once I had the sugar and Allbran in there I would add water wisk for a few minutes an test the specific gravity. I was aiming for 1.08, but over watered and got 1.077(temp corrected). I pitched my yeast at 99 degrees f. For some reason I thought the original recipe called for 1 minute aeration(it calls for an hour). I wisked my wash to aerate for about 2 minutes.

Two and a half days later it was about stopped so I opened the lid and stirred it up. It was back to fermenting for another 12 or so hours. I let sit for one day then transfered to my keg. I don't have the measurement from the hydrometer but it finished out at about 11-12 percent.

Ok time to distill...

My packing consists of raschig rings at the bottom copper mesh at the tri-clamp up to the bottom reflux lines then raschig rings to the top of the reflex tubes. At this time my bucket for recirculating water was only 5 gallons.

It took a couple hours to get up to temp. Nothing was coming out till I turned down the reflux water to where it was just trickling, then distillate came out at 164f then shot up to about 174f. As soon as it shot up I changed glasses and re-opened the reflux line at let it reflux. After awhile maybe half an hour or so I switched back to a trickle and started collecting.

Through all that I was having to switch 5 gallon buckets like crazy. I collected(not counting heads) 800ml at about 94% and got fed up with the bucket situation. I turned the reflex water off completely. I went to the parent site and was reading up on things while distilling and ended up turning my thermometer to Celsius since most things are wrote in C I stopped collecting at about 94C.

Most of what I collected ended up being 60%, in fact when I added my 94% and everything together it ended up being around 65%. After diluting to 40% i had a total of about 5600ml which I bottled. I was very disappointed with the amount collected. Using the calculators I should have gotten way more. The hooch was a little ruff at first the last bottle may have gotten to be two weeks old tasted decent.

Allbran Run#2 01/11/10

24lbs sugar
1 box Allbran
28 tbsp Red Star Dry Active Yeast
??? Water


This time I did not invert the sugar nor did I simmer the Allbran. I used hot water ~140f and stirred as I was adding sugar. Specific gravity was 1.097(temp corrected). I pitched the yeast at about 98f and used a drill attachment stirrer/aerator for a few minutes. Again it slowed in a little over 2 days so I re-opened and gave it a stir. The next day there was no activity so I checked with the hydrometer and it still had a little, not much, way to go. I stirred again, but no activity came so 2 day later it went into the keg. Again I got about 10 gallons of 12%

This time I was a little better prepared for distillation. I have a 19 gallon tub, the kind you stick a keg into with ice, for recirculating water. I added a valve for the input on the condenser arm. I moved the reflux input to the top tube instead of the bottom tube, since heat rises this makes more sense. Also, I took off the vinyl hoses going in and out of the vinyl tubes and replaced with compression fittings and copper pipe. The vinly hoses had creases from the first run that may have held up the water flow. And I added insulation. And I believe the raschig rings settled below the reflux area, will check when I clean today.

I had my condenser arm valve three quarter opened the whole run. My valve for the reflux tubes ran full open up to the very end. I filled my 19 gallon bucket with 5 gallons of water and ran till temps came up. Then I added 5 gallons cold water and 5 gallons of Ice with cold water. When water felt about 70f I would drain 10 gallons and add 5 and 5 like before. The last two times were just 10 gallons cold water.

I either had a little more then 10 gallons of wash or a little more then 12% because I over shot the amount of alcohol that can be collected. This run went great. I have 3200ml of 94%, 600ml of 93%, 600ml of 92%, 300ml 91% and 300ml 89-90%. 5000ml 93% abv, not including some heads.

I stopped collecting at 84c, that was the 89%. At this time my still was shacking a little and I could hear the rings bouncing near the reflux area, kind of like a rattle snake. Then my temps fell way down, into the 70c range. I ended up closing the valve for the reflux water and temps went up to 94c. A little cloudy distillate came out and I shut her down.



I'll post some pics when I get around to finding my camera.

I got a few more tools of the trade. Two glass five gallon carboys, a universal top, stainless racking cane, new hydrometer, extra bottles and cork for the bottles and carboys. I also went out and got stuff for another Allbran run and a bicycle tire pump to be used with the universal top and racking cane.

Now that I have my carboys I can do strip runs if I choose to. For the time being though I think they'll be used for aging. With the use of the racking cane and bike pump bottling should be real easy. I've already thrown my 5l from the last run in one of the carboys and dilluted it to 45%. Well wasnt quite 5l anymore the angels got 100-200ml and when transfering to carboy the devil's share was, I'm guessing 200-300ml. Also lost a little while plaing with the cane and pump.

I still need to clean the still and keg. It was way to hot the day after, and still pretty warm yesterday(01/13/10). I guess the insulation worked lol. At some point I would like to solder my parrot, its already cut drilled and shaped just haven't found time to solder.

Friday I cleaned the still, and yeah the raschig rings had settled just below the reflux tubes. I also started another Allbran ferment on saturday. Ill post the specifics when I distill, probably thursday.

I'm planning on keeping the rings where they are. If I get another good run, then Ill take out the rings and add some more copper mesh on the top end. Ill be changing the packing around the area of the reflux tubes each run. I would like to get a little more control over the reflux then I had on the second run, without the instability of my first run.

Ive been drinking my second run. I may have been a little more then greedy. I could have cut some more from the heads side of things. But still way better then the cheap vodka I had gotten used to drinking.

That pretty much brings this thread up to speed on where I am.

Always fun to read somebody else's diary. Hope you keep it going.

Braz

Great to read your diary and to see the enthusiasm and determination to succeed. Your still will produce good stuff once you learn it with plenty of practise and understanding. Think of it as a pot still/reflux still. When reading the pot stillin advice here in this forum you can apply it, reflux advice here will apply too. Just have to find where your still balances at.

No matter...it all comes down to the CUTS. If only one jar in the whole line tastes good then only drink that jar. The rest can be run again always trying for better separation and better hearts.

Thanks for dropping in guys. Sorry for not posting sooner, I just got dumped earlier this week and have found myself just staring at the screen for hours on end. My wash is still slowly fermenting so it looks like I'll push back distilling till sunday, as I'll be busy saturday.

I did manage to find my camera but no memory card, it figures lol. Also got my parrot soldered up, just need to clean out the flux an clean up the solder with my dremel. Not sure if it will be done by sunday or not though.

Allbran Run #3 1/25/10

25lbs sugar
1 box Allbran
28 tbsp Red Star Dry Active Yeast
??? water


This time I inverted the sugar, but no simmering of the Allbran. Added a little more water and had a starting sg of 1.087, finished around 1.002. This time it took six days to finish fermenting, probably do to lower temps in my room. The wash sat for three days before I got around to distilling.

The distillation went as smooth as the last run. I didn't use ice at all this run just cold water. Other then that everything was done the same. I ended up with a little less(400-500ml) over all. I haven't made my cuts yet but I'm guessing somewhere around 3600-4000ml of 93%.

For now I'm out of yeast, haven't made my mind up on buying online or going to the store. The store I get it from is 45 miles away and I think it was $4.35 for 2lbs online I think the lowest Ive seen is $6 something plus a seemingly large shipping amount.