First Still, First Run

[jharvey]

Gentlemen,

First of all let me thank all of you for the enourmous amount of information that you have contributed to my success.

About three weeks ago a friend showed me a small pot still that he bought off of eBay. He helped me distill some wine down to brandy, and told me about this sight.

I immediately went to work on my first still and first sugar wash. I decided on a reflux still and sugar wash because my goal was vodka that I could use to make martini's, my drink of choice. The first thing I did was start a sugar wash of 2 gals. I have been making wine from kits for about 2 years so I have the equipment and a bit of experience.

Then I started designing a still. I designed a simple CM reflux still based on the pictures and drawings posted on this site. I wanted it to be easy to build and easy to use due to my lack of experience. I used off the shelf parts and slowly tweaked the design based on what was readily available. The cloumn is 36" long and made from 1.5" copper. The reflux condenser is simpy 1/4" copper wrapped around the outside of the column. The output condenser is a simple liebig made of a 3/4" copper pipe with a 1" copper jacket made from a couple of 1" x 3/4" reducers and a couple of 1" tee's. Cooling water is supplied by an aquarium pump sitting in my sink. I add ice to the water to keep it cool. The temp probe is a digital thermometer from Harbor Freight Tools.

Last weekend I ran the still for the first time to check for leaks. A couple of the joints leaked due to my lack of experience with sweating copper. Once I took the leaking joints apart and looked at the way the solder flowed inside the joint it was eveident that I was not heating the joints evenly before flowing in the solder. With the leaking joints reapaired it was time to run the still. I did a few cleaning runs and decided that it was ready for its first run.

Today I poured 2 gals of fermented sugar wash into the boiler (pot), turned on the pump, turned on the stove and let'er rip! I let it run at full reflux for about 10 mins and melted 10 lbs of ice! I backed off the flow to the reflux condenser and watched the temp probe. I pulled the first 50 ml then started pulling 250 ml batches. 250 ml is what I need for my alcometer test cylinder. The first batch tested at 92% abv (temp corrected). I was so amazed and excitedt hat I didn't keep very accurate notes or measurements, but the still settled down and gave me just about 750 ml of 90% abv, which I cut down to 40 proof with filtered water.

I am now sitting on the couch drinking one of the best, and cheapest martinis I have ever had. I am raising as toast to all of the contributors of home distiller.

Cheers
James

[rednose]

While having your well deserved Martini I would think about how to secure the rig, your pot don't give me very much confidense and copper is heavy.

Just a thought

Joe

[jharvey]

Rednose,

Don't worry, it is hard to see it in the picture, but there is a clamp holding the column to the exhaust hood above the stove. You can kind of see the square shim I used to keep the column from scratching the hood.

This still is not the most elegant, but it is really a prototype. I will be taking it apart to use the fittings for a VM still.

Thanks for the input. One point that I am still working on is a better way to secure the lid to pot. The rim on the pot is too narrow for me to drill and tap it for screws. I may build a type of small C-clamp with a thumb screw to hold the lid on.

Thanks,
James

[Nemo]

I really like the way the cooling coils look on the outside of the column. Can't wait to see what the next generation of this still is gonna look like. Congradulations of your first drinkable batch.

[jharvey]

Nemo,

Thanks for the input. Yeah the cooling coil looks really cool on the outside, unfortunately it is not very efficient. I will be posting pictures of the next still when it is done, but it will look very plain, just like many of the other VM stills out there.

JH

[The Baker]

I hope that black thing half-way up is not the handle of a valve; it would be dangerous.

[manu de hanoi]

save on fuel and increase power by insulating the copper (a piece of blanket is enough)

[WalkingWolf]

I hope that black thing half-way up is not the handle of a valve; it would be dangerous.

Don't worry, it is hard to see it in the picture, but there is a clamp holding the column to the exhaust hood above the stove. You can kind of see the square shim I used to keep the column from scratching the hood.