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Hello all,

After what has to be 40+ hours of solid reading on this forum I think I've crossed over the line from 'know nothing' to 'enough to be dangerous' now. I'm on day 3 of of my first wash (rad's all bran) and its still chugging away (used beer nuits, no fert or dap) with probably several days left.. which is fine since I don't have my still yet. I kind of wish I'd not bought one.. the boka looks just down right easy.. but, like everyone says, there will always be another still to build down the road.

Anyway, I've looked at I don't know how many stills, read the schematics (sometimes 8-10 times) until I understand them. LM, VM, CM all make sense to me.. I can even tell you the difference in a Liebig vs a Graham condenser!

What I have not been able to find is what this is. I don't recall the post I found that link on.. so I apologize to the builder for not citing you. I've seen this on several of the stills, but I can't find a link that explains what it is and what it does?

A pointer to an explanation is all I'm lookin for.. I'm more than happy to go read all about it once I have a name.. but its hard to search for "what is in this picture right here"

Thats known as a parrots beak, a alcometer sits in the center tube, and the high cup is placed under the output from the condenser to collect the spirit being discharged, the spirit then rises up the center tube allowing the alcometer to float and measure the ABV, the spirit then overflows into the cup with the discharge port where the alcohol is collected. This enables you to see what ABV is coming off the still at any time during the run.



OD

That's what I thought it was!! I even wrote that into my post but deleted it at the last minute for fear of being really wrong. Thanks OD!

Hi Ersei
I have just started out and had some time and some sodds and ends of copper and set out to build one for myself. Check out my post "my parrot" I got loads of really good advice and help from a lot of people all there in my post. If you are thinking about making yourself one its really simple but there are a few rules that apply as you will see from my post. My first incarnation wasn't correct so with help I then remodelled and now have a little beauty.
Al the best S H
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 32&t=16953

Thanks SH that link really helps. Thanks for posting that up and taking the time to follow up with the fix on it so those of us coming along after you have it just a little bit easier thanks to your efforts. It is much appreciated.

I do have one follow up question. I have drawn on that photo above how I think it works. Can someone confirm that is correct? If it is correct, then I have one more follow up question.

Why is the 'intake' open to the air? Is that so you can take off the fores and heads and just have the hearts being tested and saved? Since that last column acts like a sort of buffer.. if you had heads coming into the bottom, it would take several ml of hearts to 'push' it out, so to speak.. if it even did, it might just mix. So do people have it open so they can redirect the good from the bad?

Also, at the end of the run, how do you empty out that column? it seems like it would hold a fair amount of liquid.. I'm not lookin to get greedy and save every drop, I'm thinking more from the cleaning/putting away aspect.