Home Distiller

I have a 15 gal beer keg that I am going to use for my boiler. I have a big ol' propane burner that I'm going to use to fire it. I am going to attach a stainless mixing bowl to the top of the keg. I am gonig to mount a 18 1/2 inch piece of 2 inch copper pipe to the bowl. I can't decide which way to go from there.

I have been thinking about building a pot still very similar to the fine one Uncle Remus built. The only difference is that I would be kicking the out put tube down at a 45 degree angle.

Uncle Remus -

Do you think that the bowl/pipe connection would be strong enough to hold up the out put tube with a healthy cooling jacket full of water kicked down @ a 45 degreee angle? I don't want to fool with using a companion flange type thing if I don't have to. I plan on just brazing the 2 together as you did. I also am wondering if the 1/2 inch copper pipe would want to give up by the 45 fitting. I just don't want to be in the middle of a run and have the thing bend over & kink on me.

The other idea that I have had is building the type that is shown in 'Building a Home Distillation Apparatus'. The reflux model that dosen't use any needle valves. I would just run it as a pot still.

I just can't decide which way to go. I only want to brew rum & whiskey, but the wife likes vodka so on occasion I would like to produce some really clean neutral spirits. I'm just not sure what would be the best way to go.

That being said, I would like to get some feed back from folks that have both types of stills and just what they think about them, so maybe I can get off the dang fence.

You can easly convert a reflux still to a potstill, but you can't make a potstill into a reflux.
Why not build a nice tall reflux column. Just take the packing out and you have a potstill.

I have built a potstill similar to the one that you describe. Except I used a stainless steel skillet instead of a mixing bowel. Very stable. I ran a test run ( water ) today. Worked great!

Swag wrote:You can easly convert a reflux still to a potstill, but you can't make a potstill into a reflux.
Why not build a nice tall reflux column. Just take the packing out and you have a potstill.

It's not the same

Check out this guy's pot still.http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1813
It looks like what you are describing. I intend to make a similar one from the leftovers from the reflux still Im building.

Swag wrote:
You can easly convert a reflux still to a potstill, but you can't make a potstill into a reflux.
Why not build a nice tall reflux column. Just take the packing out and you have a potstill.

It's not the same

So knuklehead, are you stating that using a reflux still w/o the packing won't give you the same results as a plain jane pot still? If so what's the reason?

You ever done it? If you had a column you could shorten then it works just fine but using a high column will still give you a higher proof in one run then any pot still.

thats true.... it would always be SOME reflux, due to the fact that air and vapors have a tendeny to stick to plain faces (like the inside of your column). the more surface area, the more vapors will stick to and condense into reflux.

tell me if this is absolutely wrong, but thats how much i can get out of my limited knowledge of aerodynamics and simple physics....

Thorin...

Aerodynamics? I think you're reading the wrong book. Knucklehead's right though... a reflux column with the packing removed it not the same as a pot still. You can do it but for the best result, you want both. Then you can use your pot still for wash runs & keep your reflux still for the pure stuff without having to worry about cleaning out any weird smells.

Hypothetically, you could make your collumn modular, 2 or more .5meter sections joined with unions, and removeable.

I don't have a collumn for my potstill, but I will have one when space allows, and it will be detachable, and able to be broken down into sections.

By the way, UR's potstill and collumn use the same boiler.

strangebrew wrote:I have a 15 gal beer keg that I am going to use for my boiler. I have a big ol' propane burner that I'm going to use to fire it. I am going to attach a stainless mixing bowl to the top of the keg. I am gonig to mount a 18 1/2 inch piece of 2 inch copper pipe to the bowl. I can't decide which way to go from there.

I have been thinking about building a pot still very similar to the fine one Uncle Remus built. The only difference is that I would be kicking the out put tube down at a 45 degree angle.

Uncle Remus -

Do you think that the bowl/pipe connection would be strong enough to hold up the out put tube with a healthy cooling jacket full of water kicked down @ a 45 degreee angle? I don't want to fool with using a companion flange type thing if I don't have to. I plan on just brazing the 2 together as you did. I also am wondering if the 1/2 inch copper pipe would want to give up by the 45 fitting. I just don't want to be in the middle of a run and have the thing bend over & kink on me.

The other idea that I have had is building the type that is shown in 'Building a Home Distillation Apparatus'. The reflux model that dosen't use any needle valves. I would just run it as a pot still.

I just can't decide which way to go. I only want to brew rum & whiskey, but the wife likes vodka so on occasion I would like to produce some really clean neutral spirits. I'm just not sure what would be the best way to go.

That being said, I would like to get some feed back from folks that have both types of stills and just what they think about them, so maybe I can get off the dang fence.

The bowl I used is quite thin It wouldn't support much weight. I have the condenser supported. If you use a thin ss bowl like I did you could probably build some kind of diagonal strut to go from your condenser to your keg. If you look around you could probably find a ss bowl or maybe even a pot that is heavier, it would make the soldering part easier as well.

If I were you I'd start with a pot still. You can always build a column to adapt to your keg later. I use the pot still way more than the reflux column now. Even if I'm making vodka, I use the pot to strip a couple batches first before firing up the reflux column. You can use a valved reflux as a pot still, but it's lotsa dicking around, pot still is much easier to run.

Good luck whichever way you decide to go.

canadianmoonshiner wrote:Aerodynamics? I think you're reading the wrong book. Knucklehead's right though... a reflux column with the packing removed it not the same as a pot still. You can do it but for the best result, you want both. Then you can use your pot still for wash runs & keep your reflux still for the pure stuff without having to worry about cleaning out any weird smells.

aerodynamics actually says alot about the vapor path in a still, and its known that flowing air, or vapor in this case, will stick to the closest surface. this also applies to water.

i used this to try to explain why you would get some reflux as long as you have a column, cus some of the vapor that stick to the walls will condensate....

knuklehead wrote:

Swag wrote:You can easly convert a reflux still to a potstill, but you can't make a potstill into a reflux.
Why not build a nice tall reflux column. Just take the packing out and you have a potstill.

It's not the same

No, it's not. But then that wasn't the original point either.

brewhaus.com sells a threaded connecter for a two inch pipe to attatch to a keg.... for 30-40 bucks.... if your wlling to shell out the dough its great.... but your have to find a two in threaded female adapter to attatch to your column... which isn't hard


Shooter

Don't know how much it matters, but my pot still does produce some reflux untill the cap gets hot enough to prohibit interior condensastion.