Home Distiller

I have been after it from the beginning, what Mike Nixon called a fractionating still in the complete distiller.

I found that his theoretical specks don't work.

I am using a 5 foot ( 1.52 meter ) tall stainless 3 inch ( 75 mm ) OD tube. It must be loosely packed and must be UNinsulated, using 625 watts. Collecting at 900 ml/hour, not what I am used too.

I am getting about 90% distilling old tails (lower proof stuff than my usual second distillation). After the first half gallon it became necessary to turn on a fan across the room that is only indirectly hitting the column. The room temp is 12.5 C or about 50 some F. The air hitting the column is minimal now but may need to be more direct in the summer. I will see if I can get a very smaii 120 volt fan later to mount near the column in summer.

Why don't you want to use any induced reflux? A 1.5m 2" pipe run at 1500W can produce 95% at about 700ml / hour with forced reflux.

If you force some reflux, you could turn your heat up and still get better separation.

I don't want to use the water. I run large batches, have a well and recirculate from a 300 gallon tank. This will not be something I do a lot of, too damn slow, when I can make good pot still booze way faster. Nixon talked about a much higher collection rate. Something I just had to do. The knowledge gained can help my normal mode of operation.

Just moved up to 950 watts to see what happens there. I can see the collection rate increaased, I don't see a change in proof yet.

For increasing the "passive" reflux, a condenser made from a piece of copper pipe with fins from a hot water operated heat register could work.
The collumn could be posibly made from this, but I have only seen the pipe in 3/4 inch. Such a collumn might be feasable for a small boiler with limited heat input, but I think you use a keg boiler, no ?

Yes, keg for second or third distillations. Fortunate to have a tig welder friend who provided labor and material for larger primary still.

Your idea would definately help. My column is stainless, but a copper colunm, say insulated on the bottom, uninsulated at the top with copper fins and a fan when needed should work well. Keep the power low.

I think you would be better off with a real forced reflux column fitted with a air-cooled condenser. There is a good picture of one in riku's ARC articles.