Home Distiller

Well, after weeks of "great, what will go wrong next" I have something to show for the time spent. For your viewing pleasure, I present...
My new pot still.

It still needs a good clean up and steam run but I think its finally sea worthy. I think its definately an improvement from the old set up. What do you guys think?
P.S. BIG THANKS TO LEVEL JOE!

it looks cute
how large is the boiler?

nice job

Your column and condenser are almost exacly like my setup. Nice work.
What are you gonna use for heat?

The boiler is 29 liters and it fits on my kitchen stove top (ng).

Way to go.

Nice looking still. I'm sure your efforts to build it will be well rewarded.
Do you have packing in the column?

Very Nice

What are you going to put through it on it's first run?

The 12 inch column is packed with 8 copper scrubbies (choreboy). I don't know if they will make much of a difference.

I started Uncle Jesse's sour mash recipe a month ago. It finished fermenting in about 5 or 6 days. The flange on my old still broke off as I was setting up to run it. That's what sparked this project. I'm going to run that wash this weekend. It's been in my buckets for a while. I hope it isn't ruined.

Good luck with your sour wash...
Nice pot still you made, nice spirit you'll make!

Nice work LHCB. That's a nice mini keg you got there. You said it will sit on top of the stove, are you using a gas stove or electric? The reason I ask is because the bottom of a keg is usually convexed and would not work on a conduction type stove ....but I'm sure you already thought of that.

Once again great job!

Looks very nice. Congrats.

Would you mind posting a pic of how your copper bowl connects to the keg?

Thanks,

Aidas

Here you go Aidas,
I drilled six 3/16 inch holes in the keg. I cut 1/4 inch threads into the holes with a thread tap. Then I screwed 1/4 inch by 1 inch stainless steel bolts wrapped with a little teflon tape into the holes from the inside of the keg so the posts are sticking up. Then i put s.s. nuts on the posts. I tightened them down with a socket wrench on the nut and a crescent wrench on the bolt head. I got them as tight as I could.




I bent 1 1/2 inch fender washers to grab the lip of the bowl(its stainless, by the way). Wing nuts hold the washers tight.



From all the pictures and discriptions I've seen and read, I think this is how most people do it.
Sorry about the measurements if you use metric.

And my stove is gas, U.R. I am going to get a propane burner soon so I can move the operation out to the barn.

lhbc is your colum 2in or 1 1/2 thinking about biulding a pot myself i have a reflux.

I used 1 1/2 inch because that is what fit the flange. I used a s.s. sink drain for the flange.

Once again very nice work LHCB....it's great to see the work of someone who takes pride in the task at hand and does things right.

Hey , fine job, that looks real nice.
Did your wash last?
How is the new still working?

Hey all,
I'm back. I've been unbelievebly busy lately. I forgot last week was easter. The in-laws were over all day, so I had to wait till today to run. Just finished. I'm sippin a little right now. I bought a 185K BTU propane burner and set up in the barn. Holy crap, I got 5 gallons to a boil in less than 15 minutes. Sure beats the 45 minutes on the stove. The mash survived and turned out ok. I have back set cooling right now for the sour mash.
The still worked wonderfully. No leaks, nice and clean, easy as pie to set up, tear down and clean up.
I'm going to try to keep the sour mash going, saving low wines until I have enough for a spirit run. Now all I need is a nice oak barrel!
I used some paper engine gasket material for the seal. Stuck it on the keg with some thin flour paste kinda like papier mache. It baked right on and sealed tightly against the bowl. Good idea, Uncle Remus.
And thanks again, Level Joe, I would probably still be looking for that stupid brass nut if it wasn't for you!

24 hours and no sign of fermentation. I don't think the yeast survived. Bummer. I'm gonna re pitch more yeast in the morning if it doesn't start back up.

EDIT: I just got home from work and the bubblers are slowly bubbling. Its alive!