Home Distiller

Hey chaps,

I was in a friends house an noticed something that looked like a waste paper bin with a lid that had two blue columns and some rubber tubing attached to it. he told me what it was and allowed me to taste the result, within an hour I had gone to his local homebrew shop and bought the full Essencia 3 Kw 27 l setup.

Impulsive, maybe, but had my reasons, notwithstanding its something I've always wanted to try home stilling. I am an experienced all grain brewer of beer but also enjoy single malt whiskies so this seemed irresistable. I've since read some criticisms of the Essencia system, but not heavily into DIY so wanted a turnkey system to start.

Nonetheless did a first run on the weekend, followed instructions carefully , discarded 75 mls of heads, collected hearts to 85 deg C, and tails seperately from 86 to 92 deg C. Alco meter showed 84% on the hearts... not sure if that was good coz was told I could get 90% on hearts..

The Essecia system came with its own ceramic and carbon filter contraption, but man, how slow is it...... is it supposed to take 2 days to filter a couple of litres of 40% abv ?

I may post this elsewhere, but hey ... numero uno run and numeruno post...

Welcome.

I don't know anything about the system you are running so I really can't comment on it.

Congrats on your run and welcome to the forum!

What did you distill? Beer? Only 75 mls of heads seperation? Sounds more like you took of foreshots, but kept heads in. Head ache alley. Suggest you do a lot of reading in the new to distilling section of this side. Kiwistiller wrote and interesting post on cuts ...

Regards, Odin.

Greetings, Goose, and welcome to the forums...

Several members have used the Essencia reflux head with decent results... Some have even made modifications, like adding a packed column extension, for improved performance...

Are you running a power controller with this rig or just using mains voltage...???

Good luck with this new bug that has bitten... Enjoy the ride...

Hey chaps and thanks for the responses

Actually I distlled a 25 litre wash constructed from 6 kg sucrose and the yeast recommended by Essencia (contains nutients). Actually I was a little hasty, FG was only 1.02 when decided to distill else it would have been waiting for another week.

This system has 2 x 1.5 kw electric elements with no individual power control but I can turn one off if needed. Its really only a CM setup so clearly accurate controls are needed for the cooling side. Fortunately I have access to a a fantastic constant heat sink, ie a swimming pool and a powerful single speed sumbersible pump, so created a control setup that looks like this:



Because the submersible pump is single speed and very powerful (rated 12,000 litres/hour max), I had to create a diverter where most of the cooling water will flow back to the pool. The water inlet to valve from pump is from the right and cooling water to reflux is controlled through bottom left valve. Works a treat, but find I have far more cooling than I need, even when both elements are on and I seem to have only a trickle passing through the reflux while most returns to the pool.

I collected and discarded the heads ie about 75 mls which were collected to 79 deg C (thermocouple inserted at top of still) though this came off very quickly, probably too quickly and then from here the temperature remained steady at 79-80 while I collected the hearts. I kept collecting till temp reached 85 deg C, then switched collections bottles to tails which i took up to 92 deg C. Hearts abv was around 84%. The tails, which I willr eclycle for next batch was about 60% abv. The extraction from start of boil was completed in about 1.5 hours.

I have still to think about how I utilise this CM control both to maximise the abv% in the hearts and to maximise total alcohol extraction, because I could push alot more water through if needed... eg when temperature begins to rise, should I increase cooling water flow to maintain 80 deg C, or will this reduce the alc abv... I am guessing that increasing cooling water flow will increase reflux ratio, but slow the process down and increase alc %.... but to achieve consistency with this is going to be tough because I think I really need to know "real time" alc % or rate of product collection ...

So alot to experiment and learn with, but any tips welcome.

watch the swimming pool,,chlorine is not good to Stainless steel.

To echo Dnder, ,,,keep your calcium levels in your pool at peek levels to reduce the corrosive effect of the chlorine.

Thanks for the comments lads.

have Wash No 2 under ferment now this time controlled at 28 deg c using the Essencia 6 yeast. This time I'll even try their finings to clarify before I distill.

Given the good cooling power I will this time wind up the water flow and try to control the product rate to a much slower rate, gotta be worth the extra electricity cost.

I will aslo take more fractions. have read Kiwistillers comments on Essencia instructions, would love to know more detail if you are reading this , but sounds like the heads I collected was insufficient and 75 mls not enough.... so we talking 100 mls or more to collect before hearts to be safe maybe ?

I really want a continous way to measure ABV, does anybody use a refractometer for this ? Collecting an amount suitable for a hydrometer just doesnt cut it (no pun intended) for me.

As an update, with the last 84 pct abv I collected, I diluted to 47% (same as lahroaig quatercask ) and carbon filtered. Made up a "Peated Style" single malt using an essence.... end result drinkable, but compared to my real stuff its petrol oh well what can you expect. Perhaps this kind of process is only really good for white spirits like vodka and gin and liquers.... and a pot still is seems really the way to go to do what I want . Can see I'm going to be asking you guys very soon about commercially available units...

Anyway very pleased to get started with this toy.

a refractometer does not measure alcohol.it measures sugars.

Dnderhead wrote:a refractometer does not measure alcohol.it measures sugars.

hi mate

i think you may be thinking of the beer wort ones, but I've definitely used a machine in my student days that was designed for alcohol/water mixtures and it worked using calibrated refaction.

i just had a dig and found one here:

http://www.industrial-needs.com/technic ... CE-ALK.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

but this one would be no use during distillation as it only measures to 80 pct.

Congrats on your first run. I would like to point out what Odin touched on. The first to come out is not heads. These are the fores and they need to be thrown out. Then come heads then hearts then tails. It sounds like you mixed the heads in with the hearts. As Odin pointed out headache city. I would suggest do some good reading on making proper cuts. There are some good threads to help you with this. Then study up on the tried and true recipes.

Prairiepiss wrote:Congrats on your first run. I would like to point out what Odin touched on. The first to come out is not heads. These are the fores and they need to be thrown out. Then come heads then hearts then tails. It sounds like you mixed the heads in with the hearts. As Odin pointed out headache city. I would suggest do some good reading on making proper cuts. There are some good threads to help you with this. Then study up on the tried and true recipes.

Thanks bud, no headaches yet, maybe i havn't been brave enough to drink enough yet

I'll read up on cuts, but how much would you recommend collecting on a typical 25 l batch as foreshots + heads ?

Cheers

Don't mind that it says pot still. It's a very good read. All you questions can be answered if you just look for it.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=11640

Goose wrote:I'll read up on cuts, but how much would you recommend collecting on a typical 25 l batch as foreshots + heads ?

As much as it takes to remove those two cuts... It's not a constant finite amount... That's why you make cuts and collect in multiple small jars...

rad14701 wrote:

Goose wrote:I'll read up on cuts, but how much would you recommend collecting on a typical 25 l batch as foreshots + heads ?

As much as it takes to remove those two cuts... It's not a constant finite amount... That's why you make cuts and collect in multiple small jars...

Heres a general idea of cuts on a reflux still. You ultimately should go with your senses for heads, hearts, and tails. But here are some general cuts.....

Foreshots 50ml 3.1%
Heads 280ml 17.4%
Middle-run 920ml 57.1%
Tails 135ml 8.4%
Lost 225ml 14.0%

These cuts are based on a 7.65% abv 20Lwash and a 95% collection rate. This is just a general idea from a great book entitled Making Pure Corn Whiskey by Ian Smiley. I think a must read if your looking for some good direction to go in.

Cornbred

hey thanks for those fractions Corny

But do these apply to a pot still and not a reflux ? the heads seems quite high... though for next run on saturday will collect as many fractions as available bottles allow. Only problem is I an only measure alcohol via hydrometer and the rest is up to the olfactory and taste senses... be nice to have a gas chromatograph handy

The funny thing is, Goose, they do apply to a potstill. I use the same Iam Smiley percentages on my second distillation, potstill style. And they seem to work great. The only thing is, that it is less easy to calculate where you are in the proces, since in a potstill abv tends to drop gradually.

What I do first is calculate what I call "total collectable". I use the theory/potstill purity calculater on the parent site and calculate when the % that comes out is 10% or less. That is my stopping moment. If up unitill then I could collect say 4 liters, I would apply the 3% fores, 17% heads, 57% hearts on that 4 liter.

The actual cuts are made by tase & smell, but in general, this gives me a good indication of when and where to start sampling.

Works for me.

Odin.

Goose wrote:I will aslo take more fractions. have read Kiwistillers comments on Essencia instructions, would love to know more detail if you are reading this , but sounds like the heads I collected was insufficient and 75 mls not enough.... so we talking 100 mls or more to collect before hearts to be safe maybe ?

Hey mate, happy to help with that still if you need a hand. firstly, yeah not enough.

Goose wrote: But do these apply to a pot still and not a reflux ? the heads seems quite high... though for next run on saturday will collect as many fractions as available bottles allow. Only problem is I an only measure alcohol via hydrometer and the rest is up to the olfactory and taste senses... be nice to have a gas chromatograph handy

Yeah... that still's not really that far from a pot still. think of it as roughly equiv to 3-4 pot runs. compared with most homebuilt packed reflux columns which are more like 10-20.

Goose wrote:The Essecia system came with its own ceramic and carbon filter contraption, but man, how slow is it...... is it supposed to take 2 days to filter a couple of litres of 40% abv ?

Yup sure is, the cermaic bit is pretty much just to slow it down and get the distillate spending more time on carbon. You'll probably outgrow the filter soon anyway, and certainly won't be using it for your whiskies.

Goose wrote:I really want a continous way to measure ABV, does anybody use a refractometer for this ? Collecting an amount suitable for a hydrometer just doesnt cut it (no pun intended) for me.

You could always build a parrot.

Are you in NZ or Oz? Plenty of info out there on the big scotch guys, so you could put together a plan to clone your favourite fairly easily. The hardest part is waiting. If you're in NZ I can help you out on finding supply of peated malt.

cheers
kiwi

Hey guys, really appreciate the tips.

This was was a 25 litre sugar wash made from the Essencia super 6 yeast and 6 kg sucrose. I controlled temp to bang on 27 deg C and allowed a 2 week ferment, followed by racking to secondary for clarification for a further 2 days prior to distillation.

Well this time increased the cooling water to pretty much max and collected 7 fractions from a 25 litre wash + feints from previous bew (about 700 mls). This time run took almost twice as long becuase of the increased reflux rate and corresponding reduced collection rate.

Here is what I collected :

1. 100 ml acetone smell, retained for charcoal lighter
2. 280 ml estery, retained for next run in feints bottle
3. 1000 ml slight vanilla smell, otherwise clean 90% ABV
4. 1000 ml no hint of ester, smells clean enough 90% ABV
5. 1000 ml no hint of ester, smells clean enough 90% ABV
6. 520 ml similar to 4 and 5 but actually less on the nose 88 % ABV
7. 270 ml retained with 2 in feints for next run

Seems like I failed to obverve approximately 17% heads and volume of fraction 2 was too small, could have been another 600 mls or so, and this has gotten into fraction 3. Would you guys agree? Is this the reason for the small hint of vanilla ester I smell ? mind you it is not unpleasant .

I am guessing you experienced chaps will tell me that my useful hearts are fractions 4 and 5, and that I should re-distill 2, 6 and 7 in the next run ?. Now I do own the Essencia ceramic + carbon filter, do you think that this would clean up fraction 3 ?

Getting there, currently have wash No 3 underway using the tomato paste recipe and yeast sediment from Wash No 2.

Once again, appreciating the advice from all.

What was your final abv% of your wash?

Cornbred

What was your final abv% of your wash?

hey fella,

14%

plus I added the tails from previous run. Will record next time but these were about 70% ABV from memory.