New 3" Pot still with pics
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 6:25 pm
It started with this:
Recent storms in our area brought down trees, limbs, gutters and just about anything that wasn't bolted down. After the storms, the neighborhood was littered with piles of junk piled up at the street. Walking the dog the day after the storm, I walked past this sitting in a big pile of crap. Didn't pay any attention to it until the sun caught the edge of it while walking past it and it winked at me. The edge of the pipe caught the sun just right and reflected it right back at me.
I didn't even hesitate. I picked it up and started walking. It turned out to be a piece of 3" copper downspout somebody must have cut off the house after it was damaged by the storms. I gotta believe it's over 60 years old. It took me several days to get this thing close to clean.
It ended up with some really cool distress marks over the entire pipe. It measures just over 5'. I've been running a 2" Bok for just about a year now with excellent results. I've produced some nice neutrals as well as some really fine, all-grain wiskeys in pot still mode. Although the column still is alright for wiskey, it's not ideal obviously. I was tossing around the idea of a pot still of some sort and now I have something to work with.
I didn't want something just thrown together for the sake of having a pot still. I really wanted something a little different, mostly all copper, efficient and compact. I didn't start with any real plans, just a piece of 3" copper downspout and a 32-quart stainless cook pot. The plan was to use the propane burner I already had for the Bok.
Then I found this on ebay: It's a 12" diameter copper planter with a brass base. I heated it up and removed the brass base, then flipped it upside down. Now I'm starting to get a picture of what this could look like. I went to work searching for more copper I could add to this project.
I didn't even hesitate. I picked it up and started walking. It turned out to be a piece of 3" copper downspout somebody must have cut off the house after it was damaged by the storms. I gotta believe it's over 60 years old. It took me several days to get this thing close to clean.
It ended up with some really cool distress marks over the entire pipe. It measures just over 5'. I've been running a 2" Bok for just about a year now with excellent results. I've produced some nice neutrals as well as some really fine, all-grain wiskeys in pot still mode. Although the column still is alright for wiskey, it's not ideal obviously. I was tossing around the idea of a pot still of some sort and now I have something to work with.
I didn't want something just thrown together for the sake of having a pot still. I really wanted something a little different, mostly all copper, efficient and compact. I didn't start with any real plans, just a piece of 3" copper downspout and a 32-quart stainless cook pot. The plan was to use the propane burner I already had for the Bok.
Then I found this on ebay: It's a 12" diameter copper planter with a brass base. I heated it up and removed the brass base, then flipped it upside down. Now I'm starting to get a picture of what this could look like. I went to work searching for more copper I could add to this project.