Home Distiller

Have been working slowly through the process of producing a keg boiler to go with my stainless 3'' by approx 4' ss column with a six inch condenser coil in the top. I have already found a huge amount of great info on this invaluable website but greedy for more.

As an old time ignorant pot distiller, I was happily going through my four runs of a sugar water and bakers yeast, and getting a very pure clean neutral spirit. Having decided to go the reflux route I have with a friend got back into trying to produce a quality home made product.

We have now got to the stage where we have a wash made with classic Turbo yeast/ 18% ABV, just stopped bubbling. The keg has been done, column rigged with tubing for the water to the column condenser and the take off water jacket.These fed from and exiting to a 44 gall drum of water as a heat sink.

Our 35'' 3 KW coiled element has been installed and a first hot test with water done. It came to the boil with to a steady plume of steam from the take off exit point within about 45 mins. Next runs will be on a gas ring and element to shorten heating up time then going controlled element only for the remainder.

We have taken advice on the method of seeing how our burstfire controller output can be monitored however this is still being done... and our Sufed controller ordered ad paid for has gone astray in the post.can we at our impatient stage do a run with our present set-up, or continue waiting for everything to be just so.

What I visualize is that unable to control power to the element, any run with a murky wash at this stage unable to have a controlled output may just be a pot still run with smearing and a low ABV.

If we did do this. with a discarding of the methanol head approx 500 Ml could we then re-run the resultant wash when we do have everything together in amuch shorter time and by controlling the head temp/column gradient then go for the high ABV collection?

If we do what should we look out for, and what results might we expect from a 20lt 15% ABV wash...or should we contain ourselves and continue waiting? Thanks.





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Murky wash or clear you still need fine grained power input control for electric heat... It sounds like you're well on your way in transitioning from pot stilling into running a reflux column for neutrals... Wait for a decent controller before doing a spirits run... You could always strip using the pot still while you wait and then run the resulting low wines through the reflux column...

Thanks for coming back on this Rad.

Just got a call back from Sufed, our emails asking what had happened to our order had apparently gone into the spam box??? My calls to the answering device at the factory however at last heeded. There were none of that controller on the shelf so they were waiting for a run on that model to be done in order to complete our order, but hadn't told us that, sounds a bit like us, hurry up and wait. Now on the way.

Apparently while waiting for the circuit to the voltmeter to be done for the controller we can get a rough visual indication of what power output we are getting from the burstfire controller by using a panel mounted 240V neon indicator light. Off to full bright, and you judge from intensity. Bit by guess and by God but better than nothing. I had intended to try and judge by rotation of the knob

The strip you refer to would presumably mean a fast run at max temp of the wash without packing in the column and doing a rough separation to produce low wines ( approx what ABV could one expect? I think I read somewhere about not trying to cook a wash with too high an ABV) which we can then run with packing and with a means of fine tweaking the correct temp gradient within the column? What would happen if we were to leave the packing in the column?

We have cleaned our keg with just boiling water but think we should possibly do another run with either a weak vinegar solution, or a weak citric acid solution just to be sure. I just wondered if cleaning with vinegar leaves any sort of an off taste in the apparatus?

You can do stripping runs with or without the column packing but you can run faster without... All you are trying to do is to reduce the amount of low wines you'll charge the reflux run with and it needs to be diluted to under 40% anyway so by running without packing means you won't have to add as much water to dilute down to a safe %ABV range...

I wouldn't recommend to leave packing during stripping run. Usually mash has a lot of nasty smelling stuff. Once you contaminate your packing - it will be hard(but possible) to get rid of that smell. And as it was mentioned above - you can run faster without packing.
Personally I prefer not to use reflux column for stripping run at all. I'm using simple still column with vertical leibigh condenser. You can build it in an hour.

About cleaning - I don't have too much experience (so far I've built only 2 still an 2 reflux columns) but I don' like recommended here vinegar run. I did it once and then spend a lot of time rinsing my column to get rid of vinegar smell.

For other 3 columns I just did water run, then close bottom of column and pour in to column citric acid solution ( 2 tbl spoon of acid powder per litre) and keep it for half an hour. Than just rinse column with cold water and it's ready for test/sacrificial run.

Thanks for those items of feedback.The wash is clearing steadily by itself so I don't think I will bother to put any finings in, and under 40% for the low wine run is the figure I will use then.

Had an idea that a vinegar wash might leave a smell, have managed to get some citric acid and will do it with that.

Just a thought the yeast will be reusable, and I may do this, assuming that it will need some nutrients added to help it perform well, unless there are any reasons not to do this?

Having cleaned out the keg and column with a citric acid solution and then rinsed it ran the 25 lts of wash which was done with 10 kilos of sugar and a packet of turbo yeast. Since I had not measured the starting SG I could not determine what the ABV was but conservatively estimated around 15%.

The sufed controller arrived this morning so fitted it to a heat sink and added a neon bulb to give an approximate indication and began a run with packing. On checking the sufed controller was getting very hot indeed while the heat sink was getting no heat . Not wishing to ruin the controller removed it and went for a run just using the element on full power. The wash heated up reasonably quickly and alcohol began to emerge along with some steam. Was initially having some trouble with the water pump for the water circulation through the water jacket around the outflow, and the cooling coil at the top of the column, the temp at the top of the column went to 79 degrees C and stabilized there.

Collected and put aside the first 300 mls, I figured the I had lost some methanol to steam at the beginning due to our water pump problem, then collected a 75 mls of 'heads' , 1Ltr of 'hearts', then 1 through 5 lts of tails. During this time I seemed able to keep the temp at the top of the column reasonably stable at around 80 by gently modulating the flow of water through the coil at the top of the column. (the names of my collection batches in a little incorrect I know, I will just number them tomorrow.)

Ran for a couple of hours and the ABV did alter during this time with fluctuation in temp at the top by generally around 90% and have collected around six litres,

I will leave this over night, then put mix this back to a 40% ABV wash with water and rerun it through the column now that I have had some practice.

Will again take off an initial 500mls as foreshots, then begin collecting in 75ml numbered batches and see how it goes.

The initial collection for about the first three lts has no smell or off taste the very last three lts began to have a slight smell and sharpness to it.

Reasonable happy with it so far. Collected more than I though I would, and of a higher ABV, together with a pretty neutral spirit as far as taste and smell.

What ABV should one be aiming for with an optimal run?

My congratulations!

Resasi wrote: On checking the sufed controller was getting very hot indeed while the heat sink was getting no heat .

Strange. You can try to put some thin layer of thermal paste (like this one http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-5-T ... B0002EQU6C" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow) between controller and heatsink to solve this problem. And it's OK if metal plate at bottom controller will heat up to 90-95 degree C.

then collected a 75 mls of 'heads' , 1Ltr of 'hearts', then 1 through 5 lts of tails.

5 liters of tails? It's too much. Should be like 5L of heart and 1L of tails.

During this time I seemed able to keep the temp at the top of the column reasonably stable at around 80 by gently modulating the flow of water through the coil at the top of the column.

Could you tell me more about your column? Is it a fractioning column? What kind of phlegm return method are you using? You should control vapor temperature by changing amount of phlegm returning back to column. And if you have packing inside your column - you can easily "chock" the column if you can't control power.

What ABV should one be aiming for with an optimal run?

96

With regards to the Heads Hearts and Tails I am misusing the terms, It was just my rough way of describing what was taken off, my caution causing me to take only what I considered the best. That was around 92. Without the sufed I was controlling the temp at the top by using the tap and controlling the flow of water coming through the top condensing coil.

The column was one I designed and with help had built. SS column 3'' X 36'' six to seven inch single copper cooling coil running from an two inches down from the top. Water through this coil is controlled by a tap at the base, I have cold water coming in from the top. The column is packed with around four or five rolls of copper mesh, reasonablt firmly wound but allowing a good passage of air/vapor through them

The take off point is an inch down and goes to the take off tube which is encased in a water jacket.

Presently have six litres of 80 ABV with a very slight smell and taste which I was going to dilute down to 40ABV and run again.

Kept the 92% that was considered finally hearts, no off smell or taste at all. When cut down to 42% it gave 4 Lts. The rest, roughly 6 Litres was diluted with water and run again.

This included the foreshots which had a very slight odor. The reason was that during our first run I had not had any water running at all. I had left to attend to something else and when I returned the temp had shot up to 79 and a lot of vapor was coming out of the collection pipe. I was outside and the OAT was down around 13 C.The bottom of the collection pipe was too hot to touch and very soon after the temp rose to around 81C and I felt that we may well have unintentionally removed at least some of the methyl by boiling it off as vapor.

What we did collect did have a smell, taste and although it burned with a blue flame towards the end did get an orange cap.

This last run was with water running and tap full open on the condensing coil inside the top of the column. The temp hit 79C and stayed there. Took off around 300 Mls before I felt it stopped feeling greasy and lost it smell. The collected a further three litres at a steady 79C and collecting drops rather than any trickle, the first two were 92% ABV, I managed to knock over and lose possibly 500mls which hurt.
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Right towards the end temp sowly but steadily rose to 82C and finished running at 86C The last ABV had dropped quite a bit to around just below 80% and had begun to pick up an aroma.

Will call sufed in the morning to discuss the controller heating problem however running it without any control other than the top condenser tap has worked better that hoped for.

Update on the first run.

We finally gave up on the controller after failing to get a sensible response from the supplier or prevent it from overheating badly, and went for just using the top coil to try and control the column gradient. A rough way of doing things however it seems to be working stabilizing at around 78 degrees C and a fine dribble.

Possibly the dimensions of column, amount of copper mesh packing, together with size of keg and the heating element have all been incredibly fortuitous but over three separate runs using the above method we have managed to produce around 92% ABV take-off.

We collect in Litre lots, after discarding the first 250 Mls that comes off. This first lot coming off after around 40 mins of the wash heating up. Our wash is done in 25Lt batches. Heads seem pretty OK and then towards the end of the 5th Lt we just begin getting damp cardboard odor which is when we complete the run and leave the tail to do again later

Our water supply is from a 45 gall plastic butt and recirculated, drawn up from the bottom by a small electric pump which then pushes it through the upper coil, and separately through the cooling jacket of the collection pipe. The cooling coil flow is tap regulated. Winter helped by keeping the water cold, the 'summer' has meant that the cooling water cache is heating up a bit so we are having to lose hotter water and top up with cold in the water butt.

Have experimented with different yeasts and using clearing agents which do produce a better product. I have tried putting 92% on Oak Chips and also using the Still Spirits Whisky Blending Kit to try and produce flavors I like. This has produced some very pleasant results though on some I have seen a deposit being put down which I do not like? Any suggestions on how to deal with that would be appreciated.

Would like to thank all on this site for the help and advice that this great place offers. It has been very gratefully received.