guide to shock cooling
Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 12:58 am
Tired of searching for hours so I took a few notes trying to condense what I have come up with by using the search on shock cooling, what it does, and trying to find a way around it for myself using a liebig condenser. I like to use ice being that i'm distilling outside and don't want my back yard (or the neighbors back yard for that matter) to turn into a pond after running water for hours cooling my liquor vapors. I'm also in a shed so I try to be extra careful and "huffing" vapors around an open flame just doesn't work for me (or the wife).
shock cooling-occurs when the start of vapor input is so super cooled at the start of the condenser that it causes the vapor to collapse and a very temporary vacuum is formed. This causes what is know as huffing and can suck ambient air into the condenser and condense any moisture that is in the air and turn it into water and mix with your liquor which will cause the proof to drop. That part doesn't seem like too much of a problem to me considering most will be diluted with water to proof it down anyways but that is not the point.
pot still-this is what I have and from reading it sounds like part of that vacuum that is formed can cause part of your wash to be "pulled" into the condenser causing cloudiness. also that will cause "off" tastes to be produced from the wash being sucked through and the "in out" huffing can also cause smearing which, for a newbie such as myself, will make it difficult to distinguish cuts further reducing your hearts cut. I have a thumper on mine though and when it isn't filled I assume would also act as a slobber box so that probably helped me from receiving a cloudy end product but won't stop it from smearing. Being that wash is also being sucked though the vacuum that would also lower the proof of distillate.
reflux still-not to sure what it would do for you as I do not have one yet but it sounds that if super cooled it will cause pooling on your packing essentially cooling your column and causing a longer distillation period than what would really be necessary, and if using external condenser such as a liebig could cause huffing of moisture laden air and lowering the proof of your distillate.
right now I'm running a 200 gph pond pump with a 15 gal block of ice. When I start to run I put 3 gal of water on top for the pump. The ice melts as I'm running and I can run for hours (over 11 for sure) without the whole block melting. This causes my whole 53" liebig to stay damn near ice cold the whole run constant temp throughout the run because as the ice melts the pump keeps dropping staying with the colder water on the bottom. Since learning of shock cooling I have not made a run yet but I'm sure this has played a part in not helping distinguish my cuts very well. I also noticed on my second to last run the vapor coming out the end which caused me to look this up because I was sure with that long of a condenser there should be no reason for vapor to be escaping but it was.
Worm-for a worm sounds like to keep a constant temp there is nothing else you can do except run a constant flow of cool water though the bottom of whatever container you are using (be it though a pipe fitted through the bottom or a hose ran down through the top going all the way to the bottom). If you use ice, ice floats causing shock cooling to happen at the start of your condensation process which causes everything I think I'm trying to explain correctly from the beginning of this post.
Liebig-I run a liebig and everything I've read is telling me the same thing as the worm (have to keep constant flow of cool water at steady temp from the in at the bottom to the out at the top so it comes out "warmish" to the touch). I don't think that is the only solution though. With my ample supple of cold water from said block of ice in a freezer, I'm wondering if I can just scale back to a smaller pump say 60 gph, maybe smaller, so that the water is cold going in at end of condenser, (sorry guys with the worm where ice floats) and when it reaches to top (start of condensation process) it will be warmish to the touch. In theory I would think this would keep things from shock cooling and allow me be able to run my still faster for stripping, keep it from huffing and spewing vapors into a shed with open flame, and help me distinguish my cuts better.
Any thoughts from the masters or maybe just somebody's two cents worth on the correctness of this post and about my theory of keeping the ice for my liebig and going with a smaller pump so as to not "shock cool" my condensing vapors?...thanks dj
shock cooling-occurs when the start of vapor input is so super cooled at the start of the condenser that it causes the vapor to collapse and a very temporary vacuum is formed. This causes what is know as huffing and can suck ambient air into the condenser and condense any moisture that is in the air and turn it into water and mix with your liquor which will cause the proof to drop. That part doesn't seem like too much of a problem to me considering most will be diluted with water to proof it down anyways but that is not the point.
pot still-this is what I have and from reading it sounds like part of that vacuum that is formed can cause part of your wash to be "pulled" into the condenser causing cloudiness. also that will cause "off" tastes to be produced from the wash being sucked through and the "in out" huffing can also cause smearing which, for a newbie such as myself, will make it difficult to distinguish cuts further reducing your hearts cut. I have a thumper on mine though and when it isn't filled I assume would also act as a slobber box so that probably helped me from receiving a cloudy end product but won't stop it from smearing. Being that wash is also being sucked though the vacuum that would also lower the proof of distillate.
reflux still-not to sure what it would do for you as I do not have one yet but it sounds that if super cooled it will cause pooling on your packing essentially cooling your column and causing a longer distillation period than what would really be necessary, and if using external condenser such as a liebig could cause huffing of moisture laden air and lowering the proof of your distillate.
right now I'm running a 200 gph pond pump with a 15 gal block of ice. When I start to run I put 3 gal of water on top for the pump. The ice melts as I'm running and I can run for hours (over 11 for sure) without the whole block melting. This causes my whole 53" liebig to stay damn near ice cold the whole run constant temp throughout the run because as the ice melts the pump keeps dropping staying with the colder water on the bottom. Since learning of shock cooling I have not made a run yet but I'm sure this has played a part in not helping distinguish my cuts very well. I also noticed on my second to last run the vapor coming out the end which caused me to look this up because I was sure with that long of a condenser there should be no reason for vapor to be escaping but it was.
Worm-for a worm sounds like to keep a constant temp there is nothing else you can do except run a constant flow of cool water though the bottom of whatever container you are using (be it though a pipe fitted through the bottom or a hose ran down through the top going all the way to the bottom). If you use ice, ice floats causing shock cooling to happen at the start of your condensation process which causes everything I think I'm trying to explain correctly from the beginning of this post.
Liebig-I run a liebig and everything I've read is telling me the same thing as the worm (have to keep constant flow of cool water at steady temp from the in at the bottom to the out at the top so it comes out "warmish" to the touch). I don't think that is the only solution though. With my ample supple of cold water from said block of ice in a freezer, I'm wondering if I can just scale back to a smaller pump say 60 gph, maybe smaller, so that the water is cold going in at end of condenser, (sorry guys with the worm where ice floats) and when it reaches to top (start of condensation process) it will be warmish to the touch. In theory I would think this would keep things from shock cooling and allow me be able to run my still faster for stripping, keep it from huffing and spewing vapors into a shed with open flame, and help me distinguish my cuts better.
Any thoughts from the masters or maybe just somebody's two cents worth on the correctness of this post and about my theory of keeping the ice for my liebig and going with a smaller pump so as to not "shock cool" my condensing vapors?...thanks dj