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I wanted to post this under EG's " Plated column with lava rock. Whiskey and vodka." thread as that is where I got most of the inspiration. But my column is not plated and I didn't want to hijack so here goes.

I built my Nixon Stone offset head still almost two years ago, and have been very happy running it with copper packing. I kept reading about people using lava rock as packing. I have had plans to experiment with this and also a longer column extension. Here is an overall picture of the still. It has changed a little since that picture but not much. So back to the topic, I figured this weekend I would try this lava rock stuff and see if it was good for me.
I rolled up some copper scrubbie to push up in the column to keep the rocks in place on top, not much just enough to keep them from falling out the top when I had it inverted. Then filled the column with broken up lava rock. I tried to keep it around penny or dime size but if I came across a piece bigger than 1/4 inch I threw it in too. Here is a picture of some in the bottom of a five gallon bucket with a penny thrown in for size comparison. So when the column was almost full I made another bundle of copper scrubbies to seal up the bottom.

That is where I made a big mistake... Thinking the rocks would have some weight when laden with alcohol I thought I should pack this one kinda tight.

Well time to run it. Brought up to temp and started reflux and column stabilizing. I notice more movement of the column than normal. Then I noticed a drip on one of the two lines under the condenser. First thought was "Crap I have to re solder those take off and reflux lines" but after looking better it was coming from higher up, like around the tee maybe, nope still higher it was coming from the joint where I slip on my 3" condenser housing. This is not a soldered joint for me as the top of my condenser is wide open and the vapor is more than happy to hit the coils. But when the condenser starts to fill with liquid it will start to leak. I was flooding big time!
This was a first for me.
Had to shut it all down and fix the problem. I had a feeling I packed the copper too tight and I was right. The first time I packed it I made sure I could blow through but there was some resistance.
I was almost discouraged enough to go back to copper packing, but really felt the problem was the tight packed copper on both ends of my lava rock. So I loosened it up and started again.

This time was much better. I even got up on a ladder and looked down the condenser to make sure. No flooding. Yea!
After equalizing and pulling foreshots I placed my parrot inline and started to collect heads. What I saw next amazed me. The liquid came came up in the parrot but the hydrometer didn't seem to float. My first thought was it must be stuck in the copper scrubbie that's in the bottom of my parrot for a cushion. So I gave it a little push and found out it was not stuck it was floating very low! Here is another picture.. As you can tell it is well past 100% and we all know this can't be done so I looked to do a temperature adjustment. The distillate was at 105f and reading over 100%. After adjusting for the temp I figure I must be at 95.1% or a little better with only 20" of packed column. And this was not taking it off with drips, I had a stream coming out of my 3/8" take off

Happy Happy I am a believer in the lava rock!

Edit for a typo

This is really good to know. I'm not sure anyone has done any real definitive studies of lava rock at this point. However, most of the anecdotal evidence (like yours) seems to indicate that it's exceptional stuff.

I want to eventually build a CC-VM still and I'm thinking lava rock will be my packing of choice. For the cost it seems ideal.

Thanks for posting this,
S-C

Well done Richard. Seems a few guys are tring lava rock in tradirional style columns and getting good results.

I hope it tastes better that using scrubbies, as it did for me

Good stuff mate, I asked this question a while back and got no response, good to hear your results, very impressive!. I want to build one of these stills and want to use lava and you have answered my questions, thanks. Btw, how did it taste?.

Good post richard, I will be looking into this as well

Good job Richard!

Thanks for the info. Looks like great results. I'm really thinking about doing it on my 2". Before stillin season comes on.

Has anyone ever considered, or tried using activated charcoal as packing? My thought is that this would help in the purification process.

palinkagus wrote:Has anyone ever considered, or tried using activated charcoal as packing? My thought is that this would help in the purification process.

Find mash rookies let's talk column packing thread. Lots of different ideas there.

Beautiful...I imagine at 95% there wasn't much taste...but did the rock give any?

Thanks everyone for the positive responses. As you can imagine there was not much flavor carried over at 95%. And no flavor from the rocks at all that I can tell.
Next time I run it I will try more for speed on my takeoff and see if I can get some flavor to come through. This was very neutral, very clean tasting which is fine but I miss the wheat flavor.
I hope running it faster will let some flavor through. That will cut down on my propane use and stilling time.

What did you run through it.

DD, It was a faux wheat whiskey that I make, based on Rads all bran recipe. Basically Rads all bran with Nabisco shredded wheat biscuits in place of the all bran. Makes a great taste that you can't taste the way I ran it last! I hope to overcome that though. Just gotta play with it a little bit!

Richard7 wrote:DD, It was a faux wheat whiskey that I make, based on Rads all bran recipe. Basically Rads all bran with Nabisco shredded wheat biscuits in place of the all bran. Makes a great taste that you can't taste the way I ran it last! I hope to overcome that though. Just gotta play with it a little bit!

+1 on the shredded wheat. I used Frosted Mini Wheats and it comes out great with just a little wheat flavor. I am doing a spirit run on another batch this weekend.

Very interesting Richard7. I recall reading about using Lava Rock as a packing, but never considered it because rarely do I ever hear about people actually using it. Those that have used it rarely ever reported how it worked. Very cool! I imagine if you lengthen your column it may allow you to have a higher takeoff rate with same or better quality product.

Please keep this topic updated!

I have a 3" all stainless Tri-Clamp VM and this is something I will have to try!

I have been meaning to up date this since week end before last. On Nov 2nd I ran on the rocks for the second time. I did one thing wrong (not really wrong, just not good for comparison). I change my recipe a bit because I wanted more wheat flavor. 2 boxes of cereal instead of one. I also ran the take off very fast. I didn't time anything but it went much faster and the the ABV was not as high (70%)....fine by me, I was shooting for flavor.

The flavor was great, but the first time I used the rocks I only used one box and it came out too neutral for my liking. I also collected at what I considered a fast rate (apparently not as fast as you can go using lava rocks), but the proof stayed fairly high (92%+) through the whole hearts.

Next weekend I am going to run a batch that only has one box of cereal and collect like I did last time (very fast) and see if the flavor still comes through.

I defiantly see how this could save me propane and time.

Richard7