Reflux vs Pot
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brian41527
- Novice
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- Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2007 7:48 pm
Reflux vs Pot
I am a newbie to distilling and I was wondering what would be better for me a reflux still or pot? I'm mainly gonna make flavored spirits, peach and strawberry shine is a going thing around my part of the country. Please let me know what you think. Thanks
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grainhopper
- Swill Maker
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- Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2007 12:40 pm
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Bujapat
- Swill Maker
- Posts: 430
- Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:36 am
- Location: Belgium
I think a pot still is the best way to make flavoured spirits... and it allows you to make neutral spirit doing a double or triple distillation...
Another way is to build a short column you'd make higher simply by adding a lenght of tube with cooling pipes in it... You'd so have a "two in one" setup...
Another way is to build a short column you'd make higher simply by adding a lenght of tube with cooling pipes in it... You'd so have a "two in one" setup...
I'm french speaking!
Boiler : 50 L (13 gal) beer keg, gas heated.
Reflux : 104 cm (41 inches) column 54 mm (2 inches) diameter withh SS scrubbers packing.
Potstill : 40 cm (15 inches) column 54 mm (2 inches) diameter without packing.
Boiler : 50 L (13 gal) beer keg, gas heated.
Reflux : 104 cm (41 inches) column 54 mm (2 inches) diameter withh SS scrubbers packing.
Potstill : 40 cm (15 inches) column 54 mm (2 inches) diameter without packing.
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Husker
- retired
- Posts: 5031
- Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2006 1:04 pm
IMOH, if you are making flavored shine (brandies, corn whiskey, rhum's, etc), then by all means build a pot still.
The pot still is very versitile. It will do what you want it to do, and do it better than a "detuned" reflux still.
When I started, I built a reflux. Now, with much more experience, I hardly ever use it. 90% or more of my work is with a pot still. You have a lot of control over just how the flavors come out.
H.
The pot still is very versitile. It will do what you want it to do, and do it better than a "detuned" reflux still.
When I started, I built a reflux. Now, with much more experience, I hardly ever use it. 90% or more of my work is with a pot still. You have a lot of control over just how the flavors come out.
H.
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Pikluk
- Swill Maker
- Posts: 332
- Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2007 8:22 pm
iv done quit some reading and still in the process of building my still"lucky me i had enough stuff laing around to build/experiment/learn"to build something small.
and i think building a reflux first is a good idea.
because whatever your mash is like ready or not or stuck or etc...
you can get something good out of it (if really bad mash will need carbon in any case).
reading enough to make you chose on a design make you learn a lot about how ethanol vapor works.
anyway when building your boiler think that you will want to be able to put a pot still column on it.
even tho you guys dont use your reflux column much you still use it from time to time.
good tool to have for this hobby IMO
and i think building a reflux first is a good idea.
because whatever your mash is like ready or not or stuck or etc...
you can get something good out of it (if really bad mash will need carbon in any case).
reading enough to make you chose on a design make you learn a lot about how ethanol vapor works.
anyway when building your boiler think that you will want to be able to put a pot still column on it.
even tho you guys dont use your reflux column much you still use it from time to time.
good tool to have for this hobby IMO
The more you read the more you learn.
The more you learn the more you realize you don't know shit
The more you learn the more you realize you don't know shit