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Hi all,
I have a pony sanky keg #9 on our beer keg chart with hs 5500 element an controller, my question is I know the element needs to be fully submerged at all times ,how much backset remains in the keg after a run?. My element sits in the middle of the bottom ring dead center. I don't want to burn up the element if I will loose say half of the backset during a run. Thanks guy

Samogonka wrote:...how much backset remains in the keg after a run?...

Simple....it depends. It depends on how much wash is in the boiler to start and what the average %ABV is. And of course, how close you get to fully extracting all the alcohol.

Figure it out to see how much liquid is removed. Then, subtract that from what you started with.

Say you have a pony charged with 5 gallons of a 10%ABV wash. That would give you (ideally) 1/2 gallon of 100%ABV product. But you get an average "off still" of 50%ABV. So, you'd expect to collect approximately 1 gallon of 50%ABV. And that means there should be approximately 4 gallons left in the boiler (plus or minus).

Get it?
ss

Hint - if you stop collecting when the %ABV coming off still is 15-20%ABV, you will have gotten most of the easy to claim product. On strips I usually run all the way down to 10-12%ABV. And there isn't much alcohol left in the boiler. I usually just dump the remaining backset out.

And to check how much liquid is needed to cover your element, just start to fill it with water 1/2 gallon at a time, keeping track of how much you pour in. When the element is fully covered....that's the absolutely minimum liquid volume you can safely run your still down to.

Using the previous post's calculations, you want to make sure that you'll always have more liquid than the minimum in the boiler.
ss

Oh, and one more thing...running low wines (spirit run) you start with a higher %ABV charge. That means more of your liquid will be processed (boiled out of the boiler). So you really need to estimate how much will remain closely. You certainly don't want an element melt-down.
ss

Above advise covers anything I would have said ...and more.

Thanks guy I will follow the calculations listed above.