T500 Pot Still Overflowing Gin
Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2020 1:06 pm
Hi all,
Hoping somebody can shed some light on what went wrong on my last two gin runs, have spent a couple weeks researching to find a cause but nothing has clicked yet so here goes!
Background
My next step was going to be trying again with more spirit, about 5L 40% neutral spirit and 15L water but am anxious about wasting this much spirit if things go wrong again! I think there needs to be more water in the still to help prevent it from heating up too quickly (no power control) but if the level is at the max fill line there is a greater chance it will spew out.. I still don't understand how I can put alcohol in but not get it back out when the temperature reaches the alcohol boiling point, it shouldn't be going straight to water boiling temperature before I see product.
Apologies for the lengthy post but wanted to include as much detail as possible, please let me know if I left anything out. Any help would be very much appreciated!
Hoping somebody can shed some light on what went wrong on my last two gin runs, have spent a couple weeks researching to find a cause but nothing has clicked yet so here goes!
Background
- All distilling carried out on a T500 (reflux still for making neutral and alembic pot head with gin basket for making gin)
- The neutral spirit used was from a turbo wash @ 40% (using the free stuff with the kit have sinced move to TPW)
- Added roughly 27g of botanicals to the gin basket
- Added 2L of 40% neutral spirit to the boiler
- Added 23L ofwater to the boiler to take total volume to max fill line
- Switched on the boiler and after an hour the temp was at 40degC at which point started the cooling water (temp gauge located at the start of the vapour outlet pipe)
- The temperature continued to climb right up to about 95degC, only a few drips of product coming out, notice boiler is getting louder and then the level gets too high in the still and starts spewing out
- Tried letting it cool for several hours and then bring it back up to temp again but same thing happens
- Considered that maybe filling to the 25L line is too much and caused it to spew over (although it shouldn't be reaching that temp without producing alcohol in the first place)
- This time tried same amount of botanicals and neutral spirit but only 13L of water in the still
- Basically the same thing happened, i.e. temp. was at 95degC before product started to come out, the first cut of 100mL was at 50% abv
- It continued to boil like this and I took a few cuts but because of the high temp in the still it was coming out diluted with water
- Thought maybe the gin basket was blocking the vapour from leaving the still - but have already had successful runs with the same setup previously & can't find any online info about this happening plus tried again without the basket and same thing happened
- Checked the alembic pot head for any blockages after both runs - was all clean
- Maybe not enough neutral spirit in the still? Haven't found any reference in forums about a minimum spirit amount - only that the remaining water should cover the element once evaporated out - plus if I put 2L of spirit in and heat up, surely I should see 2L minus losses coming out once the alcohol reaches boiling point??
- Maybe problem with the turbo spirit? Have used the same spirit in previous runs that were successful, and 40% alcohol is still 40% alcohol right?
My next step was going to be trying again with more spirit, about 5L 40% neutral spirit and 15L water but am anxious about wasting this much spirit if things go wrong again! I think there needs to be more water in the still to help prevent it from heating up too quickly (no power control) but if the level is at the max fill line there is a greater chance it will spew out.. I still don't understand how I can put alcohol in but not get it back out when the temperature reaches the alcohol boiling point, it shouldn't be going straight to water boiling temperature before I see product.
Apologies for the lengthy post but wanted to include as much detail as possible, please let me know if I left anything out. Any help would be very much appreciated!