Improving speed with a bigger pot still/condenser
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2020 12:53 pm
I've learned a lot from this site over the last couple years and have really gotten immersed in the hobby of making bourbon, rye, and scotch with my pot still. I currently run a 2" copper pot still head on either a 26, or 8 gallon boiler with a liebig condenser made of 36" of 3/4" pipe with a water jacket over it of 22" of 1" pipe. I usually either do a stripping and then spirit run, or a single or double run adding in a 5 gallon thumper keg. I run everything on a very powerful natural gas home brewing stand (200,000 BTU), which easily overpowers my condenser, so I have to really dial down the heat.
As I make more batches of whiskey, I want to speed up my output/shorten long days in the garage with the still. I have a few questions regarding the best way to do that. I don't ever have an interest in making neutrals, so I'm planning on sticking with the pot still vs a reflux column design. I'm thinking about moving up to a 4" diameter pot still column with a 24" x2.5" shotgun condenser, or a 3" column with the same shotgun condenser. Most of what I've read seems to indicate that going from 2" to 3" would double the speed I can run at, and going to 4" would triple it based on the volume of the column, assuming the condenser can keep up with the heat output. If that's the case I'll go with the 4" column. I got a price quote on a 4" column with the 24"x2.5" shotgun condenser for $400, from milehigh, which seems pretty reasonable if it will really triple my output speed.
However, I have read several posts/threads in the design section here which seem to indicate that with a pot still, the diameter of the column doesn't matter for speed, instead it is just about having 1. enough heat to run whatever diameter column fast enough and 2. a large enough condenser to knock down the vapor. Of course when I talk to still companies they want to sell me a bigger column, but they have an interest in selling me the biggest system I will buy, so I don't know what to believe. Before I spend a lot of money upgrading from the 2" to 4" I thought I should ask the community. Will I get significantly better/faster performance from the 4" or the 3" than my current 2" column, or would I do just as well to keep the current column and only upgrade to the big shotgun condenser so I can run it faster? Or is there potentially an even better path to take I haven't thought of?
As a follow up question, if I do upgrade to the 3" or 4" column will I still get close to as good of performance using a 2" to 4" or 2"to 3" reducer/adapter to triclamp the new column to my current 2" triclamp on my boilers, or would it be much better to replace the 2" with a 3" or 4" hole to speed things up?
Thanks in advance for any advice. The wealth of knowledge on the site is indispensable.
As I make more batches of whiskey, I want to speed up my output/shorten long days in the garage with the still. I have a few questions regarding the best way to do that. I don't ever have an interest in making neutrals, so I'm planning on sticking with the pot still vs a reflux column design. I'm thinking about moving up to a 4" diameter pot still column with a 24" x2.5" shotgun condenser, or a 3" column with the same shotgun condenser. Most of what I've read seems to indicate that going from 2" to 3" would double the speed I can run at, and going to 4" would triple it based on the volume of the column, assuming the condenser can keep up with the heat output. If that's the case I'll go with the 4" column. I got a price quote on a 4" column with the 24"x2.5" shotgun condenser for $400, from milehigh, which seems pretty reasonable if it will really triple my output speed.
However, I have read several posts/threads in the design section here which seem to indicate that with a pot still, the diameter of the column doesn't matter for speed, instead it is just about having 1. enough heat to run whatever diameter column fast enough and 2. a large enough condenser to knock down the vapor. Of course when I talk to still companies they want to sell me a bigger column, but they have an interest in selling me the biggest system I will buy, so I don't know what to believe. Before I spend a lot of money upgrading from the 2" to 4" I thought I should ask the community. Will I get significantly better/faster performance from the 4" or the 3" than my current 2" column, or would I do just as well to keep the current column and only upgrade to the big shotgun condenser so I can run it faster? Or is there potentially an even better path to take I haven't thought of?
As a follow up question, if I do upgrade to the 3" or 4" column will I still get close to as good of performance using a 2" to 4" or 2"to 3" reducer/adapter to triclamp the new column to my current 2" triclamp on my boilers, or would it be much better to replace the 2" with a 3" or 4" hole to speed things up?
Thanks in advance for any advice. The wealth of knowledge on the site is indispensable.