First run on a plate still (hello from Canada)

[Teefer]

Hi everyone. First post here and only one run using distilling equipment under my belt. Here's a rundown of what I did.

My garage is set up with a large stainless counter and sink, dedicated hot and cold water supply, 220V power, explosion proof exhaust fan and a foam fire extinguisher for potential alcohol fires.

Still was very carefully checked for vapor leaks using a mirror and some high temperature soap-like solution. Found a few very tiny leaks and fixed them by tightening triclamps and by tightening sight glasses.

I purchased a 100L conical jacketed stainless fermenter and made a sugar wash using a controlled jacket temp. I let it sit for a week after fermentation was complete to clear and it turned out well. First fermentation ever, very simple stuff.

Racked wash into kettle and stripped the wash through still (stainless 25gal 6000w 4" 8 bubble plate setup about 9 feet tall). It has a 4" dephleg and a 2" x 36"L condenser running cooling water to drain (750mL/min @ 13C). This is the first piece of distilling equipment I've used or owned and it seems to be very easy to run.

Discarded backset and wiped/rinsed out boiler. Didn't clean the rest of still.

Charged still with 30L of liquid (20% ABV).

Did my spirit run. Heads and hearts were run at 1.6L/hr approx. Tails were run at about 1L/hr in order to keep ABV up since going any faster than that would drop ABV quickly.

Was able to pull ~94%ABV (temp corrected) on my heads and hearts. I measured using a standard proofing hydrometer in my parrot and did a temp correction, but I have a precision set on the way. I have my doubts about people claiming to pull azeo on small setups while simultaneously using a $15 uncalibrated hydrometer to support their claim. Maybe it is easier than I think...

Vapor temp, dephleg temp, and liquor stream were kept pretty solid throughout most of the heads and hearts just by changing my wattage up or down by a maximum of 50w on the controller, and by tweaking my cooling water flow rate by a max of 5%. It's crazy how the slightest tweak in energy has nearly a nearly immediate effect on the size of the stream coming out of parrot.

Post-dephleg vapor temp was 72.8C and dephleg cooling water temp 50.5C for most of the heads and hearts.

Once tails began, my stream would steadily weaken requiring slightly more energy to keep a nice broken stream as time went on. As a result of increasing energy, the dephleg temp and vapor temp started to go up since the boiler needed more energy to keep a small stream coming out of the parrot (as expected, I believe).

I let tails proceed until 70%ABV @ 96C vapor temp measured in head space of kettle, and then I just ended the run because of how vile tasting the tails were (smelled interesting though, quite nutty). I probably left a bunch of liquor in the kettle but I was tired..

Heads and hearts were run around 3200w of power and tails finished around 3600w.

About 15% of what I got out of the still was very tasty neutral hearts and about another 15% was flavorful hearts. The late heads have some interesting flavor and almost all of the tails smell nice but taste vile. I've never tasted the full spectrum of distilled spirits coming out of a still before so it was interesting.

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Lots of thanks go out to members of this forum for developing content since I was able to crack off a great first run and get reasonable cuts my very first time operating equipment (after a vinegar run of course). All I did was read for months and plan.

I have some questions about upgrading my still with a second 8 plate column to get some nicer neutral and I'll post them in a different forum. No idea if I can just add another column to my setup or not...

I have a gin basket in my vapor path as well and intend on trying to do gins over the next year or so.

If anyone has questions or comments, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for reading.

-Teefer

[StillerBoy]

Welcome to HD from a fellow canuck from northern Ontario..

Looks like HD was of great help to you, and you have learned from the content available..

So what area of the country is home..

Mars

[Teefer]

Thanks, Mars.

I'm in Alberta. 'Bertan through and through.. no nuts hanging from my pickup truck hitch, though .. lol

[StillerBoy]

I'm in Alberta.

There's are a few members from that province..

Mars

[Black Hearts]

Hey man that was pretty awesome. Sounded like you had it all very well planned out mate. Greetings from Hungary/Panama