I want to tell you about a simple recirculating system I use for reflux runs on my 2" CCVM. This is my first post after my introduction post. I've been distilling for about 7 months and I think I can make a real contribution now (instead of asking why my turbo wash tastes like crap )
At first, I was using a cooler with ice water for my reflux condenser but it required lots of ice for 12+ hour runs and made maintaining a consistent coolant temperature difficult.
So started using my 55 gallon fermenting barrel as my recirculating system. Typically when I do three stripping runs to prepare for a spirit run, I've collected enough water off my condenser to fill my 55 gallon fermentation barrel (I transfer the last 15 gallons of wash to 5 gallon buckets to settle for my last stripping run). That gives me a reservoir to start my recirculating system for my spirit run. I also run my product condenser water during my reflux spirit run into that barrel which keeps the water cool, preventing my reservoir from heating up. It takes very little water to cool my product condenser during a spirit run so I use a little more water that I need in order to keep the barrel cool. I just let it overflow into the yard once it gets full.
If I had a pond or pool to use for my recirculating system, I'd use that, but my fermenting barrel works great for what I have. I hope this helps someone. Right now I'm making some birdwatchers. Excited to try it.
Dokimos
The only difference between science and screwing around is writing it down.
I recirculate using an old 50 gallon water softener shell. In summertime a long reflux run will heat that to 110. But works great for strip and spirit runs or a plated column whiskey run.
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