Home Distiller

So my current set up has been a tall 40” x 2” copper column pot still head with a jacketed condensation tube. The pot has been a 3 gal stainless steel. I built it and it has produce lots of good rum and sweet feed whiskey. But in small batches.

My lovely bride got me a gift certificate to Mile Hi. My big issue was my boiler only able to do 3 gal at a time. So on my home made hobby if I packed the column with copper I could get in the 165 area.

I’m considering their Torpedo pro column with either 8gal 2” column or the 16gal 3”.

Is there any huge advantage to getting the 16gal 3” over the 8 gal 2” aside from more yield in one cook session?

Also if you have either of these is it simple to remove condenser & glass infuser to run column as a pot still head?

I mostly make rum and whiskey but the infuser and reflux would be nice to make nutril licker.

Thanks for any input.

realtree71 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 27, 2021 3:13 pm
I’m considering their Torpedo pro column with either 8gal 2” column or the 16gal 3”.

Before deciding on the diameter of the column first determine how you're going to heat the boiler. Electric or propane ? If electric, do you have ready access to 220v/30A service in your stilling location ? If not, skip the 16g boiler as you're not going to want to heat that on 110v.

A 2” riser and pot still head will be perfectly fine on a 16gal boiler . Absolutely zero improvement going to a 3” Pot head .

With regards to a reflux column , yes 3” will allow you to run more power before flooding than a 2” , so you can make more quicker.

To be honest , that 3” packed column on the torpedo Pro looks too short . If it were twice as long , it would be very good .

The boilers look good , the columns , I’d build my own and better .

If you only have propane , save your money and just use a 15.5gal beer keg .

+1 15.5 kegs are the best for a starter.

The sight glass and reflux condenser are attached with tri-clover clamps and are easily removed.

I plan on continuing to use propane as heat source

I see no advantage to going with the 8 over the 16, unless you are real short on storage. If you ever decide to fill a 10 or 20l barrel you will be really grateful for the extra capacity.

16 gallon boiler, 2 inch pot. 8 gallons, in my opinion is fine if all you want to make is a few bottles of finished product.
If you aspire to fill a cask over 10l, get the bigger boiler, and a 50 gallon fermenter.

Thanks for the help all!