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Hi everyone,
I have built a new-ish still. I can run it in pot still mode or as a CCVM still. Obviously the standard way to go for fruit brandy is to pot still twice. However my plantations are not that vast and I am going to struggle to harvest enough fruit per kind to fill the boiler 2-3x in order to make enough stripping runs for a spirit run.

What is the preferred method to one-and-done distill fruit washes? Should I just go ahead and try it carefully with the reflux from the CCVM? I fear it would be difficult to regulate the reflux with the corrugated SS coil I have. It works for Vodka but that's really a different beast.

I would like to avoid a thumper because that's really not that easy with the setup I have. If all else fails I would invest in a plate but I can't really justify spending the money for more than one. Would one plate be a better solution?

Sorry if this has been talked about before, I tried searching the forum but I wasn't really sure what to look for.

Are you trying to keep any flavor from the fruit?
If you are I wouldn't go with any reflux and just go pot still mode. Any reflux strips the flavors from it.

Most of your fruit flavors don't carry over very strong anyway and I'd be afraid not knowing for sure how your column is set up.
If it is great for vodka it probably isn't what you want to use on a brandy.

Every fruit I have done has been pot still.

Can you harvest enough for a 1.5? Run half your wash as a stripping run and then put the low wines and the rest of the wash in and run slow in pot still mode. If not I would just run very slow in pot still mode. I actually pulled some very nice hearts from the "stripping" run on my last still when my condenser limited me to very slow runs. so it can be done, but 8 gallons might take 10 hrs to run.

If you wanted to run it as a CCVM with reflux and keep some flavor, you would want to remove most of the packing. You would want to shoot for something around 2 theoretical plates, which is based on the type of packing, reflux ratio and power input.
As an example, I run 3.5x3.5x.24mm spp. The manufacturer claims 1 theoretical plate per 3cm of packing, so I would want around 6cm of packing for this application.
I would also run the valve wide open to get the least reflux possible during the run.

Making a cheap, tiny 4 gal pot still is what I did for this same scenario. I made a small batch of brandy, stripped it in my keg boiler, but then I didn't have enough low wines to keep my heating element submerged for a pot still spirit run. I ended up cutting a hole in the stainless lid for a 4 gal stainless pot. I soldered a 2" Tri-Clamp ferrule to the lid. Since I had spare ferrules, I soldered another one to the lid as a fill port. I soldered 1" NPS nut to the lower side to install a 120V heating element. You can get as carried away with as much or as little as you want. I found that 2" sight glass on Amazon for $5 so I couldn't resist. You can heat it over an electric hot plate, over a gas stove or an internal heating element. I bought that pot really cheap at a local second hand store. I 3D printed that element guard, but you can make Pro Putty to cover the electrical connections.

+1 on Salt Must Flow's suggestion. I have a 16g boiler for my larger batches but that can produce about 5 gallons of low wines in a single fully charged strip run that I can then do two spirit runs on the smaller 2.5g small batch still that I run on a hotplate... I guess I could get a 5g spirit still for those smaller batches too but I don't really want more hardware so two spirit runs it is for smaller batches..

Cheers!
-j

Unless you are heating using a badly placed internal element, you should be able to strip and spirit run in the same pot still.

NZChris wrote: ↑Mon May 16, 2022 2:14 pm Unless you are heating using a badly placed internal element, you should be able to strip and spirit run in the same pot still.

Do you have an example? How many gallons does it take to just submerge the element?

I don't think Vincent has an internal element.

NZChris wrote: ↑Mon May 16, 2022 5:25 pm I don't think Vincent has an internal element.

I don't understand. You said, "Unless you are heating using a badly placed internal element, you should be able to strip and spirit run in the same pot still". I asked if you have an example and how many gallons does it take to just submerge the element.

OP stated he only had enough for a single run. I don't think my element in my keg is badly placed but it takes about 3.25 gallons to fully cover. So if I did a stripping run of 10 gallons and have the normal 2.5 gallons of low wines I could not do the spirit run in the same still.

I generally use either five or six gallon carboys to fill my milk can boiler. The first carboy may cover the element but i’d be hesitant to run it for a strip/spirit with just the one carboy’s worth of charge. That boiler uses an internal element. My 2.5 g boiler or 10 liter - runs on a hotplate so I feel safe running with as little as 2-3 liters for a gin or something like that.

If there’s a hot water heater internal element be careful about partial charges and do some napkin math for worst case scenario. Dry firing an internal element can ruin the batch and be dangerous.

Cheers!
-j

Salt Must Flow wrote: ↑Mon May 16, 2022 6:01 pm

NZChris wrote: ↑Mon May 16, 2022 5:25 pm I don't think Vincent has an internal element.

I don't understand. You said, "Unless you are heating using a badly placed internal element, you should be able to strip and spirit run in the same pot still". I asked if you have an example and how many gallons does it take to just submerge the element.

Unless Vincent has changed his mind and installed an internal element, I see no point in discussing element height in his thread.

thanks for all the advice!

I don't use an internal element. I have a big induction hot plate for heating. I still don't feel super comfortable doing a spirit run in my ~10gal boiler with 2gal low wines. Although it should be fine... I think I will try the 1.5x solution first and read up on the theoretical packing vs plates relations.

Newbie here but I've been doing one-and-done grain/UJSSM stuff with my CCVM. I use a short column (2" x 12") and use 200mm of copper mesh packing. Have the reflux condenser up so it's wide open from the start and at about 1500W on a 40L charge. According to the calculator on the parent site it should be the equivalent of about 2.7 plates.

I feel the flavour is up there with the pot still strip-and-spirit run stuff I've done. At least good enough for trial batches before I commit to a large mash.

Not sure how it would translate over to fruit based stuff though. With my cuts I'm going for as little late heads as possible with a bit of the early grainy tails for drinking white. From the little I've read about fruit stuff sounds like you might want the opposite so I can't comment there.

Maybe useless info just thought I'd throw in my 2c.