The boiler:
I’ve got a converted 15.5 gallon keg with a 4” fill port, 1.5” ball gate valve drain, and 1.5” ferrule for the heating element. A buddy who works in a fabricating shop was pretty stoked about the project and had it all welded up for free.
The riser:
In the picture, I’ve got it setup in potstill mode - I wanted to get the, admittedly unwieldy, Liebig high enough off the ground to run it sitting on the floor; so I’ve got a 20” riser for potstill mode. Having done a vinegar run I’m thinking I’ll shorten it to reduce some of the heating time. Plus this little cart gets it off the ground to a comfortable working height.
The column (not pictured):
The 2” column is 4 feet tall. I haven’t packed it yet, but I’m thinking ss scrubbies fit my current budget. I’ve read enough to know I don’t know enough about the pros and cons of different packing materials and the ROI associated with each. Hopefully, I can make a purchase decision in the next week.
The condenser:
The Liebig is 5 feet of 3/4” over 1/2” with a spiral of 12 gauge wire in the jacket. I’ve got a valve on the upper (outlet) of the condenser to limit my flow and on the inlet supply at the faucet. Having run the still, I’m realizing it’s underpowered for the wattage on my element. So I’ll be running on lower power until I can upgrade (maybe convert the pot still riser into a shotgun down the road). We live right by the water treatment plant and the water which comes from an especially cold river (40F from the tap right know) so I don’t think it will perform as well as it does currently when the weather warms.
Power:
I’ve got a 5500 watt element wired up to a controller I built off of cranky’s super simple controller design. It works fantastically. Even for my woefully inadequate knowledge of electronics, the build was simple and does a great job.
Challenges (this forum helped me with):
I lucked into a substantial amount of free 2” copper. As it was type L, I had to do some work to widen it enough for the ferrules. I received several recommendations and tried two — a tungsten bit on a dremel and annealing. I found that annealing the ferrule was ultimately simpler and got a nice tight fit which was ample enough for the solder be drawn
Attaching the heating element — I was mislead by a banned YouTuber (read the ban list folks, it’s there for a reason) who indicated I could use a tap and die to thread the keg wall and insert a threaded element directly. Not only was it a ton of work for me to track down a tap and die set that big, THE KEG WALL ISNT CLOSE TO THICK ENOUGH TO CREATE A WATER TIGHT SEAL. There’s not enough ptfe tape in the world to fix it. Ultimately, welding a threaded ferrule on side was a much better choice.
Soldering the ss ferrules to copper—Ultimately my oatey paste flux was insufficient to prepare the ss. I switched to Ruby fluid, and hot dog, that stuff did the trick.
Considerations:
I’m not sure the CCVM is the right build for me or not. Truthfully, when I began my research, this was the first build I encountered that was heavily recommended. So I that’s what I decided to do. In hindsight, I wonder if a standard VM design will be a better choice. Time will tell. My ultimate goal is to create an Appalachian gin with local botanicals so I want to fine tune my reflux abilities in the future. For now, this will be more than sufficient to learn and drink on.
I’ve got a 15gal ferment of UJSSM that’s a couple days out from finished. Wish me luck on the sacrificial run!
