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I posted a few months back regarding using grog rock as a column packing,
Thought i would just share my experience
so i managed to do a run yesterday ⁹with my 46" x 2"column packed with it, sized at roughly 5 - 7mm with 40" of rock and a copper mesh roll to hold up the grog rock.
Started with a 23L charge of 20 -25% abv, power settled in at 550watts throughout the run, nice and slow 20ml pm.
The run was long, 9 hours, longer than usual.
After fores and heads ran off it settled into 87 abv for the first 500 ml and subsequently abv dropped a 2 to 3 % as i swapped the 500ml jars out, the run was without problems.
A surprising thing though, i got tails at 40% abv, normally its around 20 - 10 abv, when the cloudy stuff appears, so i stopped at that point.
The yeald was 5.5 litre with 0.75 litre of cloudy tails which i will chuck in next strip i do.
Product tastes pretty good, no taint from the rock.
I added my sight glass to the column and noticed a fair bit of reflux going on, which i never saw with copper mesh, also the abv was roughly 10 to 15 % higher throughout the run.
This Grog rock isnt lava rock, its a man made ceramic product, it's very hard and smashes up pretty well with a hammer, once graded it dosnt break up in the column, its a no brainer for me, i will be using it from now on.
Big Thanks to the team for the initial advice on sizing.
Reefer1

Is there a reflux condenser above the packed section ? ….. or are you just packing the riser on a Pot still?


If its a reflux still , you could use much more power .A 2” reflux still should be able to handle up to 2000w no problems . That will allow you to run higher reflux and the abv will be much higher again .

Regarding tails . They certainly can come off the still at higher ABV than you’d expect on a pot still .I can get intense tails off my reflux still up around 94% or higher .

This grog rock does sound interesting . I’ve never heard of it before .

So yummy, my purpose of using grog was to enhance the pot still, give a slightly higher abv my column has a reflux above it but for this run i didnt connect it up.
This was also to see if the grog would do a better job of refluxing than the mesh in pot mode, and it curtainly did, this run i did a triple grain mash and i didnt want to strip all the flavour out, although i revise my yeald, i got 4.7litre @ 74 abv, .7 of a litre of tails, although its cloudy it dosnt taste that bad, all cuts blended, discarded fores and heads, turned out very nice.
I need some more neut. for gin so i may try the grog with the reflux, next time.
I suppose also if you dont have a reflux condenser, its a reasonable alternitive, 87abv is none to shabby i reckon.
Good experiment though, also the grog rock is cheap as chips and is designed for aquarium use, marine as well,
Its a bit of an arse crushing and grading but worth the effort.

Reefer1 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2025 2:22 pm So yummy, my purpose of using grog was to enhance the pot still, give a slightly higher abv my column has a reflux above it but for this run i didnt connect it up.
This was also to see if the grog would do a better job of refluxing than the mesh in pot mode, and it curtainly did, this run i did a triple grain mash and i didnt want to strip all the flavour out, although i revise my yeald, i got 4.7litre @ 74 abv, .7 of a litre of tails, although its cloudy it dosnt taste that bad, all cuts blended, discarded fores and heads, turned out very nice.
I need some more neut. for gin so i may try the grog with the reflux, next time.
I suppose also if you dont have a reflux condenser, its a reasonable alternitive, 87abv is none to shabby i reckon.
Good experiment though, also the grog rock is cheap as chips and is designed for aquarium use, marine as well,
Its a bit of an arse crushing and grading but worth the effort.

20 -25% abv in the pot and you did a run with packing but no reflux?

Yes Shady i did.

I hate to be the barrier of bad news, but without reflux, packing is 99% a waste of time.
It takes reflux raining down for packing do it's job.
The only thing worst than packing without reflux, is reflux without any packing.
Then your driving with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake to no advantage.

Shady i did get some reflux falling back down i could see it through the sight glass.
So what are you saying the packing makes no difference then ??

Without a defleg the only reflux is passive.
Yes, that helps the packing work but active reflux works much better.

What i cant explain is this there is defo a difference running in pot mode with grog as without, the abv was as i said higher and it sustained high abv throughout the run, the still behaved as if there was a RC running.
I tell you what though, through out this year i will be a bit more scientific in my approach, and see what i can discover, i would agree copper mesh made no difference i did test that theory, i think grogrock did, i will do a with and without comparison, identical wash. You gotta keep experimenting right.
Reefer1

Reefer1 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2025 1:37 am
You gotta keep experimenting right.

Always experiment, sometimes even do just the opposite of what you think is the right.
Kinda like adjusting the fuel/air mixture on a aircraft engine at cruise speed.
Slowly lean out the mixture until you find the limit and then adjust the mixture 1/4ish turn rich to find the sweet spot.

Reefer1 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2025 2:22 pm So yummy, my purpose of using grog was to enhance the pot still, give a slightly higher abv my column has a reflux above it but for this run i didnt connect it up.
This was also to see if the grog would do a better job of refluxing than the mesh in pot mode, and it curtainly did, this run i did a triple grain mash and i didnt want to strip all the flavour out, although i revise my yeald, i got 4.7litre @ 74 abv, .7 of a litre of tails, although its cloudy it dosnt taste that bad, all cuts blended, discarded fores and heads, turned out very nice.
I need some more neut. for gin so i may try the grog with the reflux, next time.
I suppose also if you dont have a reflux condenser, its a reasonable alternitive, 87abv is none to shabby i reckon.
Good experiment though, also the grog rock is cheap as chips and is designed for aquarium use, marine as well,
Its a bit of an arse crushing and grading but worth the effort.

That makes more sense Reefer
also explains why you were running such low power and run took so long
Sounds like passive cooling was having a good effect on the low power you were running at
Damn , I would have fallen asleep by then

I'm keen to see how this works out with forced reflux ...might be a good option

Aye yummy long job, the run was very stable, no adjustments, it kept 20ml per min roughly all through the run, 500ml jars meant i could leave it ticking over popped in just to change jars.
Just a daft question though, cloudy tails showed up at 40abv i stopped at that point, should i have kept on collecting, would the distilate have stayed cloudy if i did.

In the world of clay sold and purchased to make pottery, grog is usually added and mixed up with the new clay (which is shipped in powder form). It helps to help stiffen the wet clay when working, allowing the wet clay to stand up on it's own and support it's own weight.

Clay is all silica and alumina; right? Once fired or baked, clay then becomes ceramic. It vitrifies or turns into glass, mostly. Grog is simply crushed up ceramic. This grit has been called grog for a thousand years.

A red terra-cotta clay that is popular for making sculptures, will have a lot of grog added. Porcelain though, which is almost pure kaolin, is used for fine China teacups and saucers - but has no grog added to it (and it is difficult to work with). Terra-cotta is considered a non-vitreous clay (porous) but porcelain is considered a vitreous clay (amorphous and glass like). After looking at the expensive commercial ceramic foams and grogs for aquariums it is easy to determine that they are almost identical to volcanic cinders. Chemically and visually, the same silica and aluminum oxide that has been cooked at very high temperature and then cooled under special circumstances.. Volcanic glass cinders were simply liquid clay mud that was superheated and then spit into the atmosphere.
Many volcanic intrusions around the globe produce cinder cones. The whole state of Arizona (but mostly the northern part) is paved with cinders -mixed with asphalt. Usually red cinder pavement too, because that's showier. Sunset Crater is a national park next to Flagstaff. But if a person wanted cinders for his bokakob, all he'd need to do is to drive out of town a couple miles in any direction, and shovel his pickup bed full, for free.

Reefer1 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2025 4:46 am the run was very stable, no adjustments, it kept 20ml per min roughly all through the run, 500ml jars meant i could leave it ticking over popped in just to change jars.

Something I've been taught from the very beginning in this hobby is that you NEVER, leave a still unattended.
Its a recipe for disaster and something that isn't recommenced.
If anything is going to wrong it will the moment that your back is turned.
From the link below provided by Twisted
"This hobby is NOT for someone who will not put in the time to monitor what is going on."

Saltbush Bill wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2025 12:43 pm

Reefer1 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2025 4:46 am the run was very stable, no adjustments, it kept 20ml per min roughly all through the run, 500ml jars meant i could leave it ticking over popped in just to change jars.

Something I've been taught from the very beginning in this hobby is that you NEVER, leave a still unattended.
Its a recipe for disaster and something that isn't recommenced.
If anything is going to wrong it will the moment that your back is turned.

Maybe you missed this rule?

Never ever

Interesting that is

This is the grog i got, and description contra.

Alpha grog," more commonly known as "Alfagrog," is made by rapidly sintering selected clays and raw materials at high temperatures, creating a porous, foamed ceramic material that is then crushed and sieved into different particle sizes to be used as filter media in aquariums and ponds; essentially, it's a lightweight, inert ceramic with a large surface area ideal for beneficial bacteria colonization to clean water.
Key points about Alfagrog production:
Ceramic base: It is made from specially selected clays and raw materials.
High temperature sintering: The raw materials are rapidly heated to a high temperature to create the porous foam structure.
Crushing and sieving: After sintering, the ceramic mass is crushed and sieved to achieve the desired particle size range.
Why is Alfagrog used in filtration?
High surface area: The porous structure provides a large surface area for beneficial bacteria to colonize, which is crucial for biological filtration.
Inert material: Alfagrog is chemically inert, meaning it does not leach harmful substances into the water.
pH neutral: It maintains a neutral pH level in the water.

Thanks for that Reefer
Looks a bit like man made Scoria .

How much does it weigh ? Like how many grams/litre ?
How much does it cost per Litre ?

Sounds a lot like LECA. Not sure that the internal pores will be that useful for distilling, in aquaponics the various nitrifying (?spelling) will grow within the clay but thats not how phase change in a distilling column works. What size did the distributors recommend and based on what?