Bubble plates

[Corn Cracker]

Continuing thoughts on my 3 inch column/riser,,,, I mainly make whiskey and bourbon, normally I do one spirit run for these. I've been thinking about bubble plates and their place in the system and that led me to wonder if 2 or 3 would retain enough flavor to compensate for a strip and spirit. I know I'd need a couple more for a neutral but, could I use 1 or 2 to clean up my all grain mashes better than just a spirit?

[Bolverk]

Yeah, 2 is just about right in terms of getting your proof where you want it. My opinion... the whiskey profile will be a little lighter than double pot, but thats not necessarily a bad thing.

Its more about how you drive the plates. Use them to compress your heads and bleed them off slower. Then let hearts come through a bit faster, then once you get to tails tune the dephleg back up to hold back some of the tails. Then when youve made your final cut, kill the water to the dephleg and run out your feints as fast as you can.

[Windy City]

In my opinion the main advantage to running a plated column is that you can do one and done.
I can run up to four plates in my side column and mostly just use two plates for all my dark spirits ie: bourbon, whiskey and rum.
I have tried different configurations with one plate not being clean enough and three being too clean and removing more flavor than I like.
I don't see any good reason to strip and then spirit run for dark spirits if you are operating a plated still.
Now if I am making vodka/neutral I run it through four plates as if I were doing a one and done with a fores, heads and tail cut but then run it through my pumped reflux packed still to finish "cleaning it up" to azeo.

[PalCabral]

Continuing thoughts on my 3 inch column/riser,,,, I mainly make whiskey and bourbon, normally I do one spirit run for these. I've been thinking about bubble plates and their place in the system and that led me to wonder if 2 or 3 would retain enough flavor to compensate for a strip and spirit. I know I'd need a couple more for a neutral but, could I use 1 or 2 to clean up my all grain mashes better than just a spirit?

What is your process, CC? How many stripping runs before the spirit run?

I'm thinking the size of the boiler plays a role here. My boiler's 13g/50L and I'm not sure how much hearts I would get from that in a one and done. I am already starting to feel a limitation with the size of my boiler using low wines. In my process, I can only fill 4 batches in a spirit run if I'm not using feints. If I'm using feints, I can only fit low wines from 3 ferments plus the feints from previous spirit runs.

If you're using a 26g boiler, or bigger, it's not a problem. It's just a long one and done run, but with plenty of product, but for mid-sized boilers I'm not sure one and dones using plated columns are worth it. Please correct me if my thoughts are incorrect, experienced guys.

I run 2, 3 or 4 strips before I do a spirit run. 2 strips are for smaller batches - tests or top ups of something I've already made before. 3 is a good size. 4 is either smaller ferments or big batches. Up to now I've been too impatient to make the same stuff twice, but now I am getting to a place where I would like to build up a bigger volume of product and age in something like a 5g oak barrel.

[Corn Cracker]

15.5 gallon keg is my boiler, usually run 12 to 13 gallon charges, If I strip an ag, it's just once then a spirit run. With the hbs grains, I felt the strip removed too much but, with these fresh feedstore grains, I'm finding a lot more of the grainy tastes and oils comes through in the one pot still run,,, a lot more. I understand 4 or more before azio in one run so I thought maybe 2 will work. I will get to making these soon.

Bolverk, driving it is gonna be the interesting part, I got the HD instruction manual, just gotta finish it, fire it up and run it and keep it out of the ditch

Thanks y'all

[Copperhead road]

I have perforated plates on my bubbler. It’s a 4” modular column with 5 plates. I’ve tried quite a few times to run my whiskey with two plates and it was just too unstable.

I am aware it’s the perforated plates causing the instability and bubble caps are a lot easier to run with two plates.

[Windy City]

I no longer run perf plates but did for a long while.
I don’t understand why running two is causing you a problem.
What is it doing?

[shadylane]

Continuing thoughts on my 3 inch column/riser,,,, I mainly make whiskey and bourbon, normally I do one spirit run for these. I've been thinking about bubble plates and their place in the system and that led me to wonder if 2 or 3 would retain enough flavor to compensate for a strip and spirit. I know I'd need a couple more for a neutral but, could I use 1 or 2 to clean up my all grain mashes better than just a spirit?

The downside to plates is the run takes much longer than compared to potstilling because of the need for reflux.
And 3" bubble cap plates are also going to be slow.

My preference for bourbon is to strip with steam and spirit run with 2 extra large bubble caps.
I have to strip first because my spirit still can't handle anything with solids due to scorching.
And I can't do a one run and done with the plates on top the steam rig due to water dilution from condensed steam.

[subbrew]

The savings I think comes down to size and what you like to make. If you are looking for volume to age of a given recipe and are doing 39 gallon ferments with a 15 gallon still you are still doing three runs even if you are doing one and done with the wash. For a strip and spirit you are doing 4 runs but three of those are fast stripping runs so not much saving using the plates. On the other hand if you are the type that likes to experiment and are only doing 12 gallon ferments of a particular spirit then a one and done with a couple of plates makes great sense. You get a good tasting product and your next run is a different good tasting product. But you have a much smaller amount of each good tasting product.

When I thought about a plated column it didn't make much sense for me as I want 2.5 gallons of product from each batch. So with my keg boiler it would take three plated runs and three set of cuts, then mix the hearts together to get my 2.5 gallons so I can put about 1.8 gallons in a badmo clone to rest for 4 or more years and the remainder in jars to try along the way. Not sure if my assumption was correct, but I assumed 4 hours for a plated run of 13 gallons in a keg boiler for a total of 12 hours for a batch. I can do three stripping runs at 2 hr each plus a 7 hr spirit run for a total of 13 hours plus only one cutting session instead of 3. So I was only saving an hour and ending up doing two additional cutting sessions. But not everyone wants 2.5 gallons of a single recipe. Anyhow, my thought process for the entire 2.5 cents it is worth

[Username]

What I've been doing lately is 3 ferments, it's just the size of my buckets.
The 1st two I will strip and then I'll combine the low wines with feints and the 3rd wash and run it through my 4" column, with 1 or 2 plates

This gets me a product that I'm happy with, in a pretty good time.
My typical volumes are 26/27 L per bucket, 2 quick strips, with the spirit run taking around 4 1/2 hours if I collect feints for the next batch

[Corn Cracker]

Continuing thoughts on my 3 inch column/riser,,,, I mainly make whiskey and bourbon, normally I do one spirit run for these. I've been thinking about bubble plates and their place in the system and that led me to wonder if 2 or 3 would retain enough flavor to compensate for a strip and spirit. I know I'd need a couple more for a neutral but, could I use 1 or 2 to clean up my all grain mashes better than just a spirit?

The downside to plates is the run takes much longer than compared to potstilling because of the need for reflux.
And 3" bubble cap plates are also going to be slow.

My preference for bourbon is to strip with steam and spirit run with 2 extra large bubble caps.
I have to strip first because my spirit still can't handle anything with solids due to scorching.
And I can't do a one run and done with the plates on top the steam rig due to water dilution from condensed steam.

Steam is another project I've got going, all I'm lacking is the steam wand and foot, depending on the use at that time. I've been hesitant to complete it until I get the 2 inch ccvm dialed in and 3 inch column done to know how I will incorporate into the system, I made a parot last Sunday to use for future strips and such, problem is,
I've been blessed with overtime at work for the 1½ years but that cuts my free time at home, only 3 hours in the evenings and most Saturdays are spent sitting, wishing i felt like doing something. Slow go but getting there, I've got my defleg worked out in my head also, I just need to execute the plan

[Bolverk]

Steam is really easy to push too hard during your stripping run. You kinda have to look at the VLE chart and see what your low wine abv should be for the beer abv, and dial your heat input to match that so you know you are condensing the steam water in the beer and not diluting you low wine vapor.

Ie: 6% be should be 40% low wines, 7% = 45%, 8% = 50%, etc.

I found that once you set this power level you can let it ride until your collected low wines are about 20%, then you might need to turn up the steam to strip out the remaining alcohol out of the beer if you want (20% collected, means youre probably close to a pot abv of like 2% so it may not be worth it to keep going)

If you do this, 2 plates should be plenty to do a single pass whiskey from a grain in beer.

[Corn Cracker]

Thanks Bolverk, that has been a question in mind i've pondered on while researching info on it. I had no idea there was formula for that but with all the brilliant minds here, its not a surprise

[Corn Cracker]

Ive ordered a 3 inch sightglass for the 3 inch plate, since i've got 6 inches of 4 inch on top of the keg, i'm thinking of making a 4 inch plate to put under the 4x3 reducer and use the 3 inch up top, higher in the column

[Saltbush Bill]

Id never go as small as 3 inch , way to slow when it comes to plates.

[SW_Shiner]

Mixing plate sizes or types is not recommended due to the different setting each needs to run. Maybe it would be fine with bubble plates. But I think you'll be chasing your tail trying to get it running good. Either getting the 4" plate running, but way overpowering the 3" plate, or vice versa.

[Corn Cracker]

[gvid][/gvid]

Mixing plate sizes or types is not recommended due to the different setting each needs to run. Maybe it would be fine with bubble plates. But I think you'll be chasing your tail trying to get it running good. Either getting the 4" plate running, but way overpowering the 3" plate, or vice versa.

Good call, that makes sense

[shadylane]

My 2 cents based on experience, don't mix plate sizes.
Because different sizes need to be run different, one or the other isn't going to be happy.
3" bubble caps are entertaining, educational and fun but are so slow you can get thirsty waiting.

Here's an easy way to build a 4" glasser.
Buy a 4" sight glass, 2 extra glass chimneys, 2 Stilldragon seals and some all thread rod. Then build your own plates..

[Corn Cracker]

Thats a jamb up idea, i think that is gonna be the most budget friendly way for 4 inch plates, thanks.