Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Mine sits on 95% in the parrot all the way through to the start of tails doing a TPW neutral. I get a better idea using temp at inlet of PC. Cuts are only way to get consistent results I have found and leaving them air overnight or 24hrs makes it a lot easier to pick if your starting out. My average TPW 47l run yields ~250ml fores, ~750 ml heads, ~2800mls of hearts( 1000ml of really good stuff), ~800ml tails. Don't forget your packed section will have a big influence on quality & output too with neutral. I also found that I needed to finish the packing about 100 mm below the RC as it will have a good depth of foaming bubbles there. My packing tipped into a bucket takes up about 7.5 to 8 liters. Also as Bluc said, your ferment can also have an impact on the heads to hearts to tails ratio. Try slowing your flow (output) to get better ABV. If you have to slow it a lot you may have to revisit your packed section.

I have a 800mm packed section and its filled with stainless scrubbers. Its not too tightly packed so it will still allow flow through
I didn't do a sg reading of my wash from the TPW but i just put a wheetbix wash down tonight and it has a sg of 1.10 so when its done ill have a much better idea of what i should get. I guess cutting into 300ml will give me a better idea

Yep I do 150ml cuts on the transitions, easier to pick that way.

:handgestures-thumbupleft:

lostmarbles wrote:Yep I do 150ml cuts on the transitions, easier to pick that way.

Slight pulsating on the plates while doing a feints run any ideas why this would occur

Do you see plate full and no foam then foaming like normal, trying to picture pulsing??? Or is it liquid level changing?

Hard bubbling low bubbling hard bubbling? Could be rc water fluctuating?

Thought so bloody kids in the shower :angry-banghead:

lostmarbles wrote:Do you see plate full and no foam then foaming like normal, trying to picture pulsing??? Or is it liquid level changing?

Liquid level change my water pressure is crap when someone uses a tap :shock:

Small 30l tank feed by town water with a pump feeding still would fix it :handgestures-thumbupleft: or an ibc

How regular or periodic is this pulsing you're talking about? I think changes in cooling water flow won't affect the liquid levels on the plates quickly enough to be noticeable. It'll affect the take off rate. The reduced cooling from lower flow to the RC will not be noticed on the plates and extra cooling from increased flow to the RC will create more reflux which will cause the downcomers to send more fluid down to the lower plate, starting from the top plate down. Changes in energy input will affect the degree of bubbling on the plates and if you're running sieve plates then they could start draining if the energy input drops too low.

bluc wrote:Small 30l tank feed by town water with a pump feeding still would fix it :handgestures-thumbupleft: or an ibc

Yep this is the next purchase so i can have it running on a closed circuit

db1979 wrote:How regular or periodic is this pulsing you're talking about? I think changes in cooling water flow won't affect the liquid levels on the plates quickly enough to be noticeable. It'll affect the take off rate. The reduced cooling from lower flow to the RC will not be noticed on the plates and extra cooling from increased flow to the RC will create more reflux which will cause the downcomers to send more fluid down to the lower plate, starting from the top plate down. Changes in energy input will affect the degree of bubbling on the plates and if you're running sieve plates then they could start draining
if the energy input drops too low.

I had the power to the shed upgraded so not sure did notice after a while into the run that a small leak from 1 of the sg's developed and i think that may have caused the issue. Doing my 1st feints run i now realise that a power controller is probably needed as the higher alc wash(20% charge) boiled alot quicker and the 2400 watt element was a bit much as the plates got a bit overloaded. Anywhoos eneded up with a good run and had some fun. What else is there to do on a saturday night :dance:

Well a few months later and another run 2400w of power and holding full reflux no leaks.
Can someone tell me if these perf plates have too much fluid
https://youtu.be/u_kNkaGMkt4

I think plates 1 and 2 look spot on but plates 3 and 4 are a little over loaded.
Probably a little too much power going on there

a power controller is needed :techie-typing:

Ok so after a bit of a look on the interweb whats is the best power controller to buy??

Try looking here > viewtopic.php?f=60&t=11668

:handgestures-thumbupleft:

lostmarbles wrote:Try looking here > viewtopic.php?f=60&t=11668

:handgestures-thumbupleft:

Did this short vid on the foreshots takeoff speed. Because I'm a visual learner i thought i would do a few vids to see how my learning on this art is progressing b-(
https://youtu.be/0qs61VJYXkU