Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Having read and absorbed some of the advice available here and having had some experience with a few runs, I have made a bunch of mods and changes to the way I operate this still.

Made a copper outlet tube and collect in glass (funnel is glass too). No plastic in the spirit flow!


This shows the whole setup with my water flow controller - A barrel that gently overflows out the top. This arrangement is temporary until I get a better solution, but serves the purpose. As I'm on tank water, I have a pump that kicks in and out and the condenser temp goes all over the shop without this. Once I put this in place, the coolant outlet temp seems to be much more stable (Towel is just to catch spray from the dripping overflow). I start with water flat out and once I begin collecting (around 35 degrees at the coolant outlet) I back off the element using my power controller and then begin slowly adjusting the water flow to drip drip dribble.


Put my power controller into a box to make it a little neater and safer. Added a fan to it also. Seems very happy and does the job nicely.


Currently into the second litre of a spirits run (after chucking 200ml of fores) and it's coming off at approx 92ABV, if I believe my gauge. Even my uneducated taste and smell can pick up variations from each 200ml jar.

Any further observations and advice most welcome.
Cheers

Looks good like the glass funnel and still setup :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Now just do it outside or open all the windows and doors. That's the setup I started with all up from here. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Looks like a good little setup. One thing I would do is move the controller as far away from that dripping water reservoir just to be safe. If water happens to pool on the bench for any reason, you'll have potential to get electrocuted. Maybe pop it on the other bench out of harms way next time you run it.

Cheers,
Prof. green.

Thanks for the tips. Yes, the controller should probably be a little further away while I'm using the header tank. I have earthed it, and it is on a safety switched circuit, plus it has feet that keep it about 5mm above the bench, but better safe that sorry. I did consider running the still outside, but thought the cold breeze on the column might cause the temp to wander. It is in a large open room. How many of you run outside?

Quite a few of us, especially the guys running on LPG, some columns end up quite tall too, the 5m high shed is a thing of envy around here

For a T500 I think you'd be fine having it on your bench in the kitchen. Just open a window and a door to make sure if you get a vapor leak it won't cause problems :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I run outside, wind doesn't really worry my pot still though.

Maximus_Moonshine wrote:Having read and absorbed some of the advice available here and having had some experience with a few runs, I have made a bunch of mods and changes to the way I operate this still.

Made a copper outlet tube and collect in glass (funnel is glass too). No plastic in the spirit flow!


This shows the whole setup with my water flow controller - A barrel that gently overflows out the top. This arrangement is temporary until I get a better solution, but serves the purpose. As I'm on tank water, I have a pump that kicks in and out and the condenser temp goes all over the shop without this. Once I put this in place, the coolant outlet temp seems to be much more stable (Towel is just to catch spray from the dripping overflow). I start with water flat out and once I begin collecting (around 35 degrees at the coolant outlet) I back off the element using my power controller and then begin slowly adjusting the water flow to drip drip dribble.


Put my power controller into a box to make it a little neater and safer. Added a fan to it also. Seems very happy and does the job nicely.


Currently into the second litre of a spirits run (after chucking 200ml of fores) and it's coming off at approx 92ABV, if I believe my gauge. Even my uneducated taste and smell can pick up variations from each 200ml jar.

Any further observations and advice most welcome.
Cheers

For some reason i cant see the pictures, I assume you had to bend the cooper pipe? how did you go about doing it? i tried it and it didnt turn out that well. I used a blow torch and tried to apply some light pressure but ended up kinking it. whats the easiest way?

There is no reason for you to not see pics.
Have got the function turned off in your browser to save bandwidth ?

For the main bend in the pipe along its length, I placed it across a tyre (any rigid curved surface would do) and pressed gently either side to create a small bend, them moved it along a little and repeated until I had a good bend along the whole pipe without any kinks. At the end where I connected it to the still, I put a steel rod just smaller that the pipe ID into the pipe about 5 cm and used it as a lever to create a sharper bend at that point. Was fairly straight forward.

Hey mate, I'd recommend getting a cheap AC voltmeter off eBay, it's a great way for remembering good voltage settings for runs.
From memory they're only about $4 & you just solder them onto the hot & neutral connection that goes to the boiler. ;-)

This is also a good mod...

You can have your condenser on 100% flow & dial in the amount of cooling water to the reflux - then you're not losing any cooling effect of the condenser when you're trying to back off the reflux.
(Again, costs less then $10)

Thanks for that - More great ideas to try!

Hi Maximus,
I'm also on tank water with underground tanks, so I bought the Still Spirits flow regulator (https://stillspirits.com/products/water ... oming-soon), which I got for around $90 from one of the local shops. I run mine up on a bench, then run the water outlet back to the tank (using a blue drinking water garden hose) so I don't waste any water.
For other T500 owners that want to make a copper outlet pipe, use copper tubing instead of pipe, it comes in coils & is annealed so it's soft. It's a lot easier to straighten than trying to bend hard drawn pipe. I got some 3/8" tube from Reese plumbing which has an ID about 2mm bigger than the outlet spiggot, so just put a couple of layers of thin heatshrink on the spigot to make it a tight fit.

Thanks Woollybugger - some good tips! I think I will move distilling to outside on top of my tank (it has a rotundah on it, so a nice place to sit and watch the still). That way, I can return the coolant water to the tank easily.
Cheers

62woollybugger wrote:I got some 3/8" tube from Reese plumbing which has an ID about 2mm bigger than the outlet spiggot, so just put a couple of layers of thin heatshrink on the spigot to make it a tight fit.

You might want to consider wrapping the spigot with Teflon tape. God know what nastiness will leach out into your spirits from heatshrink.

Professor Green wrote:

62woollybugger wrote:I got some 3/8" tube from Reese plumbing which has an ID about 2mm bigger than the outlet spiggot, so just put a couple of layers of thin heatshrink on the spigot to make it a tight fit.

You might want to consider wrapping the spigot with Teflon tape. God know what nastiness will leach out into your spirits from heatshrink.

I don't think it will be a problem, I've cut the heatshrink so it's around 3-4mm back from the end of the spiggot & my outlet tube slopes down from where it goes on, so there shouldn't be any contact between the heatshrink & the alcohol coming out.

Chris7231 wrote:This is also a good mod...

You can have your condenser on 100% flow & dial in the amount of cooling water to the reflux - then you're not losing any cooling effect of the condenser when you're trying to back off the reflux.
(Again, costs less then $10)

Do you back off the reflux by restricting the water flow? What are the benefits of backing off the reflux?

No one from here will recommend using heat shrink over ptfe plumbers tape.
The distillate might not touch the heat shrink, but how do you know for sure.