Running a bubbler?

[Matt_Pl]

Merry Christmas all.

This year I’m looking at refining my process to improve my runs.

I’ve got an FSD neutraliser and I’m normally run my still on parrot abv and smell. Does anyone find that running on vapour temp or abv (electric) measurement allows a better split of heads, hearts and tails? I always take 300ml cuts not matter my run..

Thanks all.

[bluc]

You see Eparrot change way before an alcometer does. Having said that I use smell taste to define cuts but the eparrot is a good indicator change is coming..

[RC Al]

Only if you are repetitively running a wash with the -exact- same measurements of ingredients, fermenting temperature, cooling water, ambient temperature, wattage and a host of other things as a commercial distillery dose

At our level, there are a ton of variables and your 300ml cuts is a good practice, after running the same washes for a while, I usually use smaller ones on where i think the transitions points are, but thats not infallible either. the main thing im measuring during a spirit run is take off rate, i know if i go too fast, its going to smear, judging by drip, drip, dribble only goes so far depending on abv of the product as the viscosity can vary a bit by wash type and how fast your running (ie more water in the product)

You really dont need the parrot either. there's a guide out there somewhere on how the oldtimers used to do it via taste and feel (viscosity changes) but again some of that comes down to alot of repetition with the same recipe

A temp probe in your vapour path can give you a guide to abv, an E-parrot even more so, but one below the water line in the boiler is more handy for knowing where your run is at

[Amberale]

Hi Matt.
I also have a FSD Neutraliser.
I run it with 5 plates and a big packed section(500mm?) with 1 kg of copper and 10 SS scrubbers.
I run mainly FVFVW for neutral.
I have a FSD 50 ltr milk can with 2 x 2400 electric elements.

The things I have found work for me are.
I have a needle valve on the RC and I dump the RC cooling water to waste, it is about 60ltrs/hr during full reflux and around 6ltr/hr during take off.
This allows me to measure both the rate of RC cooling water(simple flow into a measuring jug and a timer) and the temperature of that water(thermometer in the jug).
My set up delivers a nice 2.1ltr/hr of 94% product when the RC water is at a temp of 63C.
This is in Vic so your temps may be different and your flow rates definately will be.
This helps me adjust flow during the full reflux stage.
I reflux for about an hour by the time I settle everything down.

I also measure and adjust my product rate every time.
I can eyeball it but measuring is better.

My set up is so stable that I get 94% from start to when tails arrive.
On a 45 litre run of 10% wash I get about 4.2 litres and then the abv at the parrot starts to drop and I get about 400ml of tails.
Smelly and rapidly lowering abv.

I can’t see how extra tech could really improve this still much but I’m all ears if you can come up with something. :)

Hope it helps.

AA

[tipsy]

Does anyone find that running on vapour temp or abv (electric) measurement allows a better split of heads, hearts and tails? I always take 300ml cuts not matter my run..

I use a controller built by Old dog with my Mac 4.
It uses a PID controller to turn the water in the reflux condenser on/off to maintain the vapour temperature in the still head.
I still use my own senses for picking the heads cut, but the controller is very good at doing the tails cut.

It doesn't make the spirit any better but it is another toy to play around with.

[RuddyCrazy]

Ok first I will say I did build my own still and didn't buy a 5 Star one but did buy the sight glass's and seals from them

Basically I let the temp get up until the fores start to flow and collect them, then straight into reflux for 20 minutes to let all the higher fractions go up so when the heads are taken off that is all I'm taking. Then I put in back to reflux until all the plates are loaded and leave it for a good 10 minutes so the goodies can mix up real well.

Then just over a fast drip is my goal and for 3 to 4 hours my still will keep producing 93+%. Now when the lower sight glass starts to fog up I keep an eye on it and as soon as the second sight glass starts to fog up I put it back intro reflux to separate the tails. Then once the plates are loaded again I take off the good stuff until the hydrometer starts to rise. Then the feints jar come into play and it only takes about 20 minutes to get to 20%.

The 5 Star still you bought should work on the same principle it's just way flasher than mine :laughing-rolling:

But thats the way I roll when do a run

Cheers Bryan