Copper 35 litre still Element Question

[cps1]

Thanks for the further feedback!

The new 2000W element arrived a few days ago and I drilled another hole in the boiler so that the elements are stacked on top of each other (There wasn't much alternative!)

The first two washes had all finished after 5 days but the last one took 8. The temperature has dropped from 28 to 20 degrees here in Sydney and It obviously makes a big difference.

The domestic goddess gave an unexpected yes to site the fermenter in the laundry but I wouldn't risk pushing my luck to hide it in the warmer kitchen.

The two elements with a total of 3380 watts made a big difference.

30 minutes to get up to temperature and an hour to produce 5 litres of spirit as opposed to an hour and a half and three hours. No wonder someone said I would get tired of waiting

The boiler really sounds like a kettle now and the product really streams out as you can see in the photo. 1 litre every 10 minutes seems like a great output

The condenser needed a bit more water then before but was cool from about an inch down from the top.

I was a bit worried as I can hear a soft rushing/ blowing sound from the outlet that was not discernible before. I thought I must have been overdoing things and losing vapour but the condenser and condensate were cold so I am assuming that what I am hearing is just the boiling action within the boiler. The total output was the same at about 5 1/2 litres

The fourth wash has just started to get under way.

I made a mmmistake with the first three washes by adding further yeast after the first batch

The fourth is by the book

I stole 300ml of 65% from the initial run and have it soaking around an 8mm square, 100mm long stick of charred oak burl.

The colour is amazing after two weeks and the vanilla and caramel came home a few days ago. It's not quite Inner Circle Black yet but it is suspiciously good.

I had no expectations of the first batch but so far so good.

I would be interested to hear whether the experts suggest that I do my spirit run flat out or whether I should slow things down a bit

My setup is not as refined as those with a controller but I can run at 1380, 2000 or 3380 watts.

Also whether I should do 7 generations since I stuffed up numbers 2 & 3

Thanks again, the advice and resources have been great and I'm having a ball

[invisigoth]

erm... i think 3800w for a spirit run sounds a bit much. general consensus seems to be the stream should be about the thickness of a pencil lead. my spirit runs were run at the point when the output changed from a broken stream to a unbroken stream. much faster than that and i had big smearing. my pot was a different design, but i believe the pencil lead stream still holds true. my strip runs were running 2000w on a 25l boiler. i'm guessing 2000w on the 35l is probably close. a controller is quite useful and pretty easy to build. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

lets see what the older hands have to say?

[SBB]

1 litre every 10 minutes seems like a great output

That sounds excellent for stripping, but way to fast for a spirit run i would think.

I was a bit worried as I can hear a soft rushing/ blowing sound from the outlet that was not discernible before.

Thats the sound of a happy :D condenser doing its job properly, the vapors collapsing inside i think and causing a vacuum, Its a sound I aim for, sort of like a steady breeze in the trees.
If it starts to sound like a steam train then its not running as happily.

[cps1]

Thanks Guys,

So it's flat out for the stripping runs and slow for the spirit run

Done.

My 4th generation of Macstill's rum is just about finished then it's on to the 5th and then the stripping run in about two weeks I suppose

What was taking 5 days to finish a few weeks ago is till bubbling after 8 days now at about 16 - 18 degrees in Sydney

I have a tpw on to generate some neutral spirit and will add some copper swarf coil packing to the column for the run.

I couldn't find any copper scourers so I put some heavy wall thickness copper pipe in the lathe and set the feed fine to get long curls of swarf which I pack into a bit of 2" pipe to get some sort of shape.

About 2" of 3" diameter copper pipe surrounding the upper end of the column with water intlet and outlet will provide some cooling.

I'll report back on the results

[kiwikeg]

Just seen your pot build awesome work. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
:text-coolphotos: