Almost ready for a first run

[twobottles]

Hi guys,

I think ive got everything ready for the first run using a keg boiler and gas burner with my pure distilling 2" reflux column with extension piece and extra copper mesh. :happy-partydance:

Im wondering if there are some things you would do before loading the as yet unused keg. Im thinking about sterilising it with potassium metabisulfate first. Ive given it a good wash, half filled it and gave it a good swill around then poured what came out into the sink. There was no sign of anything other than nice clean water that came out.

Should I put only water in it and get it all up hot and boiling and distill some water before I try anything else?

The next thing I thought I would do to find out if there are any leaks is to put some water and the heads and tails ive collected from previous runs to determine if there are any vapour leaks, is this a good idea? I mean, its not just heads and tails but a mix of heads tails and foreshots. Any harm in running loads of foreshots through it? I dont mind giving it a clean afterwards.

I have 7l of stripped tpw and 30 litres of wash, I'd like to run this tonight if poss. Should I strip the 30l, then do a spirit run with all of it or can I just add the stripped tpw to the 30l and run it just the once, collect in jars and make cuts?

[Sam.]

If you have the cleaned the keg out like you said then it should be fine as long as it's rinsed well.

I would personally do a quick vinegar run ie a couple of litres of vinegar in 10L of water approx, this will clean everthing and you can also use this to test for vapour leaks.

I would not test for vapour leaks when the vapour is going to be flammable :scared-eek:

So vinegar run, squirt out with hose then get on with your run :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[twobottles]

Nice one sam_and_liv,

Got that going right now.

What would you do about the tpw?

Cheers

[Sam.]

If you just want to do one run then mix it together :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Not sure about your still but it may perform better with a 40% boiler charge, so maybe just run your strip at 40%, this should give you some drinking stock straight away :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[twobottles]

Got it all ready , ran the vinegar and found that the hoses were cracked and air/water was going in and coming out of places it shouldn't.

Replaced hoses and no vapour leaks!

By the time I was ready to run the tpw it was very late so left it for the morning. Up and running yee-haa! It's bloody brilliant.

Not drinking till Tuesday so decided to strip this wash then ill do a spirit run when I get round to it. Got 60l rum wash to strip and might get 90l down for gen3 this weekend if im lucky.

Everything was going great until I got to about 85deg c and about 45% on the parrot and it began to chuff chuff chuff up the column. Perfect timing cos swmbo had an emergency job for me so I just shut it down. I've never had this problem with tpw before, there is about 29l in a 50l keg, should I add a little butter? I have some olive oil but I think I'm short of other oils at the moment in the house. I'll get it on again later when it's not so busy.

Cheers!