Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Never take the still off the top of your keg boiler while its still hot and drop some copper off-cuts in it.

You'll end up with:
- a massive explosion of low wines coming out the top of your keg, over 2 metres high
- a hell of a mess to clean up afterwards
- a really bad case of brown jocks!!

:violence-stickwhack: :violence-stickwhack: :violence-stickwhack:

JS

WTF were you thinkin' ??? :o :o :doh:

i'm not saying it was me, but this not so bright spark noticed his VM column was surging a bit, and he'd read that having some off cuts in the boiler stop it, so he took the top off and let it cool for a while, but apparently it doesn't cool down as fast as he had expected. :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:

Is he ok?

Yes i'm fine, just got a little shower of the hot wines, fortunately it was cold in melbourne, so i had jeans and a jumper on. Was lucky i'd dropped them in at arms length and didn't have my face over it, so soon as i saw it take off i was outta there and watched it from a distance. Was very surprised how high and how ferocious it shot out of the top of the keg.

Any one want to let me in on the secret and tell me what the science behind the exploding low wines is??????
Not saying I dont believe it............just want to understand why it happened.

Not sure what the science is, do we have any physicists in the house?, but do wish i'd read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_chip before doing so, especially this part

Boiling chips should not be added to liquid that is already near its boiling point, as this could also induce flash boiling

It actually reminded me of the Mentos in the Coke bottle trick, just on a much larger scale.

It's about neucleation sites. that's what rough edged objects like boiling chips are there for in the first place. Stainless can be so smooth it provides nowhere for the little bubbles to form.

Ahha........thanks 5Star.........I should have worked that out.....makes perfect sence

:shock: :o Well...thank you for sharing Juststillin' and nice to know all is ok.
May I suggest, given the potential nastiness here, that those 'in the know' (at your leisure,of course) please consider a VERY SPECIFIC WARNING-type post about adding 'stuff like this' to the boiler in this safety thread??? I ask as reference for :roll: forum folk like I into the future....mind you, of course, maybe 'everybody' else knows or now understands what you can or cant do... in which case :oops:
Anyway, congratulations to 5Star for now being this forum's resident physicist :handgestures-thumbupleft: ;-)