Stepping it up

[Westshine]

HI Guys, I've been distilling for a few years. Started on sugar washes with HBS gear, mixing with cordials. I then moved onto gin, AG corn whiskey, barley and recently rum, no more cordials. I've been running a 2" 25ltr pot still and it's been killing me with 8hr+ spirit runs, so, I recently purchased a 4' bubbler (waiting on delivery right now) and am looking forward to more AG mashes.
Having never used a bubbler its been a big help going over threads on this site.

[Professor Green]

Welcome to AD Westshine.

I reckon you're going to love that bubbler when it turns up.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

[hillzabilly]

Firstly welcome to the forum for another westy ,check out the running bubbler thread for plenty of info.cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[dans.brew]

Welcome Westshine!
I'm hearing ya with the long spirit runs... from someone who started with a 2" pot as well. You will love being able to comfortably do a spirit run in an arvo without having to rush around trying to get done.
Good luck with your new toy when it arrives! :dance:

[Westshine]

New system up and running, 100ltr boiler 2 x 3kw elements, 4" x 4 plates.

A few issues, the RC doesn't have enough water flow/cooling power to stop product from coming over to PC. I'll seperate the RC from PC supply and run a seperate water pump to see if I can sort it out. A couple of small leaks that where easy to fix and the first run was a cleaning run, so giving it a go with 100ltrs tomorrow night for the first drinkable batch.

The red hose runs into the far left tank just for the photo it wasn't connected. Two water tanks hold ~400ltrs, for the first run I put 50ltrs into the boiler and ended up only slightly warming up the far left tank of water. So I'm thinking both cooling tanks will be enough to run a full boiler of 100ltrs.

[mattyb]

Wicked set up. You may find that you will need more water for the cooling. I run a 1000 litre ibc now as the 200 litre just got too warm too quick , that may explain why your Rv isn't keeping up too. Are you turning off 1 element after she gets up to temp

[Westshine]

Yeah I turned off the high element and also turned down the other one slightly to slow it up. I even tried to cut back the PC flow and that helped a little, so may just be a water flow issue. The submersible I bought is rated at 2,200 with 2m head, but it doesn't look like it's pumping anywhere near that.

Running it again tonight.

[YarraRanges]

With 4 plates and no packed section you'll find that you cannot get rid of the fore shots. I had to go to 8 plates with a 50 litre boiler to reliably get rid of the fores and it takes 3 litres before it gets into the good stuff. I now have 14 plates that get into azeo nearly every run. Get a packed section above your 4 plates and you'll be able to get a very clean product.

[Lowie]

With 4 plates and no packed section you'll find that you cannot get rid of the fore shots. I had to go to 8 plates with a 50 litre boiler to reliably get rid of the fores and it takes 3 litres before it gets into the good stuff. I now have 14 plates that get into azeo nearly every run. Get a packed section above your 4 plates and you'll be able to get a very clean product.

Sure you don't mean heads?
14 plates will definitely get you azeo. got a pic of that bad boy?

[hillzabilly]

With those thin lines ,I would add another blue line from the pump so the PC and RC each have their own supply line and valve ,add another return so you can monitor both easily and separately,this should improve flow up to 50%.So from pump to at least 19mm hose for a foot or two then a tee with valve opening back into the coolant tank wich can take the pressure off the pump when less flow is needed then another tee for your supply lines.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

[RuddyCrazy]

Just stick a rain water tank outside of a decent size and wait for nature to take it's course. once full just use that as your cooling water with a return pipe.

Thats what I do with mine a 1" pipe from a 5,000 gal tank to a 12 volt DC Flojet pump, bought a cheap speed controller off fleabay for under $10 and it just works a treat.

[Rolls912]

got a pic of that bad boy?

:text-+1:

[hillzabilly]

The other thing ta look at is with those air line valves ,these are made for use with a fair amount of pressure and the internal size may be quite small and restrictive ta water flow under lower pressure,with valves having at least the same internal size as the hose being able to flow better with the same pump size,every elbow will also cost flow .cheers hillzabilly ;-)

[clintonb]

got a pic of that bad boy?

:text-+1: :text-+1:

[Westshine]

Thanks guys, defiantly will be changing the water lines. The ones I have now came free with the kit, I must admit it was a bloody cheap system so I'm not complaining.
I ran my first 100ltr fill on Friday night, apart from not being able to hold product from coming over I did manage to keep it at a slow rate to clear the fores and heads. Increased slightly for hearts production and into tails. I'm quite amazed at the smell of dog breath in the tails. Previously using a small 2" reflux I would run it till it's stopped producing and never really hit "tails' in a reflux system. But in this setup has a distinct tails section and the ABV drops down to about 70% before I turn it off.
The cooling system is at it's limit, the first drum heats up to ~45 deg and the first drum to 34 deg. I don't really won't to take up any more space so will keep a few blocks of ice handy for the next run.
Just put 200ltrs of FFV down today and will run it next week, then onto AG! Will also invest in a packed section, will run AG with no plates. Ordering some 20ltr oak barrels and will see what I can make with that.

[db1979]

In order for your RC to function reliably, you need to maintain cooling water temp. Otherwise, your reflux ratio changes constantly. If you don't want to take up more space, consider either 1. Using town water for the RC only as it only needs a very small flow for most of the run and it can be used on your garden/lawn. Only problem is that anyone else using water in your house may impact the flow or 2. Use a car radiator or repurposed aircon unit to cool the water. Downside to radiator is a bit of noise, aircon will increase electricity costs significantly. I use a twin fan car radiator and get by with about 20 L of water. Water temp is nice and stable, so reflux ratio is too. Aircon or radiator can sit above your drums, or even replace them altogether. Not sure who, but someone else on here repurposed an old aircon with good results.

[Westshine]

Hi DB, I've now run the still 4 times and it seems the cooling is the biggest issue. The 2 valves that came with the still where hopeless, they had too much restriction so offered little water flow. I ditched them and picked up some 1/2" ball vales, they worked well but only ended up increasing the cooling water tempt too much. I like the radiator idea, will research out something perhaps drop into a wreckers later this week. I don't want to use any more space, the wife isn't too happy with the water drums I have now. Installing a rain water tank isn't an option and using mains water is far too wasteful. Unless someone else has any new idea's the car radiator is going to be my next port of call.

I'm getting about 92% off the still running at about 1.5ltrs per hr and only 85% of power on one element. I've ordered a 300mm stainless spool to shove some copper packing into, maybe get another 1%. I'm guessing this sits on top of the last bubble plate before the RC?

Would have responded earlier but my bad attitude got me put into the sin bin.

[db1979]

Packed section is best above plates and below RC, just as you guessed.

If going radiator, you'll either need to run it from a battery or a 12V DC transformer. Mine is a twin fan radiator and one 25A 12V transformer isn't enough to run both fans so I run each fan from its own transformer. Got the radiator for $50 from the wreckers and the transformers from an online supplier for less than $20 each. Transformers combined draw about 300 W electricity. Someone else on here runs a single fan radiator off a battery.

Good luck

[hillzabilly]

I have an old air cond unit I gutted the compressor from ,has a great fan inside but I found running water thru the narrow copper tubes that were in the condencer did not work for elements over 1500-2000wt.But you could mount a car radiator to it very easily and its quiet too,was going ta ditch it but ya more than welcome ta have it for nothin as your a yocal.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

[YarraRanges]

Sure you don't mean heads?
14 plates will definitely get you azeo. got a pic of that bad boy?

After doing a distilling course with the Federation Uni, fores means anything before the hearts. There seems to be so many different definitions I gave up so that's what I use.
Can't show a pic as it isn't a 5 star still.
Because I have an 2.4 meter shed with a 3 metre ridge I've had to run a windowed bubbleplate, then 2 x 100mm sections with bubbleplates then repeat up to the reflux condenser.
I regularly get azeo with the TPW spirit runs. The neutral is beautifully clean.