Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hey All,

I've been running the FSD 4 inch SSG for a few years. Over the last 6 months or so I can't seem to get it to hold the abv % steady during a spirit run. It starts off fine but within a couple of jars it starts to slowing decrease abv throughout the run. I've check leaks in the column and can't find anything. I've changed the pump & cooling lines. retaped all seals. I've bought new alcometers just in case. I've checked both condensers for water leaks. Checked with compressed air as well - no leaks.

What I have noticed when running both condensers the reflux is on about a 1/4 of a turn with it running a toothpick size stream approx. 2L per hour. Over the duration of the run the output decreases. If I turn off the reflux the temp of the output distillate raises significantly.

What have a missed?
Any help or advice is welcome. I need to get this running soon - my rum stocks are getting low.

Cheers

What is your water setup? Recirc how many litres?

rec-circ with about 900L in an IBC. Checked the temp of this it is cold.

Possible leak only when the system is hot? Or your cooling watet is getting too hot and not maintaining reflux levels throughout the run.

Is yield down also or just abv? How did the ferment go did it ferment dry? Usual recipe? Do you run both pc and rc off one line or individual lines?

I'm not 100% sure on overall yield. Previously I could run it at 92 - 94% for the whole run, then steep drop.
Ferments are fine - same recipes, same yeasts. the PC and RC run off the same line - split with a t connection. I'll replace those as well just to eliminate that.

Tonight I run the pump through the connected RC and PC- couldn't see any leaks. Disconnected the RC and PC. Ran the water through the pump - no blockage in the pipes or cooling lines.

I've been doing a few stripping runs with no problem. then check one possible factor. Do the spirit run hoping that it will be okay - but same thing with the slow drop in abv & decrease output from the parrot over the course of the run.

I've even thought of just going back to running it as a pot still only. But there has to be something that I haven't thought of.

This happened to me a while ago, couldn’t get my head around it.
Pulled the entire rig down to last but and bolt, put everything through the dishwasher and hand cleaned all the seals.
Reassembled everything and bingo, back to normal.
No idea why just happy :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks Stig,
I'll do the same.

I'm sure you've checked, but do you have water going into the bottom of your rc and out the top,so as to eliminate air locks?

It seems odd that the % drops aswel as the output. If the rc was working more effectively as the run went on it would put the % up.

My money would be on a electrical problem. Power dropping through a long lead getting hot or faulty power controller or element or the like, maybe even power drop from something else turning on during the run. Less power would equal lower output and lower% from less reflux?

I had a similar issue caused by leaking around the plates. At the start it looks fine but as the plates loaded up with higher abv, the alcohol ran more easily past the not well sealed edges and the bubbling reduced and eventually stopped. This should be easy to see through the sight glasses. Cleaning, carefully checking seals on assembly as already suggested should deal with this kind of thing.

woodduck wrote:It seems odd that the % drops aswel as the output. If the rc was working more effectively as the run went on it would put the % up.

My money would be on a electrical problem. Power dropping through a long lead getting hot or faulty power controller or element or the like, maybe even power drop from something else turning on during the run. Less power would equal lower output and lower% from less reflux?

:text-+1:
I had a problem on a VM still and it turned out to be loose wire in power controller. The loose wire still had some contact - so the element was getting less power than it normally did. Chinese volt and amp meter I had in the controller didn't show any power fluctuations/problems.

Cheers Guys. Took it all apart. Gave it a good clean. New pump, almost new cooling lines, new threading tape, new power cords, new power board.

Extra care when constructing the column.

Ran a bourbon sugar head. Sitting on 90% abv for the whole run. I don't know what the problem was, but I hope it is fixed.

My next step was the heating elements.

Cheers - thanks for your help.

Hell you've just about rebuilt her. I'm glad you got it sorted out mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks for your help guys.

Yesterday I did a spirit run of CFW. Using 4 plates. To get up to temp I was using 2 x 2400 watts elements, no controller. With both elements on it was easy for the distillate to push through. I turned off 1 element and adjusted the RCr. I noticed when in the 3rd or 4th jar, the abv was dropping. I also noticed that the 3rd plate wasn't loaded ant more - but the 1st, 2nd and 4th plates were very active. Has anyone had this happen? What is the cause? what is the solution? Again the distillate flow rate over the course of several hours reduced.

I ended up rerunning just using the rig as a pot still.

I'll replace the elements to remove that possibility. I can't see any leak in the RC. The water flow back to the IBC does seem to have been reduced at all. I have also noticed along with the reduced abv and distillate flow - the temperate of the distillate increases, but if I increase the RC flow, the distillate decreases more.

Is it possible that the elements can't maintain the temp over several hours or is it possible that the efficiency of the condensers decrease over several hours?

I have a wheatbix wash to run, so I'll use 2 packed sections with no plates to see if it happens agains.

Sounds like a problem with the 3rd plate. Are the caps and downcomer sealed properly. Im assuming the vapour is just oassing straight through it.

Cooling water temp increasing will drop abv but since you use an ibc and 3rd plate is not staying loaded my guess is a leak :-B to decrease temp of distillate increase flow to pc not rc :handgestures-thumbupleft: check for leak in third tee joins..

Hey mate can you get one of your elements rewired so that it can be split into 2 x 1200w and then when you’re up to temp on boil up just drop off 1 x 1200 w , giving you around 3600w to do your spirit run :think:
I remember when I had my 4” still on me 100 lt boiler sometimes I seemed to have to do this to get her running properly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

viking wrote:I noticed when in the 3rd or 4th jar, the abv was dropping. I also noticed that the 3rd plate wasn't loaded ant more - but the 1st, 2nd and 4th plates were very active. Has anyone had this happen? What is the cause? what is the solution? Again the distillate flow rate over the course of several hours reduced.

I had an issue with some plates loading and others were not and it came down to bypassing. The returned alcohol ran past the plate because it was not sealed correctly. I could see it running down the sidewalls. Suggest that you reset the third plate. Lots of power can overcome some slight bypassing but it is not the right fix.

viking wrote:Thanks for your help guys.

Yesterday I did a spirit run of CFW. Using 4 plates. To get up to temp I was using 2 x 2400 watts elements, no controller. With both elements on it was easy for the distillate to push through. I turned off 1 element and adjusted the RCr. I noticed when in the 3rd or 4th jar, the abv was dropping. I also noticed that the 3rd plate wasn't loaded ant more - but the 1st, 2nd and 4th plates were very active. Has anyone had this happen? What is the cause? what is the solution? Again the distillate flow rate over the course of several hours reduced.

When we had this issue (we don't use a power controller and run our still every time as you have described above), we plug in the second element and get the boiler hot again. That sorts it out for us usually. This then suggests either a power issue (as mentioned) or an insulation issue on the boiler. What was the weather doing while your running your still? If either of these are eliminated, then I'm with Peter -

PeterC wrote:I had an issue with some plates loading and others were not and it came down to bypassing. The returned alcohol ran past the plate because it was not sealed correctly. I could see it running down the sidewalls. Suggest that you reset the third plate. Lots of power can overcome some slight bypassing but it is not the right fix.

Your rig not being a glasses, check the seal on all the 'T's and their view ports ...

Good luck! This is one of those PITA events ... until you find it!