Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hey All,

I'm all ready tomorrows spirit run. Already stripped 200L Wheatbix wash in the 100L boiler.

Tomorrow while I run 5 plates and 500mm packed section I'll be contemplating how high I could have the column. At the moment I'm running 2 x 2400 watt elements with no power controller so it is only running 2 at full capacity or 1 at full capacity and using the RC to control distillate flow from the parrot.

Is there a theoretical height limit to running this still? Having recently increased the height of the shed I could go to 5 plates and 2 x 500mm packed section but I'm not sure if I have enough power to get this high.

I could try, but I'm hoping someone else smarter than I may have already worked this out.

You only need to go higher if you are chasing neutrals.
The extra 500mm packed section will act as roughly 20 plates so this would be no good for any flavoured spirit you are trying to make, would hit azeo. easily tho.

I'm guessing you're asking about if your power input is going to be enough for that height column? Basically, the more column you have, the more energy loss from the dissipation of heat over the columns surface area. I run my 4" bubbler on 2000 W and it runs beautifully but it's copper and I don't have a packed section. I believe many on here have mentioned they use 2400 W with 5 plates and a packed section for making neutral. An extra packed section may still be ok, but if it's not, you can also take it off. Also, your heat up time will be longer but maybe not by much. Heat up the with 2 elements and then run on 1.

Or get a power controller made and control the second element with it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Why do you need to add another packed section? If you're running low wines and chasing neutral then plates and packed section will cope easily. I run only 4 plates and packed section on low wines due to a low shed ceiling height and I'm very happy with the results.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Cheers Guys,

Why? I think it really just because I can. I may run two 500mm packed sections and no plates next time I run a Wheatbix wash - especially as my bloody spirit run today is slowly dropping abv% again. I had two good runs and now back to the problem.Arrrggghhh!!!!

Fair enough!

What was your take-off rate? I know I get that behaviour if try to push it too fast.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Prof, about 2 to 2.5L per hour. When I get a chance I'll rerun it only with the 2 packed sections. I might see if by reducing the possible sources of leaks.

I have found 3600wt works well for me ,for up to 7plates and a 700mm packed section ,so I think you will not have a problem running 5plates and two 500mm packed sections with up to 4800wt,the only time I ever use more is with my thumper,I think even with 2400wt you will make the height but it will be a slow run at 2lt or less per hour,ifn your plates are leaking slightly a bit more power may help,I have found that you can get away with a bit less power with a 40%ABV spirit run compared to a 10-15% ABV straight wash run.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

Back to it - running 50L stripped wheatbix wash for neutral through 500mm packed section - slow spirit run. 3.5 hours in and no drop in abv. looks like the problem is definitely a leak in the plated section. I'll start with replacing the seals.