Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

rumdidlydum wrote:Yes use the rc. Full reflux for 10 to 15min then adjust for your toothpick stream output

Many thanks,

Fish

Update on running my bubbler. Finally got to give it a run again. The UJSM mix had been very slowly bubbling away in my cold Canberra garage and took nearly 3 months to finish!! The ABV sat steady on 90% rather than dropping quickly quickly. The only thing I did different was to keep the water flow quite high. Previously I dropped the flow to try and conserve water, rather than reduce the valve to the RC. Obviously this is the problem I was having. Thought I would post this in case anyone else was having these issues.
So have a nice 5 litres sitting at 65% ABV in a glass demijohn with 35 grams of French oak dominoes medium toasted with a cork and put away for a year. Well maybe a few taste tests along the way for quality control purposes of course!!

Bugger. Mac, will try and give you a call in the next couple of days if work relents! Last run was a gin and ABV steadily dropped throughout run again!! Need some expert advice!

I'm having a few issues with my new setup as well.
I'm just running a 50/50 vinegar water solution through the plates for a clean & Ive now moved on to run it as I would for the spirit run.
Even with the RC valve fully closed, I can't seem to get a nice stream of product out of the parrot.
It's more of a dribble drip long dribble drip type collection. 2400w into it & about 40lts of cleaning wash. The PC waste water is running slowly but warm not hot. No leaks anywhere. A couple of questions I have.
1. Orientation of the FSD RC. Does it matter which way is up or down.
2. Will the actual product run behave differently to the cleaning run.
I might have to throw more power at this thing.

A bit of an update.
I switched on the second 2400w element & increased my waste water flow & it runs like a dream. I managed a perfect toothpick sized stream & played around a bit more with the gate valve to the RC. very easy to control & very stable as well. Apart from the RC question, problem solved. Happy days.

Nice one Crusty,

Did she clean up well??

Crusty wrote:1. Orientation of the FSD RC. Does it matter which way is up or down.
2. Will the actual product run behave differently to the cleaning run.

1. no
2. yes it will be vastly different, alcohol has a lower boiling point than water ;-)

Cheers,

Mac.

CO-D wrote:Nice one Crusty,

Did she clean up well??

Sparkling mate.
Cleaned & ready to go for my TPW sacrificial run.

MacStill wrote:

Crusty wrote:1. Orientation of the FSD RC. Does it matter which way is up or down.
2. Will the actual product run behave differently to the cleaning run.

1. no
2. yes it will be vastly different, alcohol has a lower boiling point than water ;-)


Cheers,

Mac.

Thanks Mac.
I feel a bit silly asking some of these questions. Thanks for the clarification. Do you normally leave the PC valve closed until the still is at temperature then open it up when you are ready to close down the valve on the RC after balancing the plates.
My TPW is only 30lt & I'd like to add another 10lt of volume to the boiler. Can I just dilute it with water. I'd like to do a run down to 20% just to see the finished volume in my kettle in relation to my top element height.

Crusty wrote:

MacStill wrote:

Crusty wrote:1. Orientation of the FSD RC. Does it matter which way is up or down.
2. Will the actual product run behave differently to the cleaning run.

1. no
2. yes it will be vastly different, alcohol has a lower boiling point than water ;-)


Cheers,

Mac.

Thanks Mac.
I feel a bit silly asking some of these questions. Thanks for the clarification. Do you normally leave the PC valve closed until the still is at temperature then open it up when you are ready to close down the valve on the RC after balancing the plates.
My TPW is only 30lt & I'd like to add another 10lt of volume to the boiler. Can I just dilute it with water. I'd like to do a run down to 20% just to see the finished volume in my kettle in relation to my top element height.

I'd leave the PC running from start up but recommend a recirculating system with a pump ;-)

You can dilute wash sure, probably get a cleaner product too but your yield wont change much.

Cheers,

Mac.

Thanks again Mac.
Cheers.

I've done 5 or 6 runs following this on my neutraliser and it works a treat! Oh man the fores and heads come off strong and stinky...I'm waiting on bit from flea bay for my temp controller, but it seems to run just fine with the 2400 flat out and I can control it sweet as with the flow to the rc. I seriously love this rig.....I change the flow, like 3 times through the whole run, seriously, get it set then keep yer hands off it :-D

Darwin award wrote:I've done 5 or 6 runs following this on my neutraliser and it works a treat! Oh man the fores and heads come off strong and stinky...I'm waiting on bit from flea bay for my temp controller, but it seems to run just fine with the 2400 flat out and I can control it sweet as with the flow to the rc. I seriously love this rig.....I change the flow, like 3 times through the whole run, seriously, get it set then keep yer hands off it :-D

:text-+1: :text-imwithstupid: :obscene-drinkingchug:

Following up from yesterday's cleaning run. I ran a sacrificial TPW this afternoon. 40lts into the boiler with both 2400w elements for heat up. Once the still was at temp, I turned off the top element & held it at full reflux for about 10mins just to get a feel for the rig. I then slowly closed down the RC until I got a drop or two a second. I let it drip for about 10mins & closed the RC down a bit more until I achieved a toothpick size stream from the parrot. It ran just fine on 2400w & I am totally convinced from today's run, a controller is not a necessity. I got 95% off this thing for a short while but the % dropped quite quickly. I collected down to 50% & fired up the second element & closed down the RC & collected down to 20%. My concern yesterday was boiler volume after the run but there was plenty left in the boiler. From the initial 30lt of TPW + 10lt of water to make volume, it ended up well over the Centre line of my keg so no worries about boiling dry my top element. I'm an absolute beginner but I'm pleasantly surprised how easy the rig was to run.
Cheers

Awesome feedback, Crusty.

Gives me hope :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I've read several times on this site that when doing a spirit run, your abv should stay quite high for the majority of the run & once at 50%, run it as a stripping run until you get down to 20%. My sacrificial TPW run the other day was diluted with 10lt of water to get 40lts into my boiler. When I began collecting, I was hitting 95% with 4 plates but the abv did drop quite quickly & never really held a constant high abv. It steadily dropped & at around the 60% mark, I fired up the second element & just stripped the rest. It was just a cleaning run & a mock run of my first Rum run shortly. Collection speed was perfect & the collection was tooth pick size. How are you guys achieving a high abv for the majority of your run? Will a stripped wash behave differently to a non stripped wash as far as holding high abv for longer or is it because I had no packed section for added reflux?

lower ABV washes will require more power and more reflux for same ABV and flow. this is because ethanol needs less joules of energy than water to boil. when there is less ABV in the boiler it will be slower take off. if you increase power and reflux this may compensate. someone else may want to chime in with a 4"

the way i get over 1l/h on my 2" is i have to have a high ABV wash. striped wash added to a normal wash and i can go over 1l/h but on a single wash i go maybe 600-800ml/h.

less ABV = less output speed.
2.4kW on a 12% wash may be 2.5l/h
2.4kW on a 6% wash will be much slower as it will require more power to evaporate the ethanol faster which may need more reflux to stop the water.


this is just my thoughts and experience with 2" (nothing compared to a 4"), may be wrong but makes sense to me

When it starts dropping you could put it into full reflux and load all the plates up. Thats what i have done anyway :D

It's a function of quality over quantity.....I think...newb at this but here's what I think anyways.....drips = good.....
I like bleeding off the fores nice and slow....it f'n stinks....then into the heads, there's this wee bit of acetone smell....
hearts, none of that. Go the bigger flask, stubbie whatever, run it till u get a NOTICEABLE drop in ABV, THEN do whatever u want to collect tails....
So that's my take, no offense if I've got it wrong (actually, please tell me!) but f me, I love the bubbler.....

Darwin award wrote:It's a function of quality over quantity.....I think...newb at this but here's what I think anyways.....drips = good.....
I like bleeding off the fores nice and slow....it f'n stinks....then into the heads, there's this wee bit of acetone smell....
hearts, none of that. Go the bigger flask, stubbie whatever, run it till u get a NOTICEABLE drop in ABV, THEN do whatever u want to collect tails....
So that's my take, no offense if I've got it wrong (actually, please tell me!) but f me, I love the bubbler.....

I love mine too no question & it's just a matter of getting used to it & understanding how it behaves. When you say a noticeable drop in abv, mine dropped from the get go. 95% at the start & continued to fall. It never stayed at say 90% for any length of time. It continued to fall hence my question. I'm just curious as to how people are saying their abv stayed at 93% for the majority of the run & only started dropping at the onset of tails.