Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Thought it was about time I say G'day :handgestures-thumbupleft:

My first ever still was a 1200mm high 2" reflux column that I originally built to make vodka in the early 2000's using a 5L boiler. That thing leaked and was hard to run and produced nothing I wanted to drink, so I gave up on it back then, but I always kept the column.

Fast forward to the past 12 months, I decided to pull my finger out and get that column up and running. After reading the book by Riku about building automated stills, I decided to go the electronic route. The end result was a controller and some modifications to the column for temp probes and a couple of solenoid valves.



To be honest, there wasn't much control. Solenoid valves for controlling cooling water and take off didn't provide a stable run - I ended up changing water flow manually and running in post still mode. I'm a bourbon drinker these days, so having learned that reflux columns are no good for carrying flavour, this was okay... except now i had a fancy box full of electronics running as a glorified thermometer. :angry-banghead: On top of that, I got a 50L barrel for Christmas, so needed to fill it. :music-deathmetal:



The 2" just wasn't cutting it. Time to go bigger, So I decided to follow in the footsteps of bt1, NewStilla and bac206 and build a glasser.

Nice controller mate. Im sure with a few mods it would be grear to run a herms system for some allgrain mashes :handgestures-thumbupleft:

First up, the plate section. I decided to go with the large Primus lantern glasses, 150mm copper plates and bubble caps from Five Star Distilling. I managed to fit 6 bubble caps and 1 downcomer per plate.



Instead of the usual 4 lengths of threaded rod, I went with 6 x 6mm.



Also built a spot for a temp probe to sit below the reflux condenser with a 'hood'.

Smbjk wrote:Nice controller mate. Im sure with a few mods it would be grear to run a herms system for some allgrain mashes :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Hi Smbjk. I've thought about it. Would need some big stainless vessels to fall into my lap at the right price. I am currently running BWKO washes and am happy with the results so far. Would love to have a go at Brendan's methods one day though.

Reflux and product condensers were a relatively straight forward build. Instead of building easy flanges, I used 1mm copper plate that I picked up from the scrapyard, cut to size. This meant I could avoid using silver solder. The downside of this is that I use an additional silicon gasket (made from silicon backing tray) at each connection to prevent leaks.

Reflux condenser is 4" 150mm long, with 7 3/4" tubes.



Product condenser is 2" 500mm long with 6 1/2" tubes.



Used brass female slip fit connectors soldered into the reflux condenser body, but swapped to soldering tube to the product condenser body, then connectors to the tube.

Nice,

On the larger glasses = 110mm always recommend the M10 SS threaded 1cm rods. Be interested to see the abv's she produces with the four plates.

Enjoy
bt1

Thanks for fixing the thread title. :text-thankyoublue: Couldn't even spell my own name :ugeek:

My brother is a boiler maker and one of the blokes he has working with him is a sheety, so after cutting all the holes in the keg, I put him to work with the tig. The keg features a 4" column connection, 4" fill port, 3" SSG site glass, 2 2400 watt FSD elements and a drain port. There is also a temp probe sitting between the elements.

bt1 wrote:Nice,

On the larger glasses = 110mm always recommend the M10 SS threaded 1cm rods. Be interested to see the abv's she produces with the four plates.

Enjoy
bt1

Hi bt1, I saw you recommended upgrading in size. I decided to increase quantity instead. Buying the threaded rod in 1m lengths, I could grab 3, cut them in half and have room to spare for 4 plates. The plate assembly is solid as a rock and requires no support to carry the weight of product condenser and parrot.

No worries :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Looks the goods mate... There's something about a 360° view of the plates that is making me seriously consider going glass one day!

Cooling is handled by a submersible 750 watt pump in an IBC. I've got solenoid valves on the outlet side of both condensers and a flow meter on each line also.





The parrot has a temp probe so I can work out temp adjusted alcohol content on the fly. I could control flow to the product condenser via the solenoid valve, but haven't had parrot temps below 20 degrees yet and would have to add pressure relief for the pump in case both return lines are closed. Maybe in the middle of winter... after I calibrate the probe.



Also set up a solenoid valve to drain foreshots, feints etc.

All set up under the house after a couple of runs this weekend (after the obligatory cleaning runs during the week). :happy-partydance:



First impressions - this thing is easy to run and this stuff tastes good straight off the still. You hear/read about how well these things compress heads and tails, but seeing is believeing! :shock:

Looks wonderful

Looks awesome mate! :handgestures-thumbupleft:

That's one pimped up still mate, nice rig :handgestures-thumbupleft:

that last photo is one of the best pics on the forum!! :handgestures-thumbupleft:
great looking still.

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

Oh I do like it ....everything from the boiler drain up ...no actually from the keg legs up :happy-partydance:

Primus had better stock up on lantern glass :D

question: are those macs plates or just the bubble caps ? If its plates as well,how have you fitted them in there ....cheers

Thanks for the compliments. Hi Andy :greetings-waveyellow:

Yummyrum wrote::clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

Oh I do like it ....everything from the boiler drain up ...no actually from the keg legs up :happy-partydance:

Primus had better stock up on lantern glass :D

question: are those macs plates or just the bubble caps ? If its plates as well,how have you fitted them in there ....cheers

They're Mac's bubble caps and downcomers. I went with these plates from https://www.aemetal.com.au/Webstore/p-140-copper-sheet-20mm-110-15cm-x-15cm-pack.aspx.

Probably a dumb question, but is there any reason why you've used stainless steel threaded rod?

Would a basic steel threaded rod be suitable or am I overlooking something very basic?

There's no reason why you HAVE to use stainless, but then you wouldn't let a couple of extra $$ be the difference between a still that will always look good and one that has rust on it...

What I found was as you need to wind multi sets of nuts up and down the rods the black chips quickly and Galv rod starts to flake at higher wear areas.

SS suffers no issue and seems a closer fit.

bt1