Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Arrrhhh first timer nerves..... :D :D :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I remember that. :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft: +

Keep goin' you'll be fine.

DBV

Well it bubbles yay :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :music-deathmetal:

I can see why we do vinagar runs now. That's some funky shit coming out of there :puke-huge:

Nah mate flat out IMO. You want to push the vinegar through.. Quickly

Get some wash in that mofo! :teasing-tease: :teasing-neener:

Give it shit for the cleaning run mate, let her rip with acidic steam and then play with your condensers a bit.... it wont run very well until it's got some booze in it.

Once you do your sacrificial booze run she'll perform well, then you can muck around with ABV% and collection rates :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Hey guys,

Just running my sacrificial run and I've got a few queries. I carged my boiler with 8 ltrs of some neutral turbo and some faints with about 15 ltrs of water just to make sure the elements are covered so it would be lucky to be 15% abv. My bottom glass has been foged up the whole time and doesn't seem to be bubbling as much as the others. I am pulling 95% abv at about the toothpick size recomended, maybe a bit slower. The stream is a bit erratic and not a constant flow, is this normal?. I am running on my 2400w element and I have tryed winding the power back but didn't seem to help at all. The only thing I can think of is i may have a bit of vapour bypass on that bottom plate.

Any advice you could give would be great and most welcomed :handgestures-thumbupleft: cheers

My first bubbler run i think I pushed to fast, unloaded the top plate and abv dropped real quick, every run since I ran slower and never have had the problem again. Hope that helps its all I got :silent:
Edit. You can always go back to full reflux and have another go. Just watch your elements dont get dry.

Thanks Muppet,

It all seems to be going ok exept that bottom plate has a lack of bubbles and the bottom glass is foggy, from what I've read that normaly means tails coming so the only thing i can relate that to is water vapor coming through/ to high power but if i turn it down it just slows right up and bugger all bubbles anywhere.

Anyway ill keep fiddling with stuff till it comes good.

Ive read that too tho my still does the same and keeps going much longer. Concentrate on your parrot, take notes then after airing you can test it yourself. :music-deathmetal:

Ahh just noticed your bubble caps. Mine is a perf plater. One of the bubble cap guys should chime in soon.

Well guys, i wouldn't say the maiden run was all that successful unfortunately. All seemed to be going ok output was good, condensers worked well.the only hickup was with the bottom plate/glass. Until i noticed a red glow in the boiler :scared-eek: (thank god i have a sight glass in it) it was a pulsing type glow that was obviously the element, so i turned it off quick smart. My guess is the wash was boiling to vigorously and the element was exposed every so often. Now when i charged the boiler i covered the elements with water by about 2" so 4" above the bottom 2400w that was used during the run (top one just for heat up), then the low wines. After turning it off, i still have about 3" over the bottom element but is this enough, the wash does boil vigorously. I also took my element cover off to check the wiring but that all seems ok, nothing shorted out or excessively hot.

Has anyone ever had an experience like this. I'm not game to use it untill i know what's going on, although i have turned it back on since for a minute or so and no glowing or anything abnormal.

I'd stay focused on output and abv for now WD. Unless you can see a big problem then step in to rectify, but sounds like it's going ok.

Was the feints a big proportion of tails by any chance? :think:

I'd wait until you got a tried and proven in there and not worry too much about a mongrel wash behaving badly.

That's just me though so take it as you will :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Not to sure what's happening there WD , A glowing element would suggest a dry element but sounds like you have yours covered enough but maybe not. :think:

:scared-eek: wtf is goin on there?

Then again I don't think an element would glow red anyway, recon it would fail before getting to that sort of temperature. :think:

Thanks for your thoughts guys.

I just dumped that shit and have just charged it with 25 ltrs mbwko and 20ltrs lows from previous gens it's reading bang on 40%. So hopefully that will be enough liquid in there this time and i guess fingers crossed it doesn't happen again.

How hard does the wash normally boil? Mine probably had a "roll" of about 3", if that makes sense. Then again if alot of others are using a 2400w how could mine be different?

So if all goes well distillers privilege tonight :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Ya said you were fitting 2 elements a 2400 on the bottom and a 3600 on top ,any chance ya mixed them up.cheers hillzabilly :-B

Good call, but i did check that and you can hear the difference between the 2 elements. The 3600 really roars but thanks for the ideas :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Now this is the go! :handgestures-thumbupleft:
This lot is much better. All glasses are clear and bubbling up a storm. And the taste is fantastic, much better than that last lot through my pot. It's pulling 93% at 2.5 ltrs per hour. I love watching it, i just can't take my eyes of it. I'm ment to be cleaning up the shed while I'm in here but no time gotta change jars every 6/7 minutes, slightly quicker than the 2"boka :laughing-rolling:

And no glowing in the boiler yet. I think the wife must have put something in my lunch :))

Can't wait to finish and get into some distillers privilege :happy-partydance:

Thanks for your help guy's it is great to have a knowledge base like this forum and blokes happy to help out :clap:

Full credit too you mate ,you did all the hard work,enjoy the rewards .cheers hilzabilly :clap:

Great news bud that sounds a lot better. Keep in mind what we are doing is boiling off what we are after. Hence boiler volume will drop the longer you are running. I'm not the guy to recommend how low boiler charges ya can get away with, I always do full charges. (40l in a keg boiler) personally I have 6 30l fermenters, use 2 per wash, (pretty simple but working 4 on, 1 off) 3 runs im lucky to squeeze in on the week off. Sometimes it doesn't happen but with Xmas round the corner...