Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Just ran my 1st fruit wash. Pink grapefruit from the backyard Had a sg of 1065 and fg at .990. Ran it through my 4 plate perf. still and the take off abv was 90 then after collecting the fores it dropped quickly to 85 then by about a litre of collecting the abv was already at 50. What are the differences running a fruit wash to a grain wash/ molasses wash. The plates on the run weren't as loaded with fluid as they normally are and the bottom plate dried up fairly quickly in the run the 2nd from the bottom remained active but the rest not so active.Did i run it too hard ?? what has everyone experienced when doing a fruit wash.

My guess is it's a still problem more than a wash problem. Your sg's were good so the alc should've been there? How many ltrs of wash was there? The bit that confuses me is it sounds like the still was running like the wash was low in alcohol. Maybe you had a leak somewhere? If your plates were drying up I'd say you didn't have enough reflux? What was your take off rate (litres per hour )

you jogged my memory wood duck i did have an issue with 1 of the sight glasses it did leak a bit my take off was probably way too fast i didn't really time it as i was more concerned about the plates. Some of my sg's have a issue i get the clamp as tight as i can without cracking the glass but it sometimes still leaks slightly. I think nextime a water run to see if there are any leaks would be very beneficial.

Use a small mirror to see the leaks. The mirror will fog up.

Are your flanges stainless ferrels or easy flanges? You may just need new seals? If they're copper they may need refacing. Try a nice flat block of wood slightly larger than the face of the flange then staple some sandpaper to it and use it to sand the face back till it's nice and flat. You'll know they're flat when you can see scratch marks on all the serfaces.

On a 4" bubbler take off should be around 2.5lph. 300mls in 6 minutes approximately. Sounds to me like you were running a bit fast if the plates were drying up. You need more water to the rc so it condenses more liquid :handgestures-thumbupleft:

woodduck wrote:Use a small mirror to see the leaks. The mirror will fog up.

Are your flanges stainless ferrels or easy flanges? You may just need new seals? If they're copper they may need refacing. Try a nice flat block of wood slightly larger than the face of the flange then staple some sandpaper to it and use it to sand the face back till it's nice and flat. You'll know they're flat when you can see scratch marks on all the serfaces.

On a 4" bubbler take off should be around 2.5lph. 300mls in 6 minutes approximately. Sounds to me like you were running a bit fast if the plates were drying up. You need more water to the rc so it condenses more liquid :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Bloody legend wood duck just hope your not a port fan :laughing-rolling:

Oh and its a 1 piece 4 plate copper its not a modular still

I only barrick for one team mate and that's the team playing Port :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

woodduck wrote:I only barrick for one team mate and that's the team playing Port :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

:laughing-rolling: :)) :laughing-rolling: