New 2.5" Pot Still Setup!!

[Jimmy1]

With regards to the size of the container to recycle water I've used a 100L drum which got too hot to finish my run so I switched to the mains but maybe with some ice bricks on hand it could be possible.

[stubbydrainer]

Geez Vic
I dont know how big ya laundry is :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
I can only assume you have a water meter out the front of your place.Do you have a swimming pool, that you could use as a water supply, some one on here was asking questions about that sort of thing, I recirculate water from my 7500 gallon rainwater tank, but i dont reckon that would fit in ya laundry 8-} :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: .
let me play the devils advocate, what about fill the laundry tub with water, put a small pump into that and run the outlet to a car radiator that is fitted with a electric fan ( 12v ) then through the still, n back to the tub ? Food for thought huh ? :? :?

cheers

[Kimbo]

Hey Vic,
does ya missus wash the clothes with hot or cold water?
just a thought :-D

[stubbydrainer]

gotta give it to ya Kimbo, you are an outside the square type of thinker :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[victorski]

Okily dokily, thanks for the advice SSB :-) I'll give it a shot!

Ahh yes :teasing-neener: should have clarifyed that the laundry is not massive, I was thinking of purchasing a 220L drum to sit in the corner and throw in a few frozen bricks! Unfortunately there is no pool so thats out also the missus uses cold water for washing!

I'm not to fussed about using water from the mains but its a bit of a waste + I do not want to attract attention by having a massive spike in water consumption 8-)

For the spirit run, can I operate it as I have been during a 45L stripping run ? It took about 1.5 hours till foreshots came out in a pencil lead thickness then there is the same steady stream for 2.5 hours till I cut it at 20% abv.

Everyone says to run it slow, but since I don't have any way to regulate power I have no control :handgestures-thumbdown:

Cheers,
Victor

[Sam.]

Everyone says to run it slow, but since I don't have any way to regulate power I have no control :handgestures-thumbdown:

Victor

You can control at what % you take your cuts. Thats the idea of a potstill, it does its thing slowly and you take off what you want from it, you cant hold it at a particular value like a reflux still.

[Moonshine_Nova]

Okily dokily, thanks for the advice SSB :-) I'll give it a shot!

Ahh yes :teasing-neener: should have clarifyed that the laundry is not massive, I was thinking of purchasing a 220L drum to sit in the corner and throw in a few frozen bricks! Unfortunately there is no pool so thats out also the missus uses cold water for washing!

I'm not to fussed about using water from the mains but its a bit of a waste + I do not want to attract attention by having a massive spike in water consumption 8-)

For the spirit run, can I operate it as I have been during a 45L stripping run ? It took about 1.5 hours till foreshots came out in a pencil lead thickness then there is the same steady stream for 2.5 hours till I cut it at 20% abv.

Everyone says to run it slow, but since I don't have any way to regulate power I have no control :handgestures-thumbdown:

Cheers,
Victor

Hi Vic,

You can use the grey water from the washing machine to fill the 220L water drum and then just cylce it through.

Cheers

[victorski]

Ah yes that's logical thanks sam and moonshine! I'm a bit anxious about fudging my first 40L spirit run so was hoping I could get some advice!

I'll be adding 15% wash (7L UJSM) to 38L of 40% low wines for the spirit run. I know it should be made by taste/smell but was hoping for some rough figures to aid in me making my cuts. First i'll collect 300mls of foreshots, then is the % of Heads/Hearts/Tails all 1/3 ? Can one estimate what ABV to collect for each fraction of head,hearts and tails and what ABV to stop collection ?

Cheers,
Victor

[SBB]

Dunno if this is a good idea or not Vic........but im thinking if this is your first run ....how about going 50/50 with the wash and low wines??.......that way if ya fuck the first run up ya got another run left. Bit hard for me to say really as my first UJ wash was done on a bubbler and I have very little experience with a basic pot still. For me at least, sniffing / tasting the differnt cut points with UJ is harder than it is with a netural run....well thats what I found anyway..........good luck with it.........nothing ventured nothing gained.
Hopefully someone who can help a bit more will pipe up.

[Kimbo]

Hi Vic,
the last spirit run of UJ i did was 40L of low wines @ 40% and no wash.
I got approx 20L of hearts. this will depend on how greedy or fussy you want to be ;-)
i got roughly 2L heads and 3L tails.
there is so many variables, your results will differ :handgestures-thumbupleft:

If in doubt, check the calculators
http://www.aussiedistiller.com.au/calcs.html

[victorski]

Cheers kimbo + SBB!

I'll run the whole thing :) may aswell, it'll be a good way to learn to make cuts! with kimbos approx of 20L hearts it doesn't seem like they'll be tight cuts so at worst i'll lose a couple litres or so :laughing-rolling: Can i ask approx what ABV you start seeing hearts and what ABV you stop the still or do you just go by the smell of tails ?

Thanks for all the help everyone :-) Sorry to pester with so many questions!!

Cheers,
Victor

[R-sole]

On a spirit run on my setup with my charge it'll start off around 81-82% on the hydrometer. I'll chuck a litre of heads and then collect 3-4 litres after that to the hearts cut by taste from the output. The hydrometer will still be showing the starting figure or possibly one point lower :oops:
So it's no help with the heads cut.

I'll collect 20-24 litres of hearts by taste with the first 8-10 litres all being within a couple of points of the starting 80+% after a while the hydro will slowly start dropping. The tails cut usually comes in around 68-70% but you need to go by taste or collect into small bottles from say 75% on so you can taste later. The taste change will be noticeable after a day or two, you will know where the cut is.

I'll get a LOT more than 3 l of tails, but i recycle feints too. Strip it down to 20% to add back to your next spirit run.

[victorski]

Fantastic, thanks 5Star!!

Do you collect in jars for the whole run, the hearts cut is so massive that surely one could use larger jars / demijohn for the 20L or so of hearts? So starting with small jars until hitting hearts, then swapping to maybe 1-2L jars/demijohn for hearts then coming close to end of hearts swap to small jars for tails? I noticed that on my stripping runs that the temperature in the parrot is about 30 degrees, way to much for an accurate reading of ABV :( is there a way to cool the distillate further) or should I simply use the calculator to work out the corrected ABV throughout the run?

When it does come to the time to mix the cuts together for the final product, say I have 20L hearts, keep say 15L and start aging on oak. Then with the remaining 5 litres use it to practice blending by adding some of the heads/tails and aging on oak in seperate bottles ?


Cheers,
Victor

[R-sole]

I use 500ml in JB bottles for the samples around the cuts and collect in 4l bottles for the hearts.

You could print out and laminate an abv correction chart (search) and keep it near your still.

[victorski]

:handgestures-thumbupleft: Cheers 5Star!

Stripped my 3rd generation of UJSM and put down the 4th generation :) Already started bubbling yay!! :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Got my whole system worked out now as a result becoming super time efficient. Just need to install a second element into the keg to speed up warm up time :-D! Daaaaamn I see what everyone is saying about space... jeez! I'm going to need some more kegs or something to store my low wines as i've got two 60L TPWs ready to strip with no where to store them :P hahaha

Also i'm thinking of purchasing a 25-50L barrel (from rolloutthebarrel) for aging my UJSM. How long does one of these barrels last before it needs to be serviced ?

[stubbydrainer]

good to see you enjoying your self Vic :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Ummm, have you figured out that "your addicted " yet !!! :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

30 * c is too warm for my liking, what sort of angle do you have the condenser on ?
if its to steep the condensate wont be in there long enough to cool down properly, or you don't have enough water flowing through it maybe ?

[R-sole]

I would highly reccomend the 50l barrel. If you do go for a 25l, make sure you specify used wood. I had dramas with one that i couldn't get to season with new wood that made some spirit very harsh.
The 50's are made from old wine barrels reshaped for the staves with new american oak heads.

I used a couple for a few years before sending them back for recharing. Make sure you get heavy or dark toast as much as they will do, and don't let em talk you out of it.


Great people, great product.

[victorski]

Hehehe, yes i'm addicted :) :handgestures-thumbupleft: Ahh its on a pretty massive angle, I have the parrot sitting on a box thats maybe 30cm from the ground! Silly me that's logical, i'll change the angle for the next run and see how we go ;-)

Thanks for the advice 5Star! I'll get a 50L used wine barrel (new ones are super expensive anyway!) Is there any difference between heavy and dark toast in terms of taste? what would you suggest ? :) Don't want to make the wrong decision here haha

Cheers,
Victor

[stubbydrainer]

Hiya Vic,
to give you an idea, the flange of my keg is approx 800 off the floor, and my parrot sits on a stand 600 high, :D
I want to get a 50 ltr " maturing " barrel for my rum off R.O.T.B. one day. If and when I get it past the minister of war and finance :angry-banghead:

[R-sole]

Don't get me wrong, the 50l are still new barrels, they just make the staves from repurposed wood