New 2.5" Pot Still Setup!!

[victorski]

Yeah mate, cold water is going in through the fitting closest to the product outlet and warm comes out of the fitting closest to the column :angry-banghead: It's really frustrating having to check my ABV correction calculator on the computer every 5 minutes :sad: The strange thing is that the water coming out of the condenser is 21 degrees!!!

[Sam.]

How fast is your output? If you can control your power put it back a bit, the slower it comes out the colder it will be.

[victorski]

Okily dokily, finished my first spirit run! an overall success I think (I may have run a little bit of hearts into the tails) but for now just need to let them air out over the next few days so I can start blending and finally put something into my lovely barrel!

As far as output goes, I think its 4 litres/hour, I've have not measured it properly yet! I'm using a 2200w element, so no way to control the power unless I make a power controller :cry: although I recall on my vinegar run that the distillate came out cold, water boils at a much higher temperature than ethanol so surely the distillate should not be coming out warm :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:

Cheers,
Victor

[R-sole]

Poke a strung out bit of mesh the whole length of your condensor.

That will break up the flow of vapour and aid considerably.

[stubbydrainer]

5Star,
It has a 2mm copper wire diffuser ( wound in a triangle spring , much like a spp coil stretched out ) in the start of the vapour trail, the tube is also crimped
What confuses me is the output was cold during the vinegar clean out !!!

[victorski]

I thought I might post the values I got from the spirit run (I know there fucked) I didn't bother with ABV since it was changing so quickly and the distillate was 32 degrees, I didn't have time to punch it into the computer every 5 seconds so fucked it off (silly me)
I had already removed foreshots during the stripping runs and I added 10% wash (5L) to the 40L @ 40% run
I realised I should have taken larger amounts at the beginning of heads then smaller jars coming toward the cut between heads / hearts.
Since the values differed so much to everyone elses runs, I think I missed my tails cut (thinking I would get at least 18-19 litres hearts) but it seems I got much much less not sure how thats possible lol, so I may have tainted one of the 4000ml bottles :angry-banghead:
I ran it down to 20% and stopped!

This is what i've put together, not sure if the cuts are correct yet! they are all still airing out

1 - 200ml (Foreshots)
2 - 200ml (Heads)
3 - 250ml (Heads)
4 - 250ml (Heads)
5 - 500ml (Heads)
6 - 500ml (Heads)
7 - 500ml (Heads)
8 - 500ml (Heads)
9 - 500ml (Heads)
10 -250ml (Hearts)
11 - 200ml (Hearts)
12 - 200ml (Hearts)
13 - 250ml (Hearts)
14 - 200ml (Hearts)
15 - 250ml (Hearts)
16 - 2000ml (Hearts)
17 - 2000ml (Hearts)
18 - 2000ml (Hearts)
19 - 2000ml (Hearts)
20 - 4000ml (Hearts)
21 - 4000ml (Maybe hearts, might be tainted with tails :angry-banghead: )
22 - 1500ml (Tails)
23 - 1000ml (Tails)
24 - 1500ml (Tails)
25 - 1000ml (Tails)

Anyway any advice is welcome, It was a steep learning curve! I definetely need to fix the problem with the 32 degree distillate, it makes it near impossible to use ABV as a basis of making cuts, I also need to maybe make a power controller as its been suggested that its running to fast (also makes it harder to make my cuts) Any tips on how to go about testing all the jars?

Cheers,
Victor

[R-sole]

5Star,
It has a 2mm copper wire diffuser ( wound in a triangle spring , much like a spp coil stretched out ) in the start of the vapour trail, the tube is also crimped
What confuses me is the output was cold during the vinegar clean out !!!

Did you build it with an adjustable condensor angle mate?

If so maybe the operator is running it in a near vertical rather than a near horisontal position?

[SBB]

If you still have all that in jars why not just check the abv now..........besides that the best tool you have for working out your cuts is your sence of taste and smell.

I ran it down to 20% and stopped!

If you ran it down to 20% youve got about all you could expect from that run.

[victorski]

@ 5Star, the angle can be adjusted! I'm sure it's something that i'm fucking up, I might just try set up the still with a water run tonight and see if I can try different things to correct it!

When I first did stripping runs I had a massive angle but not anymore! The keg flange is about 600ml off the ground and the parrot sits at about 500m high! maybe the 2200 watts is to much power so i'm pulling it to fast, not giving it enough time to cool ?

[SBB]

maybe the 2200 watts is to much power so i'm pulling it to fast, not giving it enough time to cool ?

I cant see that being a problem....2200W shouldnt be a drama with a beer keg and wash of that size.......as an example a T500 runs 2000-2200W on boiler and wash size of half what you have.

[stubbydrainer]

:text-imwithstupid:
2200w is not to much power for that condenser, Its 1" over crimped 3/4", vapour diffuser about 250-300 mm long ( described above ) and about 950-1m long,
and Vic says it ran cold when on the cleaning run,
Its has to be either water flow or angle, doesn't it ? ( but not ruling out ..vapour turbulence ) :think:
I have some copper mesh here Vic , I'll send ya some , but flatten the condenser to just a bit less than flat ( about 1 1/2" ) and let me know what it does
Dont burn ya self , remember the copper is going to be hot :naughty:

[victorski]

I'm second guessing myself now, saying that it ran cold! but I'll set it up and fill her with 20 litres of water and see what happens! Thanks for all the suggestions everyone :pray: :pray:

[SBB]

I have some copper mesh here Vic , I'll send ya some ,

Oiiiiiiiii Draino dont give the whole chunk away..ya promised me a bit :laughing-rolling: Could well need it for that old hippies job up in the hills near Mount Warning ;-)

[victorski]

Hmmm i'm so confuzzled!! I just ran it with the liebig almost horizontal, the distillate came out a lovely 20 degrees.. fantastic news!! Then I turned it to the same angle I used for my stripping run/spirit runs and what do you know it also came out at 20 degrees.

So why does it not work the same on the stripping/spirit runs ? :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead:

The only thing different was that the distillate was coming out in drips/broken stream not like my other runs that come out in a bit thicker than a penicl lead continuous stream.... Also only added about 15 litres rather than 45 litres on the normal runs

Oh and it was huffing, but not very loudly!

what do you think ?

Cheers,
Victor

[crow]

Hi Vic I never had these issues either way but I was advised to put some ss mesh up the outlet of the condenser and if I still had any hass maybe stick some in the condenser inlet as well . I'd have to check my thread to see what the effect is called that it remedies but I have a massive liebig and so it wasn't an issue with me anyway PS still stuffed it up the end anyway

[victorski]

Made my cuts today :handgestures-thumbupleft: ended up with about 13L which I watered down to 65% then in the barrel she went. There is one demijohn with 4 litres that i'm still trying to figure out whether to keep or throw to feints :angry-banghead: any tips on how to better identify tails ?

Not sure why my yield was so poor though, should have theoretically ended up with 20-24 litres of hearts :handgestures-thumbdown: oh wells!

Can I throw my feints back in with the keg with the low wines or do you keep them seperate ?

Cheers,
Victor

[Kimbo]

Hi Vic,
there's no reason why you cant throw your feints in with your low wines ;-) ;-)

[Sam.]

Vic, if you didn't get the yield you were expecting and you can't see the tails maybe you didn't run it long enough and there are no tails!

[Frank]

I have some copper mesh here Vic , I'll send ya some ,

Oiiiiiiiii Draino dont give the whole chunk away..ya promised me a bit :laughing-rolling: Could well need it for that old hippies job up in the hills near Mount Warning ;-)

old hippies in or around Mt Warning should recieve all the assistance they deserve IMHO....whomever they are.
:think: do I know them??? there's a few around here, that's for sure.

Meanwhile Victorski
at the risk of confusing things even more....perhaps trying ONE change at a time might provide a truer insight into, and permanent solution for, your problem? Meanwhile, please remember you can (almost) always put your 'failures' back into the still so...no loss really. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Good luck.

[victorski]

@ kimbo, thanks mate! chucked them in with the low wines.

@ sam, I think the yield might actually be ok! I just didn't want to take any chances ruining the whole run by adding to much heads/tails (since I can't easily identify them)

I have about 4 litres which I wasn't sure about, so i've kept it separate in a jar with some toasted oak just to see what happens, if it turns out that it's rubbish i'll just toss it (or can I recycle it). Otherwise I can just add it to the barrel :handgestures-thumbupleft:

@ frank, sound advice :) i'll just try one thing at a time and see how things progress!

Now is the most difficult part, the waiting game :laughing-rolling: I just want to drink the stuff.

Hopefully the UJSM in the barrel is good, I don't want to add more to it if i've ruined it by taking crappy cuts in my first spirit run! Only time will tell!

Cheers,
Victor