The Rocket

[googe]

Hi all, tell me what you think of his idea. The wash runs into the small boiler, or into the bottom of a colum, if you cold find a way to heat such a small area. I was thinking an element sticking up though the bottom but it would get dry at the end of the run and that would not be good, would it?. Gravity would feed the boiler, but im wondering would it flow ok with the pressure of the still?. My thinking behind this idea is that you wouldnt need so much heat to run it. I hope everyones not annoyed with all my threads :-| . I cant stop thinking about this stuff, i wake up thinking about it, go to bed thinking about it, think about it all day at work!! haha.

Cheers

[Brigand]

In that picture wouldn't the wash container flood the still as the wash itself would try and equalise itself height wise between the two vessels?

Also it would make it hard to draw off foreshots / heads in any meaningful way

Cheers

[crow]

I think... well firstly you'd need to address the problem of the base of ya column being lower than ya wash , can be done sa some commercial stills are like this next fault is the main heat source needs to be under the boiler

[Kimbo]

As Brigand said,
you will be constantly getting fores and heads and flooding,
keep it simple and put the still on top of the boiler for now, till you get fully acquainted with how these things work ;-)
experimenting can come later :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[NotBenStiller]

I was thinking an element sticking up though the bottom but it would get dry at the end of the run
I don't think it would get dry at the end as you will have backset being left behind - which would defeat the purpose of your 'invention'

but im wondering would it flow ok with the pressure of the still?.
I don't think a still get's pressurized enough to hold liquid back in the keg - pressure means go boom

My thinking behind this idea is that you wouldn't need so much heat to run it.
I would think that a set amount of liquid/mixture would need the same amount of heat whether in small batches or large batches - small batches/low heat takes a long time - large batch/high heat goes quick - but same heat usage either way pretty much

[googe]

Correct, the wash would flood the colum to the same hieght as the wash tube, bad diagram! hmmm..didnt think about the cuts properly. Your right Notbenstiller, it would take the same amount of constant heat but shorter boil up time. Back to the drawing board....dont worry i wont bombard with a thread again till i think it through lol.
Cheers for the info.

[BCarter]

What's the advantage of such a still? What point of difference does it have to others?

[crow]

Well BC he's draw it wrong but if his pipe came out the top of the boiler and then back down to the column it would suit jokers that require a long column but have height restrictions . There is no reason the column has to be on the boiler except it is slightly more energy efficient that way and his heat main heat source needs to be under the boiler . if he thought about in carefully it could be quit a cool design not unlike some commercial stills

[zwagerman9]

If like them continuous stills woulldnt you want to be pre heating the mash before going to the boiler. Could speed up the process again.

[crow]

That is a batch still but the way he's drawn it it has wash instead of vapor feeding in to the column , having the column heated may or may not help as it might speed the vapor to the point of smearing . I can't see any benefit to a continuous hobby still as your not going to have a continuous supply of wash . If ya want to run bigger batches build a bigger boiler ;-)

[BCarter]

Would it feasibly make better spirit?

[Sam.]

No. Probably worse if you didn't run it properly

[crow]

Would it feasibly make better spirit?

what are you asking about eg: the flooded still :laughing-rolling: or separated column or continuous

[BCarter]

Just questioning idea. Clearly this fella is an innovative bloke. Love the enthusiasm. But it doesn't seem the still itself would be a useful innovation. I'd love for him to correct me. I'd like to see the enthusiasm directed with a bit of background knowledge of formal still design. That's the kind of energy that fosters industries.

[googe]

You cant go renaming it croweater :P :)) i do like that name though :think: . The hole idea was so that the wash could be heated quick to save time on boil up, but my lack of knoledge has made it some kind of monster :roll: . Do you mean like a twin colum setup croweater?. Have one colum coming off one boiler and down to another colum minus boiler and running through that. Like having a striping run through the first colum then to a spirit run in the second colum. My head hurts! :shock: . Thanks foor the kind words Bcarter

[crow]

yeah bud I drew pic but my phone is taking more than an hr to send it . I drew to variations for you I beleive would work extremely well using your pic but changing the plumbing . one not so dif to what ya now have and one with the boiler feed coming in to that little box at the base of ya still effectively turning it into a thump tub . on that design ya wouldn't want a secondary hot plate as thump boxes heat up by themselves . Oh wait no its not quite the same just one product condenser wanted at the outlet end

[crow]

I'll tell ya what googe I'm going back to SA in a week or 2 and if time permits (no promises) I'll try to get some photo's of an old metters masonry still for ya . It wasn't a true continuous still but it ran batch after batch continuously for 8 or so batches and these batch tanks are fucking big stone tanks . it was heated by steam and the steam engine is still there in the huge dilapidated still house anyway from the masonry flue it when from basically one thump keg to another until it was pretty pure brandy . Its land locked by large private properties and I can only access it by river so I'll see how I go for time . I believe it went under the 1956 flood and was never reopened . I'll see if I can dig up some other interesting pic's when I go through my shit there to . Shit that just jogged my memory oh wow I might be posting and interesting find when I get back

[googe]

Ok mate, sounds interesting. Seems a bit of a waist having all that old stuff sitting there!. Cheers mate.