Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I'm looking at a boka build for neutrals, 2" perhaps 3" depending on availability. Been reading up on vm/lm combo bokas, where you run the lm for heads compression and change to vm for hearts. Personally don't care about tails unless you can really rip it out nice and quick, even then meh, tpw is cheap.

It seems to me there is some complexity to a vm/lm combo, what with plenty of offset condenser variants and reflux return lines etc etc. Is a vm/lm combo worth it over lm boka? I'll still get azeo with 1.2-1.4m packing with lm and a vm outlet will reduce packing height if you need to stay under a 2.4m roof from what I can see?? Then we have reducer bokas, which is supposedly to centre the return reflux, taking up more height to be used for packing.

Is neutral all you ever want to drink, ever?
Do you like the sound of an 11hr spirit run?

If you can answer yes to both of the above then go for a Boka (of whatever variation you choose).

If its a no to either then look at other styles of still, especially avoid a boka if you are only making neutral to then flavor with an essence (they allways lack something).

A boka can be run as a pot if you make sure you have enough cooling in the RC. Just open the lm flat out and take everything off first take. Used to use my PDA-1 like that.
It also had a small product cooler which didn't do much more than keep it below boiling.

what would you recommend? as regards neutrals i like my gin so the more neutral the better. That being said, I do plan on going the flavoured route for rums and whiskies at some point as well.

I make quality rum with my boka in pot mode.

Are you looking to up the size of your boiler too or are you looking for something to sit on the T500 boiler?

If you're going for a larger boiler too, a modular plated column might be a good way to go. That gives you major flexibility with the option of adding a carter head further down the track for botanical infusion.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

first and foremost, i want to be able to do stripping runs, then reach azeotrope with low wines at a better than T500. Must be able to make a high quality neutral. I would like to make rums and whiskey as well, but I'm considering that a separate project (perhaps a 5sd eliminator?). I'm also limited to a 2.4m height as this will be indoors. I will be running on a 50L keg with minimum 2400w element maybe a 1200w second element for heat up.

Still all in planning stages. I have noticed the neutraliser on 5sd but I'll be cutting it close on ceiling height with a keg.

I have the exact same height restriction. I run a 100 litre milk can boiler on a dolly with 4 plates and packed section. I can squeeze all that in with about 10mm to spare using a block head configuration.

I strip with a 4" pot on the 100 litre boiler then do spirit runs on the above and have no trouble making extremely clean neutral.

a 50 litre keg boiler and a neutraliser is an excellent combination. With that you'll have a pot still for stripping, a four plate bubbler for flavoured runs and the neutraliser for neutral all from the one set of parts. The good thing is, being modular, you can start off with the parts to run a 4" blockhead pot still on the keg then add the RC and plate sections later if you don;t want to spring for it all at once.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

I noticed the eliminator has a copper mesh caddy to remove sulfides. Could the packed section on the neutraliser be run in a similar manner by removing some of the packing when running flavoured?

Professor Green wrote:I have the exact same height restriction. I run a 100 litre milk can boiler on a dolly with 4 plates and packed section. I can squeeze all that in with about 10mm to spare using a block head configuration.

I strip with a 4" pot on the 100 litre boiler then do spirit runs on the above and have no trouble making extremely clean neutral.

a 50 litre keg boiler and a neutraliser is an excellent combination. With that you'll have a pot still for stripping, a four plate bubbler for flavoured runs and the neutraliser for neutral all from the one set of parts. The good thing is, being modular, you can start off with the parts to run a 4" blockhead pot still on the keg then add the RC and plate sections later if you don;t want to spring for it all at once.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

:text-+1: Very sound advice Prof,ifn I was starting out thats the way ta go.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

icewind wrote:I noticed the eliminator has a copper mesh caddy to remove sulfides. Could the packed section on the neutraliser be run in a similar manner by removing some of the packing when running flavoured?

I suppose it could. You could also probably stuff some copper mesh into one of the sight glass sections to the same end.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

scythe wrote:Is neutral all you ever want to drink, ever?
Do you like the sound of an 11hr spirit run?

If you can answer yes to both of the above then go for a Boka (of whatever variation you choose).

If its a no to either then look at other styles of still, especially avoid a boka if you are only making neutral to then flavor with an essence (they allways lack something).

What do you suggest as an alternative to the Boka for Neutral's besides bubble plate (cost too mu at this stage)

Go for a bigger boka if you want it faster, like 3 or 4". The boka does make really nice neutral they are just slow. The bigger the diameter the faster the output. If you were just flavoring neutral you could run a little faster as a small amount of flavor carry over won't be noticed if your using a cordial to cover it up. A boka can also be used as sort of a pot if you like so you can do a cfw or the like.

I've heard nixonstone are a bit quicker than the boka but I've never run one to know for sure.

woodduck wrote: I've heard nixonstone are a bit quicker than the boka but I've never run one to know for sure.

I've run both and damned if I could see a difference with the same power input.

There is a meme her selling his whole set-up here...

A bargain as mentioned by many. That’ll help you get into the good times very fast...