Hi,
I've posted this in beginners because the topic concerns the difference of making brown spirit between bubblecap Stills and Pot Stills. So, I've been making some fantastic rum on a 25L Pot Still for quite a while now. I'm comfortable with the whole process and I've making plans for upscaling. I use the Still to strip 4 x washes, then do 1 x spirit run at the end. I make my cuts, put it on oak and hey presto.
I'm UK based, so have few options around suppliers of Stills as I imagine shipping is likely to be prohibitive (the UK is lagging woefully compared to Oz!) I can see that most suppliers are going down the bubblecap route - but as my success has been with Pot Still - I'm naturally cautious of moving to a new technology for fear that the rum won't be the same. For example, my understanding is that a bubblecap effectively strips and produces drinkable spirit in 1 run. This wouldn't work for me because I want to club all the low wines together for one big spirit run. If I buy a 4-plate bubblecap (typically stated for brown spirits), then won't this Still strip out a good bit of flavour if I use the Still for a separate stripping run? Then when I do the Spirit run, the bubblecaps will strip out more flavour again i.e. ending up with less rum flavour than I get with a Pot Still? I really appreciate views on this please.
Secondly, I'm looking to buy my next Still. If I go Pot Still, I'd confidently go for 200L kettle and 4 inch head, but with bubblecap and the learning process of switching, I imagine I'd need to "practice a bit", so I might have a fair bit of wastage initially? So I'd probably have to do 100L and 4 inch. My preference is larger but I'm just aware of my current knowledge limitation on bubblecap. Again I'd really appreciate any views.
Cheers all :handgestures-thumbupleft: