Bourbon run, plates, packed column, or just pot still

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Bourbon run, plates, packed column, or just pot still

Postby patpawlowski » Mon Feb 03, 2025 2:07 am

I have a bourbon fermenting on grain that’s just about done. I’m looking for recommendations on whether to run it with my 3 small plates, a column packed with copper mesh, or just in pot still mode i.e., remove the copper mesh.

I expect that with bourbon I would want to keep as much flavor as possible so pot still would be the way to go but look forward to feedback from folks much more experienced than I.

TIA,
-pat
patpawlowski
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Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2025 7:26 pm
Location: Evansville, Indiana, USA (I'm a blue dot in an red state)
equipment: I have a pretty generic 2" column still attached to a 35-liter DigiBoil. I have 3 plates and a second 21" straight column packed with copper mesh.

I also have a 5 liter air still that I use mostly for creating distilled water for brewing and other stuff. It's not the Air Still brand but a similar product that is considerably less expensive.

Re: Bourbon run, plates, packed column, or just pot still

Postby Wellsy » Mon Feb 03, 2025 5:32 am

I run mine with 3 plates
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equipment: FSD 4” Modular Pot Still plus 4 FSD Bubble plates on FSD 50 ltr Milk Can Boiler + 2 x 2400W FSD Element and Guard Kits

Re: Bourbon run, plates, packed column, or just pot still

Postby patpawlowski » Tue Feb 04, 2025 12:55 pm

In a single run or do you do a stripping run first?
Last edited by patpawlowski on Tue Feb 04, 2025 12:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
patpawlowski
Site Donor
 
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2025 7:26 pm
Location: Evansville, Indiana, USA (I'm a blue dot in an red state)
equipment: I have a pretty generic 2" column still attached to a 35-liter DigiBoil. I have 3 plates and a second 21" straight column packed with copper mesh.

I also have a 5 liter air still that I use mostly for creating distilled water for brewing and other stuff. It's not the Air Still brand but a similar product that is considerably less expensive.

Re: Bourbon run, plates, packed column, or just pot still

Postby Wellsy » Tue Feb 04, 2025 1:05 pm

I do stripping runs first as I do 160 litre washes so need to strip over the weekend. My boiler can only handle 50 litres at a time.
Wellsy
 
Posts: 2431
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2020 7:48 am
Location: Victoria
equipment: FSD 4” Modular Pot Still plus 4 FSD Bubble plates on FSD 50 ltr Milk Can Boiler + 2 x 2400W FSD Element and Guard Kits

Re: Bourbon run, plates, packed column, or just pot still

Postby howard » Tue Feb 04, 2025 7:09 pm

patpawlowski wrote:In a single run or do you do a stripping run first?

i do a strip run first.
hard and fast, but personal choice, i have a couple of rolls of copper mesh in the vapour path for strips.
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5L glass boiler/glass leibig

Re: Bourbon run, plates, packed column, or just pot still

Postby patpawlowski » Thu Feb 06, 2025 12:50 pm

Thanks for the information. I’ve only run the still about 4 times and we have changed the configuration each time. The last time I felt like I finally had an idea of what I was doing but I tried to do a single run with some bourbon on the 3 plates but couldn’t find the cuts. So I cranked up the heat and the product condenser and called it a stripping run.

I added some distilled water to bring it down to 35% ABV and then ran that through and got much better separation I believe is the term. I.e., the cuts were much easier to identify.

I will do the same with this batch without the plates on the stripping run. That is assuming it ever finishes fermenting. It’s been going for 12 days and was at 1.014, 5 days ago. Dropped to 1.009 for the next two days and then 1.008 for the last tow days. But I can still see bubbles. OG was 1.086. Yeasties are all :obscene-drinkingchug:
patpawlowski
Site Donor
 
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2025 7:26 pm
Location: Evansville, Indiana, USA (I'm a blue dot in an red state)
equipment: I have a pretty generic 2" column still attached to a 35-liter DigiBoil. I have 3 plates and a second 21" straight column packed with copper mesh.

I also have a 5 liter air still that I use mostly for creating distilled water for brewing and other stuff. It's not the Air Still brand but a similar product that is considerably less expensive.


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