Few questions after my first run

[Econwatson]

Hi All,

Great to be here, and already been using the resources lots before signing up. Looking forward to playing an active part in the community. Recently decided to get into distilling as a new hobby after homebrewing for a lot of years.

I've bought a temp-control Vevor airstill as my initial set up. I live in an apartment and work from home so multiple stripping runs aren't a big issue for me. Takes about as much time to set one going as making a cup of tea.

For my first batch I went with the TPW recipe - 25 litres worth. Ferment went fine, happy days. Like making beer but way easier.

Now for the distilling itself which is where I think I ran into some dramas. Like I mentioned before the still has a temp control which works somewhere between 60 and 110c. The manual said that for distilling alcohol it was best to run it at 98c so that is what I did. I did 6 stripping runs in total.

Then I did my spirit run, taking cuts again with the thing set at 98c. But what I found was that once I was into the hearts (as best as a newbie can tell), instead of the ABV dropping off the still just slowly produced less and less alcohol until nothing was coming out of the spout. Me being new I just thought that's what it's meant to do so I called it a day there. Also did the same thing for the stripping run when it stopped producing. When I did my ABV measurements on the spirit run nothing was below 60% but i know once you're into the tails it can go as low as 10 or 20% ABV.

So what I think I did wrong was maybe run the still too cold and left a heap of alcohol in the still? Maybe in the stripping runs too (they produced about 4 litres at 60%) but definitely on the spirit run. Everything I produced seemed good - 70% dropping off to about 64% before the still stopped producing. No sign of wet dog or anything like that which I've heard about. So I guess I probably stopped producing somewhere in the middle of the hearts.

Does that sound about right to you folks?

If that is right then my next question is what temp should I be setting on the air still? Does anybody know what the thermostat runs on the non-temp controlled ones?

It doesn't feel like a total disaster because I feel like I got some nice spirit out of it but I guess I could have had more of it if I had set things up right.

Would really appreciate any help you could give me (apart from dumping the air still!)

Thanks!

[Econwatson]

Hmm I might have answered my own question...

Now wondering if this is something to do with my Vevor air still which is the 750W mentioned in a previous thread where the element power is much too high...sh*t! :text-imwithstupid:

Is there any way I could get around the high wattage and using this one? Obviously the device doesn't have power control but since it has temp control could I not just start the temperature low and ramp it up as a way to control the element from boiling the alcohol off too quickly?

[The Stig]

You can NOT control a still by temp , it’s just the way that it is.
Yiu could modify it so the fan and element are power by different sources and put the element into a power controller .
But, realistically , your still is not designed to be still as such

[Econwatson]

Thanks Stig, I've ordered a voltage controller and will report back on my next run. I have a power consumption meter which I might stich in between the controller to try and set the wattage accurately and run the fan off a separate power source. Cheaper than buying the SS still if it works!

[The Stig]

Hi! Just wanted to post an update like I said I would.

I bought one of these guys from eBay:
No advertising competitors products
And plugged one of those boxes you use to monitor power consumption of appliances inbetween the outlet on the controller and the plug for the element.

Seems to be working great, I can use the knob on the controller to set the power anywhere I want it, had it as low as 100W and no apparent issues.

Have the condenser fan plugged into the wall via a computer cable so it runs all the time and not affected by changes in power input.

Hopefully this helps anybody looking at purchasing one of those Vevor air stills. If I could do it again I'd buy one without the temp control but will just bypass it by setting the temperature high so it never cuts out..

Not tried a distillation run on it yet but got a UJSSM fermenting which I'm looking forward to running through this weekend.