by crow » Thu Oct 17, 2019 12:12 am
Hi decky can I ask what you want the 5th plate for? I don't have a five star still but I do have a still that was hand made by McStill himself that had 4 plates and found this to be just fine. . I did end up adding a 100 mm collar to the base and a 5th plate on top of that but that was expressly for using in conjunction with a packed reflux section for rectifying spirit to neutral. As far as running say a rum of whisky etc the extra plate seems to make very little difference, basically none to flavour and maybe 1 or 2 % abv. I don't know why that is or if it is the same with all plated columns but there seems to be a very big difference between 3 and 4 plates and somewhat of a difference between 4 and 6 plates but not so between 4 and 5 in my experience anyway.
Edit :
I should add that a plate straight on the boiler ( base of the column) is more likely than not going to give you issues with foam ups and may induce puking , also I should add the reason for the 5th plate with neutral production in that that 1 or 2 % abv increase will make a significant difference as the plated column pack section seems for effective at stripping flavour than at raising proof.
Last edited by
crow on Thu Oct 17, 2019 12:19 am, edited 1 time in total.