Are Plated Columns "All Rounders"?

[Sam.]

Pretty sure this is the main reason these dudes run the plated stills or bubblers, to get a high abv but still a lot of flavour carried over

The idea of making nuetrel through them is just a handy by product.

So are you saying the equivalent of a triple distilled can be attained by a singles run? If so, why would some cliam to fame triple distilled?

Depends on what you are trying to make. What I was talking about is the more flavoured drinks as in bourbon/whisky.

If you are talking about the triple distilled vodkas then thats a different story, but I would assume that a couple of runs through a decent bubbler would make a lot better spirit than say a Smirnoff so called triple distilled vodka.

Disclaimer as well: I do not own or run a plated or bubbler set up, everything I have stated here is my interpretation of things I know for fact and information I have gathered mostly through this forum :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[LWTCS]

I could be wrong but i figger the tripple designation helps the public get their head around what they percieveto bepurchasing?

[emptyglass]

If you make a nice wash/mash to start with, you only need to run it through once.
If you make crap and only have a pot to clean it up, you might need to run it through 3 times.

But it sounds good, triple distilled. Got to be better than once distilled. And 8 year old scotch needs to be in the barrel that long because they have used the same barrel for 200 years. The scotch aren't known for splashing cash.

IMHO, a column designed for flavor wont make the best neutral, a column designed for neutral wont make the best flavored stuff, But if you want both products is as close as we can get to a two trick pony.
You could have, say, a 3 or 4 plate perf column for flavored stuff, with a 7 or 8 plate bubble cap add on section (or 2 x 4 plate sections) for pure neutral in one pass. Not many other designs offer that flexability. Then you would have a "dual purpose" still. Maybe thats an all rounder.

[Brigand]

Alrighty some more thoughts on a plated column for neutral...

Ran my dash2 with 7 plates in with an unstripped 45L WPOSW charge @ ~9.5%

Needed to throw a bit more power at it than with a 40% charge so ~3100W instead of ~2600W

Once loaded and equalised and fores bled I was able to pull 94.5% through heads and hearts

The middle of the hearts was very nice and clean

Only issue was when I went to make cuts the next day I only ended up with 2L that I was happy to use as neutral

The heads and tails cuts while not huge did eat into a sizeable part of the run as a whole

While it is possible to make acceptable neutral with a single pass ~10% wash (and the yield would have been increased if I had thrown in recycled feints), on an effort vs reward basis I will be stripping 3 or 4 batches and running low wines when looking to make neutral moving forward

On a longer run it seems the heads / tails components form a smaller percentage of the overall run

Cheers

[emptyglass]

Have you tried running it through twice? That would give you something like 16 distilations (boiler + 7 plates, x2)

I was led to believe you need 11 plates for a sucessful neutral in one pass.

[Brigand]

I have had a play with multiple runs and was able to achieve a decent neutral.

I suppose I just wanted to see if I could end up with something passable from a single pass. It appears I can but it's probably not worth the effort given the yeild.

Cheers

[Gas on]

This is an answer from a simple person........haha
It is my understand that the more plates you run the cleaner your product will be so if you run 4 or 5 plates for rum & uj why would you want any more unless you wanted to clean the product even more again? or tryn some gin maybe
The cost to build & run a 8,9,10,11,12 plate bubbler on the home scale compared to a boka for instance would tend out weigh the purpose. surely
I dont know for sure.
Has any body tryed the gin basket near the collection point of there reflux?
Any bites? haha

[emptyglass]

It is my understand that the more plates you run the cleaner your product will be so if you run 4 or 5 plates for rum & uj why would you want any more unless you wanted to clean the product even more again? or tryn some gin maybe
The cost to build & run a 8,9,10,11,12 plate bubbler on the home scale compared to a boka for instance would tend out weigh the purpose. surely
I dont know for sure.

If gin is all you drink, then no, the cost does not outweigh the purpose. If your happy with long, long runs, then go for a boka. If your happy to run it twice, go for a 4 or 5 plate column, if you want it fast and good first time round, go for an 11 plate column.

But you are right, the more plates, the cleaner it will be.

[crow]

If gin is all you drink, then no, the cost does not outweigh the purpose. If your happy with long, long runs, then go for a boka. If your happy to run it twice, go for a 4 or 5 plate column, if you want it fast and good first time round, go for an 11 plate column.But you are right, the more plates, the cleaner it will be.

As they say on telly Myth Busted

[Aussiedownunder01]

We were there on the start of the experiment [had to leave for the 1 1/2 hr drive home bugger :angry-banghead: ]
So will there be a benefit if i turn my 2 in stainless column into a 5 or 6 plater or just leave it a packed column

[emptyglass]

As they say on telly Myth Busted

Shall we say, "Plausable"....

Nahh, Busted!

[emptyglass]

We were there on the start of the experiment [had to leave for the 1 1/2 hr drive home bugger :angry-banghead: ]
So will there be a benefit if i turn my 2 in stainless column into a 5 or 6 plater or just leave it a packed column

I say go for it Aussie, its not going to cost much to try, just some time.

The experiment went well.