4" Pot Still/Hybrid

[Dominator]

I am on the road to the hobby distillers dream of having a bubbler, but I have reached a roadblock. I do not have very much height space in my current distilling area, so for now I have to settle for a 4" pot still. I am moving house in a few weeks and when I do I will have ample space in my shed to set up my home distillery.
Here is my still as it stands at the moment, please excuse the state of the copper, my shed has been packed up so I don't have access to any of my gear.



Yes I do know it is on a bit of a lean. My copper reducer did not come out quite as planned however it is temporary, once this moving business is over with, I have a 4" ferrule and 3" fill port to fit to my boiler.

I done a sacrificial alcohol run on it today with some feints of feints and I am pretty happy with it. I was getting about 11L per hour with all 4800W thrown at it and the condenser had no trouble knocking that down (now I need more power, seriously considering a third 2400W element).

So with that I do have a question. What kind of collection rate would be ok on a spirit run for a 4" still? Or how do I work out a fair collection rate that will limit smearing? Previously I have run my 2" at 2-2.5L per hour.

[jim]

Looks nice Dom,

If you aren't addicted to the beautiful curves of that thing, you could fit three or four plates in there. Swap out the long reducer on top for a defleg and Tee with a two inch side hole, and she should all fit. Have a look at the Blockhead thread for an idea of what I'm talking about.

20130821_124232.jpg

Mine is about a foot shorter than I am.

[MacStill]

I would still tend to run a spirit run a little slower than you would expect from a 4" pot still, reckon a tad quicker than you get with the 2" rig will be fine, the main advantage you have now is how quickly you'll be able to strip wash.

The block head design is great for those who are vertically challenged :teasing-neener:

[Dominator]

That is a cool setup Jim. If I am seeing that right, the keg on the left is your boiler with a pot still that feeds straight into the keg on the right which is thumper under a 3 plate bubbler. That is fantastic mate.

Yeah I have seen and read the blockhead design, but the pot still and limited space is only temporary. Basically it is just so I can run the 60L of rum and 25L of wheat bix whisky before I move. Once I am in the new place, I have a shed with 3.7m high walls so height will be no problem.

I have a FSD deflag on the way that I should be able to squeeze in and I will pack the column with SS scrubber and some copper mesh to run my TPW low wines.

Thanks mac, I might run it at 2400W and see how it goes. And yeah, I should be able to strip 40L of wash in no time.

[jim]

The new place sounds great, and your temporary setup looks better than my previous permanent setup. I didn't spend much time pot stilling so I can't help you with your rates. Best of luck!

Yea, yer reading it right :)
This way I can fit 80L of wash in.