Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hey all, well I finally got around to giving my still a run today... I did a soak in citric acid for a few hours yesterday and after I knocked off work this morning I did a vinegar run then gave it a hose out and followed up with a run of a sugar wash I’ve had brewing for a week and a bit… The wash consisted of about 2.5kg of sticky raw sugar from the local sugar mill which I boiled in water with some raisons then stuck in the fermenter and topped up water to 25l.
My pot still is a 30l turbo boiler I grabbed off ebay and the rest I made from copper, I connected to the boiler with a SS nipple. I’ll post some photos below. The still is nothing flash, just a very simple pot still. I looked at a lot of different designs on here and else where on the web and I come up with a design I wanted to try just to see if it worked, the main difference to most I’ve seen is the product condenser, I ended up going for a dimroth condenser for my PC. I wasn’t sure it would work because you just don’t see it being done but to my surprise it works a treat.
The product came out in a good steady stream at a rate of about 200ml/3 minutes which I think works out to roughly 4l/hour, at a max temp of 29.5C and the water coming out of the PC was cool to the touch so in my mind the PC was a success.
I got about 2.5l of product out of it which smelled and tasted like the grappa my family used to make when I was a kid, it’ll be going back through again tomorrow for a second cleanout run then I’ll toss it out.
Anyways here’s a few pics of the setup, like I said it’s not flash and my brazing is not as good as I’d like but it’s been years since I’ve picked up an oxy lolz.

Coil.




Bits and pieces.




Running.

That's a literal take on "toothpick size stream" :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

looks good though mate, must be good to be have it going. :handgestures-thumbupleft: cant wait to have my bubbler finished.

It certainly is good to finally give it a run alright, all ive been able to do is look at it for the last week and a bit then off to work again lol

looks good mate.
don't see too many Dimroth condensers. i think it would be able to strip like a beast!

Nice work love the condenser :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Looks good mate!

Even Spiderman looked impressed 8-}

Nice work :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks guys, I wasn't sure the condenser would be good enough but wanted to try it anyways. I must admit I was worried about it.

Hey everyone, I got a quick question. My pot still.is working real well and I'm happy with the results I get but the wife has asked me to try and make her some vodka. My thoughts were to cut the colum at the top and add a RC then pack the colum with scrubbers, would this work? Would I get enough reflux?

Yess, add flanges and it should work. see here

Im basically making a 2" pot/reflux and hopeful bubbler
it is possible but 2' is close and hot so take time and ask for help if needed :handgestures-thumbupleft:

You will get better results from making a boka head (LM) instead of a CM design.

Unless you see a bubbler in your future then a RC won't go astray :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:text-+1: with sam, if you want a bubbler then maybe consider a bigger RC than 2" :think:

WTDist wrote::text-+1: with sam, if you want a bubbler then maybe consider a bigger RC than 2" :think:

:text-+1: at least 4 inch

So if I keep my options open and make a 4" RC Boka head, can that then be mounted on the 2" colum and work effectively? Or would I have to go 4" all the way? Been looking at Boka's and theres not a lot of work in making one...

4 " RC for a bubbler is a shotgun reflux condenser. ruffly 4" wide and at least 100mm long usually, maybe 5 or so 3/8 or 1" inner tubes. this is just from my observations but you wouldnt want a boka head on a bubbler in case you want a block head which is what i would do :handgestures-thumbupleft:

see here

Thanks fellas, I'm going to do a bit more reading and thinking before I proceed any further. It might be that I'm better off in the long run if I start building some modules that can be interchanged.

Mate, that thing would knock down an elephant at 400 yds.

Thanks. It works very well alright and yeah the condenser knocks down the vapour real well too. I'm happy with it.