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.