Ruddy's Glass Still

Pot still design and discussion

Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby Wellsy » Fri Aug 27, 2021 9:05 pm

Good luck Bryan

You are definitely an ideas man, if it does not work at least you will be able to dig a hole. Hopefully it won’t fill with water :laughing-rolling:
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby The Stig » Fri Aug 27, 2021 10:43 pm

If it fills with water , he can fill it in and plant cabbage, they love water :teasing-neener:
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby RuddyCrazy » Sat Aug 28, 2021 10:16 am

G'Day Guy's,

Well due to working I didn't do any macerations :angry-banghead: so as my Quince ferment is finally done time do a few strip runs then a spirit run this arvo using the glass still.

So going a litre at a time it may take 3 or 4 runs to get enough low wines for the spirit run so this will be a good road test for this new setup :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Now as far as water goes whats the bet Wellsy put his pump on only to find he forgot to connect the hoses and is trying to shift the blame :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby RuddyCrazy » Sat Aug 28, 2021 10:37 am

Just gotta throw in a pic guy's :laughing-rolling:

new setup.jpg


So looks like a day stripping while shaking my stubbie of dutch lager to keep a head :laughing-rolling: as it just starting to get moreish :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby RuddyCrazy » Sat Sep 25, 2021 1:44 pm

G'Day Guy's,
Well i got my vac 2000 out to clean out that crap in my boiler then looked over to see a corn/barely run I did with angel yeast and yes after aging white at 80% + it still tastes off so for a laugh threw just under a litre into the round flask with a bit of water added and see if I can refine this angel yeast stuff :handgestures-thumbupleft: as for on it's own white dog it just doesn't cut the mustard :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

So lets see if this 40% myth is right :laughing-rolling: but as it has been quoted on this forum I am out of this world :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

More Saturday fun and if it goes pear shaped who cares as it's just too easy to go buy more gear and do it again :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby RuddyCrazy » Sat Sep 25, 2021 2:15 pm

I have to put in a note here as I am vacuum distilling I can go a higher ABV but in no circumstances go above 40% in your boiler :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby RuddyCrazy » Sat Sep 25, 2021 3:03 pm

Well just had a taste and turned off the still and as far as I am concerned this angel yeast can go the chooks and i won't be using it again. honestly it was like trying to polish a turd so it was a fruitless exercise and this whole batch can be saved for a sac run in the future.

Cheers Bryan
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby bluc » Sat Sep 25, 2021 3:45 pm

Have you soured your mash before fermentation yet? I reakon
Its the ducks nuts :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby Wellsy » Sat Sep 25, 2021 4:06 pm

The oak seemed to remove the funkiness for me mate. That is what prompted me to do a few big runs before things got too hot.
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby RuddyCrazy » Sat Nov 13, 2021 2:02 pm

G'Day Guy's,
Well as the yard arm came around and nothing to distill in my big still a thought came to mind :scared-eek: I aint ever used that reflux I got with the still so may aswell spend the arvo making some nothing out of my TPW low wines

glass reflux.jpg


Heard a burp and looked over and this still is already producing so 15 minute warm up to first drops :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers Bryan

Edit : take two :angry-banghead: using the Graham condensor does do a slight vacuum and just heard a huge gush and saw the reflux head close to hitting the roof :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

so when it cools down time to put the other condensor on
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Last edited by RuddyCrazy on Sat Nov 13, 2021 2:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby Wildcats » Wed May 17, 2023 9:20 pm

Nice set up. I been thinking about getting a 2000 ml boiling flask and the associated column and condenser. Just to do small batch testing
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby RuddyCrazy » Sun Oct 29, 2023 12:28 pm

G'Day Guy's,
Well decided to get my glass still setup again so I could run that mulled orange wine thru that was left over from that keg full I got. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I did notice yesterday on the 6th 50ml jar the heat has moved down the column and the 50ml beaker was frosting up :angry-banghead:

So this morning decided to liberate that heat exchanger off my old 24 fridge compressor that is stuffed and man what a difference it made :handgestures-thumbupleft: The ambient temp in my shed is 27C and after 2 stripping runs the water in the cube is sitting on 24C :laughing-rolling:

1glass still.jpg


Now I did decide to use both glass fittings on the output so I could have the option to do vacuum distilling but on thinking when I do the spirit run I will still need to take cuts so that option is out. So when I do make some tinctures I'll have a go at vacuum distilling as I have found putting the tinctures thru the glass still and just adding a small amount to maceration's does make a nice drop.

On the right of that pic is my beer fridge so Wellsy finally got cold beers in the shed :handgestures-thumbupleft: as I did find with those solar panels I found for free may aswell use the power and have cold beers all the time :obscene-drinkingchug:

It is well know fact we don't need a temp gauge on a still but I did find as I have full power going to the mantle heater when the temp starts to jump up turn the power power or a puke is there :angry-banghead: That little heat exchanger has a huge 12 volt fan and at 14 volts it's only drawing 180mA and I have it pointed to the cube to allow extra cooling.

So now as these glass still are well known to heat the output section it doesn't happen anymore :handgestures-thumbupleft: and the glass is still cool to the touch at the end of the run.

Now done 5 strips and got 1.8 litres of low wines @ 48% so after lunch I'll do one more strip then 2 spirits runs this arvo which will leave a few more strip run and 3rd final spirit run which should in theory allow me to use 2 litre goon bottle for aging on French Oak.

Now also shown is my setup for checking ABV I have a 50ml measuring cylinder that holds my aclometer and by using 50ml beakers I can get the ABV of each cut. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers Bryan
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby RuddyCrazy » Sun Oct 29, 2023 3:38 pm

G'Day Guy's,
Well the consensus is out there one can't run a still by temp so here are my observations on this mulled orange brandy where I was scared to just strip it in my pot still, well when I did the main batch in my bubbler yes I did get a puke from this red wine :angry-banghead: but I was there to control it before it got out hand :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Now on doing these stripping runs I did see temp rise to the low and high 80's when the flow started, this did confirm my suspicion where SWWBO had boiled the hell out this the best part of the ABV was boiled off :angry-banghead:

Ok I'm just about to take a cut on the spirit run where 450 ml has been taken and the temp is still rock solid on 78C, I did measure the low wines and they came in at 46% so yes I am expecting the temp to rise very soon. OK just took the cut and looked at the temp 81C and my nose says tails :violin:

So off with the boiler and let it cool down a bit then I'll take the temp gauge out and refill with the rest of the low wines and a bit of the mulled wine, just for kicks and yield I'll throw in some 90% neutral and make this spirit run go that much further. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers

Edit: By the way the and the ambient temp is 28C and my 20 litres of cooling water is 27C after this first spirit run so that heat exchanger is working great
Last edited by RuddyCrazy on Sun Oct 29, 2023 3:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby RuddyCrazy » Sun Oct 29, 2023 5:43 pm

Well guy's after that addition I did I ended up with 650ml and one jar that smelt like tails and took at look at the temp of my cooling water and 26C so not a bad result for 20 litres to cool a still for 8 hours so that heat exchanger was the the best thing I've done to mod this setup :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Now I do think a 300mm long condensor will be the go as with the higher temps I did see it struggling to contain the vapours :o

So all in all with 5 litres to go for stripping with a tad of addition of 90% neutral I'll get a 2 litre aging setup going.

Cheers Bryan
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Re: Ruddy's Glass Still

Postby RuddyCrazy » Sat Nov 04, 2023 5:41 pm

Did the cuts on the second spirit run this morning and I did notice the angels too a huge liking to the first 50ml cut jar as about 13ml had disappeared :scared-eek:

the rest of them under 5ml was taken so for that does prove the angels do prefer the heads and the rest of the cut did go into my fients jug, anyway got 1.5 litres @65% for aging and decantering a dram man this was worth the work as it's gunna be better than the big run I did over 4 plates. So for me in future all wine will go the pot still way stripping and spirit run as I feel with wine it is the way to go.

Cheers Bryan
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