Putting a potstill cap on a Pure Distilling reflux still

by **BackyardBrewer** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:02 am

Hi All, if I want to capture the fruit flavour of my pears rather than just refluxing it out through my HBS still is it possible to fit one of these spectacular potstill builds I keep seeing here to these?

Anyone done this? Are these homebrew shop stills even capable of this? There's no proper temperature control other than a thermometer stuck in a hole in the copper.

Any members dropped a new lid on their electric still? Looking at the potstill cap the Pure Distilling guys sell I can't even see a tap on the neck/top... How's that even work?

Any experiences from members with a similar rig would be most welcome.

by **maheel** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:43 am

yeah you should be able to unscrew the top of your PD still and attach some new head.

plenty of used the T5oo boiler and put on another pot head etc.

it might even be worth looking at turning the lid and your heads into triclover flanges for ease of swapping

by **BackyardBrewer** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 11:18 am

maheel wrote:it might even be worth looking at turning the lid and your heads into triclover flanges for ease of swapping

Googling triclover flanges now... :handgestures-thumbupleft:

by **SBB** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 12:21 pm

Your also going to need some way of controling the heat input.
That boiler looks very much the same as what is used on the T500s........you can buy a spare lid for those for $25-$30 from memory.
I bought another lid when I built my first pot....save time stuffing around changing still heads.

by **BackyardBrewer** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 12:27 pm

SBB wrote:Your also going to need some way of controling the heat input.

yeah was wondering about that.

They sell this reflux model with a different cap for the pot and there's no thermostat control. So how's that work? What do people do about not running it hard @ boiling temp on the mash/wash?

by **BackyardBrewer** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 12:29 pm

SBB wrote:I bought another lid when I built my first pot....save time stuffing around changing still heads.

Any pix/plans of that?

by **SBB** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 1:04 pm

This is what I knocked up......my first attempt. It works well as a stripper and puts out about 4L an hour when used as such. Draino has also used it hooked up to his voltage controller to produce some pretty nice gin.....i think he would agree also that it works well.
http://aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=369
There really isnt any plan or set way of making a pot still......They can be as simple or as hard as you want to make it to build. That one took me about half a day in the shed using basic tools.
For heat control you will need something like this http://aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=933 or this http://aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=694.
I dont personaly play around with electrickery.....so thats really best left to those who do.

by **BackyardBrewer** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 1:28 pm

SBB wrote:This is what I knocked up......my first attempt. .

GREAT! Another item to drool over. Can you explain the theory behind all that extra copper filtering? Is that really necessary for filtering/improving the spirit? It goes through the pelican thingy then into a collector that then fills and it goes into another collector (with an innertube? Is that where the aclometer is sitting?). and then through a copper funnel? Is that right?

Even with that you still need to use temp control - to what? Stop too much spirit/flavour loss? Not sure what would happen if I ran it at the standard eleccy temp and collected using something like this.

Anyhoo - why all the xtra copper in this rig/setup? It looks exactly like what I want for me pears!

by **SBB** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 1:54 pm

BackyardBrewer wrote: Can you explain the theory behind all that extra copper filtering? Is that really necessary for filtering/improving the spirit? It goes through the pelican thingy then into a collector that then fills and it goes into another collector (with an innertube? Is that where the aclometer is sitting?). and then through a copper funnel? Is that right?

Fulla bloody questions aint ya ???? Geeeeze where to start.............. :teasing-tease:
Copper removes / neturalises Suphides and other nasties from/in your ALC..........that is one of the reasons why all the old factory stills are and have been made of copper for hundreds of years......looks nicer too :D
The more copper the merrier I think.

The "collector" as you call it is called a parrot........its used to get a close to real time reading of what ABV the alcohol leaving the still is at any given time in the run. Yes the alcometer does sit in it.

As for heat control......yes you will need it to do a proper spirit run ...in my opinion anyway.
Maybe some one with a better way with words and a better understanding can explain that one.

by **BackyardBrewer** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 2:01 pm

Thanks, yes I gots me the questions, oh yes I do.

I love the look of that set up, it's bang on what I want to bolt onto the top of my still... If only I can figure out a way of controlling temp.

So what's the likely spend on that thar little set up?

by **SBB** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 5:14 pm

From memory that one cost me very little.......less than $100....but I spent time scrounging cheap copper and parts...... from memory I bought the bends and other fittings which had never been used for scrap value from the local scrappie.
Could be wrong ...thats 12 months and a lot of rums ago.

by **QLD.Andy** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 12:52 pm

The T500 boiler has 2 elements under it, both wired to the one switch.
Its and easy fix to wire them to 2 switches so that one element can be turned off if need be.
This is my McStill pot head on my T500 boiler:

by **BackyardBrewer** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 6:23 pm

Awesome that is exacchery what I want.

So this has temp control?

Can you advise what you're running through this and what temp?

What's your wash/mash and what kind of ABV do you get out?

Damn I have a lot of questions!

by **Al Qaemist** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 2:57 am

Hi BYB - you don't run it by controlling the temp - you control the power. You don't want the power cycling on and off, more like a pan on a gas hob, you can boil it on high power or simmer away on a low flame. You can mod the boiler to switch one or the both elements on as suggested above, or plug it into something that lets you manipulate the voltage that its running on.

The boiler charge boils at the temp it boils at, depending only on how much alcohol is left - you can't change the boiling point with anything you can control*

Al Q.

* unless you start playing with vacuums - but that is not possible with the equipment you have.

by **QLD.Andy** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 11:10 am

Sorry for the late reply BYB, Al above has pretty much answered your questions other than:
I run sugar wash's with Vodka Star and I will get a starting point of around 85%.
But, I only use the pot as a stripping device for my spirit runs through the T500

by **BackyardBrewer** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 9:39 am

So can I ask why you do that stripping run? What's the objective here? Couldn't the t500 just churn out that sugar wash no problems into 90%+ neutral?

Just wondering why the extra wait/effort/power/water ? Its not like yr getting any flavour if you're stripping it first anyway is it?

What's the motivation there?

by **SBB** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 9:54 am

BackyardBrewer wrote:Couldn't the t500 just churn out that sugar wash no problems into 90%+ neutral?

Yes it can...........BUT!

BackyardBrewer wrote:Just wondering why the extra wait/effort/power/water ? Its not like yr getting any flavour if you're stripping it first anyway is it?

By stripping the wash first you are removing a lot of the water and other impurities before doing your spirt run, Sort of a rough version of double distilling.
In stead of fillling your boiler with a wash containing 8-15% abv you are now going to be filling your boiler with low wines which are at about 40%abv.
Your going to end up with a much larger proportion of hearts and a cleaner product. Ive tried both ways and would be very reluctant to go back to using wash.

by **maheel** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 10:25 am

+1 100% agree with SBB on making a better neutral

by **R-sole** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:07 am

BackyardBrewer wrote:So can I ask why you do that stripping run? What's the objective here? Couldn't the t500 just churn out that sugar wash no problems into 90%+ neutral?

Just wondering why the extra wait/effort/power/water ? Its not like yr getting any flavour if you're stripping it first anyway is it?

What's the motivation there?

It's actually less power/effort/water when you do the sums.

I have it all written out here somewhere, someone may remember where it is and link for you.

by **BackyardBrewer** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:26 am

Thanks, being new to this and seeing very few people here actually do what the LHBS guys recommend with stills like the t500 and the Pure Distilling set up I have which you supposedly just fire up and get magic 90% neutral I'm fascinated as to why/how we get sold these rigs and suddenly find that "no that's not actually a good way to distill".