Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi everyone

I have a pure distilling reflux still which has the copper body. It came with steel packing. The shop has told me it won't make a difference packing it with copper as the body is already copper. He also said it wouldn't make any difference adding a colomn extender although I have read different.

Is there likely to be any improvement by either adding an extension or changing the packing to copper?

Thanks
Ash

I have had this argument with a few people before but only face to face so let's see if I can get the idea across in written words .
The walls are copper but the vapour doesn't swirl around the walls it shoots straight up so most doesn't even come in contact with the copper.
Stuffing the column with copper will force all the vapour through over and around a bunch of copper and you'll get a much improved result.
Does that make sense ??
Remember , old mate at the brew shop wants you to keep buying his crap and frankly most of the idiots on Facebook havent got a clue and just don't want to learn the truth.
Here we will endeavour to instill the best practices and safety possible.
Cheers
I'll get off my soapbox now :laughing-rolling:
Welcome

Going taller will allow faster take off rate at given abv. Depending on current acievable abv it may bump abv up also. Going wider will do same thing.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The Stig wrote:The walls are copper but the vapour doesn't swirl around the walls it shoots straight up so most doesn't even come in contact with the copper.
Stuffing the column with copper will force all the vapour through over and around a bunch of copper and you'll get a much improved result.
Does that make sense ??
Remember , old mate at the brew shop wants you to keep buying his crap and frankly most of the idiots on Facebook havent got a clue and just don't want to learn the truth.
Here we will endeavour to instill the best practices and safety possible.
Cheers
I'll get off my soapbox now :laughing-rolling:
Welcome

Thanks for the reply. This is exactly what I was thinking. At the end of the day, I'm not so worried about cost just quality. I think I might grab some copper and use that instead.

Ash

bluc wrote:Going taller will allow faster take off rate at given abv. Depending on current acievable abv it may bump abv up also. Going wider will do same thing.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thankyou. That confirms what I had previously read and thought.

Your problem is those stills have a funny size connection so an extension will be hard

The Stig wrote:Your problem is those stills have a funny size connection so an extension will be hard

I've got a few mates with them and also found them readily available online however the extension is SS which is kinda crap.

As stated before, the ss column wont realy matter as such, as long as you load it with copper packing like the mesh 5 star sells :handgestures-thumbupleft:

RC Al wrote:As stated before, the ss column wont realy matter as such, as long as you load it with copper packing like the mesh 5 star sells :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yeah. I have decided that I will pack with copper. With the stainless extension, my OCD just goes nuts haha. My reflux is copper bodied and I want the extension in copper to match haha

Maybe pick out a nice looking insulation, problem solved. Depending how deep the OCD goes.

Astro1986 wrote:

The Stig wrote:Your problem is those stills have a funny size connection so an extension will be hard

I've got a few mates with them and also found them readily available online however the extension is SS which is kinda crap.

Hi mate, where did you find the adapter for the pd still to add an extension?

5 Star sell the lid adapter

I agree with the stig. my turbo still has a copper colum that came with stainless steel saddles but i changed them over to copper for the last two distillations and found it was clearly a better tasting drop.