How hot should the strip be coming out?

[jamjar]

Hi
Doing my first stripping run using the pot of the top of my boka, how hot should the stip coming out be?? the parrot is red hot to touch, I have the hose running fairly well and the run out water is fairly cool.

thanks

Greg

[SBB]

That sounds way to hot to me.......Less heat or more water might be the go.

[MacStill]

The distillate coming out of a bok is usually pretty warm but shouldnt be red hot, I'd say a bit less heat and more coolant is the go.

Cheers.

[bundy]

can't help you mate but glad to see you are up and running. 8-)
cheers
bundy

[jamjar]

ok - thanks the garden hose was on full bore,and was coming out cold, so I will try dropping down the heat. I could not touch the needle valve or the outlet tubing with out gloves and as the wash came out into collection jars it was steaming.

[Frank]

perhaps a 'general question' here is (maybe :think: )
what temp and :shock: flowrate should the water (coolant) be running at, relative to the temp of the wash and/or bok distillate...????

I've often wondered this myself lately and I've got an AIRSTILL :?

[MacStill]

How much heat are you throwing at it with what type of burner?

The booze will come out pretty warm because of the collection and reflux return area, a lot of bok owners have a tiny product cooler after the valve to sort this out & a lot dont bother about it.

If your using the bok head without the column for stripping you probably should remove the needle valve too, this will let the booze exit the reflux chamber quicker and it should come out a fair bit cooler too.

A bok head is a reasonable tool that can be used as a pot still, but they arent perfect for stripping due the the limited through put of the take off area.

[jamjar]

I am using a 3 ring burner with a HP reg, it puts out a flame over the height of the keg, so I had cut it back a fair bit , will drop it back to a single ring.
I will do 2 more strips tonight and then do a reflux tomorrow.

So if I do a 50l 40% low wine run, what would be a rough stab of useable litres i should get out of the run.
I picked up a bag of sodium carbonate this arvo to help reduce heads, as well as a submersible pump so I can run in the shed out of the wind etc

[Sam.]

Jamjar,

I have only done a couple of stripping runs but with my last one I had the heat cranked to the max (italian spiral burner on HP reg) and when the product started flowing I noticed the same thing that it was bullshit hot. Once I had dropped the heat down it still kept the same flow rate (over 5L/hour :D ) but the temp dropped dramatically.

I think putting way too much heat in can just be a waste of gas sometimes as your still will only give you an output rate in relation to its internal areas/take off point.

[maheel]

wont be much hotter than 80"c will it now..... lol

sounds like you need another little product cooler after the needle valve (me to!!)

[MacStill]

I am using a 3 ring burner with a HP reg, it puts out a flame over the height of the keg, so I had cut it back a fair bit , will drop it back to a single ring.
I will do 2 more strips tonight and then do a reflux tomorrow.

So if I do a 50l 40% low wine run, what would be a rough stab of usable litres i should get out of the run.
I picked up a bag of sodium carbonate this arvo to help reduce heads, as well as a submersible pump so I can run in the shed out of the wind etc

OK so your definitely trying to push it too hard, so back the heat right off when you come up to temp.... you can run your burner high for the warm up but once you get to temp you back it right off.

Once you get a few runs under your belt with the new rig it will all fall into place, just try not to rush things and you'll be fine ;)

A 50L run of low wines through a 2" reflux column is going to be a very long day, if your lucky and jag it where your sweet spot is you should get 1.2 liters per hour @ 95%

A LM bok is very good at doing single runs of straight wash, but if you insist on stripping runs and doing low wines your really going to want a dedicated stripping still........ so I suggest you contact 5Star (or someone else) to build one for you, I cant build anything right now and probably wont be in the near future so 5Star is your go to builder on this forum ;)