Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

:handgestures-thumbupleft: Congrats first spirit run? :happy-partydance:

Hoses attached. Water is pumped from the pool and returns to the pool.

Nice one Carol. Have you any idea as to the flow rate, please?

I'm not familiar with the t500 boiler, is it insulated? If not, wrap an old blanket around it and your heat time will be reduced, leading to a reduction in your overall run time.

No idea as to the flow rate. The exit water did not feel warm at all - but the water in the pool is freezing cold to start with. I suppose I would describe it as about the same as pouring water from a jug.

Boiler isn't insulated. Will find a blanky for it for next time. Thanks for the suggestion.

Carol, that sounds like a well controlled run, I don't run a boka, but your jar cuts are your best decision .
Nice detailed description of the run.
:handgestures-thumbupleft:

Carol wrote:Boiler isn't insulated. Will find a blanky for it for next time. Thanks for the suggestion.

Plus one for this. Since doing this on any boiler, except GAS , is a huge help in power consumption

As I have already said I have not even seen a Boka yet so 'scuse if this is a silly question.

It seems that the art here is to obtain and hold a temperature of 78C. So given that a I have a temperature sensing power control unit from KegLand should it be possible to use this with or without a standard voltage control and water flow fine tuning to get a very stable result from the T500 boiler?

Your thoughts, please.

Hi Mac I have just been using the power controller to manage the temp. I run it with full power until it gets close to temperature and then adjust to sit at 78-ish ( a gentle simmer rather than a rolling boil). So maybe 45% to 50% at first and then a gradual increase in power as the alcohol is distilled. I think I ended up at 60% towards the end of the run. There is a thermometer in a port at the top ( I think that is in the first picture in this thread) so I just use that as a guide and tweak the power accordingly.
In terms of water I just let the pump do its thing and it seems to work ok.
Cheers
Carol

The temperature of the vapour is not controlled by the energy input but by the composition of the vapour (and also to losses of heat to the external environment of the still). The temperatures allow you to guess what the vapour composition is. Temperature controllers won't work on a boiler. They are only useful for mashing grain.

db1979 wrote:They are only useful for mashing grain.

Which is what I brought it for, maize in my case ... Cheers

db1979 wrote:The temperature of the vapour is not controlled by the energy input but by the composition of the vapour (and also to losses of heat to the external environment of the still). The temperatures allow you to guess what the vapour composition is. Temperature controllers won't work on a boiler. They are only useful for mashing grain.

:text-+1: or will pulse push heads tails through your clean neutral by switching on off. An ssr will change voltage by pulsing on off but is constant. A computer or pid will turn it on off at varying amounts to maintain temp. Which will smear still output.. :handgestures-thumbdown:

All very good stuff, well done gentlemen. So the ideally we regulate the temperature of the wash in the boiler to 78C so that only the heads plus ethanol vapourise.

However clearly the problem there is that it would be impossible to collect the vapour as it would quickly cool and reflux back to the wash.

So what we do in practice is trap all the vapour that is at a temperature below 80C which contain the ethanol. Other products vaporise early and in small quantities so therefore sacrificing the first few mils which must include the unwanted lower vapor temperature products excludes them from the final spirit.

Now all that needs to be done is to keep the vapour at 78C because the product that remains is the wanted ethanol.

However 78C a wash temperature is too low for the ethanol to vapourise and remain as a vapour until in can be caught by the condenser, reverted to a liquid and be collected. The temperature of the vapour is not important as long as it remains a vapour as it rises through copper mesh and is above 78C when it interacts with the condenser.

So at the end of the journey it is the ambient temperature of the condenser that is critical and this must be no more than 78C.

Pretty much there arismac,
condenser need to be cold enough to condense the vapour and ideally cool the distillate down to 20°C so that you don't need to temp correct you alcometer reading, would not advise collecting above this temp as you will get the angels drunk.
The wash temp will be governed by the concentration of ethanol in there, the various chemicals in the wash all evaporate at a certain temp.
Heat the wash slowly to minimise the smearing of your vapour.

Help ... someone called Aus Post has got my Boka. Will it ever reach me, Carol? Just joking.

I want to do a practice run or two before committing a wash. Suggestions please on how much white vinegar, or whatever, and water. I will even chuck in a bottle of metho or heads that we have collected for hand washing and cleaning if that will be better than the vinegar.

Well it may go on an extended holiday - mine went from Queensland to Melbourne and then back to Queensland and then back to Melbourne and eventually got to me in Adelaide!! I was expecting postcards or at least photos during the trip but there was nothing!
I used CFW for my sacrificial run as it was there and ready to go so I cannot advise about vinegar etc.
Cheers
Carol

Carol, I’m no expert but 300mls per 12 minutes seems like it’s running pretty fast. What was the %?

92 to 95 according to the alcometer - not corrected for temp. 1.5 litres per hour seemed about right according to what I had read. Output was drip drip dribble and not a steady stream like when I run the pot still. I am hoping to get another couple of stripping runs done next week so might ahve enough for another spirit run soon.

If Im correct this was stripped wash and just a straight spirit run so 1.5L/Hour is about right.