Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Earlier in the year (before I found this site) I built a reflux still that was simply a 1m long 72mm wide column with a coil dephlagmator and a 12mm liebig coming from the column at the top.

Obviously this didn't work too well so I rebirthed it into a CC which I am running for the first time today. It still has the 72mm column (about 45mm shorter now though) and has 65mm head piece that slip fits over the column. Total length now 1.1m to the bottom of the lyne arm then another 180mm to the take off tube. (A bit short for the width of the tube but we'll see how it goes.) It is sporting a 300mm long 1/4" doble helix condensor. Still needs a bit of clean up on the outside but I just want to make sure that she'll do what I need her to.

I'm running about 45L of 28% so I expect to be here for a while today.



Cheers, Heffers

Looking good Heffers. Post us some progress reports :D

The slip joint (even though it was a bloody tight fit) needed some flour paste around it to seal.

Needed a bit more flow through the condensor to control reflux, but I got there in the end.

Can get it moving pretty fast but it's only pulling 95% at 32 degrees liquid temp so that would bring it back to about 91%. Will slow it right down and see if that helps much.

Distiilate smells beautifully clean, which is what I was after. Stripping washes are certainly the go gents. If you're not doing them I highly suggest giving it a bash.

Cheers, Heffers

Good stuff :) first one I have seen in copper, hopefully you won't need centering rings on it being 2.5 inch. Very interested to see how she runs :)

Getting into it now. Still only pulling about 91% - 92% but the distillate is smelling a lot better than anything I've ever produced.

I'm recycling the condensor cooling water in a 200L drum and have been throwing frozen water bottles hand over fist just trying to keep the water temp down. Going to have to send the Mrs down the road for some bags of ice soon. (I reckon that I'll be back to stilling in the bathroom soon).

So far I have pulled about 1L of foreshots / still cleaning heads

probably about 2L of heads and reckon that I'm around 1.5L into the hearts now.

Cheers, Heffers

Spud1700 wrote:Good stuff :) first one I have seen in copper, hopefully you won't need centering rings on it being 2.5 inch. Very interested to see how she runs :)

What are the symptoms of needing centreing rings? Is it just an unexplainable low purity?

Cheers, Heffers

Yeah low ABV, I have only ever done 2 inch till I made the three inch and I tried to get away without centering rings - FAIL. 5Star and Mcstill can tell you more about centering rings.

When I asked you aboutkeeping an eye out for the copper sheet from the scrappy for me - centering rings......... I've got stainless sheet here but copper would be nice :)

Spud1700 wrote:When I asked you aboutkeeping an eye out for the copper sheet from the scrappy for me - centering rings......... I've got stainless sheet here but copper would be nice :)

Aha, never made it there this week but will drop in on Monday or Tuesday.

Cheers, Heffers

No rush, you might need to get a bit of plate as well, 5Star put up the photos of how he uses end caps cut and splayed as well.

Heffers wrote:Distiilate smells beautifully clean, which is what I was after. Stripping washes are certainly the go gents. If you're not doing them I highly suggest giving it a bash.

I noticed the same thing with my last lot of neutral Heffers......stripped it using the "pelican" then ran the lot through the reflux. A huge improvement.
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