The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Reflux still design and discussion

The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby Rolls912 » Fri Feb 16, 2018 10:40 pm

Folks
What would be the ultimate top-ten tips for making pure tasting alcohol from a reflux still?
How to get it ultra pure with no flavour. The stuff that dreams are made of. From cuts to mash. Fire away. ^:)^
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby hillzabilly » Fri Feb 16, 2018 11:04 pm

Didn't ya know they are hidden randomly around the site,ya just gotta read more.cheers hillzabilly :laughing-rolling: ;-)
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby Sam. » Sat Feb 17, 2018 6:44 am

hillzabilly wrote:Didn't ya know they are hidden randomly around the site,ya just gotta read more.cheers hillzabilly :laughing-rolling: ;-)



:text-+1: :text-lol:
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby RC Al » Sat Feb 17, 2018 2:33 pm

Ok from another newbie I'll send you down this research rabbit hole: :twisted:

Theoretical plates - you need 40 of them

Because of the max effective height to diameter ratio, ON PAPER you would need to go roughly 4m of 6" with scrubbies @9000w of power & 2:1 reflux ratio (scoria would be a better choice?) Any smaller diameter cant make it @ the recomended max of 30x diameter for a reflux column https://homedistiller.org/calcs/hetp_calc

on a regular hobby system, to achieve that at home i dare say you will need to look at a vacuum set up or something i havent found yet thats equally exotic
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby bluc » Sat Feb 17, 2018 3:07 pm

Reflux still tight cuts then filter the hearts. is about as good as ya gunna get if your cuts are good you wont even need to filter. If your going for purity do even tighter cuts and stay closer to middle of cut jars when blending..
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby Sam. » Sat Feb 17, 2018 4:58 pm

Rerunning hearts of hearts of hearts is the way to get where you want to be :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby bluc » Sat Feb 17, 2018 5:25 pm

Doing cuts on both runs? I have made zero neutral so know zip...
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby The Stig » Sat Feb 17, 2018 5:32 pm

Sam. wrote:Rerunning hearts of hearts of hearts is the way to get where you want to be :handgestures-thumbupleft:

This is how I got the best out of my T500
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby tipsy » Sun Feb 18, 2018 6:11 pm

Start with a good wash
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby Plumby » Sun Feb 18, 2018 9:18 pm

Don't make a turbo wash. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby bluc » Sun Feb 18, 2018 10:00 pm

Dont use more than 1kg per 5l water, :handgestures-thumbupleft: i actually go bit less at 4kg per 30 :-B
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby db1979 » Mon Feb 19, 2018 6:24 am

bluc wrote:Dont use more than 1kg per 5l water, :handgestures-thumbupleft: i actually go bit less at 4kg per 30 :-B

:text-+1:
I use 3 kg per 20 L weetbix wash.

Also, make sure your ferment temperature is in the appropriate range for the yeast you use. Bakers I like to keep at 30 but it can go higher.
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby the Doctor » Mon Feb 19, 2018 7:51 am

The advice stated here is all pretty well on target ...but if there were one tip to make reagent quality ethanol it would be to cut hard... our discard rate is about 57% to achieve ethanol at a quality we are comfortable with. Carbon filtration will help, but does not take the place of good cutting. Also we do not reprocess the discards, they are used in ethanol fireplaces to heat our home and bar .
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby Rolls912 » Mon Feb 19, 2018 9:11 pm

All great tips ^:)^

I’ve tried the hearts of hearts of hearts but you’re not left with much. Considering it’s about 20hours on your Jaxsy for such a small morsel of pure...

What about the salt and bicarbonate arguments? Jury seems to be out as to whether it makes a difference.
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby scythe » Tue Feb 20, 2018 4:14 am

If you want more end product start with more wash.
There are no magic bullets or little things that you add a capful to your wash or booler and hey presto pure "100%" ethanol.
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby bluc » Tue Feb 20, 2018 6:32 am

:text-+1: my advice get a bubbler faster output and bigger boiler more end product per run. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby Rolls912 » Tue Feb 20, 2018 9:20 pm

bluc wrote::text-+1: my advice get a bubbler faster output and bigger boiler more end product per run. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Does the bubbler put out super pure though? (must confess I need to read up on different types of stills I’ve read some posts but don’t have a clear understanding). I’m still rocking a t500. Does anyone sell a bubbler premade?

Going back to the tips. What about salt etc?
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby Doubleuj » Tue Feb 20, 2018 9:28 pm

if you want the best neutral making machine check this out
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby Sam. » Tue Feb 20, 2018 9:57 pm

Rolls.

Listen to the people here.

No salt is going to make a miracle :laughing-rolling:
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Re: The holy grail of tips for pure alcohol

Postby A&O » Tue Feb 20, 2018 10:20 pm

Click on the 5 Star Distillery link, they got the best complete out of box stills
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