Maximus_Moonshine wrote:Having read and absorbed some of the advice available here and having had some experience with a few runs, I have made a bunch of mods and changes to the way I operate this still.
Made a copper outlet tube and collect in glass (funnel is glass too). No plastic in the spirit flow!
This shows the whole setup with my water flow controller - A barrel that gently overflows out the top. This arrangement is temporary until I get a better solution, but serves the purpose. As I'm on tank water, I have a pump that kicks in and out and the condenser temp goes all over the shop without this. Once I put this in place, the coolant outlet temp seems to be much more stable (Towel is just to catch spray from the dripping overflow). I start with water flat out and once I begin collecting (around 35 degrees at the coolant outlet) I back off the element using my power controller and then begin slowly adjusting the water flow to drip drip dribble.
Put my power controller into a box to make it a little neater and safer. Added a fan to it also. Seems very happy and does the job nicely.
Currently into the second litre of a spirits run (after chucking 200ml of fores) and it's coming off at approx 92ABV, if I believe my gauge. Even my uneducated taste and smell can pick up variations from each 200ml jar.
Any further observations and advice most welcome.
Cheers
62woollybugger wrote:I got some 3/8" tube from Reese plumbing which has an ID about 2mm bigger than the outlet spiggot, so just put a couple of layers of thin heatshrink on the spigot to make it a tight fit.
Professor Green wrote:62woollybugger wrote:I got some 3/8" tube from Reese plumbing which has an ID about 2mm bigger than the outlet spiggot, so just put a couple of layers of thin heatshrink on the spigot to make it a tight fit.
You might want to consider wrapping the spigot with Teflon tape. God know what nastiness will leach out into your spirits from heatshrink.
Chris7231 wrote:This is also a good mod...
You can have your condenser on 100% flow & dial in the amount of cooling water to the reflux - then you're not losing any cooling effect of the condenser when you're trying to back off the reflux.
(Again, costs less then $10)
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