Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Spent 12 hours to get about 3.5 litres. It's 90%. I ran on alcoengine using .6 nozzle. Got up to temperature then backed off and ran on the 500 watt setting. It sat at 77.3-4 for the whole run. Using TPW at about 10%. I had to shut down to go to bed. Is it usual to take this long?

Good morning.

I also had a 14 hour day yesterday doing a spirit run alcoengine using .6 nozzle. Started at 5am, and finally turned it all off at 7pm.
I left the 2000 watt coil on.
Column temp started at 77.1 and stayed just above there for most of the run, until right at the end it jumped upto 80
I started with about 52 litres of WBAB in the boiler, I ended up with close to 4.5 liters of spirit.

So my figures are very close to your Clandestine.

I have a much smaller run of TPW I'm planning to do on Friday afternoon - approx. 26 liters.

My wife joined me in the garage and i had a DVD hooked up to a TV in there, so we were entertained during the afternoon at least.

WoodyD40, I'm wondering what my electricity bill will be like?

500w x 12 hours x your rate = $$$

Clandestine wrote:Spent 12 hours to get about 3.5 litres. It's 90%. I ran on alcoengine using .6 nozzle. Got up to temperature then backed off and ran on the 500 watt setting. It sat at 77.3-4 for the whole run. Using TPW at about 10%. I had to shut down to go to bed. Is it usual to take this long?

with that still probably.

other than an all feints/double distilled run most of mine are done in under 4 hours. the longest run i have done was

Clandestine wrote:WoodyD40, I'm wondering what my electricity bill will be like?

My wife is worried too. And the water bill as well. :teasing-tease:

But the neutral spirit is so much cheaper than buying from a retail shop.

I am investigating a big solar system for the roof, with back up batteries. I was planning this already, but now I’m even more keen to do it.
Ill be concreting for a new slab this week Saturday, for a new 5000 litre water tank, so I’ll have free water covered shortly.

As I’m having my lunch, I’m contemplating how long it would have taken if i used the air still.
Roughly 52 litres would be 13 runs in the 4 litre air still. With 1 hour heat up, and nearly 3 hours run time, each run would be nearly 4 hours. Wait, that would be 52 hours to get a stripping run, then i’d still need to run a second time for a spirit run(s).

Yikes. I am glad i have the reflux still on a 65 litre boiler.

your ROI on a tank for "free water" is way too long
just get a 1000L shuttle and recirculate your water...

:text-+1:

Or an IBC

B-Man wrote:your ROI on a tank for "free water" is way too long
just get a 1000L shuttle and recirculate your water...

Tank was free - surplus from a job site
But the slab i am putting it on i will need to pay for.

That's too long. I normally had a spirit run of 8hrs using the alcoengine. still way too long in my books so i quickly upgraded and haven't looked back.

Big , you were 25L or 30L , these guys are talking 60L , I think if I’ve followed correctly

The Stig wrote:Big , you were 25L or 30L , these guys are talking 60L , I think if I’ve followed correctly

Mine about 25 litres of low wine.

The Stig wrote:Big , you were 25L or 30L , these guys are talking 60L , I think if I’ve followed correctly

Ah yes true. My bad for not reading properly :laughing-rolling:

Clandestine wrote:

The Stig wrote:Big , you were 25L or 30L , these guys are talking 60L , I think if I’ve followed correctly

Mine about 25 litres of low wine.

Clandestine - i wonder if you running the boiler at 500w had something to do with the timing.
I ran my boiler at 2000w. (although i think i had a larger capacity in boiler to start with)

I will experiment this weekend, see if i drop back to 1500w, if i still get the same output per hour.
I only have a 30 litre fermenter TPW on the go at the moment, which means maybe 26 or 27 litres will go into the boiler. I know heat up time will be faster at least with the smaller volume starting point.

BigRig wrote:That's too long. I normally had a spirit run of 8hrs using the alcoengine. still way too long in my books so i quickly upgraded and haven't looked back.

I agree 8 hours is too long for 3.5L I had a t500 and that was upgraded after only a few runs but do run it side by side with the pot head on it occasionally.

Clandestine wrote:The Stig wrote:
Big , you were 25L or 30L , these guys are talking 60L , I think if I’ve followed correctly

Mine about 25 litres of low wine.

im actually confused now..

Clandestine wrote:Spent 12 hours to get about 3.5 litres. It's 90%. I ran on alcoengine using .6 nozzle. Got up to temperature then backed off and ran on the 500 watt setting. It sat at 77.3-4 for the whole run. Using TPW at about 10%. I had to shut down to go to bed. Is it usual to take this long?

was it 25L of TPW @10% or that was 25L of low wines at what %?
you should have collected quite a bit more than that in 12 hours or shouldn't have been able to collect 3.5L if it was a 10% tpw unless it was a bigger wash?
can you run a bigger nozzle and more power?
id rin the biggest nozzle you can and definately more power than you did. it should shorten the time down.

this is why I preferred the T500. its power of 2200w can create enough reflux to get 95% with a decent output speed. and once you have it running you can adjust the output speed on the fly. not have to stuff around with the nozzle. not saying its a great still but its more adjustable than the PD/AE

The Stig wrote:500w x 12 hours x your rate = $$$

At 40c Kwh only $2.40. Most tariffs are less than that.

B-Man wrote:

BigRig wrote:That's too long. I normally had a spirit run of 8hrs using the alcoengine. still way too long in my books so i quickly upgraded and haven't looked back.

I agree 8 hours is too long for 3.5L I had a t500 and that was upgraded after only a few runs but do run it side by side with the pot head on it occasionally.

Clandestine wrote:The Stig wrote:
Big , you were 25L or 30L , these guys are talking 60L , I think if I’ve followed correctly

Mine about 25 litres of low wine.

im actually confused now..

Clandestine wrote:Spent 12 hours to get about 3.5 litres. It's 90%. I ran on alcoengine using .6 nozzle. Got up to temperature then backed off and ran on the 500 watt setting. It sat at 77.3-4 for the whole run. Using TPW at about 10%. I had to shut down to go to bed. Is it usual to take this long?

was it 25L of TPW @10% or that was 25L of low wines at what %?
you should have collected quite a bit more than that in 12 hours or shouldn't have been able to collect 3.5L if it was a 10% tpw unless it was a bigger wash?
can you run a bigger nozzle and more power?
id rin the biggest nozzle you can and definately more power than you did. it should shorten the time down.

this is why I preferred the T500. its power of 2200w can create enough reflux to get 95% with a decent output speed. and once you have it running you can adjust the output speed on the fly. not have to stuff around with the nozzle. not saying its a great still but its more adjustable than the PD/AE

It was about 25 liters of low wines at about 30% abv

Bamboo wrote:

The Stig wrote:500w x 12 hours x your rate = $$$

At 40c Kwh only $2.40. Most tariffs are less than that.

That means my (power use) time in garage on Sunday was closer to $10.00 as i was running the boiler at 2000w.
That's not bad for the amount of 95% ABV i got out of the day.

WBAB wash was approx $30.00 in ingredients
Power = $10.00
Water ?? :-B

That makes the high ABV costs approx $10.00 per liter for me.
Knock that back to 40% to make gin - its probably closer to $4.50 per liter (guessing without a calculator)
Run that through air still with botanicals will push it anywhere between $5.00 to $10.00 per liter. (wild guestimate)

A 1 liter bottle of Gordons Dry Gin from my local IGA costs me $60.00.

I believe the hobby will pay for itself, even with increase of utility bill costs.
Having a blast doing it too. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I don't mind if anyone wants to correct my figures above, or suggest other things I've forgotten to include.

I guess the important thing Clandestine, is are you enjoying the fruits of your labor?

Clandestine wrote:
It was about 25 liters of low wines at about 30% abv

That makes sense why it was a 12 hour day, that's a lot of ABV to pull out of the boiler.
If it was a wash only (between 10 to 12 %) my guess is that it would have been a 5 hour day with that reflux still.

I will be doing a TPW of approx 25 liters (assuming its 10% abv) on Friday with the same reflux still (just a bigger boiler), I'll let you know at end of day how I go.

I will also experiment during the day with output at different watts of heating. It would be good for me to test the 3 elements and how low i can go and still get the 0.5 liter per hour output.