SS Reflux Still

[Phantom]

The distillation water saver will help me save on

water (money) as we are on a water meter, it's recommened

in the still spirits manual also. Just wondered if any one

had bought this pump and if any good. But seeing

that no one has I'll leave it at that. I'll take onboard what

you said about the hippo pump though.

Water meter! yes I did wonder if that was what it was all about.
As I say, I reckon that you could easily get away with a 225 litre barrel or two, and what the hell, don't pay for it, use rain water. Then as it's coolant, if it gets a big smeggy in the barrel you just add a little bleach to keep it fresh and top it up whenever it rains. after all, the coolant doesn't go anywhere near the wash or distillate does it,so you only have to keep an eye on the level, temperature and so you can control the flow rate, a tap in the "coolant in" line.
No point in buying some purpose made pumping system.
If you find that temperature is a problem, then just keep your eye open on ebay for a cheap, second hand bar chiller.

I,ve been doing a fair bit of reading on the function and opperation of reflux stills in general. There seems to be two schools of thought on when you should start and stop collecting. One seems to be purely on temperature where useable stuff comes off from 78c to 92c and the other by ABV% stopping when its down to about 60%. In all cases we throw the first 50ml of a 20L wash as this contains methanol the bad stuff. With both these methods we produce considerably more volume than the 3L suggested by the PDF published by Still Spirits for their super reflux. So I would be interested in what others are achieving with their stills. I'm still using sugar wash with triple distilled turbo yeast although I omit the turbo carbon.

It depends what you're after Opus. I also still use SS triple distilled yeast, but I also still use the carbon as well. Initially, I'm aiming for purity, and quantity of recovered spirit i.e. I keep collecting down to about 60% for the hearts, but collect tails down to about 10% that go straight into the next batch of wash.
Once I'm happy with the purity, I let it down to 40% and re-distill, hence I get about 3.5 litres at 80 to 85% from the table top. I've yet to try it with the reflux still, as I'm concentrating on making an "easy connect" system for my water supply for the condensor, then I'll probably run it with cooper mesh in the reflux chamber.
My goal being the magical 95.6% though if the SS super reflux won't achieve that, not to worry, as a friend found me a "good nick" 9 gallon stainless barrel and I've been reading up on column design over at homedistiller. I know where I can get most of the copper parts, it's just a decent needle valve thats provong a little elusive at the moment.

[Opus 27]

Hi Phantom

What you say is more or less what I did with my first run except for retaining the tails for the next bath.The reason I haven\'t saved for re-distilng is I\'m not sure how long I can store it for ie does it go off or anything. And the reason I omit the carbon is that the wash smells pretty onoxious when it\'s fermenting with the carbon in and as I fermen my wash upstairs next to the bedroom it isn\'t ideal.
Opus

[Phantom]

What you say is more or less what I did with my first run except for retaining the tails for the next batch.The reason I haven\'t saved for re-distilling is I\'m not sure how long I can store it for i.e. does it go off or anything. And the reason I omit the carbon is that the wash smells pretty obnoxious when it\'s fermenting with the carbon in and as I fermen my wash upstairs next to the bedroom it isn\'t ideal

Ok, so the issues of smell, well if you\'ve ever tried running anything more than straight sugar wash, then you\'d know that sugar wash is "sweet smelling" compared to running some mash for whisky......
As for how long you can keep tails? Got nothing concrete, other than wash is 14% so it\'s as resistant to oxidation as wine...... As long as you sanitise your kit, and hell, maybe even invest in one of those collapsible water cans that they sell for camping etc, then I don\'t see why you can\'t keep it for months.
As for tails? well I try to collect them in batches i.e. use a jar, take 500mls, check the % ABV, put it in whatever you have available, repeat the process until the tails part straight from the still is showing about 10% (or you can go even lower if you\'re intending to do another run straight away). That way, you average % ABV will be well above the usual 12%+ of wines and can be put in with the wash.
It\'s only if it\'s the last run of a batch or if you\'re not planning another batch that you need to think about excluding air/oxygen.
Don\'t forget, spirits last a long time if properly sealed, if not they evaporate. So it\'s only really the wash and tails you need to think about and if you keep clear labels on what\'s what, then it should never become a problem.....

[Opus 27]

Did my second run today. First I took Phantoms advise and dumped the saddles and replaced them with Raschig Rings. I packed them upto the bottom of the crossover tube.

Took about 75 mins to see the temperature start rising and then soon had the first 50ml to throw. Started collecting at 79c and continued untill 82c this produced 3145ml at 86% ABV. I then collected the tails upto 92c that gave me 1200ml at 20% ABV this I\'ve set aside to go through with another wash. I collected the good stuff in 500ml batches to keep an eye on it. The first 500ml came out at 88% and the last at 85%.

I stopped at 145ml for the last batch as the temperature was rising quite fast.

I should add the wash was 23L at 14%.

So how did I do, any pointers and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Opus

[Bottleofrum]

Hey
Sounds like u had a bloody good turn out

nice 1.
Did the changing of saddles help you?

[Phantom]

Did the changing of saddles help you?

As the rings are smaller than the saddles, you will notice a difference, but not as big a difference as when you use copper mesh.
the difference mainly being how tightly you put the mesh into the reflux chamber. Too tightly and you can increase the reflux ratio to the point where you can get to nearly 90% but it will take like 12 hours to do the run, instead of the usual 6 to 7.
I\'m still fannying around trying to work out which is gonna be the best connection for my water supply (instead of jamming a garden hose into the tap connector), so I\'ve yet to try a second run that\'s been let down to 40% in the reflux still. I\'d hope that it should be possible to get a decent amount at over 90%.....

[bluecap]

Hi Opus looks to me like you did everything right, the only thing that looks confusing to me is your tails at 20%, mine is usually still in the 80s% all be it with bad alcohol mixed in or was it the last bit that measured 20%?

[Opus 27]

Hi Bluecap,

The finished 1200ml was 20%ABV but I suspect the last part that was coming off was considerably lower. As I said I just stopped when the temperature hit the mid 90s.
I have since spotted an error on my part with my wash. I could of swore that when I started this addictive hobby 8 or 9 months ago Turbo Yeasts made 25 litre washes but I did that man thing yesterday and read the packet ater I,d made up another wash and found I should be making 21 litres not 25. So probably my finished wash has been lower ABV than I calculated.
Opus

[Opus 27]

I\'ve had a further thought on the ABV of the 1200ml of tails, when the temperature went above the 82c it went up extremely rapidly and the outflow of distillate increased dramaticaly so I am assuming that I wasn\'t getting the same degree of reflux and this may account for the low quality. Perhaps I should of increased the coolant flow far more at this stage?
Opus

[bluecap]

Hi Opus I think where you are going wrong is, well on my turbo yeast it says 21litres of water & the sugar, the mass of sugar will bring it up to 25 litres, I also go a couple of litres over so when I rack it of the sediment I still have 25 litres.
After I get what I can of up to 82c I lower the water pressure which makes the still hotter to 90ish to get the tails. After you up the temperature the flow will increase because there is a lot of crap and good alcohol mixed together which is why it is re-distilled at a later date to separate the good stuff.

[Phantom]

Just for info, there\'s an excellent guide for how to use stills like the SS Super Reflux over at homedistiller\'s forums.
I can\'t link it at the moment, as their site seems to be down, but if I can, next time I have a look, I\'ll see if I can either link it or just copy it and post it here in a separate thread. It was written by a bloke calling himself \"kiwidistiller\" and it\'s quite comprehensive, including the use of copper mesh in the reflux chamber, instead of saddles or rings.
He also mentions about doing \"stripping\" runs first......

[Bottleofrum]

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 5#p6798133
Thats the link, dunno if u have to sign up/log in though
BOR

[Opus 27]

I\'ve just copied and pasted it into a word doc no trouble. I did increase the font size though once in word to 14, my pensioners eyes strugled with the original.
Opus

[Opus 27]

Having read the \"Homedistillers\" Post I agree there,s some usefull tips in it. However you will find that they have all been covered earlier in this thread with posts from Phantom and others. A word of caution though, The suggestion of a design flaw could easily put future Novice Refluxers like myself off this equipmentand and as I suspect that a large proportion of members on the site are UK based we don\'t have a large choice of alternatives. While these suggested modifications do improve the efficiency of this type of still it does do exactly what the manufacturers claim straight out of the box. Like everything in life there\'s always room for improvement.
Opus

[Phantom]

Having read the "Homedistillers" Post I agree there,s some usefull tips in it. However you will find that they have all been covered earlier in this thread with posts from Phantom and others. A word of caution though, The suggestion of a design flaw could easily put future Novice Refluxers like myself off this equipmentand and as I suspect that a large proportion of members on the site are UK based we don't have a large choice of alternatives. While these suggested modifications do improve the efficiency of this type of still it does do exactly what the manufacturers claim straight out of the box. Like everything in life there's always room for improvement.

concur there Opus. though in truth, the comments about design flaws etc are a little spurious, because I got the impression that he was alluding to the fact that it is a bit of a PITA to adjust water pressure with just a domestic or garden tap. Plus if you just put the tap on without any thought, it's possible to have one of the inlet tubes come off the fitting as they're only press/friction fitted.
I can also see the point about CM type stills, particularly ones with such a relatively small reflux chamber not being that efficient. Either way, I'm quite happy with how mine performs, though I'm gonna still run it as a pot still to do a strip, once I've got better water connections that more suit my setup, followed by a spirit run. Mainly because I'm curious as to how high I can get the spirit with it.
I've also been looking at a few of the images for designs for a parrot, as it would, to me, be a bonus to continuously monitor the strength, so I know when I'm gonna make my cut and what will go back in as tails for running again...
As for alternatives ? Well, to be honest, I wouldn't probably have started this, if it wasn't for discovering how easy and relatively quick it can be to make sugar wash/spirit. It's now got my attention enough to want to see if I can build myself something more efficient.
don't forget, it's only circumstances that have made it popular in the US and the change in law in NZ.
regards
P