StillSmart

Well had a busy day today, this is a farewell spirit run for my T-500 in its current form. My new 4-1/4 foot VM still will be arriving from the welders next week which will be my new still for running neutral and the occasional white rum. If everything goes to plan, I’ll be butchering the T-500 to make its column a dedicated gin head. I’ve had real trouble with the ceramic saddles and the condenser, getting the taint out after doing a macerated gin run. Even after steam cleaning the column with no cooling, I struggle to rid of the some of the heaver flavours like liquorice out of the spirit. BTW I quite like liquorice vodka with ginger ale – not something I planned but I have half a gallon of it :-). I had to pull the still to bits and clean with hydrogen peroxide to neutralise it.
So the column is getting the chop, the plan is to cut the column above the internal screw fitting and weld on tri-clamp ferrule, this will let me continue to use the boiler which I quite like with other columns without modifying the lid, yes I know buying a new lid would be a “saferâ€

Now for today’s spirit run. Boiler charger with just over 20lts of stripped sugar wash, averaging about 38 ABV. – this was 70tls of a sugar wash (not a turbo) last weekend but it wasn’t properly cleared when run, as has the initial signs of a small infection – was completely dry so not a lot for the bacterial to feed on, but I didn’t want it getting worse before I had time to strip. So was expecting some yeasty flavours with the wash still being fairly cloudy when stripped, will run it again if today’s spirit isn’t satisfactory.

I think the infection was from reusing the lees from previous washes without proper sterilisation of the fermenters, doing this I manage to get the wash to ferment dry in around 50 hours (about half the time of starting from scratch with fresh yeast), but the risk of infection is greater, I’ve only done this process a few times so still ironing it out.
Boiler on 9.15an, up to temp for 10am

Power turned down to 850W, stabilised 70-73*C at the top thermometer.

Let equalise on the low power till 11am.

Powered up to 900w pulled off foreshots over the next hour 250ml total.

Swapped out the Pyrex jug for the parrot (thanks lyonacre) and 500ml jars, take off as below.

Ran jars 2-6 way too hard, was referencing some notes from doing a single strip and run, and upped the power at least 3 jars early - Doh! Should have kept the output at under 1 l/h until jar 4. Therefore I’ve smeared the heads into a few jars beyond where they should have stopped.

I’ll let the jars air for a few days, the cut will probably be jars 6 through 12, the rest will be recycled into low wines.

After stopping at jar 16, I pumped up the power, and bypassed the reflux, turning it into strip mode. I pulled off another 2 litres of 40abv, that I’ll add to my spirit I use for cleaning, and will clean the new VM still with this for the first run after a leak test.
I haven’t entered the ABV, as it was running a bit warm at the start, and my other stainless temp probe is playing up after going for a swim in the sink, so cannot compensate for the temp, over stating the % on the parrot, was showing 94% on jar 3 (checked when cooled to 22*C, actually 93%)

Showed 93% by jar 12 @ 22*C

Down to 92.5% by jar 15 @22*C

I guess downing the figures above by about 1% as the hydrometer is accurate @ 20*C, but I don’t have the conversion table handy

Oh one more thing, I realise the top temps above are on the low side, I can only assume the probe was actually touching some of the copper saddles and this was throwing the readings off. I normally see output from around 77.5, and it is about 78.1 during hearts.

Sounds like your having fun.

Any pic\'s of the new setup?

Haven\'t got the new bits back form the welders yet, but I have photos.
Here is my T500 in her Jacket


Cooling control


Parrot


Power controller and meter


Condenser, VM and 12\" CM externtion.


Welds


Built up

I\'ll post pictures of the t500, when it’s been chopped and modified.
I’m completely sold on running the T500 on reduced power with insulation, I understand the makers want a simple system that is almost foolproof, But 2KW on such a small column is just overkill, it’s great for the warm up, but for me using the T500 the way it was sold ment pulling off 600-700ml/h to get good product, I’ve found by cutting the power to 50-60% you can up the output, use less cooling and make tighter cuts, without a drop in ABV. I don’t think I’ve found the sweet spot yet, so there is maybe more to be squeezed out of this unit.
I’ve ran on as little as 900w, with the cooling temp around 80*C and still pulled off 93ABV, my main issue I’ve split the cooling after the condenser, so if running on a trickle of cooling needed for the low power runs the output is warm and you don’t get a good reading on the parrot. I didn’t get good enough control from the ball valves to fine tune the reflux, and I had a problem with air getting in. So with a few changes to get more cooling to the condenser, with a trickle to the reflux and a bit more experimentation I reckon more can be pushed out of this thing.
CC

Good work there CC.

You should join the design team at SS

Andy wrote:Sounds like your having fun.

Any pic\'s of the new setup?

Here is the new VM column on the T500 boiler. The T500 column is tougher than it looks, blunted 2 hacksaw blades doing the first cut. Braised the tri-clamp ferrule on, and ready to rock and roll for a leak test. Doing the other cuts will have to wait till the weekend when I can get some more blades.





CC

Here she is in Pot\Stripper mode, although I'll probably only use this on my big keg. Just need to work up the courage to cut it to fit the element.



CC

Damn that's fine looking work. I'm trying to achieve something similar, but am currently lacking a few bits and measurements.

So, if you do see this CC, perhaps you could post some spec on stuff like the pipe sizes, ferules, tri-clamp etc and where you found it all.

Or just PM it to me

regards

P!

Will do. I'm down at the in laws for now so will send you the details on Tuesday, when I get back on my laptop.

Tube was 2"x 1.5mm from Metals4U
most of the fittings were from http://www.zx55.com in the UK

The expanding ferrules were from "OCS Process Systems" in the states (they have an ebay shop) this let me modify the boiler without being able to weld. Heat the ferrule up, it slips over the pipe, cools and tightens. i brased it to make sure it wouldn't come loose during a run.

Some more details for you phantom. Its 2" column with a 1" male nipple welded in for the output, this attaches to a 1" gate valve, which in turn attaches to the condenser.
The male nipple is the extended type and goes 1" into the center of the column, I think this will give a similar result to using the reduced T fitting you see many people using without the expense of the additional fitting.

The condenser is 1.5" tube over 1" core going into a 90 Elbow that treads into the gate valve. There is also 6mm copper tube wound round the 1" core to turbulate the cooling waters. the cooling outputs are 3/8" (9.5mm) SS tube. The condensers is over-sized for this application and should knock down 6KW+, I got this as I thought I was going to get a 100L keg and fit 2 x 3Kw elements.

The thermometer is a 1/4" female socket as this is what most of the available thermometers come in, I do have a male plug for this if I want to use a digital probe, this is fitted half way up the column in line with snuffy's posts on AD about the placement of the probe, it really does give you an indication of whats happening before you notice a change in the output.

The coil is 8" long and 23 winds, and was done by another member over at AD also based in the UK, I don't have his permission to post his details so wont.

See, at the moment I'm still collecting parts or locating stuff. Hence asking about how you've achieved this.

At the moment, I've got a 45litre keg in stainless, and I've located some needle valves, plus fittings onto 6 or 8 mm pipe. I'm thinking of an offset condenser etc, I've even found copper pipe up to an incredible 248mm.

So now I need to check the size of the keg top hole, so I've an idea of the bore size of the column and whether I can use 54mm copper, and get a ferule in stainless so I can use a tri-clamp fixing.......

if your keg is a UK keg, then a 2" sanitary fitting will do the job.

However, if you are planning on using copper for the column the stainless to copper bit can be quite tricky - or so I've read.
Artisan Copper Works in china, do a 2" copper ferule that will slip over UK 54mm tube and can be soft soldered in place. This makes the connection much simpler.

is this the sort of keg you have?


This is a UK keg on to the 2" ferule. the ferule is slightly bigger, but the clamp handles it no problem.

As the keg doesn't have the groove for the sanitary gaskets, you would probably be best cutting a flat one out of TPFE sheet (from someone like direct plastics)

The way I connected the column to the T500 boiler, was to cut the T500 column to keep the existing screw fitting, then used an expanding 2" ferule over the cut column and braised it in place. This is obviously a drastic measure, but as my fabrication skills are nill, it was worth it for me. I liked the open top boiler and wanted to keep using it.