StillSmart

Oh Hai,

I've been making ciders and applejack'ish liquid via freeze "distillation"
And I felt it was time for the next level so I got me one of the devices as shown in the picture (the seller was claiming it could be used for creating ethanol)

So not knowing a lot about distilling or about this Aquastill I created some wash (we Dutch call it stookwijn) ~ 21L water 8kg sugar and alcotec 48
After 8 days the yeast was drunk/dead? and I cleared it.

So I started the run and slowly took it to 100C did a striprun

I collected 1.1L ~ 61% I know now .. reading the forum (hindsight 20/20) I should/might have collected more but the last 2 a 300 ml was a bit smelly.

I diluted the result and now have 2x 4Liter of about 38% clear alcohol but it still has a funny taste / smell

I know have to do a second run ..

I got myself 12 100ml glass containers and I wanted to number these 1 to 12 to determine the cuts

Now the/my confusion starts.

4L@38% should contain 1.5l of alcohol(good and bad) - or am I mistaken?
I plan to get rid of the first 300ml (I'm chicken)

And the rest will be nose/tongue tested to determine whats passable for me to use.

But somehow I have this creeping feeling that something is wrong.

My percentages (measured with a floating alcohol meter) seems pretty high?
I did a striprun with cheap wine (11.5%) and it produced 1.2l @40%

Also everybody with a Smartstill seems to be able to regulate the power input and all I can play with the the temperature but the still will stop adding heat once it reaches the set temperature and then will turn on again if the temperature drops a little.

So is this device even capable of creating drinkable alcohol .. Or do I have to convert my motorcycle and let it run on the demon juice this still produces?

Hello,and welcome yopparai,
Your post is very detailed,which is good,I may be able to help.

I too used to make apple-jack,many years ago,so simple,so good.

So you produced a very high ABV wash,and have stripped it, it will smell awful.
I will not attempt the math tonight,I have been sampling my own product,and while literate,I do not consider myself numerate!

For your spirit run you may want more containers,or mid-run,larger ones.

If you are trying to compare your results to posted guides on this site,I suspect that your doubts may be due to the high ABV of your product.
Most here do not brew to such a high ABV,or first distill to such a one as yours,You have more alcohol than may be good for you,taste wise.

Your machine is simply a variant of all the smart,air,easy stills that came before,from what I can see.And I would expect similar results from it.

Your Aquastill seems to be(from the picture),a shinier version of the still that this forum started for.
And yes,it will be capable of producing palatable alcohol.

My suggestion is that after trying your first attempt,that you ease off on the sugar in your next brew,that should result in a nicer tasting end product.Once you have thrown away the first little bit,the rest will not hurt you,but the taste may not please from this current batch.

As for controlling the power,those that do, rely upon a homebuilt controller,usually based upon a domestic light dimmer switch in this instance.

I really do hope that helps.

One more thing:can I suggest that you collect into a glass jug instead of the one provided? High strength alcohol and certain plastics are not good together.

Robert.

... yopparai...

The small stills like the one you have are great to start this hobby with, a lot of us did the same, then move on to something bigger. It looks like you know what your doing, all the best and let us know how you get on.

Welcome! And as EasyDrink said, thanks for the details. I will try to answer some of your questions.

"I collected 1.1L ~ 61%" - this is from one 4L stripping run, right?

"the last 2 a 300 ml was a bit smelly" - I would not worry about that on the stripping run. Each run through the still will reduce the smell. You will see why when you open the still!

"I diluted the result ... but it still has a funny taste / smell" - This is normal and is why we don't drink this and distill it at least once more.

"I got myself 12 100ml glass containers and I wanted to number these 1 to 12 to determine the cuts" - that is probably not enough. I'd add in a larger container to collect the middle of the run.

"4L@38% should contain 1.5l of alcohol(good and bad) - or am I mistaken?" - that is correct, BUT you won't get all of that out of the still. Some will remain behind with most of the stink and funny tastes. Every run through the still will result in the loss of some alcohol (unless you run the still until it is dry and that accomplishes nothing).

"I plan to get rid of the first 300ml (I'm chicken)" - I would get rid of the first 50ml and then collect the next 250ml as heads. You will add more to these heads from the start of your cut jars. Collect this up until you have 4L and run it again. Aidan might have a fit at the high ABV still charge of that, but it seems to produce a better heads / ethanol separation than when diluted. It is your choice. You can extract quite a lot of usable alcohol from a heads run, do NOT throw it away.

"My percentages (measured with a floating alcohol meter) seems pretty high?" - it seems reasonable for the high ABV wash that you made.

"Also everybody with a Smartstill seems to be able to regulate the power input and all I can play with the the temperature but the still will stop adding heat once it reaches the set temperature and then will turn on again if the temperature drops a little." - I looked for the AquaStill site and it seems that this unit was made for distilling water. You want to close the chlorine vent if that is the case otherwise it will release alcohol vapours which could be dangerous and at a minimum will result in loss of alcohol (see http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 60&t=17245 for an example, sorry I could not find any pictures).

Also, you can't really control the temperature of the distillation. That is a common misconception. The boiling temperature is a function of the ratio of water to alcohol and it changes (increases) as the alcohol is distilled out. The only thing you can control is the rate at which steam is produced and that is a function of the power supplied to the heating element. I am not sure what using the temperature control will result in, practically speaking. I doubt it would be a positive effect (likely just slows down the process without improving quality). I'd set it at 100C and if the result is not satisfactory, add an external power controller.

"So is this device even capable of creating drinkable alcohol" - yes, without a doubt. But closing up the chlorine vent (if there is one) is a good idea as is running it at 100C. Adding an external power controller will improve your results (so I am told, I don't use one myself).

Chuck

Forgive me Chuck,just edited your post to include a word that I believe that you accidentally missed.
I have made the word obvious! And what you meant to say now makes sense.
Robert.

The Aquastill is 750w! It is intended for distilling water, not booze. As well as getting the power down to 300w or less, you need to check the coil for a 'chlorine trap' which is actually a small hole at the top of the coil.

750w?!!? Ouch, that is not good, other than for stripping runs. Do yo have a link? I could not find this on-line.

Chuck

I couldn't find online either.
I am with chill on sealing the chlorine vent,if it is there;but usually run my big airstill on a spirit run at around 1200 watts.
Different strokes for different folks.
Equally,spirit running 20 litres at low wattage would be a mammoth task.....
And the earlier info that I gave about a power controller based upon a dimmer switch obviously does not apply to an appliance running above 300 Watts.
Robert.

This pimped up airstill does look interesting!

How does the thermostat / temp controller work on this peice of kit?

Does the display simply show the temperature or can you also set a temperature?

You could attach a power controller I guess but only inline with the heating element, if you lowered the power to the electronic control side it might not work correctly.

Here's a link to one similar to the original pic:

http://www.brouwland.com/en/our-product ... AryJBYf-K8

Here's a link to the type that has a built in controller:

http://www.homebrewwest.ie/water-distil ... 2605-p.asp


Both sites say 750w.

Hi All ..
Thanks for the warm welcome and tips !!

I know about the plastic and alcohol is bad ... so it's glass for me.

About the unit:

The unit is indeed 750 Watt
You can regulate the temperature with the two top buttons and the third button is the reset button, if the temperature rises too fast or spikes beyond the set temperature, the still will stop all activity and pressing the reset wakes it up and you can play with the temperature.

I can't confirm there if there is a "chlorine trap" during the run I couldn't smell any excess of 'alcohol' vapor near the condenser. (I'll disassemble it eventually.)

Workings:

If you turn on the device (plug it in) it starts @95C but you can adjust the temperature to it's lowest setting @50C (fyi the max temp is 104C)

Below are my observations from my spirit run.

So I got a couple of more 100ml jars and a few 700ml jars for the meh. stuff.

Yes I'm aware you don't use temperature but it's handy for logging

- Start still and reduced the temperature to 50C it took about 20mins to reach 50C
temperature -------- time taken
- Increased to 65C - 5 mins
- Increased to 80C - 6 mins
- Increased to 95C - 6'ish mins
.. I got distracted because a stream of alcohol started (dialed down the temperature to see where it started and it was at 87C measured by the still)

- Set it to 90C to see what would happen and was able to collect about 4x 100ml jars and the process got slowed down.

When the still reached 90C the fan stopped and it stopped applying power.

Then it starts the following cycle:

The temperature dropa a little (about 2 a 3 degrees measured with an external probe)

And it would start again, fan runs a few drops of alcohol ~ 10ml and it would stop again .. this cycle repeats.

So increased the temp setting to a 100C and the stream continued.

Basically I collected 12 jars and kept collecting until I collected about 1.5 liter.

I collected the first jar for my windows cleaner collection and cooled down the rest of the jars before the smell/taste/alcohol measure test.

Results:

Jars 1 to 6 75%
Jars 7 to 8 72%
Jar 9 68%
Jars 10 - 12 67%
and the "smelly bit" 6x%


Collected "1 and 2 for a future distillation run.
And and 9 to "smelly bit" for the second distillation run.

So I got 600ml of drinkable(imho) alcohol @~74%

So either keep this for a 3rd run or I'll dilute this further with demi water and mix it with my Applejack

Todo's

- Do the second spirit run.
- Make a wash with less sugar.

Future todo's
Check for chlorine trap.
Mod the still so it runs @300Watt .. "So I cut the green wire?" <grin>

Do you guys have any recommendations for a other brand of yeast? that potentially make the result more neutral?

Less sugar .. !!! Wilco !!!

So now I will read the board more thoroughly and stop being a stubborn <censored> that tries to reinvent the wheel

Sounds like your getting the hang of it :-)

As far as the power modification goes, get some kind of triac controlled device that can clip the AC waveform upto 50%, this will be 375 watt not 300 but if you reduce the waveform past half way you will start to lower the peak voltage and this could affect the operation of the electronics, also with this type of controller the fan might still run at full speed, if not you can power it separately if needed.

I have such a controller I use on my big still, (3KW element) I've never used it on my Smartstill but I'll try it if I get time to see if the fan speed is affected.

Some simple controllers are available but they will slow the fan down and may prevent the electronics working if they reduce the voltage too much.

+1 with Anavrin here,it really does sound like you are getting the hang of it.
Try a search on here for a lentil wash,using a simple bread yeast,IMHO it will yield a better neutral result.
And then you may try for flavoured spirits,if that appeals..
You have something to consume now,tweaking the brew will only increase your pleasure.
Best of luck,
Robert.