A complete noob - any comments VERY welcome

[black grouse]

Hi all,

A complete noob from bonnie Scotland here
Never distilled anything but water in my life, but used to make beer/wine a lot a long time ago however I have probably forgotten most of what I knew.

Also I have posted these pics on another site, hope this isn't an issue but one of your members told me here was another good place for advice

Here she is.........with a quick rundown on the project so far!

She is around 75 litres when up to the bottom of the top cone.

A bit of a mess....



Looking a bit cleaner



Getting the element out was a NIGHTMARE!!!







Tore the boss a bit



A friend made a condenser



And thats kind of where I am now......
I have been advised the condenser might be too small as its 15mm core, and 22mm sheath - I plan making a larger one when I have the time / money.

I cannot decide tho... I want it to be usable indoors so was looking at the possibility of installing an element or 2 with a stat however I'm not sure if this would work?

[black grouse]

Forgot to add.... I ordered a 2 1/4" boss to hopefully replace the 2 1/2 one I have at the top ( seeing as you cant seem to get 2 1/2" blanks ) and a 2 1/4" blank. I plan using this to fill her.
I am hoping I can either just braise it in, or worst comes to worst patch and braise if the 2 1/4" is too small to braise on the original boss.

Also ordered a 22mm - 15mm coupling for the top out to the condenser until I can get a larger one made up.

[Icefever]

Welcome to the forum Black Grouse...you'll get plenty of help here...we're a friendly bunch...

You said about elements...take a look Here.

[black grouse]

Cheers icefever

Here is a pic of her mocked up together with the condenser.....

[Icefever]

Have you taken a look inside yours...what's it like for being clean??...mine is think with crud from the hard water that was in it.....it's going to be a job when it comes to cleaning it.

[black grouse]

Only a little around the bottom tbh..... I was going to get a chemical cleaner for immersion water heaters and just run it through.
Might even just let it completely dry and bang it a few times to help dislodge any scum stuck there.

[black grouse]

REALLY swaying towards cutting a hole in the bottom and sticking an element in.... as long as its on a small stand it shouldnt hurt the wire and would be far more safe.

Decisions decisions....

[black grouse]

Quick Q.....

IF I got one of these bendable 3k elements....
http://www.expresscateringspares.co.uk/ ... s/6773.htm

Would I need a stat as well?

[Anavrin]

Hi Black Grouse and welcome, you won't need a stat, you want your heating element to be running continuously and using a stat switches your element on/off all the time.

For the size of boiler you have 3kw should be fine so long as it's got about 30+ litres in there, but if you intend to run smaller batches you would need some kind of power controller to reduce the power, I would think your liebig will be fine, mines made with the same 15mm inner and 22mm outer, it's more than enough to handle 3kw power

[black grouse]

Thanks Anavrin
Any chance of a pic of yours?
I intend running around 50 litre batches in her.... I would rather do a full day of distilling, than lots of small batches

[ikonos]

Nice pot buddy,have you got plans for peat and grain?

[black grouse]

Honestly I haven't thought that far ahead yet hahaha

I did come accross a clone for glen morangie ( which is the best whisky imho ) and was tempted..... but I think I need to learn to crawl before I can walk lol

[Anavrin]

Hi black grouse, I don't have a pic showing my hole liebig but you can see it in the following two pictures, I'm pretty sure from looking at your pic, yours is longer. (That sounds so wrong lol)

[Anavrin]

Just make sure if you fit one yourself it's as low as possible in the tank, for two reasons

1, to ensure the level of your wash never drops below the level of you element

2, to efficiently heat all the wash, if it's too high the liquid below the element will still be cold, sounds obvoius but it's easily done, I have a 100 litre hot liquor tank I use for AG brewing, there's aporox 10 litres below 2x2.4 kW heating elements and it stays cold, even if it's 85°c at the top!!

[black grouse]

Hi, your setup looks WAAAAYYYY complicated lol - I was planning putting the element around the bottom of the internal cone I need to measure the length to see which one fits best and I'm not sure if 1 coil will be enough or if I'd be better going around twice?

I will measure the condenser later but I think the sleeve is something like a meter long.

Hopefully it will be long enough