Baby Crystal Dragon First Spirit Run

[Anavrin]

Hi Guys

First Impressions

I got to play with my Baby Crystal Dragon on its first proper spirit run today, it's got 4 plates (one 4" plate in the torpedo and 3 baby CD plates) and a 500mm section packed with SS Scrubies, I had 18 litres of strip at 65% made from 90 litres of sugar wash, I did a 40 litre batch with 9kg of sugar and two 25 litre batches with 6kg in each, Alcotec 48 for yeast, a full pack in the 40 litre batch and another pack split between the two 25 litre batches.

I double stripped each wash using my SD torpedo and some reflux to run the plate and stopped when the parrot reading got down to 30%

I watered it down to 30% and had almost 40 litres in the boiler.

I collected the first 1.5 litres at a few drips per second, then closed the water control valve to the dephlagmator until I got a thin single stream out of the parrot output.

I found 1.8kw power with the valve for the dephlagmator open half a turn gave a stable 82.5°c on the output, The spirit was coming out at 1.2 litres per hour @ 92-93%

It sat there solidly for the hole run and I now have 20 400ml jars airing :-)

Just at the end of jar 20 the output stream suddenly started to break into a drip and after another 200ml the temp hit 82.7°c so I called it a day and shut down, it was pretty much exactly where I expected to end the hearts run so happy days, the first 2-3 jars after the 1.5 litres I set aside as heads had a smell of heads but after that they seem very clean indeed, they're all airing out now so I'll report back in a few days when I get round to choosing my hearts cut, overall I'm initialy very impressed and I'm sure my neutral will be better than I've made before on my packed column.

[Easydrinker]

Happy Days for you!
I'm glad that you have a good result,so far,and hope that the airing proves your expectation.

Robert.

PS,unsure where I missed you posting buying this kit on the forum,but I'll let that slide.

[Anavrin]

Hi Robert

It was here viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3379

[Easydrinker]

I now see that I even replied!
I must have been well into the fall over juice on March 2nd.
Nice to see that I can still tap coherently in such a state,even if the memory fails at such times.

Robert.

[Runningman]

Hi Anavrin
Im glad to see you are happy with your new equipment achieving 92 - 93%. I am fortunate to have been able to build my own VM still trialed and built by many stillers over many stilling sites and it achieves 95%+ every run. Im a great believer in that if you can make it yourself then that's a real bonus. I hope your kit serves you well and makes you great product. It is always great to draw on the expertise of others and create stills that produce great product. I would always advise our members to draw on the expertise that is available on this site and other sites and not always rely on the commercial guys to come up with the best goods. wish you well
regards
Runningman

[Anavrin]

Hi Runnigman

The previous incarnation of this still was indeed a home made LM/VM including a 2-4-2 SD Torpedo and a 90cm long 2" packed section, I could get 95%+ with that setup but running with an unacceptably slow take off rate, with the same take off rate as the new setup, it gave similar results, if anything is to be said the % was a little higher on the old setup for the same takeoff rate.

I didn't think I would have the height to use my old 90cm column, so I got the SD 510mm section to use with the 3 Crystal Dragon plates and my Torpedo, it seems on first impressions that the 510mm section isn't as efficient as I originally hoped, it was filled with SS scrubbers but I think for this height of packed section, SPP is a must have to see any real benefit from it.

I think the next time I run it for neutral, I will fit my boka coil above the VM output and only have a trickle of coolant through the dephlagmator, going back from CM control to LM control to see if it improves the product.

That said, even though I didn't hit azeotrope, this has produced a very clean neutral, possibly the cleanest I've made so far, I'll start checking my cuts tomorrow, goes to show that high quality neutral can be produced without necessarily hitting the highest numbers

[Almanac]

Congratulations on your first successful spirit run with the new setup.

I'm still having fun with my hybrid 3 plate pot still, including a 2-4-2 Torpedo, and I am constantly amazed at the improved quality of spirit and the higher run rate I can use plus I've retired my old thumper with an improvement in run time too which is a big big bonus.

To Infinity and Beyond! ...or something like that

Well done you

AM

[Anavrin]

Hi Aidan

Did you fit two 4" sections into a 2-4-2 torpedo? What sort of ABV do you get, I'm guessing around the mid 80's, do you think the plates hold back tails? The reason I ask is with my old packed column I could push it with too much power and spoil the product with tails but with a few plates under a packed column it doesn't seem to happen.

What I would really like to do is run it harder for a faster take off, only upto 1.5 lt/hr (I think that's about the limit for the 2.5" section) but I don't want to spoil the product with tails, just wonder what your thoughts are about this, have you been able to push more power without spoiling product?

[Almanac]

Yes! two 4" bubble cap sections in between the two halves of the Torpedo making three plates. that setup is connected directly onto the keg ferrule. On top of that is a 300mm riser with a single copper mesh plug. this is topped with a small section containing a take-off valve and a twin coil condenser.

As I only run in pot still mode I can run relatively fast once the heads are out of the way. Hearts ABV runs from 84% down to 80%. Once in the Hearts I turn the power up to 1.7Kw and the take off rises to 3LPH.

At the end of the Hearts cut the flow rate drops quite suddenly and the ABV dips below 80% and plummets within minutes. At that point the output slows to a trickle as we reach the Tails start and it really does almost stop running by itself.

I can now predict, with reasonable accuracy, the collection jar in which the Hearts are due to end and monitor the change over closely so I don't get Tails mixed in with the Hearts.

Very happy with how this kit performs and I'm getting more and more confident with every run.

AM

[Anavrin]

I think I'm going to remove the dephlagmator and go back to full VM control, shame cos it's an expensive bit of kit but now I've used it I can't see any advantage of CM over VM.

I'll still use it to run the torpedo during stripping runs, I can just about squeeze 100lt of wash into a19lt cornie keg once stripped :-)

[Anavrin]

Just been through my cuts tonight, I had twenty 400ml ish jars at 92% plus I had the first 1.5 litres that came off the still in two jars, that went straight down the sink!

Also the first 5 jars (2 Litres) didn't make the cut, I kept that in the "heads/Junkahol" keg, that left me 15 decent jars, I cherry picked the middle 5 1/2 jars and proofed it to 40% this will be my personal drinking vodka, it's really clean and it's debatable as to if it even need filtering but it's gonna go through the Essencia anyway

What was left made up about 9 litres at 40%, this can be for mixing with essences or making various concoctions.

It's all going to go through the Essencia, it's not been used for a while so I re run a few litres of clean neutral from my last batch, then I'll put my cherry picked good stuff through it, once that's trough I'll let the rest go though, after that it's due for a change of carbon