StillSmart

goinbroke2 makes a good point here - if you're making a whiskey, the quality of your distilling (and fermenting) is more important because with a vodka you can always bung it through carbon but that would strip the taste from other spirits.
I must try some whiskey sometime, not just with an essence but with a proper fermentation - I'm doing a tequila at the moment but I might have to investigate that for next time!

Well, I still stick to sugar wash, because it\'s considerably more discrete i.e. it doesn\'t have any strong smell when it\'s being run. The smell is negligible.
I ran 25 litres of wash a couple of weeks ago, it came out in the high 50\'s %-wise.
I\'ve got enough to re-distil so that\'s what I\'m trying at the moment. I did make sure that I watered it down (with RO water) so that it went into the still at 40%.
I\'m not using the normal collecting container as a measure, but as far as I can tell the parts that I\'ve taken off, the first one measured up at 81% ABV and the second one measured up at 79.5% and have gone together. I\'m still running the still, but that won\'t be mixed in with the combined 80% stuff. I\'m just running it to get backset. That will be re-run through again later.
It\'s all got me wondering what type of kit is used by the Poles to make the 96.5% ABV vodka (hopefully the bloke from work will bring me a bottle when he comes back from his Easter break)?
I mean, I don\'t have enough wash/spirit to be able to run it in my reflux still (yet!), so I don\'t know how high I can get it with that. I might just have to carry on making wash until I\'ve got enough to run it (25 litres of spirit is a lot of wash!).
If anyone has any ideas about how I could achieve something in the 90% + bracket, then I\'d be grateful to hear about it.

You need a proper reflux column for that kind of purity methinks!

Yes, I suspected as much. I was looking through homedistiller to try and get my head round what I might need to do/get..
I was thinking along the lines of an offset reflux head column. What seems very weird and almost counter intuitive is that the offset condenser part, seems to be open at the top so you can put the condenser coil in and presumably take it out for cleaning, but as far as I could see from the pictures I couldn\'t see what might be used for a bung with a \"cold finger\" type condenser coil.......
Very strange.
As it would be excellent to get something like the claimed 94/95% from a single run.
Though I don\'t think I\'ll be anal enough to work it all out mathematically and then build it.
I reckon that I can get the copper tubing, but getting hold of a decent boiler looks like it might be a bit of a bugger - the breweries keep very close track of stainless kegs, plus making a decent flange to mount the column might be a bit of a swine.
so I\'ll have to keep looking round won\'t I!

\"What seems very weird and almost counter intuitive is that the offset condenser part, seems to be open at the top so you can put the condenser coil in and presumably take it out for cleaning, but as far as I could see from the pictures I couldn\'t see what might be used for a bung with a \"cold finger\" type condenser coil.......\"
Basically, the vapors travel up the column and through the offset to the coil where they are cooled to a liquid and run back down the elbow. Then they either are drained out of the valve that is there, or the valve is left closed and it runs back (and with the help of a tongue soldered in)and is dripped back down the centre of the column.

The top is left open so no pressure can build and the cooling coil cools the vapors enough that none can escape. (most also put packing in the coil to ensure no vapor gets by)
So, there is no \"bung\" just a coil/packing to knock down the temp so the liquid runs back down either refluxing or being collected. With this setup you can go wide open on the cooling coil and keep the system in equalibrium until only the very highest %abv comes out. (theoretically 95.6% ABV)
editted for spelling

Basically, the vapors travel up the column and through the offset to the coil where they are cooled to a liquid and run back down the elbow. Then they either are drained out of the valve that is there, or the valve is left closed and it runs back (and with the help of a tongue soldered in)and is dripped back down the centre of the column.

The top is left open so no pressure can build and the cooling coil cools the vapors enough that none can escape. (most also put packing in the coil to ensure no vapor gets by)
So, there is no "bung" just a coil/packing to knock down the temp so the liquid runs back down either refluxing or being collected. With this setup you can go wide open on the cooling coil and keep the system in equalibrium until only the very highest %abv comes out. (theoretically 95.6% ABV)

That\'s my aim, to make/build a still that will get as close to the theoretical max as possible.
Some of the parts look like being a complete PITA though. It\'s not the easiest thing to find "needle valves". If I knew what kind of kit they\'re normally used in, I could probably track some down.
It\'s like, it\'s taken me a while to find somewhere that sells the larger bore copper pipe ( standard UK sizes being 15mm and 22mm ) but I think I\'ve found somewhere that does.
I though I might have a go at making different columns - I reckon that I can make a "vapour management" column quite easily, though it\'d depend on what size "gate valve" I can track down as to what size condenser I\'d build.
Then I\'d have to start looking around to see about the needle valves etc.
Of course, finding something to use as an appropriate vessel for a boiler is also proving to be a PITA - stainless beer kegs aren\'t easy to get hold of, the same applies to the stainless milk churns that have been mentioned.
I\'m certainly not gonna pay the kind of money that Brouwland want for a "wort heater"....