StillSmart

Hi All..... Follow up to my Last post..... Did First Run today with my New Still.... T he Pure Distilling Home Spirit Maker...... This new Still is awesome People ..... Turned on the Still At Midday ran exactly as the instructions said it would...... With no hiccups and no messing around and finished in round 4 hrs just as it was supposed to.

I tested my spirit at the 2 Litre mark in the run and it was 100%..... Let it run thru to 3.5 Litres as I did with the T500.... End result was an amazing 97% ABV !!!!!!

Conclusion ...... This is definately the Best Still on the market for Quality and Ease of use without a shadow of a doubt...... Anyone looking at buying a reflux still Don't bother Looking at anything else!!! A+++++++


Cheers All

Whimpy, something off with your results there. You can't get 97% or 100% at atmospheric pressure as far as I know. With the height of the column I don't think it could produce over 93-94% which the packing it comes with.

Are you checking the temp of the distillate when you are reading it, most alcometers are calibrated for 20oC - it should be on the alcometer somewhere what yours is calibrated to.

I'll be looking to upgrade from my Airstill later this year and was considering this still, glad to hear you got some good results

Hi Captain..... Thx for the reply...... I also thought my readings were off but I had two mates here when I took the readings and there was a two hour break between the readings..... my alcometer as you pointed out is rated at 20 degs so all good there...... after this I went to Pure Distilling Facebook page and everyone has been getting at least 96% and above with this still.....


Will be interesting when I do my next run to compare notes from my first attempt... I did however have these mashes down before I got the new kit so I used the same receipe that I had been using with my T500 so looking foward to trying a mash with Pure Distilling Yeast and 9kg of Dextrose as he has suggested on his site..... The results will be intresting as he garantees that you get 4 Litres of Spirit in 4 Hours using his yeast etc.

Don't know weather this would have any bearing on the abv or not and being a newbie at this spirit caper I bow to you guys and your estensive knowledge on the subject as you have been at it a lot longer than I lol

Cheers

Whimpy

Sounds like you are getting good results with your still, but when distilling, unless you are using a set up that manipulates the pressure (pulling a vacuum) or add drying chemicals to remove the water or the addition of something like benzene to change the boiling point of the mixture (not good if you then want to drink it).
Then it is not possible to get more than 95.63% v/w with simple distillation alone. So I guess either the spirit is warmer than 20oC when you measured it, or the alcometer is faulty.
I'm not trying to piss on anyone's fireworks here, just saying pulling 95%+ is a tough trick on a short still, and saying it can produce product above azeotrope is just not plausible, and your post may be misleading to someone newly getting into the hobby.

If you Google "azeotrope of ethanol" you'll get more info that I can put down here.

CC

^ What he said! Great results with the still but something is wonky somewhere with the reading, nevertheless sounds good!

Yes captain..... I know you're right!!!! but its a great kit none the less and much easier to use than the t500 from still spirits!!!

I am not doubting your logic whatsoever..... got my alcometer checked and it's definately not faulty so Im guessing that my spirit was hot when I measured it.... So I measured it again today after leaving it to cool overnight and the final result was 96% which I had aluded to in my previous post.


I definately would not want to mislead anyone so i once again thank you for your valueable input....... I do appreciate everything that everyone has passed on through this forum..... it's an invaluable resource for newbies like myself


Cheers

Whimpy

LOL - I've just found something out...

I was going to ask "how are you reading your hydrometer?" and just thought I'd check that I was reading mine correctly and I've just found out that I've not been reading mine right..

I'd always assumed that you took the reading from the bottom of the meniscus as that is the way you do it with measuring cylinders etc. I was therefore some what surprised to find out you read the TOP of the meniscus... Which is cool as I've been getting at least 1% better purity than I had thought

Nice, I was happy with 93/94% from the T500 and now I'm even happier with 94/95%...

MrCat wrote:LOL - I've just found something out...

I was going to ask "how are you reading your hydrometer?" and just thought I'd check that I was reading mine correctly and I've just found out that I've not been reading mine right..

I'd always assumed that you took the reading from the bottom of the meniscus as that is the way you do it with measuring cylinders etc. I was therefore some what surprised to find out you read the TOP of the meniscus... Which is cool as I've been getting at least 1% better purity than I had thought

Nice, I was happy with 93/94% from the T500 and now I'm even happier with 94/95%...

What's the link for that ? As I've always read from the bottom of the meniscus, because I read it somewhere and the info, from memory, included an nice little graphic about it as well.

I'm also curious about the still. It's not a bad price (depending on the exchange rate), but I couldn't find anythng about the shipping cost (and Whimpy doesn't list a vague location to judge how much he might have paid for the transport).

After all, there's a number of "off the shelf" reflux designs that look like they'd do a good job (saving the hassle of a home build), but it always comes down to the numbers.

I can't find it now - but basically it was to read the bottom of a concave meniscus for instance when you are measuring inside a tube (milk in a measuring jug) and the top of a convex meniscus for instance when the scale is floating in the liquid.

Spotted this the other day

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50L-Moonshine-Still-Distiller-Alcohol-Ethanol-with-Electric-Heater-Stainless-/300758048770?pt=Home_Brew&hash=item460693a002#ht_3491wt_1397

MrCat wrote:I can't find it now - but basically it was to read the bottom of a concave meniscus for instance when you are measuring inside a tube (milk in a measuring jug) and the top of a convex meniscus for instance when the scale is floating in the liquid.

Spotted this the other day

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50L-Moonshine-Still-Distiller-Alcohol-Ethanol-with-Electric-Heater-Stainless-/300758048770?pt=Home_Brew&hash=item460693a002#ht_3491wt_1397

Well that still looks like a nice piece of kit, if a little expensive. Looks like the boiler is made of half decent quality stainless and the screw coupling for the column looks like it's much less flexy than the connection on the top of my T500......

I don't know why, but I keep looking out for both home build kit and for reasonably good priced off the shelf kit, that is likely to produce 95.6% spirit! I should be happy with the T500, as it is a good piece of kit, but I seem to keep looking for more ! I mean, I don't know if I could get a bit more out of the T500 if I just changed the packing for copper mesh (or whether it's possible to do that, as I haven't bothered to take it to pieces to find out)

Ah well! keep on looking eh ?

My T500 column is finally packed totally with copper (excluding above the coil) and I'm just waiting for a bad weather day to run it.

I've tried copper mesh with rashig rings/T500 ceramics and had problems with surging but I think that was due to over packing above the coil and maybe too much power.

As soon as we get a bad weather day I'll tell you how I get on as I've got a charge of low wines ready to go.

However regardless of how this works I'm probably going to make a VM column for the T500 boiler next month.

MrCat wrote:My T500 column is finally packed totally with copper (excluding above the coil) and I'm just waiting for a bad weather day to run it.

I've tried copper mesh with rashig rings/T500 ceramics and had problems with surging but I think that was due to over packing above the coil and maybe too much power.

As soon as we get a bad weather day I'll tell you how I get on as I've got a charge of low wines ready to go.

However regardless of how this works I'm probably going to make a VM column for the T500 boiler next month.

Good to read that someone has investigated, as it'd be great to learn of some way to make the T500 produce the magical 95.6% stuff if it's actually possible.

I still intend having a go at a home build, but not only do I lack some of the tools and silver soldering kit (no access to the Oxy/DA kit, and a standard propane blow torch doesn't get hot enough), but I'm a bit light on decisiveness and motivation as well.....

Hence being a bit of a lazy f****r, I'm ways happy to investigate the possibility of decent OTS kit. Ha! it'd be nice to read about anyone that gets good results for the stuff that the amphora society seem to sell!

Hi People..... Sorry for not giving you prices..... the entire cost of the Pure Distilling Home Spirit Maker here in Aus is $700 all up .....I live down south in Tasmania so it maybe slightly cheaper on the mainland

Cheers

Whimpy

Glad I found this Whimpy64 - thanks - been reading up a long time looking to start this hobby. Had decided on the T500, then found the Pure Distilling still. Obviously you're finding the latter easier to control. I had a look at their web site and all looked good except for the price of the filter system ($199 !!) Have you got this or do you use something else? Can anyone help with an easy to use effective system which won't break the bank? ta