StillSmart

It's great to see a forum section embracing the T500. I have read all the posts in this section and there are some great tips.

I've been running my T500 boiler with a controller and a pot head for a couple of years. I did my first run using the T500 column last weekend. 2 runs. One of Tomato Paste Wash and one of weetbix/allbran wash. Both stripped through the pot and then dumped back in at around 50% ABV.

The result was the cleanest vodka I've ever made. A long way from where I started. Got about 4.5 litres of 90-95% ABV. Even the tails taste good. I figure 1 litre heads 2 litres hearts and 1.5 litres tails. That sound about right?

There were times when the cooling water temperature was really hard to tie down. It fluctuated a lot at the begining and then I got it settled down round 50-52 degrees. As it started to creep up 55-56 and I put a little cooling through it took ages to settle things down again. This repeated itself throughout the run. Sometimes it would take 5 to 10 minutes of tweaking to get it to settle down again. Too hot followed by too cool and back again. Can someone talk me through what was happening?

Is it usually difficult to fix a low cooling temperature at the beginning of the run or is there a trick to settling it down early on?

What's the consensus on the run temperatures for clean hearts? Fast start, slow through the hearts? Vice versa?

Can I simply settle on a starting cooling temperature (say 53 degrees) and let it just naturally climb higher as the wash ABV decreases or does it require adjustment throughout?

There are a couple of things I would do differently after reading the forum. 1) dilute the stripped wash back to 30% as the advice is I'll get better separation and 2) get a water pressure reducing valve and I'll have less problems regulating water.

Thanks to all who jump in ...

I fitted a PRV before I got the T500 so have never ran it without one. It takes about 65 min to get to temp and start producing, it then takes a few minutes to kind of settle down. I try to run it around 55c IE between 54- 58 i don't adjust the temp very much during a run, if I tried to keep it at 55c all the time I would be fiddling around all the time. You know what they say "Perfection is the enemy of efficiency" !

Thanks Ls I can see that I'm going to have to fit a PRV to improve control. A few $s more and I'll have that sorted. I haven't heard that saying but it sounds pretty useful.

When you say "get to temp and start producing" do you just fire it up , wait for it start producing and then add cooling or do you have cooling running and adjust for 55 when it starts to flow?

I've started reading a few of Captain Cudellezs old posts from when he had a T500. It's exactly what I want to understand about how to control the still throughout the run but it's a lot to take in.

I turn on the boiler
Turn on the water at the tap
Adjust the water flow with the needle valve
Shut off the tap
Wait till the T in TURBO gets hot
Turn on the water at tap
Adjust the temp with the needle valve

On My set up it usually takes 65 min to start producing, i turn on the cooling water after about 55 to 60 mins, i keep feeling the column to see how high the temp has traveled up the column.When I turn the water on at the stopcock,slightly open the washing machine connector and the adjust the needle valve to the correct temp.
I think I remember reading some where to turn on the water before the top of the column gets to hot and damages the plastic at the top, but I may be wrong no doubt someone on here with more knowledge will probably know. Hope this helps.

Luckyshot wrote: I think I remember reading some where to turn on the water before the top of the column gets to hot and damages the plastic at the top, but I may be wrong no doubt someone on here with more knowledge will probably know. Hope this helps.

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I think there were concerns about running the T500 with no cooling, ie as a pot still. The vapour would go from 80 right up to 100oC, there would only be a few degrees of a difference in the vapour temp at the start of the run without the cooling running. probably a non-issue.

BTW, I recommend putting the still into 100% reflux before taking any product off. For a CM still like the T500 this is as simple as running the cooling so that no product comes off.
Leave it like this for 20 mins, then slowly remove the heads - forget about temps, just watch the output, a few drips a second is a good place to start.

You can then steadily increase this as you approach the hearts. Then start using your thermo to control the run.

What this gains you is it concentrates the heads into a much smaller portion giving you more hearts. If you run painfully slow you can get this to 10% of the total volume of alcohol. I'm happy with 15% and running slightly faster.

So if you have 25L of 14% wash = 3.5L total alcohol.
So using the 10% rule you should take 350mls of heads, on a still producing 93% this would be 377mls of product taken as heads.

Before I got evicted from the outhouse for the building works, I just had my T500 on the mains and had set the needle valve for about the right rate, but anything that was switched on tap - wise or the bog flushed etc and the temp would shift up to 5 and there would even be temp swings depending on whether it was a busy time of day with small changes in mains pressure.

Once the various surges had settled the temp wouldn't always settle back to where it had previously been and I could get the same, up to 5 swings with even the tiniest fraction of a movement on the needle valve.

It seems that this is to do with too high a pressure on the inlet side of the needle valve which magnifies the smallest of changes in pressure through the needle valve and making it hard to keep the temp and reflux balance and it's a bit of a bugger keeping it stable.

I like to use 60 to 6th for the first run (which is when I remove the foreshots), then once it's been let down to <40% with RO water, I re - run it as closely to 55C for the slower (and cleaner) final stilling polish.

Then it's carbon filtered and bingo, a nice smooth neutral.......

So when i get it set back up, I'm gonna fit a pressure balancing type valve (like those used for caravans) before the inlet.to the needle valve, which should give me the control that has so far, eluded me......

I'm considering running my T500 off a separate (low pressure) water tank, perhaps with a head of 6feet or so.

Voddy wrote:I'm considering running my T500 off a separate (low pressure) water tank, perhaps with a head of 6feet or so.

Yes, something I've considered but I can't get the height, so most likely either a slow/low pressure pump from a tank or that and a pressure stability valve as well......

Sorry did I say the tails taste good? I must have been tired. Just ruined the lot by throwing them in with the hearts. Triple distill anyone? Looking forward to trying out the advice here.

Got half a dozen washes on the go right now. ( plums plums more plums and Weetbix vodka) My garage is looking like a P lab. Better get some product on the table soon or we'll all start to wonder if I'm only in it for the gear and the internet time

Mmmmm - plum wine - second only to banana wine!

Really? Bananas??? There's nothing in the Recipe thread Voddy Tell us all about it >:D

For sure: later on I will post a full recipe.

All it is, is to take a basic wine recipe and use bananas. I went crazy and put around 3kilos of peeled bananas in the slow cooker overnight with about 2 litres of water to turn it all into mush. Topped it up to 5 litres and added sugar and yeast and left it.

As it was, there was so much pulp, and the resulting wine is so thick it was basically a liqueur - but by golly it was good! So much so, some people started to get quite a bit upset when it ran out... not sure if that was a good thing...

It doesn't taste like banana, just like a really thick, sweet, dessert wine that leaves a lovely aftertaste in the mouth. It's a bit more-ish and leaves you quite drunk.

I will do it again soon and possibly try a champagne yeast on it this time.

It was my first year (of many, I hope) of wine-making and so the wines that spoiled went into my T500 and made a decent Vodka.

As I say, I'll post a recipe soon - just really crazy busy right now.

Almost ready for my first run. Wash gravity at 990, degassed and turbo clear added this afternoon.
I have fitted a PRV set at 1 bar, plus a washing machine fitting with a 20mm adapter for the needle valve. Flow rate set at about 400ml per minute as the water temp is 9c here.
If the wash clears to perfection, I will run tomorrow. If not then the next day.
Results will be posted a.s.a.p.

I have just started another wash using Express Turbo Yeast from SS
It may be crap but I just wanted to try it.

A big thank you to all on this forum

fuf

aka Trev

Express Turbo Yeast is going like crazy.

Maybe all froth and no substance

fuf