StillSmart

Anavrin wrote:Hi Spirits4BB

That 4" Crystal dragon is £758 including vat and converted to GBP, seem expensive but it really is a well made peice of kit and will last a lifetime, if I was buying it, I would add one more plate, it has 3 plates, I beleve tberes some rule in Austria limiting the plates advertised to 3, one more would be perfect for Rums and other flavoured spirits, if you want neutral spirit add a 510mm 4" section to fill with packing.

I have the Baby Crystal Dragon with 6 plates and I use a 510mm 2" packed section for neutral, but I need a bigger setup,

Forgive the question,but how much are you drinking or planning on doing?
Does "need" really mean "just what can I do?"
Obviously bigger stilling capacity requires comparatively bigger brewing capacities.
I can see advantages to getting all your brewing and stilling for the year done in two weeks,if you have the space.
Or am I being a little dim here? Is it simply a matter of halving the time that you spend stilling? A couple of hours per run instead four or five?
I'm guessing that I finally got there,but please share the reason that you need a bigger beast.

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote:Forgive the question,but how much are you drinking or planning on doing?
Does "need" really mean "just what can I do?"
Obviously bigger stilling capacity requires comparatively bigger brewing capacities.
I can see advantages to getting all your brewing and stilling for the year done in two weeks,if you have the space.
Or am I being a little dim here? Is it simply a matter of halving the time that you spend stilling? A couple of hours per run instead four or five?
I'm guessing that I finally got there,but please share the reason that you need a bigger beast.

Robert.

Your right, thx for the reality check...Do I need a 50 litre boiler?? NO!!

I'm getting sucked into looking at some of the great builds out there and wanting a part of it but realistically I don't drink enough to warrant the purchase cost..
I love the look of those bubble caps tho so it might be a better idea to buy a 30 litre boiler and scale a bubble column down to 2" on a self build?
Thoughts?
S4BB

I agree I sometimes think the very same John...at the moment I plan on using my 500 over this weekend..and it's so easy to find your drinking more because of the rate you can make it.

If I was building again from scratch, I would try and use a 3" diameter column, just to speed things up, a neutral spirit run on a 2" can produce 1-1.2lt per hour, a 3" could easily produce 3-4lt per hour.

If you stripped 3-4 10% 25lt washes for a spirit run, you could have 7.5 to 10 litres of alcohol to collect, a 3" column could speed up the run from a 12hr run to 4-5hrs.

Bigger columns are more expensive and may seem overkill but you have to factor in your time too, for me 12hrs is too long and I'll be looking to upgrade my column to 4 x 4" plates with a 3"-4" packed section for neutral.

So,I am seeing horses for courses.
And if Anavrin,or anyone else is stilling in the garage or the shed,I can totally understand a desire to get it over with as quickly as possible.
As I am stilling indoors,about 12 feet from a large screen TV,HiFi and all the usual home comforts,I am content to stick with my modest 2" column.
It doesn't mean that my still won't try to grow wings and fly one day.
It is just not urgent!
To each,his own.

Robert.