Recycling condenser water

[xiaopangzhu]

Hi Fellas,

Thanks for the oppurtunity to hook up with you guys. I've been distilling for a couple of years.

I have to distill in an attic apartment in a residential environment. Lots of ceramic tile and no combustibles in the vicinity. In conjunction with the recent purchase of a larger still, I find myself consuming a greater volume of cooling water than with the use of my smaller one. There is some domestic concern that increased water usage may draw unwanted attention to my activities. Arguably, there may be other reasons for recirculating condenser water in my environment.

Has anyone in the forum tried to recycle their condenser water? I'm not sure if I should try an old car radiator with a fan or go to the trouble of circulating the warm condenser output water through a container in a chest freezer or just an ice bath in a picnic cooler. I would appreciate any advise leading to a solution that requires minimal support while in operation. Someone told me that when running my larger still for corn whiskey production that I should control the condenser flow rate to be as slow as possible so that the temperature of the condenser output water is quite hot. The same source suggested that might not be the case for a sugar mash vodka operation. Sorry for the vague parameters. With that in mind, I would like to attempt to keep the recirculated condenser supply water at a constant temperature...don't I?

Cheers!

[Jimmy]

Hi, welcome!

You don't say what kind of still you're running but I'd imagine that if it is a cooling management still (like a T500 design) then you're going to have some issues if the temperature of the cooling water is varying a lot through the run - not speaking from experience, just a thought!

I'd really like to do something like this so I can free my still from having to be run in the kitchen but I haven't thought of an efficient way of doing it yet.

[xiaopangzhu]

Thanks for your reply Jimmy.

Im running a 4inch flute attached to a 100L oil heated agitated boiler heated by gas.
The boiler needs a modification so I can rapidly cool the mash but once I complete the mod I hope to be able to mash, ferment and distill on the grains all in one vessel.
At the moment, if I make a 100L grain mash it takes 18 hours for the mash to cool to yeast pitching temperature and by that time, microbes get in and have their way.

Since the flute is a new acquisition and I'm fairly new at this, I find that when Im distilling whisky, I struggle to keep ahead of the operation. My mentor suggested that for whisky production, I should set the dephlegmator water flow rate so that the output water from it is quite hot to the touch. I think that has something to do with encouraging desirable whisky molecules to pass through the system into the whisky. Thats an assumption on my part though. The same mentor suggested that for a neutral spirit, one might want to have a colder dephlegmator. If that's sensible, then I want to build a cooling water recirculation system that runs without much help from me and also provides a constant supply water temperature.

I'm thinking that I might have to design a system that has a dedicated refrigeration component to it. I would prefer to use a car rad with an electric fan but I don't know if I should bother investing in that direction if its not going to be effective. I thought I might through the idea around here to see if someone else reached this point in this fascinating pastime.

Regards,

Xiaopangzhu

[YHB]

Xiaopangzhou,

Welcome to the forum.

If my pinyin is correct the English translation of your name would not be very flattering but I am told by my wife that it is a very nice name in Chinese.

Where abouts in China are you?

[xiaopangzhu]

Xiaopangzhu..."fat little pig".

I've been told that somewhere like 20 million Chinese make alcohol at home. I still haven't been able to determine if its legal where I live so for now, I live in Shandong Province. Lots of breweries in the area so great access to malt but no whisky distilleries that I know of. The local corn doesn't seem to have the distinctive flavour of North american corn but it sure ferments. Local sweet potatoes make an excellent beverage and its production seems to be a lost art at least at the county village level. I hope to put some of it in oak possibly with some natural cherry flavouring. Just an idea right now.

[YHB]

Xiaopangzhu

This is an extract from a guy called Fester who lives in China and his take on distilling there.

"Everyone, including the police, are bewildered when I ask about the legality of hobby distilling. They don't understand why anyone would do it since 52% ABV booze can be readily bought for about $1 per liter.
I can't make it for that. Can you?
Surly the gov't gets their cut so selling homemade without a permit would probably get me into trouble but I don't do that. I can, and have, distilled openly and no one cares one way or the other.

The liquor bottles here must list the ingredients. Typically its a combination of sorghum, corn, wheat and rice.
Sorghum is always the main ingredient and tastes nasty so I view it as low wines needing a spirit run. I assume that everything that comes out of the still goes into the bottle.

It seems you don't need a liquor license to vend booze. Its sold everywhere. The smallest Mom and Pop market or restaurant, barber shop, hotel lobby, fruit stand, etc., etc., all sell little bottles of booze."

If you have not met up with him yet he might be an interesting guy for you to talk to. Have a look here where he is very active.
http://moderndistiller.com

[xiaopangzhu]

Sounds like Fester lives next door and I agree, popular Chinese spirits are foul!

[John51]

Probably a daft idea... If you had 2 containers, each large enough to hold the cooling water for a run, you could keep reusing that water. Maybe an airpump to stop the water stagnating.

[xiaopangzhu]

Thanks John,

I did try to use a very large shipping container as a water reservoir but I use enough water and heat that it didn't take long for it to get too hot. I took hot water out of the reservoir by the bucketful and poured it down the drain and replaced the hot water with cold from a hose which trickled into the container. That seemed to be alright but I had a couple of overflows while I was preoccupied with the distilling equipment.

I managed to hook up with Fester and he said not to worry about any official attention from the coppers since they wont care. As long as Im not in competition with them . I think I'll just carry on, collect what water I can save and dump it into the washing machine when its needed.

Thanks for the insight fellas.

Xiaopangzhu.