StillSmart

Finally getting to play with my LM/VM Boka, so far I've only been stripping without the boka head fitted.

Put my three strips in to the boiler and watered it down to 30%, then spent a while figuring how and in what order I was gonna pass the cooling water through the three coolers, I'm going cold water into the large VM Liebig then through the double wound boka condensing coil before finally the LM output product cooler, any way it looks the dogs, let's hope it works as good!!!






Got my jars ready for action and I'm watching the temps as I take off the foreshots, it's interesting because the Boka probe between the plates went straight to 81.2°c and stayed there but the VM probe slowly started at 65°c and steadily rose over 20-30mins to 78.8°c and levelled off, all this time I was taking the fores off at a drop or two per second, this could be a perfect indication as to when the fores are gone, I might be in for a long night though, got 8 litres to collect at around 93%
I should have made an early start tomorrow but couldn't wait to play with my toy :-)

I cannot believe just how well this is running, I'm collecting 400ml @93% every 25mins and it's totally neutral, I collected the first 500ml using the boka LM take off then after letting it stabilise a little I collected the rest of the first litre using the VM take off.

I found that once I opened the VM take off the temp on the boka probe dropped to say 70°C while the VM probe was stable at 81.5°c. Also the output rate remained the same also, however the alcometer never lies!!! The first 400ml I collected was down at 85% when I was expecting 93% as this is about the limit of my raschig ring packing material.

I upped the power until the temp probe in the boka slant plates was just above the one in the VM output and it's now been perfectly stable for over an hour and I'm getting my 93%

Happy Days :-)

Happy days indeed,happy to hear it is going well!
Robert.

Just thought I'd post on what cuts I got, lots of heads I'm afraid :-(

I had three wash's stripped but I did steal a little from two of the washes to run through my air still, and I put everything I didn't keep from the air still runs back in the demijohns they came from, so I probably lost some hearts from that.

I took 1 litre as foreshots / heads then started collecting 400ml at a time in 500ml Kilner jars, I had 11, 400ml jars by the time I detected tails, all aired over night at around 91% by the time the angels had their share, to my surprise the first 6 jars once watered to 40% tasted of heads so they got cut out, all together I now have 6 litres at 40% of clean neutral to go through the filter, I'm happy with it, it's probably the best neutral I've made so far but I'm a little disappointed I only got 6 litres off 3 strips :-(

Next time I won't steal any for air still runs, I had 13.5 litres at 50% that I watered down to 30% for the spirit run and in the end only 6 litres at 40% made the cut!!

Six litres of top class product is something to crow about,in MHO,so well done you.
Maybe next run,a little more,who knows.
Maybe you are just very discerning.
I am a pot stiller,with knowledge but no experience of reflux stills,I can't offer advice;but this has surely gotten you a little excited?
The learning curve does rise,hold on and follow it.
ATB
Robert.

Anavrin, There's basically not a lot wrong with the figures you posted.

From an original 13.5lt @ 50%, (or 22.5lt @ 30%) you could expect to recover approx 13 to 14 litres of distillate at 40% in total, depending on a number of variables. Not least because in any distillation process we lose an amount due to the still's inability to recover 100% of the ethanol present.

When you run the Math on what you collected things don't look bad at all.

1lt of what you designated Fores and Heads, plus 6X400ml were also heads, (allowing 5ml loss per jar for evaporation - Angles Share) this makes a total of 3.37lt at 91% or 7.66lt @ 40%. Add this to the 6lt of final spirit at 40% that you designated 'neutral' and you have a total of 13.66lt @ 40% which is right on the money!

The problem you're experiencing is in your Cuts and we've all done it - being a little to picky. If you're going to carbon filter in something as efficient as an Essencia Filter then, perhaps, you're cutting too late and should try filtering some of the late heads you've cut out.

When making neutral, and based on the same volume and ABV of low wines you ran, in my still, I would expect to end up with 8.5 - 9lt of clean neutral at 40% after filtering.

Hope this helps.

AM

Thanks AM, the numbers do seem to add up when you put it that way, it's good to be able to draw on the experiences of others, especially as due to the nature of our hobby we tend to work alone.

I should have filtered the latest jar of heads to see how it turned out, it is true how the more you play with cuts the pickier one gets, it may have been only the slightest amount of ethyl acetate in that jar but I could taste and smell it and I didn't want to spoil the rest of the batch by adding it.

Jar 11 had very slight trace of fusels, but 12 stank rotten and I shut down the still when it was half full, in a away I'm quite please how it ran in this respect, there was a nice clear indication when the hearts run was over, I added number 11 to my hearts, I think but I'm not entirely sure that the ceramic filter in the Essencia traps out the fusel oils.

You do not state the wash that you used.
That can make a big difference to where you make your cuts,based on taste.
An Essencia can do a grand job on cleaning up a spirit.
Having recently come over from the "Dark Side",IME a turbo distillate still tastes like a turbo after filtering.But I'm a pot stiller.
Maybe try TP or Lentils or Kale for the next? Maybe you did and I missed it.
Once more I am drifting off topic.
Mixing my movies here,
LLaP.
Robert.