The courage to try my "master plan" ????
Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 1:16 pmI've been looking around the net and reading up on "vacuum distillation". There's various documents/explanations/pictures on how this is done. Most of the pictures use laboratory glassware and are very small scale. It basically involves setting up a still, then where the condenser empties into the spirit receiving jar, the pipe/connection is put through a 2 holes bung, the second hole is connected to a vacuum pump.
Now it just so happens that I recently got my hands on an "enolmatic" vacuum bottler. With a little modification the vacuum pump in it, can be used for de-gassing wines, racking from one DJ to another, etc etc.
So I've been thinking about the possibility of making a double bung, running the outlet pipe for my super reflux still into it (when it's on a demi-john), but then connecting the vacuum pipe to the second hole in the bung.
This should, in theory, make a vacuum still. Which, again in theory, extracts the alcohol at a higher purity and lower temperature than normal distilling.
It all sounds like a good idea, after all, the top of the still is held in place by a metal clamp so there should be little or no ingress of air, plus the enolmatic has an adjustable level of vacuum to allow for liquids of different viscosity (it'll bottle wine, spirits, tomato sauce, olive oil etc etc.
I'm just trying to get the courage to give it a try.
All I need to get is either the racking/transferring kit for the enolmatic (about 60€ from Brouwland) or make the bungs myself by freezing a couple of rubber bungs and then drilling them while they're still frozen.
I reckon I'd have to keep a close eye on it if I do give it a go to prevent any possible implosion of the still/demijohn etc.
What do you reckon on it as an idea ??
Now it just so happens that I recently got my hands on an "enolmatic" vacuum bottler. With a little modification the vacuum pump in it, can be used for de-gassing wines, racking from one DJ to another, etc etc.
So I've been thinking about the possibility of making a double bung, running the outlet pipe for my super reflux still into it (when it's on a demi-john), but then connecting the vacuum pipe to the second hole in the bung.
This should, in theory, make a vacuum still. Which, again in theory, extracts the alcohol at a higher purity and lower temperature than normal distilling.
It all sounds like a good idea, after all, the top of the still is held in place by a metal clamp so there should be little or no ingress of air, plus the enolmatic has an adjustable level of vacuum to allow for liquids of different viscosity (it'll bottle wine, spirits, tomato sauce, olive oil etc etc.
I'm just trying to get the courage to give it a try.
All I need to get is either the racking/transferring kit for the enolmatic (about 60€ from Brouwland) or make the bungs myself by freezing a couple of rubber bungs and then drilling them while they're still frozen.
I reckon I'd have to keep a close eye on it if I do give it a go to prevent any possible implosion of the still/demijohn etc.
What do you reckon on it as an idea ??