StillSmart

Fingers crossed should land in time for weekend (along with worlds hottest chile sauce ! Couldn't resist)

Am I right in thinking some of you prime the filter with alcohol not water

Or if not how much water runs through before undiluted alcohol appears (used to be about 250ml in Z)

Does it equate to the 400ml the base holds below tap ?

Well it landed and works fine most impressed even if a bit costly as we all know.
Decided to order one spare carbon cartridge just in case I knack the other one when refilling.If anybody's interested brew to bottle in Northwich do them for 17quid although carriage not the cheapest

Apologies to A.Toad. Been a bit side tracked for a few months with family problems so got a little behind with posts.
I stopped using my Essencia as I now Double distil everything at 93-95%. And I find this gives me an even cleaner spirit without filtering.
As for pre wetting my Essencia filter, what I did was stand the actual filter in a tub of RO water for 24 hours before I used it.

Opus

Fair comment mate double distilling for vodka types myself but still going to filter I think can't do any harm

Hi Opus nice to see you posting again would you post your new method of double distilling with the reflux and will it produce 95 abv on second distillation
Cheers

Hi Billmcc,
I do a 40 litre wash including 10 kilos of sugar. I use one sachet of Alcotec Turbo 48 and ferment for a week and fine for about 3 days.
I put that through the still as three batches and distil at 93-95%
I then cut that back with RO water to about 25% and distil again to 93-95%. I then cut to 40% and check taste and smell usually thats spot on and I don't do anything else other than mixing.

Opus

Hi Opus
What volumes are you pulling off the strip runs and the spirit run?.
I have got Phantoms super reflux and like he used to,I to find it inconsistent to run in its standard set up,have tried running with 3 stainless scrubers in the reflux but the bloody thing just run for 2 1/2 hours and the column temp never went above 30c and that was without any water running for cooling,had to remove 2 of the scrubbers before it would produce any output and that was a lower ABV than running with the supplied packing,have now named the still "Christine" because she has a mind of her own.

Optic

Hi Optic,
We're probably a bit off topic on this thread but here goes.
My packing is two stainless pan scrubbers. I put about 12-15 Litres of wash in and run on full power until I get to temperature, I then wind the power back to about 700 watts.
Hope that helps.
Opus

Hi optic it sounds like you have a faulty element the reflux should heat 24ltr of wash in 1.5 hours on full power
cheers

billmcc wrote:Hi optic it sounds like you have a faulty element the reflux should heat 24ltr of wash in 1.5 hours on full power
cheers

Hi billmcc
the still boiler was well up to temperature just that it was running at 100% reflux with 3 scrubbers.

Optic

hi m8 start a new topic in the reflux section
cheers

(In gay American voice) Oh... my... Gawd!

It is brilliant.

When putting it together I was not sure. It is after all 80 notes for a few bits of plastic with a tea cup and a lump of coal in it.

But the smell and taste. Mwah!

A bottle of vodka has a smell. I cannot define it but it's there. All my spirit making career I have not created that smell. After filtering with the Essencia I now have it.

Smell apart, the taste is so much better, and much closer to the alcoholic water touted by Air Still resellers.

I am in love. Just buy one.

Yup sure like mine even if a bit slow towards end
Managed to refill cartridge too so keeping costs down too !

Told ya!

Bloody good piece of kit and an essential for making really clean neutral.

AM

One drawback with essencia is when you're pissed and leave tap on overnight a couple of litres of vodka spreads a long way on the kitchen floor