Still Smarter

I've not brewed anything in years, but am gearing up to have another go with lots of Tom paste wash on the bubble.
I have a Boka but want a pot still attachment for stripping runs.. and I have no idea about pot stills or operation.

Boiler is 20L 2kw
This length of stainless pipe screws into my boiler its 75mm diameter and 60cm and figured I could maybe use it to cobble something together.
Currently it necks down to 15mm pipe. I have a load of 10mm microbore on hand. Could I just stick a 15mm 90 bend on and then a reducer to 10mm.
Do I need a condenser on the ouput?

What do I need to be thinking and looking at?

Boozoid

You will need a condenser.
The simplest, with what you have, would be to hook up the stainless to the 10mm as a worm condenser in a bucket of slowly flowing cold water.
Well that is unless you wanted to build an air cooled condenser like mine? HTH.

Robert.

If you have plenty of 10mm hand that's the way to go. For air cooling I think you also need a desk fan and a dustbin as a cowl. It would certainly be an easy build and not use gallons & gallons of cooling water.

Thanks Gentlemen.
With regards to operating procedure for a stripping..
Do I just run the heating element at maximum and collect everything that comes out until it's not alc? Or is there more to it?

That would work. For stripping you really are just 'stripping' the water volume away. The spirit run is where the magic happens

For whisky, I strip to 1%.
For a neutral I strip to around 25%.

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 10:17 pm For whisky, I strip to 1%.
For a neutral I strip to around 25%.

Robert.

Are you doing your neutral spirit run on a pot still?

Yup. A lot of us do.

On a stripping still you are mostly concerned with matching your product condenser capacity to the power input - or often the other way around!!!
If your condenser is the limitation you just need to learn how much power you can use and still have all the vapour condensed.

With the 15 mm / 10 mm option I would definitely fit a 10/15/10 T and use TWO of 10 mm coils or condensers. Doubling the coils in parallel slows down the vapour.

In the past I used this 3 coil worm as a strip condenser in a barrel of water.

Boozoid wrote: Sun Sep 15, 2019 12:28 pm

Easydrinker wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 10:17 pm For whisky, I strip to 1%.
For a neutral I strip to around 25%.

Robert.

Are you doing your neutral spirit run on a pot still?

No. These days I strip neutral on a pot and spirit run on a reflux.
Just because I built one of each and can do so.

Robert

Ditto Robert . I totally concur with you on this one.
Regards
RM

Easydrinker wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:06 am

Boozoid wrote: Sun Sep 15, 2019 12:28 pm

Easydrinker wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 10:17 pm For whisky, I strip to 1%.
For a neutral I strip to around 25%.

Robert.

Are you doing your neutral spirit run on a pot still?

No. These days I strip neutral on a pot and spirit run on a reflux.
Just because I built one of each and can do so.

Robert

Interesting stuff. So I take it you find off flavours coming thru below 25% ?

There are off flavours, way above 25%, But they are dealt with in the spirit run and cuts.
The strip result that comes off what I regard as a neutral, below 25% have no merit.
What comes off whisky is different, it has flavour that I want.
I don't do a lot of Rum, but may make changes in cut off levels if I did.
I hope that helps.

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 11:14 pm There are off flavours, way above 25%, But they are dealt with in the spirit run and cuts.
The strip result that comes off what I regard as a neutral, below 25% have no merit.
What comes off whisky is different, it has flavour that I want.
I don't do a lot of Rum, but may make changes in cut off levels if I did.
I hope that helps.

Robert.

If I interpret this correctly?

On the fermentation that you do for a neutral product, you find no value in the component below 25% on the strip run.
However, on the fermentation you do for whisky, there are desirable flavour components in the later part of the strip run.

This does make sense and other folks have mentioned in the past the benefits of starting with a clean, low stress fermentation when doing a run intended for neutral. Personally I never bothered, only because I make so little neutral, and usually have feints available from other strip runs available for re-cycling.

Your interpretation is correct myles.
I concur with your reports of clean, low stress fermentations.
And I find that a cut off of 25% means that I can run 'neutral'' strips from cloudy,hastily made fermentations with acceptable results.
My experiences of re-using yeast for AG beers are making me question all that I have read about yeast 'stress'.
Everyday is a school day.

Robert.

Yup. You should manage your yeast to get the flavours you want. One size does not fit all!

It has taken me years to gain an insight into yeast, and I am still learning.
On the one hand I treat them with love and try to keep them pure and true.
And on the other, I say, work you little feckers,work.
Keeping and reusing Yeasties is a challenge, but can seem so fecking simple.
My fridge is currently around 25% occupied with various yeasts, in various forms.
I maybe need to talk to someone, maybe not a mycologist

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote: Fri Sep 20, 2019 12:05 am
My fridge is currently around 25% occupied with various yeasts, in various forms.
I maybe need to talk to someone, maybe not a mycologist

Robert.

been there

I've just realised that a friend of mine is a microbiologist.

Maybe she concoct us a super-duper forum yeast that does, I don't know... really cool stuff!

Ask about her mycology skills?

Robert.

you old charmer ... thats the way to a woman's heart.

You have to be of a certain age for this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW410_FCsrs

Robert.

I bet you can not find any emoji for that

It may be an earner if I knew how to make them!

Robert.

In the end I just bit the bullet and bought some 15 and 22 mm pipe and constructed a liebig condenser.

Just had a cleaning and trial run with a vinegar/water.
The condenser knocked back everything with ease which was great. I did find a leak around the screw thread of the stainless tube base t tho, so i'll apply more ptfe tape to bung it up.

I was running at the maximum 2kw and was collecting 38ml per min. That seems slow to my uneducated brain I was kinda hoping it would be faster.
Is there anyway I can alter the design to increase the offtake or is that speed normal?