Ep 013 - VLE, Reflux, Plates, Packing, and Potential Output 

That's how I usually research things, so many open tabs, spread across multiple monitors. I'm glad you enjoy the content.

Amen! I think we need to get together and pressure government to legalized!

Much appreciated!

Where do you buy your equipment?

Subbed.

I've bought it from a bunch of different places. eBay was the first place I bought it from. I also tried AlcoFermbrew, and Still4you. It isn't easy to find in North America though. Not sure why.

Temperature does play a role, it does 2 things, it will increase the rate at which vapour is produced, and it will allow more vapour to be present in the headspace above the liquid. However, in an open environment like a still, that extra vapour is what causes the upward motion of the vapour, instead of a noticeable increase in pressure. In a closed environment, like in the keg, it will increase the pressure instead. Under normal temperatures, the vapour in the headspace of the keg will probably be around 81%. I don't think it will be a problem unless you leave it in there for multiple years. If you can change the gaskets, I would, but if not, I wouldn't fret about it, just open and check on them every few months.

Sorry, I don't really know much about that still design beyond what popped up on a few Homedistiller posts. It seems to have died off, the 3 most popular designs these days seem to be a regular CCVM, Bokabob, and then a regular CM style with a dephlegmator. For the 3" vs 4" column, the diameter of the column dictates how fast you can run. Height issues, for getting higher purity, can be dealt with in 2 ways, you can replace some of the plates with packing (which is what I do), or you could run 2 columns on top of your kettle. The first column would be open to the kettle, the second column would just sit there on top, the kettle just acting as a support. The top of the first column would then be piped to the bottom of the second column. So you could have your 12 plates, but each column is only 6 plates tall. Throw in some extra piping and you could have 3 plates on one side, and 8-9 on the other. Then pipe them both to the condenser, with a valve, so you could just switch back and forth between pot still vs reflux still. You may have an issue with pooling at the bottom of the 2nd column, but since it's sitting directly on top of the kettle, the heat from the kettle should cause it to vaporize. The biggest issue with flour, of any kind, is that it can form a sludge on the bottom of the fermenter/still. So what you need to do is add multiple enzymes, alpha-amylase, gluco-amylase, beta-glucanase, and I would also throw in some digestive enzymes when the other enzymes are finished. Combined, they will break down all the flour so that most of it will be gone, do a pre-ferment boil, then ferment. Let it settle, maybe use gelatin to help clarify, then rack over to the still. The only place I've seen people messing with steam is on reddit.com/r/firewater, they have a steam kettle setup just with water in it, and then pipe that directly into the still kettle. Heat the steam kettle, steam is generated and moves over into the still kettle where it bubbles through the wash and heats the wash up more gently than with direct heating. Letting them do things like distill on grain, or have lots of starches/proteins in the wash and not scorch them. I also hope that viewership increases. I can't monetize, or get my own channel name url, until I hit 100 subscribers.

Great answers, only one more subscriber needed 👍🏻

That's hard to say, it depends on the still design, and how fast you run/how much heat energy, you put into the wash. The faster you go, the higher the potential losses as you force more ethanol to evaporate early, and put it into the heads fraction. That said, I think with any wash, you should be able to get at minimum 70% of the alcohol present in the original wash after fermentation. If you are getting less than that, you really need to take a look at your process and make significant changes.

The temperatures required would drop with an increase in altitude (decrease in pressure). In Japan, some Shochu distilleries actually use special stills made to be run under vacuum.

I do have a video on it, someone did a study, and I sort of went over it. It's not absolutely required, but if you are going to be distilling a grain, or a fruit, it can remove some of the sulfury/meaty flavours that sometimes appear. I would always have at least some copper, even if that means dumping some copper scraps into the boiler.

Hey, sorry it took so long to get back to you. Realistically speaking, you can't just up and calculate it. Technically you might be able to, but that kind of math is beyond. This is one of those things that realistically needs empirical study of specific packing in a specific column, and then you derive the math for that specific column with that packing. So for example, with my still, using only one of the short pieces of glass column, and working in all masses, I could put in x kg of copper SPP, measure the height of that packing. Put a known ABW concentration of wash into the still, and run it. Depending on the output ABW, I could then calculate how many plates that height of copper SPP it is simulating. I could then use that HETP to make an assumption about copper SPP in more pieces similar to that original column piece. But if I switched to a SS or copper column piece, it wouldn't be a valid HETP, I'd have to do it again. tl;dr You have to do real world testing to figure out the HETP for that specific packing in that specific column design. Then you can take those HETP values and use them to figure out different column heights and possibly diameters with that same packing material, but it won't work for different column materials/designs or packing materials.

It's hard to say what it "should" smell or taste like. But first off it should be drinkable, something that you are okay with and enjoy drinking, that doesn't straight up taste bad. For a corn liquor, there should be at least a hint of corn odour and taste to it, like with my corn liquors, if you gave it to someone without telling them anything about it, they would definitely be able to tell that corn was used to make it. If you haven't proofed it down yet, I'd put about 1 shot of your distillate into a glass, that's about 1.5oz, and then I'd add 1oz of water, if the distillate was at 70%, you should be around 42% after adding the water, let it sit for a few minutes, and then give that a taste and see if you like it. Since that is probably around the proof you'll be drinking it at. It should taste of corn, it should also be a bit sweet. But know that new make spirits are usually harsher than ones left to age and/or mature. For all my runs, after I have finished collecting the distillate in multiple mason jars, I put the screw part of the lid back on, with a piece of paper towel covering the lid, instead of the metal piece, and I let them "air out" for 24h. A lot of the harsher volatile compounds will leave during those 24h. Then, for really any grain based liquor, you may want to age it because like I said before, the new make version (aka white dog, white lightning, etc...) of it is usually pretty harsh compared to an aged version. You could try putting it into a mason jar, proofing it down to 50% abv/100 proof if you haven't already proofed it down, and then adding some charred american oak sticks or chips. Put it on the shelf, then every few days give it a taste. Things age much quicker in smaller volumes, so don't let it go for too long without tasting it. Another trick sometimes used (including in commercial spirits) is to add a tiny amount of vegetable glycerine. It's a sugar alcohol, and it can smooth out a new make spirit pretty good, for how little you add. Roughly 5mL per 1L is what I've found to work best. You should be able to find it at a pharmacy, it might just be labelled as glycerine. If you are doing to add glycerine, make sure to proof down the spirit first, because the glycerine will throw any hydrometer measurements off. I use an eye dropper that has volume markings on it. I don't do it as often anymore, but it does work. I'm not a big drinker either, in fact, I probably give away 95% of what I make, and most of what I do keep, I don't really drink, I just keep it around for taste testing and comparison. I do this mostly for fun, to learn and expand my mind, to interact with other people that like doing this hobby. I like the food science aspect of it. Took a while for me to develop my palate so that I could create spirits that not only I like, but others also like, since I don't drink often.

I haven't yet decided if I will ever do any spirit distilling runs on video or not. Given the legality of it.

@@StillBehindTheBench i totally understand love the content

Yes, I hope to put out a new video this week or early next week.

@@StillBehindTheBench i am looking for info about how, how distilling. What temperature do you start with, can you distilling without making cuts. Iike trying to get all hearts