"

Swagelok or Parker fittings for everything 1"" or less. Brass or stainless. Pricey, but last forever, no gaskets. No leaks. Pure vacuum to 3000psi.

I can't weld stainless any more than I can do rocket-surgery. I'm gonna punch a stainless Parker fitting into the new Brewhaus boiler for an RTD and two in each column section. I'll have a buddy weld 'em up.

Take a 1/4"" Parker and bore through the shoulder so it is 0.250"" all the way through. Get some 1/4"" RTD's and you can slide them through (instead of where tubing would have hit the shoulder) and you can lightly compress the nut and ferrule a brazillion times.

Meat thermometers like the one I got from Brewhaus (not knocking it, I'm sure it's fine for top quality hooch) read slow and in large steps. An RTD to the right instrument (more about those if you're interested) have a lag of less than a half a second and are accurate within a 1/10th degree F.

I haven't read much yet, but I'm surprised to have not run across folks talking about the temperature of the mixture in the boiler. And I have not seen any photos of any such measurement. Unless one is boiling something other than a fermentation of edible substances, the temperature of what is in the kettle is an exact indication of the ratio of water to ethanol (adjusted for pressure). The meat thermometer meant for the top only gives an alarm on high temperature, which is fine, but one for low is lacking. In the boiler, an alarm past set-point would get you ready for end of batch before it even goes up the column."

"
Famous? Who? No disrespect, I'm new to this, but I've got the feeling you're using the term in a much more respectable way than I ever have.
I kid you not, sir, I was looking at a site that's selling distillation stuff and they made reference to why 100% is not achievable because it takes water to condense alcohol. They went on to say, ""that's why they call it the 'Angel's share' "". Even I know what the Angel's Share means, and I'm not in the business. I immediately left their site.

Care to share overall dimensions and through-put of your rig?

I ""got out of the business"" when regulations made it impossible for independent refineries to exist. I hired on as a kid and in a non-union shop learned how to sweep, how to listen to orders, then how to be part of the control-room team, make two dozen or so mil-spec products from ever-changing feedstocks, and do crossword puzzles. Rebuild pneumatic controllers, program the new stuff, work on pumps, fight fires, battle engineers with all the answers, and work with them by taking them into the units and adjusting what they were taught to how it runs.

Tweaks we made outside the lines on long boring nights drew immediate attention. Not only from the boss, but from UOP. (That's where the math fails... or succeeds... I'm not sure...)

The place was built in the middle of nowhere in 1933. By 1972 it was surrounded by homes, schools and activists. By 1993 the costs of regulation were higher than an independent could absorb (even though we beat every major.... they just got extensions). The gates closed in '94. I look at google-earth now and see that it is all gone. I cannot tell you how that makes me feel. So that's how I got out of the business."

"Wow,, your story is the story of where the whole dern country is now.


Most hobby stillers do not distill under a vacuum. Pics of your apparatus would be quite welcome at the other two hobby sites.

My rig:

52 liter boiler (beer keg)
4500 watt internal element with 100% variable heat/input controller.

Pics of my rig are in my gallery"

"Most hobby stillers have access to calculators that are quite good at calculating potential yeild from grains, fruit and sugar.

The thing is that the numbers are not at all accurate at telling you what,,,or where the good likker is.....Only your senses can determine the best drinkin stock......With too much heat and a reflux condenser it is possible to push abv into the 90s and also likely that the likker is way too tailsy.........

Seems we focus most on tunning our pallets to tell us how to read our likker yield.

Numbers in this instance are not as dependable as One's pallet."

"So I go to kill the Yeasties and they're still bubbling away. Heck, as far as I know there is a Yeastie gal in her mom's dress dancing at homecoming with a Yeastie guy. I cannot kill them all.
Maybe in the morning.
Party on, Yeasties. Good job. Perhaps tomorrow I will kill you."

"


Well,,,you don't have to.
But until yo get more familiar with your equipment and your recipe,,and learn to approximate where your transitions live,,,collecting in 250-300 ml increments is the best way to isolate those transitions without smearing nasty likker into your good likker.

All recipes are different. Fruits and/or grains can have varying amounts of ""heads"".....But if you start out by sticking with the same recipe for a goodly amount of time,,and get very familiar with your process,, you will be able to better reduce the amount of jars and the size of the jars/collection vessels needed to work with."

"Dear Heeler,

Sir, I humble before you all. I never intended to come off as lippy. Please know that what I've said is joking. Re-reading it I can see that one could find me to be a horse's butt but I didn't intend it that way.

My apologies to you and the community.

The Yeasties live! They are still bubbling a bit and they're gonna have to do so until two weeks from yesterday which will be the first time I'll have time again to isolate their excrement.

Crud. There I go again."

"Do I need to be concerned about the temperature of the wash over the next two weeks? The Yeastie Boys have slowed to about a bubble a minute.
Ambient temps here at this time of year can go from 45* to 85*."

That depends on what yeast you are useing. A little cooler is better than way too hot. If its a comercial yeast the pack will advise on temp ranges but with bakers yeast its pretty flexiable. But in my opinion 85 is WAY too hot.

More important is consistent temps. 70/80 is often a good range.