"I have two more newb questions for the wise men out there. In the past week i have read damn near every topic on this site. I have missed something or simply haven't had all of my questions full answered. I have come up with a few different thoughts about stills.

1)Size, Scale? other then seer output, and available materials is there anything to consider about size of ones still. pot, neck, condencer, etc.

i have built a column and mighty fine coil for a small scale cook. the bottom of column latches straight to a wine bottle.or. I can also change it over to a pressure cooker pot. I did this simply because i could and i figure the more i play, the more i will learn. all materials i used(not including the 15ft 1/4 copper coil) i had around the house so i figured i might as well. the design i came up with is quite simple. after the adapter/connector it heads up 17in with 1in tubing, 45s into 8in of 7/8in. has 3in where it gently goes from the 7/8th diameter into the 1/4in coil. the coil condenser itself is 15ft coiled to 4in diameter by 16in tall. all inside of a 6x20in pipe i have rigged to circulate the H20. i have only done vinegar runs and with my bottle set up (pressure cooker works great). i heat the bottle in a water filled pot on a burner. after trial an error i cannot get it to work. I am assuming due to lack of heat and or the vapors cooling too much before they hit the coil. I realize if i had my heart set on making 2oz of alc at a time i could insulate my bottle an column and or work on the heat source.

i guess this isnt so much of a question as a show what i learned(proved) and am wondering if anyone has two cents they would like to throw in.

2) meterial of pots? pros/cons?

SS: dsnt kill yeast. easy to clean. good conductor.

Copper: dsnt kill yeast. good conductor. removes sulfates. kinda perty

Steel:? all i have found as long as it has no rust, and will not rust seems to b ok for the only purpose of the boiler. right? with the alc% or slight acidity, oxidation or electrolysis is the only thing i have been able to find against it. but at that rate, would that even matter?

trying to find a SS propane tank to mod an use. but if tank grade steel works i can start fabbing tonight!




thanks. i am starting my first rum mash tonight. I was waiting to find some oak i can turn an use as breathable lids on my mason jars. chard, breathable, things of beauty

thanks again for your time and two cents. im glad to have joined the art of hooching"

i agree that the learning is never done. As far as what i said i have a tendency to be unclear at times. the whole set up i made, is for my 3 gal pressure cooker. i just used a coupling so i could remove the neck, then decided to try an hook it up to a bottle. just because. the entire device works well(as well as i could assume it to work on a vinegar run) as it was meant to. I meant to say i couldn't get the bottle version to still correctly.

As far as using the bottle as the boiler...it is obviously small, but that is as well one reason why it sounds good. i am trying to zero in on temps and the entire process so i figured if i could get it to work, 1L of volume is a lot less waist then 2gal+. Dangerous..well if heated or cooled to rapidly i could see that. is that what you meant?

thanks for your input heeler. i was getting kinda bummed no one was responding. after reading all the how to's i didnt think my post was that uneducated.

any ideas on boiler materials. i have herd alot of hows, but almost no why on this sight. I like to know why i can or cannot do something.

will a well kept steel boiler work? why or why not