"Hello fellow stillers. I new here and just ran my 1st batch with problems. I have a PS ii in reflux mode on a private well with a pressure swing of 35-63 psi at 42 F. I couldn't control the temp in the column and had swings from 78-86c degrees. I keeped the product (2600 ml from 25 lit wash at 13.5 %) and I not sure if I should use it or rerun the stufff. The product is at 82%. Heat from a 1500 watt electric hot plate set to max. Did not adjust for the run.
Questions:
1- should I insulate the colmn,room temp at 20c
2- should I use 2 valve's 1 to condensor and 1 to column
3- I waited till the temp began to raise (80c+) before turning the water on. The condensor was cool, just could not maintain a constint temp in the column.. Adjusting every minute or so
I just want to fly with the big birds
Thank you all in advance"

"

Thanks for the reply. Ive been reading more and I think I firgured the problem. But first the thermostat is not disabled.
I thought you leave the hotplate on high and adjust the cooling water to set the temp. It looks like Im wrong. Is this correct - set the temperture with the hotplate and adjust cooling water for reflux ?
The 2.5 litres have, can I just add it to the next run."

Thanks
I'm thinking thats my problem. I'll disable the thermostat and try that, also look into a RSC unit.

Hi falcon,
The cooling water adjustments might have worked if the hot plate wasn't cycling. The rsc is worth the money, it will allow you to be able to control boiler temp and you can control column temp with cooling water. The 2.5 liters should be fine to add to you next batch. I would dilute it to below 40% abv.
Maddawgs

I definitely dont like trying to control the still head temp with cooling water. I believe that just enough cooling water to do the job and the lowest heat setting that will produce the product. You must let the heat rise in the boiler slowly so the diferent factions boil off in order. The diferent alcohols will cause the head temp to change as they emerge.

"You can and it will clean it up somewhat....I think I read it was 160 proof?? Does it suck? Why re-run it at that proof it should be pretty clean already.

Of course if you do it will up the proof and make it more neutral, but thats not a bad thing."

Hi Falcon,
Some say that you don't have to but I would just to be on the safe side.
Maddawgs

"I copied your idea of feeding the liebig and the tower with two lines. I just am trying to get something down to discourage trying to control the tower temperature with water instead of letting the alcohol do it.


I wasnt taking a shot at what you said but actually trying to get some conversation going about it.

I actually dont like the idea of trying for equilibrium rather than simply slow runnings.

I think that stacking components gets the boiler temp too high and reduces our ability to get greater component separation.

I realize that this belief is contrary to what so many accept as fact but its what i think i see

:) :) :)"

MD
We need to express ideas and diferent approaches. I really dont have a clear idea of how equlibrium is advantageous because it conflicts with my obcession with slow running. Almost all the more experienced distillers allow a long period of equlibriating before taking off the product.

I definitely would like some facts other than "THIS IS HOW I DO IT"

"Hi md,

This gets confusing. Separation and reflux are not one and the same ... even though one may lead to another.

Reflux is simply repeated vaporization and condensation. It's normally found in discussions of binary mixtures (in our case ethanol and water). Each time our mixture vaporizes, the vapor contains a greater percentage of ethanol than the liquid does. So when that vapor is condensed, those little drops of liquid contains a higher percentage of ethanol. Now if those droplets vaporize again, before they fall back into the boiler, the resulting vapor will have more ethanol than the droplets ... and so on, and so on ... reflux That's how we get our high abv.

However, the mixtures we toss in our boilers are more than just ethanol and water. We have various acetates, ethanol, water, and various fusel alcohols. Just like any mixture, when the liquid vaporizes we'll get a vapor that contains some of everything. So ideally, we want to separate those components into fractions using our column. If we can get, for example, all of the ethyl acetate (and only ethyl acetate) to the top of our column, we can then draw it off -- leaving the other stuff behind until later in the run ... and deal with each component one-by-one. If all we had in our boiler was ethyl acetate and water we could take advantage of reflux and purify the ethyl acetate to a very high percentage and leave most of the water behind.

Now, if we have all those components in there and we turn the power way up (we drive the column too hard) we're just forcing all those components further up the column. If we drive it hard enough we could theoretically cause all of the condensing to occur at the column condenser rather than occurring throughout the entire length of the column. So driving the column too hard has essentially the same effect of shortening the length of the column.

Anyway, once these concepts sank in and I started to adjust my approach to power, cooling water, temps, etc. I started to get better results -- and this was largely, if not completely, due to the patient guidance from Scotty. So I don't pay any attention to specific temps anymore. I'll pay attention to temperature changes -- but not to specific temps. I just stay focused on keeping my power down to somewhere near minimum, providing time for full reflux, and collection rate (which amounts to reflux ratio).

Regards,
--JB"