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Hi all,
Just purchased a stainless reflux and have just completed a second run. The column,~3Ft w/marbles, and boiler,~50 Litres, is made completely from stainless.
I also own another reflux,copper/stainless, that I have been using for about 4 years with no problems, it produces around 90-94 %. The new still has no insulation on the boiler and it takes 2 hours to get the entire column hot. The old one takes 1hour 15min
The problem I have is that the output smells 'farty' or like sulphur. I have cleaned the column since the first run but the same odour exists. I also had a lot of trouble stabilising the temperature with the water flow. I always use activated carbon for filtering but I wont put this rubbish through the filter until the smell is gone. It still produces 95% ethanol. Does anyone why this is happening ? Is it lack of insulation ? Any help would be appreciated
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Good morning
I also just purchased a new stainless steel reflux type still with 3ft. column and 25Liter pot.
Did you say you have a 50liter pot and you use marbles in the reflux tube??
The one i purchased recomended the use of rings not marbles in the 3ft tube this could be a problem. Also the type of yeast you use makes a big differenc in the smell and purity of the batch. Also using a good clearing agent will help the smell.
Good luck. If this helps drop a line.
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I have heard that if you run your stil with a few 100% pure copper scrubbers either in the column or in the wash itself it will neutralize the sulpher compounds that your nose is picking up. Stainless is inert, copper is not. The copper will bind with the Sulpher to form a less volitile compound. Give it a shot and let us know how you made out.
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Hi Anon and Jim,
For Jim:
1stQ - Yes. My still has been manufactured by hand - have photo if reqd. My old still uses broken coffee cups ,ceramic, as packing.I always use Turbo yeast from Rick M !
For Anon:
Thanks very much for your input, I will try what you have suggested. It just seems strange that the same wash through a superior ,non insulated still, would produce this smell/taste.
Any more suggestions will be appreciated.
Regards
J
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Good evening people, reading your post, I decided to put in also , I have purchested the SS pot also , run my first batch , with ceramic rings , half mooned , I used Limestone water in the batch and this is where I think I got my slite smell from , I cut it from 150 down to 90 and all was cristal clear , then to 80 % and it foged up big time , using distilled limestone water , I run it through the 5 ft. peat carbon filter and all is 100% , I used the essence Canadian wisky and you cant tell it from Royal Crown . will try some copper in the tower next .
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Hi All,
Just a line on my distilling. I used a carbon water filter to filter the batch as it dripped out of the still.,reflux, copper, 3' tower, beer keg pot w/ hlaf ring cermic, insullated, and I was getting a smell from the alcohol until I filter it. Now not much at all. Also, my first batch I put a charred piece of oat in each bottle and as time goes by the smell and coppery taste is leaving. Its been a month for it to work but it does. The water filter I took appart and it is just paper saturated with carbon, or so it looks and like I said it works just fine......Jimbull
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Hi All,
Just to let you all know the copper worked a treat ! I placed some in the column and in the boiler and the smell has been removed.
Thanks a lot for your help.
Jay
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I found this in yahoo groups, last week I also found another post there ,can't seem to find it right now, saying that you must have copper some where in the still to get rid of the sulfer smell.
From: 'mwmccaw '
Date: Fri Jan 3, 2003 10:04 am
Subject: Structured Copper Packing
There has been a lot of discussion about copper packing on the lists
recently. Mike Nixon and I have also been experimenting with it,
and it does a very nice job. Unfortunately, the most commonly
available pure copper packing material ,The 'Chore Boy' scrubber, is
expensive! They cost US $1.40 each, and it takes about 36 of them
to pack a 1.3 meter 50 mm diameter column.
After a year of searching, The Amphora Society has found a source of
knitted pure copper mesh in Germany. This material rolls up very
easily to make a highly structured packing for small columns, and
about one pound is enough to pack that same 1.3 meter column. We
have tested samples and it is not only much easier to insert and
extract than the scrubbers, but works really well as packing.
The minimum order for this material from the supplier is 440 pounds,
which is a lot of copper! We have ordered a batch, and expect it to
arrive in the next couple of weeks. Since the minimum order is a
lot more than we need to keep on hand, we'd like to share the
benefits of our search. If you'd like to experiment with pure
copper structured packing, we'd be glad to let you have it for US
$10.00 a pound plus the cost of mailing it to you ,ranges from US
$3.50 to $9.00 depending on country for a Priority Flat Rate
envelope, which can hold up to two pounds,. This is half the cost
we will be selling it for on our web site.
If you're interested, please email me at mikemccaw
amphora-
society.com and tell me how many pounds you'd like. As soon as it
has arrived, we'll send you an email letting you know. At that
time, you can do the credit card thing with Mike Nixon on our
website, and you should have the packing within a week.
Happy Distilling!
Mike McCaw
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This is from another post here March 4 The 'rotten egg' smell is sometimes associated with all-stainless steel setups. Copper is a known catalyst that will react with the sulphides present, and remove them. This is one of the reasons why most of the old commercial stills ,particularly whisky, were made of copper. You may try to put some copper in the vapour path, either by using copper scouring pads for packing, or just adding a couple of copper strips in with the packing. If starting to build a still from new, I'd recommend that the column be made from copper, despite its extra cost. For more information about copper, see http://homedistiller.org/materials.htm#copper Note though - many people with all stainless steel stills have no problems with the rotten-egg smell. Seems like its sometimes just the luck of the draw. Maybe in that case its the yeast being used - some will put out more sulphides than others, particularly if stress ,Eg high temperatures, or high sugar or alcohol concentrations,
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the yahoo message is very old. they sell the mesh at www.amphora-society.com
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I actually used the mesh one time, didn't clean it, then ran another batch through the still. It was horrible...and blue. Threw out all the copper mesh and will go with rings next time. What a mess.
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TRUST ME YOU NEED COPPER SOMEWHERE IN THE SET UP I HAVE THE EXTRACTOR II FROM BREWHAUS AND RINGS IN THE COLUMN. WITHOUT METICULIOUS CLEANING AND MAING SURE NO YEAST IS IN THE WASH YOU WILL GET A SULFUR SMELL. BREWHAUS IS NOW CARRYIN REAL PURE COPPER NOT BS POT SCRUBBERS THAT WILL EFFECT YOU PRODUCT NEGATIVELY. INCORPORATING A ROLL OR TWO IN THE COLUMN WITH THE RINGS CREATES AN UNBEATABLE SETUP
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