 Rank: Junior Member Groups: Registered
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This is my first post...but have been at it for 3-4 yrs now...
My question:
Is is better to cool with ice water recirculated, ice water recirculated drained to a separate tank so as to not warm up the supply water and continually add from tap to keep the source water the same level, or to simply cool from tap and drain (or drain and keep for future use)?
I've been using the first method and that uses a lot of ice...usually about 4-5 20# bags. That's expensive! But the advantage I think I'm getting is that my receiving distillate remains around 60o.This keeps the reading more accurate than a higher temp distillate (I use a parrot and continually monitor abv/temp). (Ahh yes, I could do the conversion tables...but I digress).
My still is different than the Brewhaus stills in that it has the head condenser on the outside of the column instead of the 3-4 cooling tubes going through the still head. I'm thinking the Brewhaus still is better by controlling the reflux by controlling the water flow...I can't do that with the Mile Hi still.
My water hookup is input to the top of the Leibig condenser, out to the top of the still pipe condenser out to drain. I usually get 90% abv, and rerun the heads and tails as feints on the next run per 25 L 10# sugar wash.
Hope this subject wasn't just discussed and look forward to your recommendations, and thanks!
Cal
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The water doesn't have to be ice cold, just cool. That could cause huffing. I have a cooler that I recirculate the water in. I have plastic bottles filled with water and frozen. When the temp of the water gets too warm I drop one in the cooler. Hope this helps
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Rank: Junior Member Groups: Registered
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Yes it helps alot...no more wasting bags of ice!
Thanks for the quick response'
Cal
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+1 diesel - the frozen plastic bottles work very well.
If you want to stay on the cheap, you also can stop in to your local car wash and ask for an empty soap barrel -- they'll give them to you for free. Just tell them you're going to use them as a trash barrel, or for scrap metal/wood, or some such nonsense. The barrels are about 50 gal. & make great reservoirs. The soap they use is eco-friendly, so you can just rinse them out with a garden hose before use.
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Rank: Junior Member Groups: Registered
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That's a great idea, John. I was using a large Brute container...maybe 60 gals or so. But I was adding ice to about 10 gallons of water and draining into the ice water. It melted the ice pretty quickly. That recycling system used about 5 20# bags of ice. Pretty wasteful of the ice.
I've already got 10-12 1 gal water bottles frozen ready for my next batch, thanks to dieselduo's suggestion.
Cal
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 Rank: Newbie Groups: Registered
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Comparatively it looks like less efficient and more expensive. I think John suggested the best. |
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Rank: Junior Member Groups: Registered
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John suggested a very inexpensive source for large containers for circulating cold water in. But dieselduo suggested the no cost system I need to do for my cooling. Thanks again dd. Cal This post is for Raj. Edited by user Tuesday, March 15, 2016 8:26:09 PM(UTC)
| Reason: Forgot to address my post.
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