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In this Discussion
- Anavrin March 2015
- bachman October 2015
- brewsmith March 2015
- brisvalleymoonshiner March 2015
- CothermanDistilling January 2016
- crozdog March 2015
- dellae March 2015
- DocPorter October 2015
- FloridaCracker October 2015
- FullySilenced October 2015
- fusiondust December 2016
- GD50 August 2016
- grim August 2016
- hackdaniels March 2015
- Heef71 October 2015
- jacksonbrown October 2015
- Kapea August 2016
- Lloyd March 2015
- Mickiboi October 2015
- mikew March 2015
- monty March 2015
- Moonshine April 2015
- Myles June 2015
- punkin August 2015
- razerhawg March 2015
- richard August 2016
- shindig March 2015
- Smaug June 2015
- TheMechWarrior March 2015
- Unsensibel March 2015
- vooharmy March 2015
- yurgle March 2015
Comments
Pickling lime is calcium hydroxide, not calcium carbonate.
While not as corrosive as sodium hydroxide (lye, caustic soda) or potassium hydroxide (caustic potash) calcium hydroxide is still much more corrosive than calcium carbonate.
I'm more like I am now than I was before.
your correct soon as i read it i remembered also called slaked lime...
OK, I am confused, how much of what to try in a 380L full of 30%????
As an offering to the vodka gods, here is my proofing and filtering setup, using Norit Rox 0.8 as the carbon... I put in a bit over 5 gal of 95%, about 6.5 gal of slow filtered water, circulate for a few hours, hang my stupidly expensive thermometer and put in the stupidly expensive hydrometer in it, and get ready to look at my TTB gauging tables and do double interpolation before bottling 5 cases of vodka...
Do you have the Norit in that filter housing in the form of a carbon bed you are pumping through from the bottom to the top? What speed did you find most effective?
I've got some Norit D10 here to try out and any tips would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Mech.
I run it wide open with a march 809 pump, flowing from bottom to top, on the top to keep the carbon from coming out, I am using a 2" SD screen that I ground down to fit a 1/1.5" TC fitting and custom cut my own SD silicone gasket. The bronze fitting was to keep it from shoving air bubbles down and getting sucked back in... I have used it twice, and taste improvement was noticeable...
I have 2/3/4 20" spools, I need to machine a relief in a 3" end cap and put a 1" or 1/2" triclover on it.... will have more volume of carbon that I want to use a larger container... (that is my homebrew mash tun with a brewershardware 'trub filter')
Thanks CD, good to know. The supplier is keen for my feedback.
I purchased some SD screens just last week with this project in mind. I've never had one before and they look bloody great, I'll be grabbing some more for other projects.
So the current setup is a 20" x 3" spool? How much carbon did it take to fill and are you running a headspace as well?
Cheers,
Mech.
OK so here is what i just did... i stripped 38 gallons of wash. i ended up with 7 gallons of low wines at 50abv. I took a sample for later comparison, I added 6 tablespoons of sodium bicarbonate... to the wash left it overnight. The next day it was definitely improved smell wise. I loaded the boiler added 5 gallons of water cutting it to 30 abv.
I ran it with 6 plates and a scoria packed section...topped with 4" of ss scrubbies.....cause i had em and there was room...
Stabilized the column and I ran it off low and slow taking the fores and head off about 700 ml... once i could no longer detect any head i adjusted the take off rate to a twisted stream...
I recovered just over 2.5 gallons of 95abv product and I will run the feints off tomorrow.
It turned out to be one of the best neutrals/vodka i have ever run.
Thanks for all your help and suggestions...
I can honestly say that i will use sodium bicarb or sodium carbonate in all the vodka or neutral runs in the future..
Since it can't hurt i would suggest you give it a try in some form... and let us know how it worked for you...
happy stillin
FS
Cheers FS - can you describe the odour variation between the low wines and the retained sample? How did it change?
From memory, "so I could be mistaken" adding sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate works best if added to the low lines after dilution to 30%, I've also heard that using sodium bicarbonate can take up to 3 days to work as well as sodium carbonate does in seconds.
The sodium acetate it produces as a result of reacting with ethyl acetate frees up more ethyl alcohol for the hearts collection and as its a salt, it increases the boiling point of the water in the low wine, so more alc and less water in the column vapour can only be a good thing, so long as the taste isn't affected of course.
Not really sold on the salt vs boiling point thing, it takes a LOT of salt to make a boiled egg cook faster. A teaspoon or two doesn't make any real difference in a small pot.
Adding sodium chemicals to the low wines to increase a cleaner hearts yield is the big plus, if it works.
Gonna have to get me some and try it again, its been quite a few years since I did it and I'm sure it was baking soda added to low wines why back then. You guys have me pondering on this again.
I do love a clean neutral. Contrary to what has been told, a clean neutral makes a nice drink served neat.
Amen brother. I was feeling like the Lone Ranger around these parts.
It makes a nice gin base too.
I remember reading a thread on AD about some kind of undesirable (toxic?) copper compound being formed in stills. IIRC adding baking soda to the boiler enhanced the formation of this copper compound. The copper compound has an interesting common name, which I cannot recall at the present moment (suffering from a light bout of wine flu this morning - gin blending trials with friends last night).
I'm more like I am now than I was before.
@Kapea Read the posted HD information... all of that pertains to using Carbonates sodium or calcium... in the wash or mash prior to the first distillation... not in a stripped product/high wines... I understand that prior to the second distillation it is not an issue...
would love to see the links if you can find em though
Happy Stillin,
FS
Cotherman- is that an explosion proof pump? Any worries about plugs in pumps rhat close to the spirit?
no, a march 809 is not explosion proof...
Slight worries, yes, but the lid is on and the area is well ventilated by an open garage door and overhead vents, and there is no apparent vapor even with the lid off unless you stick you nose directly into the keggle... I would not have it running a foot away from my parrot...
Do I want an explosion proof pump on it, of course I do. Will my final design have one, of course it will... Do I want a 100lb pump hanging off the side that will flip over and spill everything and create an even more dangerous situation, no... Is it easy to find a pump like the march 809 in XP or even TEFC? heck no... would a range of 3 XP pumps marketed by SD be a great thing? yes....
Haha! SD you have a task!
It sounds like you have the ventilation covered.
Yeah, and throw in agitator motors and gearboxes that fit the standard range of SD tanks while you're at it :)
Small XP pumps are very rare, and seldom come up in the surplus market. A new one costs a small fortune, and the pump is just a small component of the being explosion proof. Don't forget about fittings, conduit, gland seals, MC-HL, and however else you wire it up. You can't just plug it in an outlet.
Why not use a pneumatic diaphragm? You can find a stainless in 1/2" for dirt cheap, and that's more than plenty for agitation if you don't have solids. Just ground it well and you've got a very safe system.
@loyd I know the feeling. I run my sugar washes a couple of time and carbon filter and I thoroughly enjoy a true neutral, but I hate to mention that cause it typically starts a new rant on why Vodka needs flavor!!
The next thing you know there will be a Vodka Judge Certification Program and homedistilled certified vodka competitions being held at every wide spot in the road. :-@
I'm more like I am now than I was before.
Plenty of small town bbq competitions up in these parts every year, chili cookoffs, etc. Why not? It's not so far fetched.
That was meant as a bit of a sarcastic reference to the self-appointed, self-important "Authorities" on ALL beer styles. (replace vodka judge with beer judge).
I'm more like I am now than I was before.
I read that if you heat baking soda in an oven at 200 dgrees for an hour it becomes sodium carbonate
@hackdaniels, yep that works. I did that when I was cleaning rust out of my bikes gas tank using electrolysis.
Might not be advisable if your oven is fan assisted!
I dislike the pneumatic ones for the simple reason of noise... my brain cannot concentrate when one is audible,every distillery I have toured when one was operating, the sound annoyed the hell out of me...
hmmmm....
FLUX Explosion-proof FP 430 Ex S barrel pump (PDF)
the 'micropump' one looks nice...
Showcase of Custom Built Pumps @ Depco Pump Company
And as I have mentioned before, my buddy Jeff Allen is a sales manager that loves breweries and distilleries ;-)
Those drum pumps are meant for transfering small lots of chemicals from a drum to a day tank and such. That one is adjustable speed with max @ 240 lpm (63.5gpm). Note that pump rate is per minute not per hour. I don't think they are rated for long term continuous use.
I'm more like I am now than I was before.
agreed... but they are not 'harbor freight' crap quality items....
I would have to argue that if you kill one of these pumps, you can afford to build a lot bigger distillery ;-)
OK... just got a XP pump to make folks happy ;-)
C114508 March TE-5C-MD Magnetic Drive Fluid Pump 1/4hp Hazardous Locations Motor @ eBay