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Making Vodka

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  • 28 lbs? :-O

  • I doubt that... I will weigh it... that is why I chiseled 'em down when they had that $56 shipping... but $220 is a deal on a march pump, a complete steal on XP...

    I also picked up another motor on ebay.. to build another, will get stainless pump housing for the vodka, the white plastic will be for coolant water.. Micropump 81005 087 Magnetic Pump Motor B5926-3 3CX2-42320 @ eBay

  • OK, I was on a roll, so I grabbed this one too... kinda small pump head, but will see what kind of flow it has...

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    Tuthill Hazardous Motor and Pump B9049MC-B5679 .25 hp 3450/2850 rpm @ eBay

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  • That March was a good deal. Easily 30lbs if it is Xp. Our Siemens 3hp xp motor is nearly 100lbs.

  • i will weigh them.. all three have the same .25HP motor (more importantly that fits the standard march pump housing that is on the '5' series pumps)

    AC-5SSB-MD Beer Pump @ March Pumps

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  • OK, I am a used pump whore... $240 shipped for a XP March 5.5c

    USED MARCH TE-5.5C-MD MOTOR PUMP 1/3HP MOTOR 115/230V B7367-3 @ eBay

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  • 3x20 filled with carbon

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    The end cap lathe cut for flow over entire 3" SD screen:

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  • Now that's a fucking good idea.

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  • I have asked for the custom short reducers before, but I figured after I made my own and showed them off, SD would make them ;-)

  • edited March 2015

    I meant the recirculating filter, the reducer isn't a good idea. :))

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    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Carbon removal of impurities from liquids is by adsorption (the impurities stick to the surface of the carbon). The important factor in activated carbon filtration is the contact time between the fluid being filtered and the carbon. Slower is better. Just enough flow should be used to insure all of the fluid has maximum contact time with the carbon. A few tens of milliliters per minute should provide enough mixing current to insure all of the fluid contacts the carbon in a half barrel container.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • Are you pumping from bottom to top? How long do you let it run ?

  • Nice work as always @CothermanDistilling. I can attest, the recirc filter a great idea (beautiful to boot), and more importantly, the vodka coming out of it is terrific. It was a pleasure meeting you and sharing a drink with you, hats off on the wonderful facility!

  • @punkin - two of those bowl reducers add several inches in height, and add a lot of volume that does not contain carbon.. I think the tapered-face short reducer is nearly perfect...

  • @shindig - I let it run till the wife is happy ;-) Yes pumped from bottom to the top.. I have one batch that it is taking quite a bit of time on, 12 hours and still has a twang. which means that I will be making larger head and tail cuts in the future... next design will likely have a cart with the XP pump and filter on it...

    @kapea - yes.. I read that 8-10 minutes contact time is optimal for water, still learning on alcohol.. This thing holds a little over 2L of carbon , so if I wanted single pass filtering, I would go 1/4L per min...well, that is painfully slow, I will just recirc for a few hours for now...

  • Oh, and @Punkin - I don't see a 3x1.5 or a 3x.75 reducer anywhere in your shop ;-) A 3x2 then a 2x1 or 2x.75 would be an unsightly mess ;-) SD does make a 4x3/4 short for the GB, though.. but have to machine the face... I had a couple 3" endcaps laying around, I also thought a 3" short ferrule, a 2.5" end cap, and a 3/4" ferrule welded together would work good too...

  • I'm not picking on you mate, you've done a great job on it.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • @CothermanDistilling, lovely work mate. I had a stack of identical short reducers made last year. I suspect you'll be seeing them in use in something similar very soon.

    I originally had them made for a very tall 3" VM column, every inch counts.

  • @FloridaCracker - The below one arrived, it was 26lbs out of the packaging... side benefit of XP, it is super, super quiet, you just hear a faint bearing noise...

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  • Really nice pump. What are your plans for this one? With all of the pumps you have, I have lost track!

  • edited March 2015

    Hey @CothermanDistilling - One thing to keep in mind with these. Some of these XP motors, especially if they don't have fan cooling, they usually have a thermostat device in the motor body itself. If you notice some extra wiring in the housing, do some research on how to wire that up. It's not only for protecting against overheating, but also to maintain XP compliance based on the housing temps. You might want to open the wiring enclosure to look, even if your cord only has 3 wires out. Otherwise check the manufacturer docs on run times. The motor I have on the grain mill is class 1 div 1, no fan cooling (looks very similar to that one you posted), it's recommended to only run for 30 minutes in a shot.

  • Thanks!!! I never thought of that! I have three of these coming , so I can compare also... this one has a real small pump head, I think it will make a good carbon filtering pump... side note, this has a flush face that looks to be drilled for different pump housings, I would like to mate one of these to a march 815 pump head as well as the 5-series and see if my buddy at Depco could offer it as a standard configuration.. yeah, still not cheap by any means when sold new, but for people that need a small XP pump that cannot machine stuff, it would be nice...

  • @FloridaCracker said: Really nice pump. What are your plans for this one? With all of the pumps you have, I have lost track!

    Question just answered.

  • edited March 2015

    Just seen on eBay:

    2 Waukesha Sanitary Pumps Size 10 @ eBay

    Maybe @CothermanDistilling can do something with it ;)

  • edited March 2015

    Can you guys get hold of the Essencia carbon filter? It's about £80 here in the uk and consists of two filters, a ceramic filter and a carbon filter, the ceramic one is good for 500 litres and the carbon one should do about 45 litres @ 40% before needing the carbon changing, which you can do yourself, once you've cracked open the cartridge.

    It's not fast and it only holds 4 litres at a time but it is excellent at polishing up neutral for vodka.

    There's nothing else on the market here in the UK that comes close to it regarding how well it works.

    Here's two pics, you can see the ceramic filter and below it there's a red ring that's visible, its the seal around the top of the carbon filter, the carbon one screws to the bottom of the top section and sits in the filtered spirit half, the ceramic filter sits above it in the unfiltered spirit, with the standard carbon filter the manufacturer says it filters about 500ml per hour, but in reality it's slower, especially if you refill it with smaller size carbon.

    For most hobby distillers, I would say it's perfect, I certainly couldn't justify hundreds of £££ on pumps, kegs and tri-clamp fittings.

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  • I would neither stock nor use because of the plastic components, but that's me.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited April 2015

    @Anavrin, there is always a catch when it's cheap. Of course something like the StillDragon® 2" Activated Carbon Filter Swan is more expensive, but it's all stainless (and modular). Same debate as in plastic vs. stainless for fermenter, but the higher ABV the more problematic it gets, and I'm also in the camp for all stainless and would not want my booze to touch any plastic at all (not even wash in "food safe" plastic fermenters).

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  • @FullySilenced said: 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

    Hey FS,

    Hows this working out for you, are you still adding sodium bicarbonate to your low wines??

    I just ran off around 23 liters of low wines today and also found a box of bicarb in the kitchen, so I might have to give it a go. I wont have time to do a spirit run until next weekend so that should leave plenty of time for the bicarb to do its thing.

    Cheers H.

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