Show Us Your Dragon

punkin

It looks good and will work i think Kimbodious, we use a stand to get the botanicals in line with the vapour feed and you may want to think about that. The good thing about your design with the clamp in the middle is you can put a spool (TC pipe) in there and make the basket area as long as you want.

kimbodious

great tip and advice, thanks Punkin

jez

punkin

She's an absolute ripper Jez. Love the look without the standard parrot, and love the improvements the electric ones bring. Fits that boiler beautifully.

jez

@punkin thanks mate it's getting there. Still don't know if I'm going to leave the 180 bend up the top or put a 90 then a 305 mm extension and another 90 to make the product condenser vertical. Just started it up this morning running 100lts of 40% low wines with my new 28 tip duck bill burner and 30 mins in and the two bottom glasses are sweating already. Might make a little video later.

GD50

@jez that looks great. The crystal full of copper mesh is really nice. Mr Punkin finally got my 5" ss spool out so if i have the head room i can now have 4 ss plates 8 crystal plates and a 500mm long copper mesh packed section.

I do have the two 90's and a short piece as you are considering. Well sorta the first 90 is actually a T so edge so i can easily put my temp probe in there bare with a compression olive right in the vapor outlet path. This then is easily removed to back wash and also it is the same configuration i use when using my GB4.

Your setup is a thing of joy and beauty. Gee i wish those boilers weren't so pricey as it is now my sticking point for a truly nice setup.

Let is know how she runs.

jacksonbrown

Looking schmick!
It'll be a joy to use, I'm sure.

jez

Thanks guys. Yes it's running great at the moment with the new burner I can really see the output difference as my old 3 ring cast iron was under powered for the 5" set up.

punkin

Hopefully Moonshine will be along to turn it right side up before all the low wines run out too.

Edited by @Moonshine: Fixed and low wines saved.

GD50

@jez Cant remember if that was all gas or just gas heat up. I seem to remember you are going over to elements once up there. What is the go and how much element if that is the case?

jez

@GD50 All gas. I was thinking about using electric but with us moving next year and trying to find a shed with a decent power supply is a pain in the butt. so gas it is for now anyway.

FloridaCracker

THAT'S what I'm talking about! Hell of a rig you got there.

rossco

Cracker of a setup Jez.

FullySilenced

what about a boiler fill port? an awesome set up

kimbodious

awesome indeed agreed!

GD50

Question about a crystal dragon.

Getting ready to run my new 8 plate 5" crystal on top of my 4 plate ss dash. So silly me thinks I don't want to do a cleaning run so l very carefully put the stripped components in the dishwasher making 100% sure things can't ding together. The ss and glass comes out squeaky clean but one 5 inch lens comes out cracked right thru. How fragile are these things and for the life of me I can't see why one would crack at dishwasher temperature. Chip maybe from knocking but not crack right thru and actually distort a mm or so. The glass is 10 mm thick and I would think this temp is no problem.

Any views on this?

Smaug

The glass is very strong. Think Pyrex. It sounds like the glass may have already had some kind of inclusion on it?

We have made great strides to improve the finished quality and uniformity of our glass compared to the days when we first rolled out the CrystalDragon model.

In the beginning we were lead to believe many things would not be available within a reasonable price point. We ultimately found out later that we could indeed raise the quality with out affecting pricing.

GD50

I will be more careful but mine was the old stye with definite inclusions. Pyrex should handle a dishwasher no problems and it did come out really good and clean. The 5 inch is thicker than those pictures.

punkin

The replacements are new style, you'll like them.

jacksonbrown

Did he say it is Pyrex or think Pyrex? Even Pyrex don't use borosilicate anymore.

Smaug

What's your point?

jacksonbrown

Pyrex used to be a specific type of glass same as lab ware, borosilicate. It's used Because it has a very low thermal expansion. So heating it doesn't stress it, preventing cracks.
I wasn't sure if you were suggesting that it was borosilicate or just saying it's good stuff.

punkin

It's boroscillate.

GD50

My apologies- the word Pyrex was used and I continued the use but thinking Pyrex = borosilicate. Thinking Pyrex quality of old. Researched the new Pyrex and it now is a cheaper alternative to borosilicate. My lab still is borosilicate and it can withstand some treatment. You were right @jacksonbrown as I meant good stuff.

Smaug

Yes was implying "good stuff " and also that during distilling there are no where near the kind of temp swings that " pyrex" like glass is designed to deal with.

I meant it in a generic way.

grim

I used to boil yeast starters on my kitchen stove than drop them in a bath of ice water to cool. Borosilicate is a beast.

FloridaCracker

I will tell you this, Pyrex can spontaniously explode for no reason. Had a casserole dish laying on the counter went boom. Googled it and it happens. No real explanation.

kimbodious

Stripping run tonight but I have added on the completed gin head (left side vertical piece). We have mixed up one basket of lemongrass stalks plus kaffir lime leaves. The other basket has cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and cardamon pods. Once the product is flowing, I will first drop in the herb basket and collect one litre. Then I will replace that basket with the spice basket and collect one litre. Tonight this is about proving the concept and not so much about the finished product.

kimbodious

first attempt at baskets

punkin

Nice mate, i've found with potstilling botanicals that they come through at different stages of the run. Granted this is with macerated botanicals, but for example cinnamon would come through when the distillate was down near 34% at the end of the run very strongly.