Show Us Your Dragon

kimbodious

@punkin said: 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.

Ok, I'll watch for that thanks! These would have been run while still in the heads last night seeing as I was just doing a stripping run and just wanted to test the set up. Initially I thought the boquet was a bit light for both. After I emptied the test collection jars and was rinsing them out with water the boquet came on in a big way, obviously dilution was required to release the aromas?

Skaal

Hey Everybody - I Just Have To Say THANK YOU!

Thanks for all the nudging and guidance I've received over the last couple of years from all of you. As a result I've gone from making an "OK" neutral to an "incredibly fantastic" neutral. On top of that, I have way more fun operating the rig and my production times are reduced which improves the relationship with the missus 'cause I now get to the dinner table on time.

In a nutshell, I've moved from a 2" column with a kind of kludgy PC to a full SD 4 inch 6 plate Dragon topped with a 510mm SS scrubbie packed section AND the rig went from being propane fired to electric. This is all driven by the controller parts SD provides in their kit with an few additional enhancements.

What a joy this is to operate - nats ass precise, repeatable and whoa, is 5500 watts ever quick to heat up a 15.5 gal sanke.

I've attached a copule of photos showing my stripping run setup and the spirit run setup. I can't wait to see where this journey takes me in the next few years.

If I had to do it all over again, yeah, I'd have flipped the kegs and made bottom drains out of the original keg shaft openings, used larger HDPE barrels for the fermentors, designed for more liquid transfers via pump, a floor drain, and a, and a...

To any of you maybe just thinking of getting into this hobby, my advise to you is simple: Read, read, then read some more... Think about it some, then re-read it. Then do the math and just follow the advice of the sages on this forum for they know of what they speak.

Thanks again for your help.

Skål

punkin

Great story mate and a very common one. These rigs must number in the thousands worldwide now.

I'm very happy to have played a small part in bringing such a great hobby on top gear. This is probably the most common rig in Dash or CD that we sell here in Australia too.

Unsensibel

@Skaal I feel similar. Not only is the equipment awesome but the support network on this site is amazing.

Smaug

Your entire space looks awesome.

grim

Great job on that boiler - don't nitpick it

CothermanDistilling

@FloridaCracker said: 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.

that is US only 'pyrex brand' soda-lime glass... not possible for people like us to tell the difference until it breaks...

The War Against Pyrex

For decades, Pyrex was made of borosilicate glass, a special type of glass in which boron oxide is added to the mix. The added boron allows Pyrex to handle heat much better than typical glass, so Pyrex is commonly found in kitchens, laboratories, and in use with aquarium heaters (as the heaters are, necessarily, submerged in much cooler water). But in 1998, Corning, the company which made Pyrex, sold the brand to World Kitchen LLC. World Kitchen decided to stop the manufacture of borosilicate glass, and since then, Pyrex sold in the United States is made of tempered soda-lime glass, which does not handle heat as well as borosilicate glass does. (It may, however, be more resilient to drops.) In most cases that does not matter much, as tempered soda-lime glass is still pretty good at withstanding thermal shocks.

But it’s not great. In 2010, Consumer Reports (as reported by its quasi-independent blog, Consumerist), tested some Pyrex and and found that taking the newer glass out of a hot oven and placing it on a wet granite countertop yielded poor results: the glass shattered almost instantly, and violently so. (There’s a video at the Consumerist link). And as Popular Science demonstrated, super-heating a measuring cup (in their case, with a blowtorch) and then adding just a drop of water has a similar effect — shattered glass, everywhere. Test tubes in chemistry labs are still made of borosilicate glass to avoid this very problem.

Skaal

@punkin, @Unsensibel, @smaug, @grim - Thanks guys..

zymurgybob

Good info on the Pyrex/borosilicate issue. I didn't know. Thanks.

Clickeral

4 plates setup in the new kitchen running Apricot brandy

grim

PC works OK in that arrangement?

punkin

Well there ya go, i've never seen someone use the product condensor in a horizontal position before.

I'm thinking that it would add to the reflux rate if it's level, with maybe 30-40% of the distillate going back down the column?
So you'd tune the product condensor accordingly, or not use it at all once into hearts?

It's a great setup, love the insulation.

How did the brandy turn out?

grim

Looks like there is a little bit of a lean towards the parrot, but maybe that's just the way the photo looks.

Would be interesting to see someone do a single condenser setup using all modular. I still see lots of Vendome rigs setup this way, single horizontal tube in shell.

Really though, not much different from an LM setup, other than the condenser isn't integral to the column.

Curators_Reserve

Surely the condensor is also acting as a dephleg to some degree.. interesting as to how horizontal would work on larger 8 inch column & shotgun condensor.

Who here is running a horizontal shell & tube design anyways?

Kill_Devil_Spirit_Co

Happy Friday!

punkin

But it's Saturday?

Kapea

@FloridaCracker said: 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.

Russian hackers

CothermanDistilling

@grim said: Looks like there is a little bit of a lean towards the parrot, but maybe that's just the way the photo looks.

Would be interesting to see someone do a single condenser setup using all modular. I still see lots of Vendome rigs setup this way, single horizontal tube in shell.

Really though, not much different from an LM setup, other than the condenser isn't integral to the column.

so we make a horizontally mounted arc-shaped condenser, and you mount it on a sideways 90, so you can rotate the condenser up and down, varying the percentage of RC to PC... then we put it on a gear drive driven bell crank, so it is continually variable... then we hook a VFD up to the gear motor and hook up some Led Zep to the VFD input, and make some bitchin spirits...

punkin

Great idea. That story would certainly sell to the hipsters, just swap the LZ for something noones ever heard of.

Kill_Devil_Spirit_Co

Not Saturday here @punkin, not that it matters cos I gotta f'in work both anyway

punkin

You and me both brother.

Heard it explained well once. Guy said that he hears all the time how nice it must be working for yourself and you can pick your own hours. He said 'Yeah, you can pick any 14 in any one of the seven days.'

NotThatI'mComplainingPunkin

GD50

I always saw it that Occasionally you can have a late breakfast. Thats it.

Kapea

The toughest part of working for yourself is setting the schedule, and then following it.

"Today work ends at 5:00PM!"

Yeah, right...

Clickeral

@punkin said: Well there ya go, i've never seen someone use the product condensor in a horizontal position before.

I'm thinking that it would add to the reflux rate if it's level, with maybe 30-40% of the distillate going back down the column?
So you'd tune the product condensor accordingly, or not use it at all once into hearts?

It's a great setup, love the insulation.

Just realized I never replyed to this

Brandy turned out average but considering I made it from Apricot jam im not surprised.

Pc worked the same as if it was setup normally, First time I ran this way and it is on a slight lean. Didnt touch the water flow to the pc the whole run just adjusted the RC as per normal

The insulation isnt super effective and I have some better stuff to replace it with just havent gotten to it.

Will be doing some rum next weekend and a 14hr vodka run sunday as I have 20L of 90% to process. With a similar setup and report back

The vodka will have 6 platesand a packed section

richard

@Kill_Devil_Spirit_Co collumn with CIP isolation valve.

As a matter of interest what is your regime regarding opening and closing of your collum CIP isolation valves .... e.g. all open at once or start at the top first open for peiod of timeand the close and work your way down.... or what ever

crozdog

are they CIP or plate bypass?

Smaug

CIP.

Gonna take a hella pump to feed all the spray balls at the same time. I assume one plate level at a time?

Kill_Devil_Spirit_Co

I'll let you all know when that bit is set up haha.

Wish they were bypasses though, @crozdog

marcus

could this be the biggest StillDragon hybrid

RobertS

Looking at the right of your picture, I believe we have a similar setup. Our pump can run four balls at a time, so we go down in blocks. Your pump might be able to handle more or less.