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3 Chamber Still

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  • Those are jacketed safety valves ???

  • Dunder pits look seriously interesting and they don't kid about the funky tastes when you look at some of those wooden vessels.

  • edited July 2021

    Is that what they are? I couldn't find the gravity drain valves on any other photos, so I just assumed those were it.

    Check out the odd counterbalances - the arm lengths are different top to bottom. I guess they could be weighted PRVs. Would make sense - higher pressure at the bottom chamber - meaning longer arm length. I was thinking something like a treater valve/weight operated dump valve (there would need to be some internal mechanism obviously).

    I can't find a backside photo to see if they are on the rear of the still, this is the best I could find, which shows something that also looks like a weighted PRV:

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    Seems like access to that backside is limited, I don't see why the manufacturer would have put the dump valves at the back.

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  • Thing I find most fascinating is the inclusion of salt water in the fermentation process. I mean,,,I mean salt is not a ordinarily a precursor to optimal yeast health.

    More info on this would enlightening.

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  • Tends to be inhibitory, to both bacteria and yeast. Lacto obviously does well, pickles, kimchi, sauerkraut.

    Hear that yeast will become more tolerant after a few generations.

    Anyone who has tried to correct a pH crash using baking soda has added considerable sodium, with washes becoming obviously salty.

    There was some wine research on this, I think they found that salt tolerant strains actually fermented faster in saltier washes, as the increased tolerance was protective of ethanol as well.

    I remember seeing something about increased metabolites - but can't really recall.

    Suspect it wasn't necessarily about being better, but being cheaper.

  • edited July 2021

    @grim said: Influence of sodium chloride on wine yeast fermentation performance @ Dovepress

    Oh for heavens sake. I never would have thought that.

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  • @Smaug said: Oh for heavens sake. I never would have thought that.

    You'd think there would be some sort of downside? Otherwise why not propagate/grow preconditioned yeasts? Or maybe "distiller" yeasts already are?

  • I just ordered the copper plate for my three chamber still. I am not going to use Smaugs drawing as I am going to run it with 4 chambers and run it like a stripping still and do a deep bed column for a spirit still to strip the low wines off this. Once I run it I will post info on this thread. Sorry I cant order a SD column. Now where is my distillery shed.

  • Chamber volume?

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  • @grim said: Little known fact, when you run that deep bed still, and put your ear close to the column, listen really hard, you can hear it playing House of Pain - Jump Around

    Everyday I'm bubbling. (yeah it took me a long time to come up with that one. And yes, you will think of it every time you see a bubble plate from now on.)

  • @smaug 350l per chamber. I took the dimensions off the description of the boozeworks podcast on 3 chamber stills. Its really going to be a small thing. Vapor chamber, on the bottom, two chambers with the headers and the top preheater.

  • edited August 2021

    Here is the more traditional iteration.
    Stripper only.

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  • edited August 2021

    And the other side.

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  • edited August 2021

    I feel like we discussed this years ago. I mean the idea of sequential batch mode (semi-continuous) stripping. Humper thumper times. Certainly the ideas were a bit less refined then. BUT, this was all before these stills came back into fashion again. They were not on anyone's radar at the time. I think it's kind of cool that we basically crowdsourced an old forgotten invention without much, if any, knowledge of it.

  • @grim said: I feel like we discussed this years ago. I mean the idea of sequential batch mode (semi-continuous) stripping. Humper thumper times. Certainly the ideas were a bit less refined then. BUT, this was all before these stills came back into fashion again. They were not on anyone's radar at the time. I think it's kind of cool that we basically crowdsourced an old forgotten invention without much, if any, knowledge of it.

    Sure. Pretty much like the ProCap too. Only later did we find out that big oil had patented a remarkably similar concept in like 1937 or some such year. The difference being that the big oil version had a crown, or dental work on the top perimeter of the cap to promote laminar flow.

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  • edited August 2021

    Yee Old Humper Thumper

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  • @Smaug I presume red pipe on LHS is for cases of flooding and also has P trap.

  • @richard said: Smaug I presume red pipe on LHS is for cases of flooding and also has P trap.

    Yessir that is correct.

    Typically a thumper is not set up with a way to drain back in case of flooding. This is why there are rules of thumb for thumper sizing.

    If run with minimal fill level, thumpers are usually worry free from flooding. However, with this set up I have also installed a 3 plate column mounted to the thumper and run reflux. Therefore adding a way to safely drain back liquid is needed.

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  • edited November 2022

    Its going down.

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  • Down where?

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  • edited November 2022

    Down underwear?

    We're going to put this little guy into production.

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  • Thats great. There is a startup distillery in Perth in Western Australia who have on their website they have one commussioned with Vendome. Yours will be better though. I am waiting on my mate to decide to start mine. The more of these working the better.

  • @DonMateo said: Thats great. There is a startup distillery in Perth in Western Australia who have on their website they have one commussioned with Vendome. Yours will be better though. I am waiting on my mate to decide to start mine. The more of these working the better.

    Well this here is a little recipe development size still. It's more for show and tell. It holds more truly to a semi continuous design.

    We are going to drag it around to next seasons trade shows.

    We likely won't be able to sell it to anyone that isn't reasonably well capitalized. On a per liter basis it is an expensive peice of equipment.

    Learning institutions like University of Michigan, UC Davis, and Harriet-Watt are likely candidates. Or Brown-Forman with whom we already have experimental lab equipment sales history.

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  • Ohh. Mine will be 300l per chamber. They way my mate makes gear it will be 2 years time before i get it. My 1300l stripping still i have been waiting 4 years now. Maybe Santaclaus will bring it this year. Lets this be a lesson. Buy from SD if you have a choice.

  • After listening and reading through various writings and videos that characterize how and why this type of design makes a more robust, aromatic whiskey/rum, I am very curious to see how the charge volume matters with respect time under heat?

    I am looking forward to seeing just what is the operating range of the system. More specifically how many pony tricks it can be made to do?

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  • My curiosity is making old irish grain bill recipes using 30 or 40% of un malted barley as well as a fair dose of oats, and running a wash like that through one of these things. I think that would make some very nice and dense whiskeys. Now off to kick Andres again.

  • The dimensions of mine will be 750m diameter and 600mm height per chamber.

  • edited November 2022

    Been trying to think of a way to experiment with this, there really isn't any quick way to rig up this style.

    Best I can come up with is cutting and welding 4 identical shaped kegs on top of each other. It's just a huge amount of fabrication work for a test.

    If my TIG was better, I'd give it a go. I should bring the welder back to my house so I can screw around. Would probably take me 3 months, but at the end of it, maybe I'd be a decent welder.

    Problem is, you only got one shot to make it all work, there isn't any "fixing".

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