Introducing the NEW +++ ProCap36 +++ Product Line-Up!

Smaug

@captainshooch, so what was your aggregate collection speed at those purity levels?

captainshooch

@Smaug the slowest I ran it was around 9 amps x 2 5500 w elements at 15 min/quart. From there I went up to 14 amps in increments and the speed increased all the way up to 10+/- L/hr or better and never went below 93 abv. I was speeding up and slowing down a lot just to see what they would do so an aggregate is tough to call but it is certainly 7L/hr or even more!! There is a total of 13 snippets in the videos and @Moonshine and I decided on 3 to show how it performed and keep it on the short side. At one point I collected a quart in 5 minutes 10 seconds.....FAST!! but any faster than that started causing blow by. This is a whole new territory and one that needs more people tinkering with them and providing feedback. Hang on, is going to be a wild ride.

captainshooch

Perhaps a bit more info might shed a light on the aggregate speed. I started with 8 gallons at 40ABV so there is about 3 gallons to extract. The heat went on at 7am and after fores and heads the first quart went in at 8:07am and finished at 8:22am which was the first one at regular 4 L/hr collection speed. From there it just got faster and faster. I turned the power off at 9:30am so you can say I pretty much collected 2.75+/- gallons in 1.5 hrs. or about 6.9 L/hr on average!!!....trust me it can go faster...

Smaug

Ok thanks.

I keep thinking about how Stranahan is stripping with a 4 plate column and doing their (whiskey) spirit run with a pot.

captainshooch

I believe a 4 plate ProCap36 rig would make for one awesome rum/whiskey rig. Just gotta figure out what speed u want to pull for the flavors u are after.

FullySilenced

This is 4" Crystal Dragon with 4 plates X 3 procaps per plate 60% open area ... 4 caps per plate is possible with a 48% open plate area and production could go up another 33% by adding the 4th pro cap???????? .... just saying?

Lloyd

I don't think so, FS, but I could be wrong.
I tested the 5" column with both 4 and 5 ProCaps per plate and there was very little difference. Not enough to spend the extra money for the additional cap (times 6 in my case as I tend to run 6 plates).

I'm inclined to think its more complex than just the bubble cap count. The active plate area, the volume of the chamber between the plates, the total wet surface area of the chamber (including the inside wall of the chamber, the cap itself and the bottom of the next plate up) are all areas of vapor/fluid interaction.

Naturally, I'd want everyone to buy more SD ProCaps and there may or may not be a performance boost by adding one to the 4" plate but that's not been tested yet.
If you do test a 4" x 4 ProCap plate please post your results.

I'm wanting to test Mama's single ProCap per plate bubble column still as soon as the parts arrive. In a few months @grim will be providing run data for a 12" CD that sports 18 ProCaps per plate. These are exciting times vs just a few years ago with so many new toys to play with.

Lloyd

Mama's tiny bubble column became a reality today thanks to the ProCaps.
Please see here.
The old girl is going to be quite happy.

Moonshine

StillDragon - 2.5" Crystal Dragon with Single ProCap36 Bubble Plates - First Run

Watch @Lloyd's First Run of the NEW StillDragon 2.5" Crystal Dragon with Single ProCap36 Bubble Plates!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOA6L3eVTBg

captainshooch

@Lloyd, fantastic. If Mama is happy, then everybody is happy. =D>

heartcut

Very cool. Any day is Mother's day.

Smaug

@heartcut said: Very cool. Any day is Mother's day.

Cept for Fathers Day :((

captainshooch

@Lloyd I will be getting some downcomer adjusters from Smaug and I noticed that you have used some in the lower plates and none in the upper plates. I was thinking along the lines of a gradual decrease from bottom plate upwards, like maybe 6mm on the bottom, 4mm on the next 2 mm on the third and none on the top one.

Do you think this will be a good start? Have you tried something similar?

Lloyd

I tried exactly that @captainshooch. Was trying to find the limit that I could get away with and on the 5" column it appears to be about 3/4". At 1" it was very hard to get the plate to work because the vapor was blowing through the downcomer and it was almost impossible to load the cup. When it finally did load it worked fine.

The same thing happened with the baby dragon. Full power of 2400 watts was no problem for a ProCap without an adjustable downcomer. Even the one that was at 1/4" was OK but the one set to about 1/2" was getting blowthrough. I backed the heat down and the cup loaded and it could then accept the full 2400 watts.

punkin

Reviews are starting to come in from Aus by those who have upgraded their 4" units to Procaps.

No figures yet, but people seem to be impressed.

http://www.stilldragon.com.au/bubbleplate-complete-4-with-procaps/

Lloyd

I doubt most will upgrade because the standard caps deliver great spirit at a very affordable cost but there will always be folks that want to push the edges out and the ProCap does that.
Punkin's customer that left the remark:

These caps deliver! I have improved my flow rate while not sacrificing the quality of the spirit!
They give my 4" the performance of a larger diameter still all you need is power. If you have a 4" do yourself a solid and either get these caps to start with or swap out your originals with these they are that GOOD!!

I think he hit the nail on the head, the ProCaps bump the 4" to a 5", the 5" to a 6" etc...
They were designed to not only shed more reflux than they could produce but to "breathe". Vapor path restrictions were eliminated to allow allow "overclocking" so to speak. The ability to force more vapor through the cap is as important as being able to shed the reflux to the next lower plate. ProCaps are cool, they cost more to make but they deliver value added performance beyond their cost. (In other words, they produce more alcohol than the cost differential.)

They are still new and we'll know more as the pros and serious hobbyist test them.
We made 1000 ProCaps and they were snapped up so quickly so we made 800 more. Those 800 got spoken for before being produced. Then another 1000 were produced and were snapped up by your distributors. Another 1000 has been made for stock so a total of 3800 ProCaps have been produced so far (not counting the 80+ prototypes). And so far only a very few people have actually been lucky enough to hold one in their hands!

Just saying that if you do get to use a ProCap it may very well get you hooked on StillDragon and that ain't so bad. If you see the low cost value of the original SD bubble cap, as I do, then that ain't bad either. Many metric tons of fine booze has been crafted with the original low cost caps. Many, many more tons will also be crafted with the ProCaps.

For pros its simple economics and production favors ProCaps. For hobbyists on a budget its original SD caps. For hobbyist that can afford the cutting edge the choice is clear, ProCaps. I'm biased of course. I love both caps but MY still has ProCaps because I'm not hurting financially at the moment and could afford either.

Fiji_Spirits

JEEBERS!!

4-5L per hour is insane for a 4" 4plate rig, what were the standard bubble caps getting? My perf-plate rig with 4500 watts is only capable of 1.2L/hr at 92-93%.

If we can get 10L/hr out of a 4" then we are talking something like 100l/hr out of an 8" (someone knows the math better than me).

Man, I really need to get two more plates, a super dephl, and switch to these procaps and a 5500W element I guess.

Fiji_Spirits

justso I'm clear on this. if I charge 10 gallons of 10% ferment into my boiler, and it normally takes 40minutes to heat up, i'll be all done with that charge in about 1.5 hours from on to off?

If thats true, doing cuts is gonna be like trying to smell the roses as you drive by in a NASCAR

FullySilenced

Who does a 10 gallon charge? Hell i do more than that in my shed... and i ain't pro ...well unless i am standing on a street corner or in a window... :D

Lloyd

There are just not enough people using them yet to get a consensus about production rates.
I don't want you to have expectations that are too high.
The ProCaps provide a proven performance boost over the original bubble caps but that exact percentage will need a bit more time to determine as more and more people provide data.
I expect that the ProCaps should deliver about a 50% boost in production with a bit more power and reflux and keeping the same quality of spirit.
If you are currently getting, say, 3 liters per hour of fine hearts then 4.5 liters per hour should certainly be in the ballpark. Sure, you can push harder and it might be OK. Or the product may suffer. As the early adopters start publishing their run data we'll soon get a more clear idea of what to expect.

jonno

@FullySilenced said: Who does a 10 gallon charge? Hell i do more than that in my shed... and i ain't pro ...well unless i am standing on a street corner or in a window... :D

I suppose i came into this hobby at about the time flutes were really taking off. I've been blessed with only ever having to do a handful of 8 hour runs with my original pot still and 2 x 12 hour runs with my VM.

Once i got my flute, 4 hour runs including heat up and break down and i'm pretty happy. 40 liter charge (10 gallon) is a happy medium for me.

I've just started getting into my AG Beer brewing and those days are roughly 5-6 hours, only way i think i'll increase my still boiler charge is to coincide with my beer brewing habbits. I think a 60l charge is about right for that. Who knows!!!??! I've been slack this winter, haven't run my still at all since say i think Febuary was my last run? Shit, i think it was the run i did for the trial of the staves @punkin sent me.

I hope my motivation levels come right up come the warmer months here so i can actually fill some aging vessels!

Fiji_Spirits

my test boiler is only 13 gallons. using two 5 gallon buckets as fermenters works out to 10 gallons round-a-bout.

it's what I got for now. 8-12" planned for production rig, with some near term upgrades to current rig to a larger boiler, more elements and longer column.

Myles

There is more than just speed involved. For my own rig I will be using 3 ProCaps per plate. Partly for ease of fabrication and partly just because I can. Although I could do so, I suspect I may not run at full speed very often. Will just have to wait and see. When are they reaching Europe? I have assembled most of the bits to build a new column - just need the caps and some free time. ;)

SDeurope

@Myles said: When are they reaching Europe? I have assembled most of the bits to build a new column - just need the caps and some free time. ;)

Shipment has been delayed due to a customs inspections when leaving China, ETA is now at the beginning of September.

Myles

Nice ;) Better start on the new boiler then!!!

Al_Q

@Myles said: There is more than just speed involved. For my own rig I will be using 3 ProCaps per plate. Partly for ease of fabrication and partly just because I can.

What dia of column you going for Myles, I'm surprised you have any room left in your still house with all the building you do :) I'm also pretty sure you're the reason I couldn't get any 3" ferules from SDeurope :))

SDeurope

@Al_Q said: I'm also pretty sure you're the reason I couldn't get any 3" ferules from SDeurope

No kidding! But well, it was a hell of a job to assemble our initial inventory, nobody could estimate the demand for any item, resulting in a few things already been sold out even before our first shipment arrived earlier this year. We are expanding our stock with every new shipment with overstocking in mind (especially to dive through Chinese New Year). The mentioned ferrule size (in copper and brass, stainless is still available from stock right now) is inbound and available as well at the beginning of September.

what

Hi guys Love the pro caps, brilliant idea again!! Is the downcomer in the pro cap a fixed part of the cap or can it be removed, some of the pics show a line around where the downcomer meets the cap on the top, others don't.

Myles asked previously about combining both types of caps on 4" plate and whether the pro cap would be enough to drain the plate and at what power level it would flood, has anyone tried yet?

What is the ID of the downcomer so I can compare it to my standard ones. These caps will open op lots of options for future designs.

Myles

@Al_Q. Guilty as charged, I wanted a stock of 2" & 3" in brass for my own perso al build which is between 4" and 5". Hexagonal as I am building from sheet and wanted something unique.

@what. I do believe there is potential for mixed caps but really see this as an option on bigger plates. IMO 4" is a bit tight. I would probably recomend standard caps on a 4", even though I am using 3 Procaps myself.

Moonshine

StillDragon - 8" Crystal Dragon with ProCap36 Bubble Plates - Rum Run @ Citrus Distillers

Watch @Smaug running Rum on an 8" Crystal Dragon with ProCap36 Bubble Plates at @citrusdistillers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfR7cKXDCT8&list=PLNpZqgkUQyAWMHWS5_aikvkIB30uTagoL