StillDragon® Community Forum

Welcome!

Be part of our community & join our international next generation forum now!

In this Discussion

8" Crystal Dragon R&D...

1234689

Comments

  • @Smaug I see plenty of 8" development going on... not off topic in my opinion!

  • edited November 2015

    I'll say it again, I'm still shocked at how well the 4"x1m PC is working. I can't imagine the throughput of that 8"x1.2m monster. We were able to push 60l/hr through the 4", but it took a good bit of water flow. That thing can probably easily do triple digits.

  • Certainly would be a very efficient use of water. Nothing more than a dribble I'd wager.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • For you guys slightly north of hell in the tropics, I could see that being helpful.

  • Jersey is north of guys in the tropics...

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

  • No, jersey is hell, just a colder version of the one down south.

  • @grim said: For you guys slightly north of hell in the tropics, I could see that being helpful.

    Comes off the tap at nearly 90 in July-August.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • WOW @Smaug , that 8" drawing looks the bomb. Perfect height.

  • edited November 2015

    Yes I like it too.

    Grim, I bet the 6" version can do triple digits as well with no less than 55 thru tubes.

    The 8 has like 91 thru tubes ;;)

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Any idea the amount of kW it handle?

  • edited November 2015

    Not smart enough to do any real calculating. But the 4" × 20" PC has 31.6 linear feet of thru tubes and we know it will handle 27- 30 lpH when applying 18 kw.

    By contrast, the 8" PC has 364 linear feet of thru tubes. So 10x more suface area.

    If we scale that on a straight line that would be 270 to 300 liters per hour with the same water flow?

    Don't know if it will scale that way however?

    Obviously collecting that fast would only be helpful when stripping. Spirit run at that speed would render some pretty poor spirits imo.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • So its a condensing tower and storage all in one.... i kinda like that... but WTF do i know...

    with flavored products guess you would have to clean it to prevent cross contamination... every time?

  • also, since the condenser is really, really efficient, you can fill it with your cooling water at or above 170F.. (I have zero problem with 150+ now with the 4"x1M condenser... I saw a similar 8" or so sized and configured one using a trickle of water that was barely bigger than the product stream... great water to use to clean or rinse the system... or use it for heads, in a production environment, it will fill up at a decent pace, then you can run your indy-car on it ;-)

  • My thought is , how much does that beast weigh? Would need a forklift to move it.

  • @FloridaCracker said: My thought is , how much does that beast weigh? Would need a forklift to move it.

    Yes. A fork lift would be best.

    Most distilleries will need a fork lift as part of their deal any way.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • OK, did a run with the risers in place on the top 8 of 24 plates... and high proof boiler charge (enough water to cover elements and then 40 gal of ~180 proof ) didn't start off so well:

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

  • I stopped and restarted a couple times and it started working as designed... THIS is how I want all 24 plates to look, how about you?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9jYumxP5EQ

    FYI - this was with the 8" RC 'inside probe' set to 69C (sestos controller and johnson proportional valve), I slowly lowered it 2-3 C at a time and at 60C, I was down to about 10L/hr through the parrot, the hydro read 98%!, but got the densiometer to read 190.4, and the product from finger to tongue was smooooooth.... had a few veteran moonshiners come through and their wide eyes said it all.... it is a winner, just need to make it a bit faster, 192 more extensions to make!

  • Good stuff. What numbers were you getting with the lower liquid bed?

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

  • edited November 2015

    Very sweet! I agree you might need to take that liquid bed down a little bit - you may not need that depth once you get the liquid level higher on the rest of the plates.

    You are getting close to twice as fast take off at 190, no?

  • edited November 2015

    Maybe the downcomer cups were not filled with liquid and so you were getting vapor bypass there on the first vid.

    But also the liquid bed can not be deeper than the liquid level elevation within the down comer cup. That will also create the vapor bypass.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • Plate behavior does look nice and compliant on that last segment.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • OK, try to answer all in one post...

    Lower liquid bed was about half the flow while keeping 190... yes, 5l/hour is painful for 11kw and an 8" column...

    Yes, it was the downcomer cups not full (or blown through), I think it is the relationship of the downcomer level vs the plate level(like @smaug said), I exceeded the equilibrium point and the vapor blew through the downcomers on startup... shutting the power off, letting it drain almost completely, and turning the 11kw back on fixed it (and when I started it back up today and the same thing happened and got 190.9-191.0 at 60C)..

    I will tap them down to 1/4" (or even lower, as even all the way in would still stop splashes on the flat top of the procap from going in the hole.) and add then to the rest like @grim said..

  • Ran 4 plates on the 8" with ProCaps with .25" extender height, fores/heads at 185, hard to get down below 180 and keep the plates loaded enough, even with running 16.5Kw(3 5500w elements full on) tasted awesome, tails seemed to come early too... got enough to fill a 15 and a 5 gallon barrel with good stuff at 120...

    procap whiskey folks... You think I should go down to 3 plates or let the plates run less flooded?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-jByvrUPKk

  • I always have a problem collecting below 90abv until the shit comes on. I am trying to compensate by adding back in whatever good tails that I can find. I find a LOT more tasty tails when running whiskey than rum.

    Sorry that isn't much help but know that you aren't alone with this problem.

  • Cotherman are you doing any "equalizing" at all?

    I would experiment with avoiding 100% reflux mode as much as possible.

    Try reducing reflux time to the point where say only two plates are engaged and then use your power management and run as much as possible like a pot stiller.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • How do you do that and still stack heads? Or fores? Seems like they would be smeared over a longer time/volume.

  • SDD is using 4x8 with the shorter caps. Four elements full and another adjustable. Tastes great. I'd go with less flooded

  • I am doing fores/heads compression, then kick on another element and raise the RC control from 45 to 75C.. then a couple gallons in, it has been at 75C for a while, and is noticable less action on the plates and it is at 85% on the hydro If I go much above 75C, I lose controllability since we are at the vapor temp.. Since the TTB says must be under 160 for regular whiskey (light whiskey can be above 160), I am assuming I can average, but have not specifically read it...... maybe I could put a water injector in the condenser ;-) that'll get me below 160, LOL...

  • We have no problems with 4 plates. Hearts start above 160, finish below, average is below 160. The 160 number is the proof of the total collected distillate per Dunbar.

Sign In or Register to comment.