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9.
The water flow at the still head is very easy to setup. The only real
requirement is that you reach a minimum water flow speed of about
8 liters per minute. There is no maximum water flow speed with this
still design so you can run the water as fast as you like as long as you
are meeting the minimum flow required. If your flow of coolent to
the still head is not great enough you will start to get vapour
evaporate from the still head and you will lose your valuable spirit to
atmosphere. This can be dangerous around open flames! So it's
always better to use a bit more flow rather than a bit less.
10.
It should also be noted that your coolant water must stay below 35C
to get good results. If your cooling water gets too hot you will also
start to lose vapour out of the top of the still head and this will also
result in poor yield for the same reason.
11.
After the liquid starts boiling, you will notice that the thermometer
temperature will rapidly go up. Within a few minutes it should slowly
come down again to a stable temperature between 77C and 80C. If it
doesn't drop below 80C within 10 minutes, see the troubleshooting
guide.
12.
10 minutes after it starts boiling, put on some heatproof gloves and
open up the valve completely.
13. Open your ball valve & collect this until it stops smelling like nail
polish remover (about 80ml on a 5L wash, or150ml on 25L). This is
the 'heads' and should be discarded. WARNING – NEVER DRINK THIS
LIQUID AS IT COULD BE POISONOUS (particularly if you have
fermented fruit instead of sugar).
14. Swap the collection jar to a clean one. The alcohol collected at his
stage is your main run and is good to drink, it should be at about 92%
alcohol.
15. Make a note of the thermometer reading at this point.
16. When the temperature rises 1 degree C from the reading you
recorded at step 13. If it time to stop collecting the main run or you
will start to collect smelly tails and lower percentage alcohol. You
should have approx. 800ml from 5L wash, or about 3.8L from a 25L
wash. This will take approximately 40mins on a 5L boiler, or 3 ½ hours
on a 25L. If it seems to be taking a lot longer than this, then please
see the troubleshooting instructions in the other manual.
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