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Stripping Run with a VEVOR Water Distiller
Hi,I am a TOTAL novice at distilling…. I’d like to make rather small washes (1 gallon), mostly for making rum and brandy. I’m using 1gallon glass jars for preparing the washes and carrying out the fermentation. Since the batches are about 1 gallon, I was thinking that maybe I could use a VEVOR water distiller for a 1st stripping run. And then, I’d use a 1L glass distilling setup I have for the spirit run.Will this work fine or will I get off flavors? I understand that you need to expose the gaseous distillate to copper to remove sulfur compounds which are very undesirable, but I’m imagining this can’t be done with the water distiller. Can you guys help me out with this?Thanks!
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5 Replies
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I’m pretty sure everyone will recommend that you do multiple 1 gal stripping runs until you have enough low wines to do a full spirit run with the 1 gal boiler. The reason is, if you ferment 1 gal and strip 1 gal, you’ll probably get somewhere around .2 gal of low wines. With a spirit run, you’ll get such a tiny amount of product and after making your cuts, what you get to keep will be ridiculously small. Doing a full boiler charge for a spirit run will make that spirit run more worth while in comparison to a partial boiler charge.Here’s an example of scaling up your operation. You could do a 4 gal ferment inside of a 5 gal bucket. Do one stripping run in a 5 gal boiler which should give you approx .8 gal of low wines. Then you can do a spirit run using either the 1 or 5 gal boiler. This would give you 4 times more product after a spirit run and approx 4 times more after making cuts as well. After making cuts, toss what you don’t keep (your Feints) into a glass or stainless container. Some add their feints into the next spirit run or collect enough feints to do an ‘all feints’ run. IF you had a 5 gal boiler, you could do a 20 gal ferment. After doing multiple stripping runs, that would give you around 4 gal of low wines. You could then do a single spirit run using your 5 gal boiler. That would give you even 4 times more product after a spirit run and 4 times more after making cuts.This is why you see most people here with larger boilers. Those that have used smaller boilers eventually upgrade. Many often upgrade to a 15.5 gal keg.4″ VM Build
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Sometimes it’s advantageous to use published research.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 … 0450.x/pdf
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The Vevor water distiller is basically a cheaper copy of the Still Spirits Air Still, so you will find lots of info here about running them. Agree with SMF 100% re doing several stripping runs before the spirit run.A pure copper pot scrubber in the boiler will do the trick for the off flavours.The Vevor does have about double the power of the Still Spirits unit (650W vs 320W from memory), so probably worthwhile getting a power controller to tame it during the spirit run. Just be sure to run a separate supply (no wiring required, just a standard small appliance power cord) to the cooling fan so it can run at full tilt.On a side note, they are very handy for making small batches of Gin and distilled water for the CPAP.Have fun and stay safe.
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someone I know (SIK) is pulling the trigger on one of these today, its obviously not the best setup but the convince and discreet nature of the still makes it ideal for current living arrangement, and really just want to do some experiments not expecting to get bang for buck out of spirits. picked up a power controller, and the vevor water still without temp controls as recommended by most people. Have 0 experience, other then about 40 hours of reading forums / watching Still IT and a few other ppl on YT Here is the power controller, SIK have seen 2-3 people either using it or recommending it but SIK is no electrical engineer. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BXJ … e_o01_s00?SIK will also be using a old computer monitor cable to power the fan head unit separately so it will run at 100% Its also been recomeded that SIK uses a copper scrub brush or similar copper material in the spout where the water still stores a little bag of charcoal, which i have my doubts on how much effect it may have and think its probably just going to muddle the already muddled together cuts due to the size of the pot, but ill probably give it a go on one of the stripping runs and see if SIK can tell the difference, if anyone had anecdotal evidence of this actually benefiting the end product let us know! I also had someone recommend just tossing the copper into the pot with the low wines, I might end up doing some experimentation with a cheap mash down the road to see which of these methods actually contribute to the end product.Also found this handy reference for the air still, while i don’t take it as gospel, seeing as the wash will be a little lower abv is a nice resource to have:download/file.php?id=65546&mode=viewSIK plan to do a 5 gallon wash (1gal molasses, 4gal water), maybe throw 6-7 banannas SIK just put in a freezer that are just on the edge of being overripeSIK’s biggest concern right now is that ive seen a few posts mentioning that rum wash likes to foam up during the stripping run, and that its might be tough to get a full 4 liters of wash in it without puking. (SIK assumes some sort of conditioner or a tiny bit of butter might fix this, or some of those ceramic boiler thingies) If anyone had experience with this setup and found a good solution to avoid puking id love to hear about it.Have to do a bit more research on how much power SIK should be setting* the unit, when SIK begins, and what to turn it down to once it gets going. and what power settings to use on the spirit run, If anyone has any experience with this particular setup id love to get your tips or tricks .
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Quick update on the research into the power controller i came across this super helpful reddit post with some info that is quite useful reference, and a place to begin dialing things in :https://www.reddit.com/r/airstill/comme … _on_a_scr/Here is the post, in case it gets removed at some point – PinGUY
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