Stripping Run #2 – Fixed Puffs of Vapor / 5″ Liebig Test Results

We’ll be trying to solve two problems during this round of distilling from our first stripping run. 1) Smalls puffs of vapor escaping out of pressure release hole drilled after the condenser and 2) Hot smelly distillate coming off the still. Keep in mind that I am running a liquid management still head on a short unpacked column. This is not a pot still.

We have 4 x 6 gallon batches of 9-10% ABV sugar wine. We’ll be stripping that in 2 different runs. This sugar wine is from our pH control experiments. You may notice some oyster shells at the bottom of some of the fermenters.

As seen in the first video, adding a small amount of mesh to the very inside of my double coiled condenser solved the issue of puffs of vapor escaping from the still. I reckon that vapor was able to shoot up the middle of the condenser without touching the coils on the way up.

Next up, testing out the 5″ Liebig condenser I made for stripping runs. WIll it work? I made it smaller than what people on the internet recommended. During spirit runs the distillate comes off at room temp, not hot at all and doesn’t smell up the place. During a stripping runs the distillate is stinking up the entire apartment and is coming off very hot to the touch! What the video below to see how the 5″ Liebig fairs in a real-world test.

So there we have it. We solved one issue but not the other. Mesh will stay in my condenser during the next spirit run and we’ll see how that goes, I expect it to be just fine. As for the Liebig, I’ll be cutting and expanding it out to see if it is up to the task if it’s larger and has more surface area. I’ll dig in my box of wires and find copper to wrap around the inside of the water jacketed area of the condenser, hopefully, giving it a little more surface area and a colder distillate.

Keep on keeping on,

Joey Joe Joe Jr Shabadoo.