What is distilling reflux?
Reflux is a technique involving the condensation of vapors and the return of this condensate to the system from which it originated. It is used in industrial and laboratory distillations. It is also used in chemistry to supply energy to reactions over a long period of time.
What are reflux stills used for?
Reflux Stills (aka fractional distillation columns) are used to make pure neutral spirit which are designed to extract only a single pure element from the distillate. In many cases, this is ethanol but can also separate other distillates purely based on boiling temperature.
What is the best type of still?
Overall, copper is better for distilling spirits because the material removes sulfides from distillate, which produces a better tasting and smelling final product. In fact, a stainless pot with a copper column, or a 100% stainless still packed with copper mesh, are both excellent options for producing spirits.
How does reflux work in a distillation column?
Large-scale distillation towers use a reflux system to achieve a more complete product separation. Reflux is that portion of a tower’s condensed overhead liquid product that is cycled back to the top of the tower where it flows downward to provide cooling and condensation of the upflowing vapors.
Do I need to make cuts when using a reflux still?
A more complex still with a chamber called the ‘reflux’ condenser, where steam is filtered and some of the unwanted elements are returned to the boiling vessel. This type of still strips all flavours out to produce a pure plain spirit. You don’t need to make ‘cuts’ on this type of still (only discarding the foreshots).
What is the best reflux still design?
cooling tube
Probably the most well-known and still most effective forced reflux still designs is the “cooling tube” design. In this design, tubes run directly through the column and cold water is run through them. The reason that this design is so effective is because the cooling lines are in direct contact with the rising vapor.
What do moonshiners use to seal their still?
Rye flour paste
Rye flour paste is the traditional method used by master distillers of the old days to seal seams on copper stills.