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“Alchemy – A power or process of transforming something common into something special; an inexplicable or mysterious transmuting”
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The Alchemist Copper Still Manual
INDEX Title Page About this Copper Still ............................................................................................................................... 3 The parts .................................................................................................................................................... 3 Assembly ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 How to run this still ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Troubleshooting .......................................................................................................................................... 5 How to care and clean ............................................................................................................................... 5 Add–Ons ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 1. Essential Oil Extension ................................................................................................................... 6 2. Heat Controllers ............................................................................................................................. 6 • How to read accurate temperature ......................................................................................... 6 3. Copper Parrot ................................................................................................................................. 6 • What does a parrot do? ............................................................................................................ 6 • How to measure ABV ................................................................................................................ 6 4. Extensions ...................................................................................................................................... 7 How to use as a pot still ............................................................................................................................. 7 • Liquid Management ................................................................................................................. 7 Wood fire, Propane or Electric Options? .................................................................................................... 7
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The Alchemist Copper Still Manual
ABOUT THIS COPPER STILL
Figure# 1 – Copper Still This still comes in three sizes. 2, 3 and 4 inch. For this manual we will just focus on the 2 inch version with the plain electric 15 gallon boiler. But all of them are similar in assembly and use. This Alchemist can be used as a pot still as well as reflux. This still is made from all copper with some brass fittings. The solder is made of lead and cadmium free silver. These are handmade with the best quality, made in USA built per order. PARTS OF THIS ALCHEMIST STILL When you unpack your still, these are what you will find. Condenser Coil – This has a double spiral. In the three inch still it has triple and four inch tower has quadruple coil. I use coils because more surface area has contact to the vapor. It turns the vapor into a liquid much more efficiently without using too much cooling water. This comes with a cap with flair brass plug that looks like insect eyes on a coil with a hat. Tower – This is the longest part of the still. This is where the ethyl alcohol runs up the still, when evaporated. Ethyl alcohol has the same name as ethanol and vodka. Moonshine is a name given in the 1920's when men made alcohol by the light of the moon. Condenser – This long thin piece of tubing cools down the vapor to a liquid. It has two hose attachments which come with it. The blue color coded one is for cold water, on the bottom and the top hose attachment is red for exit of warm water. There is an opening for your thermometer which comes with this still, as well. You place this just below the condenser. The condenser is also called limbic condenser.
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The Alchemist Copper Still Manual
Copper Mesh – You will find in your order enough copper mesh to stuff your tower with. It comes stuffed for you. This is for filtering and cleaning up the product. Copper mesh can be used over and over and cleaned. You will see a stainless steel tri clamp included. This will attach the still to the keg boiler. The Electric Keg boiler – This comes fitted with electrical elements. 2 1500watts. They plug in both to heat up quickly or one to heat up slower. The keg boiler needs to be filled before plugging in, so the elements do not blow out. It has to be filled with a minimum 10 gallons. Gaskets – These little black rubbery things go in between the ferrule clamp, (ferrule clamp is welded onto the still) and the boiler keg, before clamping down. ASSEMBLY This still comes assembled. All you do is make your mash. Here is a simple mash recipe for a sugar wash. This is perfect for beginners. RECIPE There are also “how to” videos of this on You–tube under “Rainier Distillers” account. As well as running, assembly etc. I can also make you a video if you ask, with your still purchase, if there is not a video or a clear one for you there. Sit the keg boiler upwards and fill with your water or what you have fermented. Then make sure the copper mesh is packed in the tower. Put a gasket on the keg boiler. Place your tower on top of the opening of the keg boiler. Then clamp this down with the SS clamp and tighten. Then attach the condenser. This attaches to the flair fitting that comes out of the tower. Screw this on. The one that has a 45 degree angle is the one that connects to the limbic condenser. There is a flair fitting for the thermometer. Please place this in it. The hose fittings come attached. Attach your garden hose that runs water to the blue inlet female on the bottom of condenser (female means the screw part is on the inside and male means it is on the outside). The red hoses come attached. The top outlet you need to connect a spare garden hose which is just a drain, into your lawn or ground outside.
HOW TO RUN When you are ready, it’s filled and assembled, plug this in the wall. Wait, however long it takes, to heat up, depending on wattage. When the thermometer reads 120 degrees F, this will give you 2–3 minutes before it gives you temperature to give out your product, so turn on your garden hose slightly trickling. How you know to turn this higher or lower is by gauging the temperature of your product coming through the red hose. Feel it. This has a male garden hose fitting. You can feel with finger. If it’s too hot, you turn the water higher, if too cool, lower. You do not want to waste water. Start collecting the product in a jar or vase. You have to throw out the first 100 ml s if this is beverage, if you are a micro distiller. These are the ace–tones. You will smell it. Wood Alcohol, not edible. If you
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The Alchemist Copper Still Manual
are distilling gas for your car with your free ethanol permit then you disregard this. This is enough for you beginners, right now. TROUBLESHOOTING Few things that can go wrong and simple answers. “I have burned out the heating elements.” Answer – This happens when you plug it in without any wash inside the keg boiler. There needs to be a minimum 5 inches to cover both elements. A great way to judge how much you have inside if to use a wood pole and mark where the elements are on the outside of the wood. Then pour wash inside, and then stick your pole in and see how close you are. The liquid will show its level. If this happens, where you burn out the elements, I can send you elements you can weld on yourself. Or you can buy them at Home Depot or Lowes. We are always available here for email, phone help and even repairs if you absolutely need it. “My alcohol by volume or proof is not high.” Answer– This has many variables. But the simplest answer is about the fermentation you put inside. If you didn't keep the bucket warm, the yeast will die. If you bought a bad batch of yeast, this also can give you a bad wash. Over time and trial and error you will learn what a good fermentation looks and sounds like. Turbo yeasts are simple and aggressive. “I am sitting outside in 32 freezing weather and my still is not working” Answer– you need to be in warm weather or inside. You are working against nature in that cold weather. The room for your still should be like 60 degrees F is nice. “I blew a fuse” Answer– Breakers in your house are overloaded. 1500 watt is the element I most use. I can always change this to what am page you have in your house, if you understand this. But most houses have 15 amp plugs and 1500 watts are good for these. How you know is you open up your fuse box and it will say whether it is a 15 or 20...etc... Amp and where is the designated spot.
HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR ALCHEMIST STILL This whole Alchemist still is a piece of lab equipment. Do not drop. Treat your still like a good bottle of Brandy. Wrap it up in a cotton cloth. Get very thick 80% wool and 20% cotton socks and sew buttons like eyes on them, then drape over both ends and button. No, just kidding about the socks. But this is example of the care you must take for your still. You want it to last forever. I am available for repairs if you drop or bend. So maintaining a clean still. You will do this after you are done with your run. It’s a steam wash. Dump out the used mash. You cannot reuse this. Put 7 gallons of hot water out of a faucet. It’s hot, because this takes less time to heat up. Assemble still, see above. Plug in, and wait...run like normal. Then turn off the water coming in and it will steam. You are purging with steam. Do this for 5 to 10 minutes. Turn water back on to cool down, and turn condensation back to a liquid. Taste the water coming out. If it comes out bland with no off flavors, you have cleaned your still. 6
The Alchemist Copper Still Manual
This is the same process to distill water. Distilling takes out 99% of heavy metals, meaning all radiation and fluoride, poison, medications, toxins etc... See my articles on this on my blogs at BLOG to explain more. Also the cleaning of your copper still I have to go over. Try always to handle your copper with gloves. This will ensure long lasting shine. It can tarnish, especially lots of fingerprints on it, over time. For beautifying and keeping clean, one must clean this with citric acid. Fill a bathtub up with water. Add 2TB of citric acid and dissolve. Put your still down softly and let soak 10– 15 minutes. Then you will neutralize the acids. Fill tub again and this time place 2TB baking soda. Dissolve and set the still inside the water for 20 minutes. You are finished. It will be shiny.
ADD–ONS 1. The Essential Oil Extension This is sold separately. It is packed loosely with herbs, flowers and leaves. It is all about extracting the essential oils, tinctures, spirits, essence of anything and leaving behind the roughage stripped bare. You run this through water and then later separate the oil which floats on top. You can flavor alcohol with this if you are a micro distillery, like Lemon Vodka by running the alcohol through the herbs. You can make many medicines and tinctures. You can extract THC from marijuana, this process only illegal in two states. You can make perfumes for women, natural bug repellants, and give soaps a smell. This can be a start–up small business. You can put your backyard in a bottle. With all the hydrosol left over you can bottle these in spray bottles. Cedar oil from leaves is the easiest and grows almost everywhere for a beginner like you. We do sell essential oil stills that are just pot stills, for price. But if you have the Alchemist it is a great add on. How you do this are you pack the extension on top of the grated "basket" loosely with your products. This fits on the top of the boiler. Comes with all clamps to connect to the Alchemist. 2. Heat Controllers These manipulate the am page and the power that goes into the boiler. You can have a quicker turnaround time for heating up the pot. You can also speed up the run of the still. Some heat controllers are set it and forget it. Meaning it regulates what temperature you want it, just like an oven. You can walk away. This is for more advanced but it can be learned quickly. 3. Copper Parrot This is a measuring device. Looks like a parrot's beak. Your product coming out of the still you want to measure the proof or abv, if someday you want to separate heads, hearts, tails of your run. The product coming out of the still lands in the copper parrot top where there is an alcohol meter floating. The product then pours out of the parrots' beak into your container. This will give you a reading. There are ways to get false readings. Baseline for alcohol is 60 degrees F, ifs its reading 80 degrees F it’s going to give you a higher false reading, in proof or percentage. Beware of this when you see something advertised. 7
The Alchemist Copper Still Manual
4. Extensions Eventually if you want to make this still taller, for higher proof, without slowing down the run, you can buy separately. You can take the 2 inch up to five extensions. HOW TO USE AS A POT STILL? Run it fully open. Meaning there a tap is located on the limbic condenser. I call this LIQUID MANAGEMENT. The Alchemist always comes with one extension. You can add on more of these sold separately. To run it as a pot still, you just minus the extension. And then when all attached, you turn the tap open left to right all the way open. You would want to use a pot still when you want to retain the flavors for a rum brandy whiskey. WOOD FIRE, PROPANE, ELECTRIC OPTIONS? If electricity goes out you can take out the elements permanently or just cover the elements, by metal plates. It must be on a stand. USE CAUTION. To use propane, protect the elements with a metal plate. I have photos on my photo account. But for now, stick with electricity. You do not want to use propane in enclosed area. That is why electricity is good indoors. You would use propane on a spring day outside. You could use propane and electricity both at the same time, but with caution. You have to use protection over the elements such as metal plates. You do this to speed up like a rocket the time it takes to heat up and distill. I recommend experts only. In the event of power outage. You can turn your still into a wood fire or propane still, so that answers that question!
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The Alchemist Copper Still Manual
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The Alchemist Copper Still Manual