Stopping Your Still Foaming Over
Jimmy | March 13, 2008
A common problem for the home distiller is foaming over, where the heated wash foams and bubbles up. In the case of the SmartStill, this leads to the top popping off which disrupts the distillation. Obviously, we need to stop this happening!
There are several reasons why a wash will foam - the most common being the composition of the wash itself, and the design of the still. If you are using a fruit based wash, you’re much more likely to have problems than with a standard vodka type wash - in these cases, you might need to get hold of some anti-foaming agent from your preferred homebrew supplier.
There are also some basic things you can do to prevent foaming over. Don’t fill your still too much, thereby leaving plenty of expansion room. With a SmartStill, the capacity is supposedly 4 litres but I only ever use 3.
Another problem can be the design of the still - specifically, in devices like the SmartStill the smooth stainless steel boiling chamber doesn’t provide any areas for bubbles to form. This causes a problem because you can get ‘flash boiling’ where the temperature reaches a critical point and the mix boils suddenly. To prevent this happening, you can get hold of some ceramic rings similar to these :
They are available from homebrew suppliers, as well as aquatic suppliers as they are used in fish tank filtration systems. If you place a handful of these into your still along with the wash, they provide a convenient place for the brew to form bubbles, and therefore prevent any sudden flash-boiling that might otherwise occur.
Already commented elsewhere, but to recap for this article. The ceramic
Fatbloke | June 1, 2008Already commented elsewhere, but to recap for this article.
The ceramic rings in the article, or broken glass/ceramic crockery can do the same job. Even stainless steel or copper nuts and bolts (sterilised of course) work.
Distillers conditioner - available from the Distillers Suppliers.
Ensure that your wash/mash/pre-distil liquid is completely clear i.e. transparent. If it’s wine/wash/mash that you’ve made yourself, then use finings to clear it. If need be some sort of filtration.
I used a brass water faucet handle, washed thoroughly and
Canyon Cat | June 6, 2008I used a brass water faucet handle, washed thoroughly and placed on the bottom inside of my EasyStill before my first run. No problems at all despite using a far-from-clear wash. I suspect that the modifications on the EasyStill make it less susceptible to this problem, but I was paranoid and put the brass piece in anyway. No problem! I’ll do this for subsequent runs, too–why tempt fate?
Excellent. As I mentioned elsewhere Canyon Cat, the little ceramic
Fatbloke | June 7, 2008Excellent. As I mentioned elsewhere Canyon Cat, the little ceramic rings so the job as well. The homedistiller site seems to prefer ceramic/glass/copper items (from what I can gather), to do with what’s in them and just how “food safe” they are. But I for one can’t see why you couldn’t use brass just as well - afterall they make bloody taps/faucets from the stuff !
I think it’s mainly stuff like solder that you have to be careful of i.e. well that it’s certified food safe and/or lead free (it seems that “silver solder” is a favourite for building stills etc).
So I’d guess that chucking the faucet handle in while running the still shouldn’t do any harm at all. Well done matey.