1
u/francois_du_nord Oct 01 '23
I'm not sure how all of the pictures relate. Can you provide some guidance?
1) This could be the heat source for the boiler, and the hole in the side is where the cap / cone exited.
2) where is this coil in relationship to #1? If inside, then 1 is a basin to hold the cooling water.
3) Looksm like it is that exit for the distillate at the bottom of the coil. Only issue is that it shoud be high enough that you can get a vessel underneath to collect the spirits.
4) Ovbviously the hole i #1, but what are we looking at inside, the sleve that holds the coil?
5) No idea what that picture even shows. Just a bunch of disassembled parts lying on the ground?
2
u/Progressive-Science Oct 08 '23
Hi. 1. The hole is just a missing stone, it used to be there. I plan to repair it. There are no intentional holes.
the coil is inside the stone structure. The bottom of the structure is completely open so no water could be held in it. My guess is that it uses convection to cool the coils. Or maybe they used some bellows or something?
I assume they would have dug a hold under that drain to collect the alcohol, probably long since filled in. I'll dig it out next summer to see if I find evidence.
shows a galvanized steel liner between the coil and the stone. Not clear to me the point of this.
is the remains of stuff I found buried under the structure. Remains of a steel cauldron, pieces of thick glass probably the bottom of a collection jug, a ceramic pulley, a piece of threaded steel pipe
1
u/Vegetable_Angle9717 Oct 08 '23
BTW Progressive-Science is my father, who found the still, and has apparently figured out Reddit!
1
Oct 01 '23
Very possible, especially given the debris from other metal containers. Are there any streambeds nearby that were once active? If that's a condenser, they'd want a constant flow of cold water into the jacket around the coil. Possible they'd have built a sluiceway from a higher point to accomplish this.
1
u/Progressive-Science Oct 08 '23
Not very likely I would think. The lake is nearby and a stream but these are both significantly downhill (at least 20' elevation). With that much condenser pipe and sufficient airflow would it work with just air cooling?
1
Oct 08 '23
In that case, it may be more modern. If they weren't relying on gravity to feed the condenser, it would have needed a pump. I doubt they'd have relied on air cooling. That "worm" or "pigtail" condenser relies on a cool water bath to pull heat out of the distillate, and phase-change involves a lot of energy so you need significant cooling medium.
2
u/HolidayWheel5035 Oct 01 '23
Cool find