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A keg cube with their own. Detailed instructions on how to make a moonshine still from a beer keg with your own hands

To create a moonshine still, you can use various containers made of copper, stainless steel, enameled. Distillation cube from a beer keg - the most optimal. This is a sealed container designed specifically for storing and transporting beer. The wall thickness in this vessel, made of high quality stainless steel, is 1.5-1.8 mm. in addition, the keg is equipped with a central neck for attaching the intake head.

A distillation cube for distilling alcohol-containing liquid from a beer keg requires minimal modification, the container has a neck, it is of course narrow, but very conveniently located for pouring mash. In addition, the rest of the add-ons can be done by hand without much difficulty.

Materials and tools

Before starting work, you need to prepare the following:

  • gaskets;
  • fitting;
  • cranes;
  • valves;
  • a tube;
  • capacity;
  • grinder;
  • drill.

A moonshine still from a beer keg is equipped with a reflux condenser and cooling. Some distillers pre-use beer PET containers with hydraulic seals.

The moonshine still should consist of the following elements:

  • containers for ferrying mash;
  • coil;
  • dry greenhouse.

In addition, an apparatus made of a beer keg must have the following parameters:

  • rigid and sealed cover;
  • the thickness of the walls of the container is at least 1.5 mm - if the material is thinner, then the increasing pressure can warp it;
  • have a hole for steam outlet, for this they equip a special fitting.

Watch a video on how to make a distillation cube from a beer keg or alcohol mashine do it yourself:

The distillation cube can be with a built-in heating element, or put on an electric stove.

Capacity with heating element

Many distillers prefer the electrical system as it is more mobile. In order to install the heating element in a keg, you need to take a large-volume container - 30-50 liters.

The first step is to flare and drill a hole. A moonshine still of this design will include the following parts:

  1. Distillation cube from a beer keg. Beer containers are produced in 2 types - European and American.
  2. Distiller.
  3. Heater control unit.

The first step is to carve out an adapter, which will subsequently be screwed into the neck along the thread. It is imperative to use a sealing material.

A heating element is mounted in a container of the required volume, an element of 3 kW is enough for a 30 liter barrel, and an electrical appliance of 1 kW is suitable for a 10 liter barrel. The control unit must be selected with a higher power than the electro-spiral, about 2 times.

The work on installing the electrical appliance is carried out according to the following algorithm:

  • drill a hole for an electrical appliance of the desired size;
  • using sandpaper and a grinder, it will clean the edges;
  • the edges of the hole are degreased, the adapter is installed and the heating element is screwed in.

Electricity will be supplied to the spiral through the distribution element; before that, a special marking is made on the keg. It is worth noting that the bolt should fit as tightly as possible to the wall of the container, so the head must be crumpled with a file.

Before soldering the fasteners, they must be treated with a flux that is specially designed for stainless steel.

Wear rubber gloves when degreasing the surface, as the material contains acid. A little bit of flux is applied to both the adapter and the hole, and only then is the weld seam applied.

A Teflon gasket is installed on top of the structure. after that, you need to check the tightness by pouring water into the keg. No leaks found - you can install a junction box and feed the power wires.

The distillation cube must be equipped with a tube and a ball valve. To do this, equip holes as close to the bottom as possible and weld in a special sleeve. This is necessary so that after distillation it is possible to unscrew the metal plug from the tap, install a fitting, a hose. This will help drain the wort without lifting a heavy container.

Many distillers make a distillation cube that can be placed on stoves, but only take a 20-liter container for this purpose. This is very convenient, since often in such casks the bottom is slightly curved, and the distillate does not boil much. Usually, no more than 15 liters of mash is poured per distillation. Such a device has the following components:

  • fridge;
  • dry greenhouse;
  • handles for easy carrying of the container.

Serpentine and dry steamer

To make a coil, you should take a tube up to two meters in length from copper or stainless steel. The coil, which is subsequently installed in the container, is called a refrigerator.

The tube is twisted with special device, but you can also buy already ready product, intended for obtaining distilled water at home or in laboratory conditions. It is also worth paying the attention of novice distillers that there are glass coils on sale, which are very convenient to use.

As for the manufacture of a dry pot, then you may need:

  • washers;
  • food grade silicone;
  • fitting with external and internal thread;
  • nuts;
  • silicone tube;
  • glue and awl;
  • a can with a capacity of 2 liters.

You can make a distillation cube yourself, but this requires a little experience. But it is worth noting that a self-made moonshine still compares favorably with a purchased one, since everything in it is thought out in advance and made for the convenience of the distiller.

Beer keg great option containers for a distillation cube, you can buy a new one, or used in a beer store. With a little effort, you will have a reliable and inexpensive mash distillation unit at home.

You can make a good distillation cube from a finished container. For this purpose, kegs for transporting beer are excellent - stainless food-grade thick-walled steel of a convenient shape and suitable volume. Minor alterations are needed, which a smart master can do even with simple tools.

The production of homemade alcohol has long grown from the underground business of illegal bootleggers into a real art. Mini-distilleries in the forest are no longer relevant, their place was taken by small kitchen appliances, more like laboratory equipment. Connoisseurs of strong alcoholic beverages use various recipes and methods of distillation and get high-quality alcohol: moonshine, whiskey, bourbon, brandy.

To achieve the desired results in home distillation, the distillation still must meet several parameters:

  1. Compactness. Non-lifting 150-liter drums require a separate room, and many do not need this capacity. The optimal capacity is from 25 to 60 liters - so that a strong man can lift it alone.
  2. Stability of the material. Enamel on pans, aluminum milk cans - not the best solution. Topcoat breakdowns and metal oxides give an unpleasant aftertaste to the finished product. Copper or food grade stainless steel, laboratory glass are ideal.
  3. Sufficient strength. There is no high pressure inside the apparatus, but just in case, the wall must withstand pressure up to 5-6 atmospheres. A well-made alembic can be used as a steam generator or an autoclave for making homemade canned food.
  4. Convenient form. By default, most alembic stills are made in the form of cylinders.

Which keg to choose

A moonshine still can be made with your own hands from a beer keg. This is an industrial container for transportation and storage of draft beer. Standard kegs are 20, 25, 30, 40, 50 liters. In the United States, the unit is in gallons and pints, so volumes may vary. You can buy a discarded keg inexpensively at non-ferrous metal collection points, as well as at breweries or large bars.


Beer kegs can be of different sizes: from 20 to 50 liters.

The volume of the cube depends on the amount of products obtained for one distillation. 30 liters of keg holds 25 liters of home brew, and distillation of this volume produces about 4-6 liters of moonshine. If productivity is not enough, it is better to use a 50-liter one. The output reaches 6 liters of raw alcohol. A large keg is more versatile - it is convenient to use as an autoclave.

How to make a moonshine still

To get a finished alembic, our container will need to be redone. The number and scope of rework depends on the tasks we set for the machine and the availability of tools and access to stainless steel welding.

Minimum rework - we get the valve

To get an inconvenient device, but with a minimum of alterations, it is enough to unscrew the keg valve. First, press the valve with a pry bar to release the gas.

Attention! If this is not done, the valve, when unscrewed, can fly out and injure others, and spoil the thread, which we still need.

The valve is unscrewed with a gas wrench, the effort is quite large. By unscrewing the thread, the valve is held on the retaining ring. You can remove the valve using two pry bars - resting them on the side of the keg, break out the valve. The second way is to turn the valve core counterclockwise with pliers.


Be extremely careful when unscrewing the keg valve.

The keg valve ends with a stainless steel tube that goes to the bottom. We disassemble the valve, turn it upside down. We wind the resulting structure onto the neck of the keg - the simplest alembic is ready!

A 40 mm clamp connection can also be used. It rises without alterations, and will allow you to install a rectification column.

The main disadvantage of such a cube is its narrow neck. You can pour the mash only through a funnel, and you need to make sure that there are no large solid parts in the mash - it will clog the spout of the funnel. It will be possible to wash a cube with a narrow neck only with a brush, while the washing quality will be low.

Keg design improvements

For ease of use and to obtain a better quality product, the keg needs to be improved. The first revision is a wide hatch for easier cleaning. To do this, a hatch is cut out with a grinder and a flat adapter flange with bolts or a clamp connection at least 100 millimeters is welded in.

On the flange, through a gasket, a lid with a welded nipple from a 40 mm milk can is installed. Various adapters or a rectifying column are connected to the choke.


For convenience, a wide hatch should be made on the upper surface of the beer keg.

Optional equipment

Additionally, heating elements, pressure and temperature sensors, a transparent hatch to control the level of wash and ongoing processes can be embedded in the body. These useful devices will help you control the required parameters, which will improve the quality of the output product.

The sensors can be embedded on the thread or welded on. For a 6 mm threaded connection, we drill a 5.5 mm hole, select an M6 tap with frequent thread, cut the thread. The keg is thick enough to keep the thread stable. We select a fitting or make it from a threaded tube.

The thermocouple of the temperature sensor must be completely inside the vessel and not touching the walls, otherwise you may get incorrect readings. Whether analogue or digital is used is a matter of choice. The main thing is a sealed installation.

Deep changes to the keg design are needed if there is a need to obtain a concave or flat bottom. For this, the lower protective skirt is cut off, the convex bottom is cut off exactly in a circle. It can be turned over with a concavity inward and welded into place, or the bottom can be cut out of a flat sheet of stainless steel.


For convenience, additional equipment can be installed in the beer keg.

It is desirable to increase the thickness of the bottom to 3 mm, this will extend the service life of the apparatus and increase its rigidity. A flat bottom is needed if a gas stove will serve as a temperature source.

The rest of the moonshine still

Distillation column or a reflux condenser. This element is installed vertically on the cube, and serves for preliminary separation fusel oils from alcohol. Alcohol has a low boiling point, so it does not condense on the cold walls of the reflux condenser. Fusel oils are separated from the steam earlier and flow back into the cube.

Sukhoparnik and bubbler. This is an intermediate link between the cube and the refrigerator. Serves for separating fusel oils, preventing mash splashing into the coil. Consists of a container and a pipe supply. Water is poured into the bubbler, this is the difference from the dry boiler. The inlet pipe in the bubbler is immersed in water and the steam, "gurgling", is cleaned of fusel oils.

Having cooled the alcohol-containing steam, we get the final product - moonshine. Cooling takes place either in a coil or in a refrigerator with running water. The coil can be cooled in water or air, the number of turns for the air cooler should be more.


It is better to make a coil for a moonshine still from copper.

For ease of manufacture, the coil is made of copper tubing. Soft copper can be easily wound onto any cylindrical object without sharp creases and cross-section reduction.

The coil is positioned vertically so that liquid does not accumulate in the coil tubes. In this case, a water seal is created, this will lead to unwanted pressure in the system.

If running water is available, a refrigerator can be used. It is smaller in size and performs its function no worse than a coil. The refrigerator consists of two tubes at least 40 cm long. One tube for condensing steam, the other acts as a water jacket.

The circulating cold running water cools the steam so that it settles on the walls. The refrigerator can be made independently if you have the skills of soldering or welding stainless steel, or assemble it from plumbing parts. The main thing is that all surfaces in contact with moonshine are made of food grade stainless steel or copper.

Three ways to heat the mash

The method of heating the moonshine still is selected based on the following factors:

  1. Energy availability.
  2. Cheapness.
  3. Mash type.
  4. Controllability.
  5. Durability.

Three types of heating are most often used - wood, electricity and natural gas.

A beer keg will work with any type of fuel, but most urban home winemakers use electricity. The temperature is perfectly regulated using an expensive controller. Heating elements are easily cut in by welding or plumbing fittings.

The danger for the heaters is the thick part of the wash, which burns to the surface. It is advisable to protect the heating elements with a fine mesh, it will eliminate this problem. When heated, the liquid begins to actively move, and this problem disappears.


It is most convenient to heat a moonshine still from a keg with gas.

Firewood is available for fuel, but an outbuilding with a chimney will be required for the firebox. Another problem is the difficulty with temperature regulation. Tossing firewood correctly is a real art, even with measuring instruments. Overheating or cooling the mash, you can get low quality moonshine.

Heating with natural gas is ideal in all cases. It costs more than electricity or firewood, but it is easily adjustable, you do not need to make extra holes in the keg, and nothing burns when heated. In an apartment on gas stove or in a barn on a portable stovetop on LPG, a 50-liter keg heats up to 70 degrees in half an hour.

The principles of building a homemade alembic

When making a moonshine still from a keg, you need to adhere to several rules:

  • Tightness of connections. Steam leaks when moving through the tubes of the apparatus must be reduced to zero. Use silicone gaskets for the clamp connections, all threaded connections must be sealed.
  • Using the right materials. Alcohol vapor is a good oxidizing agent. Simple iron or aluminum, when oxidized, imparts an aftertaste to alcohol. Use copper or food grade stainless steel, laboratory glass, and silicone as spacers.
  • Correct arrangement of elements. To obtain a specific result, it is possible to combine the units of the apparatus - a dry steam chamber, a reflux condenser, a rectification column. A quick run for obtaining raw alcohol is implemented according to a simple cube-refrigerator scheme. The distillation column allows you to get a liquid with a strength of 75 - 80 degrees at a time.

A beer keg will make an excellent moonshine still.

If you are lucky enough to find an inexpensive beer keg, you can make a do-it-yourself moonshine from it. The dimensions and material are great, the modifications are minimal. Such a homemade device is in no way inferior to expensive purchased counterparts. The result of this effort will be deep satisfaction and significant savings.

Having made a moonshine still from a keg with your own hands, you get a simple and functional distiller. In practice, it has been proven that kegs are much better suited for making a moonshine still, because they are more reliable and durable. In addition, the volume of a beer keg is in many ways superior to a pressure cooker.

1

Before you make a moonshine still, you need to figure out what it will consist of. In principle, you can't dream up much about the design of a distiller. The same can be said for the beer keg distillation system. Its device will consist of elements such as a distillation still - an important element of any apparatus. In addition to it, a coil will be included in the design - the system will not work without it. The coil will be placed in a condenser - a special refrigeration chamber that cools the vapors and turns them into alcohol. The device must be fully equipped - an indispensable thing for obtaining high-quality alcohol.

Moonshine still from beer keg

First of all, we need to select a barrel. This must be done taking into account what goals you are pursuing when making a moonshine still from a beer keg. Beer producers supply their products in barrels of various sizes. Most often, containers with a volume of 30 and 50 liters are used for transportation. Therefore, you should consider in advance the course of the process of home brewing. So, if you will be making alcohol on the stove, then, accordingly, choose a smaller container. If you plan to do it, then you can take a barrel with a large volume.

2

The design of any distillation system includes a coil. Most of the classic distillers are equipped with thin coil-shaped coils. They are made of stainless steel or copper, less often glass.

In order for a beer keg moonshine still to be efficient enough, the coil for it must be slightly thicker than usual. To make it, take a copper tube with a diameter of about 2 cm and twist it into a spiral. As a result, the coil must have at least 3 turns. Remember, the more turns, the better, because it is precisely because of the frequent change in the height of the distillation flow that you will be able to get a completely refined drink.

Distiller coil

In order for the vapors of moonshine to circulate through the distiller, its elements must be connected together. To do this, take a single piece of silicone hose and cut it into the desired parts. Consider the distance from the source cold water so that the channels are not too short. We do not recommend choosing pipes made of rubber or other materials. Such products will greatly spoil alcohol, because it will absorb the smell of rubber.

The principle of connecting the coil and keg is quite simple. To do this, a tube is used, one end of which is attached to the spiral, and the other to the steam chamber located above the barrel. Vapors enter it, after which they pass through the tube to the coil.

The dry box is attached to the neck of the keg, and the remaining gaps are sealed with sealant. Many craftsmen go further and use a more complex connection method. To do this, they make a hole in the wall of the keg and push the hose into it. A sealant is applied around the edges of the hole. It should be of sufficient quality so that it does not have to be changed frequently. We do not recommend using dough or soldering, since the first option is very unreliable, and the second complicates the process of cleaning the still.

3

The refrigerating chamber, also known as a condenser, is considered an indispensable attribute of a distiller, because without it, vapors will not turn into alcohol. For a homemade distillation system, you can choose one of several types of refrigerators: non-flowing and flowing. In the first case, the condenser is manually filled with cold water or placed in a cold water tank. In the second case, the distiller must be connected to a kitchen mixer to supply cold water.

Distiller condenser

Both options have their advantages. However, if there is a water supply to your house, then we advise you to choose a flow-through condenser. It is much more convenient because you do not have to fill the refrigerator and empty it every time after distillation.

To create a capacitor, you need to prepare:

  • a piece of pipe with a diameter of 5 cm;
  • soldering iron;
  • two metal plates;
  • drill;
  • sealant.

The metal plates will be at the edges of the pipes. They need to make one hole in them so that the ends of the coil can be inserted into the holes. Thus, the latter will not dangle over the capacitor. After drilling the holes, secure one end of the coil to one plate and slide it into the large pipe. Next, install the second plate and seal all gaps with sealant. Be careful, as water will seep through even the smallest openings, which will negatively affect the efficiency of the made condenser.

4 How to use a homemade distillation system?

Having made a moonshine still from an ordinary beer keg with your own hands, you also need to understand the peculiarities of its operation. This is not difficult, especially if you collected it yourself.

First of all, you will need to install the keg on the stove, screw the steam box to it and connect it to the rest of the system. After that, you need to pour the mash into the distillation cube and connect the cold water supply to the condenser. It makes no sense to fill the container with wash more than 70-80%, otherwise it will heat up more slowly.

Next, you will need to wait for the mash to heat up. To control the temperature, we advise you to install a bimetallic or electronic thermometer on the keg wall. As soon as the mixture begins to evaporate, the steam tank will begin to fill with vapors. Soon they will fall into the silicone tube, and from there into the coil. If you make the refrigerator correctly, then at the exit you will get a cold drink with a strength of about 55–63 ° C.

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Such alcoholic beverage like moonshine, many of us are used to buying from the hands of grandmothers. But one can only hope for the high quality of such a drink. Due to this, even in the old days, a whole system of home brewing began to develop quite actively. But, of course, to prepare a drink like moonshine, you need a special device. Naturally, you can borrow it from some familiar friends or cook it yourself at home.

What is a keg used to create a distillation still?

In the event that you are wondering about the production of moonshine at home, then you must first of all find a container that can become the main element of this device. An ordinary small keg made of metal, which is very often called a beer keg, can act as such a container. It is in such containers that today beer is transported from one facility to a completely different one. In the old days, these kegs were made of ordinary wood, today there are options that are made of stainless steel.

It is in such devices that there is a unique device called a fitting. Often the capacity of such a beer keg is about 38-45 liters.

How to choose a condenser for making beer kegs?

In the event that you need to make or select a specific keg to create a distillation cube of alcohol, then you need to focus on such a parameter as the size of the container. Therefore, first of all, you should proceed from what the final amount of the finished mash you are ready to pour into the keg before its distillation. As for the choice of a capacitor and a coil, most often they are made from the most ordinary copper.

In addition, it is necessary to select a special silicone tube that fits the diameter directly to the coil itself. Due to the fact that silicone acts as a neutral component, it is completely inappropriate to use rubber or plastic tubes. In addition, silicone will not negatively affect the taste of the moonshine prepared individually by you.

In the event that you have a long enough coil, then you do not need to use any additional connecting hoses. In this case, one end of the coil is attached directly to the fitting itself, and the other end of the coil is brought out through the so-called cooling tank. Note, however, that you will still need to bend the copper tube slightly to operate properly. The place where the tube will enter must be sufficiently sealed. In this regard, this place is most often coated with hand-prepared dough, or it is completely soldered. In the event that you want your prepared moonshine device to have additional space for placing a safety valve, then you need to connect the silicone tube directly to the fitting itself through a tee.

Therefore, if you want to create an apparatus from a beer keg at home, then first of all you should pay attention to the size of the keg. In the event that the keg is large enough, it will be quite difficult and for a long time to heat it up to the required temperature. Therefore, in this situation, choose a medium-sized keg.

Despite today's abundance of technology for distilling mash at home, each distiller chooses either purchased or self-made.

It is not at all difficult to make a moonshine still from a keg, although you will have to modify it, turning it into a full-fledged cube. And to make other parts for it, turning it into a full-fledged one.

So, you have become the owner of a keg for transporting and pouring beer. These containers have four sizes: 20 l; 25 l; 30 liters and 50 liters. The first two will do better. cubed, which is heated on a stove (gas or electric).

Those that are 30, especially 50 liters, are better equipped Heating element, since it is very difficult to put it with the wash on the stove and take it off. In addition, in an ordinary apartment, an apparatus with a cube of this design may not fit under the hood located above the stove.

Modern kegs - solid, stainless steel with food grade approval. Strength is already incorporated in them, since it is a foamy product that creates pressure in a hermetically sealed container. Therefore, the manufacturers took care that the bottom and walls withstand the pressure from the inside. So you don't have to worry about whether the keg is strong enough for the task.

Carefully. Old, still Soviet kegs should not be used for home brewing purposes, since they are made of aluminum.

Under the influence of heat and the aggressive environment of the wash, aluminum can enter into chemical reactions, forming compounds that can harm health.

The keg will need minimal rework if you plan to convert it to a conventional distiller that will heat the hotplate.

Thermometer

It is important for both beginners and experienced distillers to know wort heating temperature, in order to accurately determine the moments: the release of the heads, the distillation of the body, the beginning of the forcing of the tails. In addition, an easy-to-use device helps to properly regulate the temperature regime - by increasing or decreasing heating.

Most suitable:

  1. Bimetallic- inexpensive, in a fully metal case, with a probe and a circular scale under the glass. The main advantage is the robustness of the design, which can withstand accidental drop or impact. The disadvantage is the approximate accuracy of the readings. However, in the case of home brewing, deviations of a few tenths of a degree are not a disaster.
  2. Electronic equipped with a special thin probe for ease of use. They have the most accurate readings. In addition, the probe of such a thermometer can be lowered directly into the wash.
  3. Digital convenient to use, they often have a flexible probe with a length of a meter or more. But you have to ensure a snug fit of the probe for contact with the medium where the measurement takes place. Better to put it in a capsule.
  4. Glass alcoholic ones are the least suitable, since they are very fragile. But if there is no other option, you can use. They must withstand heating of at least 100 ° C.

Coil

A distiller is unthinkable without a coil. You can make it yourself, or you can buy it ready-made. For the coil, a stainless steel or copper tube is usually used. It may be glass, but it is unrealistic to make one at home.

Fridge

Without a water jacket, in which the coil is placed, cooling is impossible, and condensation of alcohol vapors will not occur, therefore, you will not get moonshine. There are two types of refrigerators:

  • flowing... Today it is the most popular type. Such a refrigerator is compact, it is connected to water and connected to its output using PVC hoses. The connection should be made to the coil and to the distillate outlet in the placed vessel, since they are inert and do not emit harmful substances;

Peculiarities... A flow-through refrigerator can be made to work smoothly even if there is no tap with water nearby, we talked about this in the article "".

  • non-flowing... It has an additional container, in which during the haul it is necessary to change the heated water to cold water, taking away the waste water and refilling it with cold water.

Heating element

To ensure the complete autonomy of the distillation plant, as well as to have a large distillation cube, you can use a heating element, or even better, two. When using two heating elements, the initial heating to a temperature of 63 ° С carried out by two heaters, after which one of them turns off.

The head fractions are selected at the work of one heating element, which allows you to keep the temperature, not allowing it to increase sharply. The body of moonshine is driven either also on one heating element, or periodically connecting another, if one becomes insufficient.

If only one heating element is used, its optimal power is considered to be 2.5 - 3.5 kW. When using two, they take either 1.5 kW each, or one - 1.5, the other - 0.5 - 1.5 kW.

How to do it yourself?

note... Kegs of 20 and 25 liters are suitable for heating on a conventional (gas, electric) stove. With 30 and 50 liters it is more difficult, since they have a concave bottom. It is better to equip these with heating elements.

1. Let's start with the neck... It is wide enough to comfortably pour in and out of the stillage after use, so it doesn't need to be remodeled. The lid can be put aside and the steam pipe can be secured directly to the neck with a hose clamp.

Another option is to drill a hole in the lid, insert a fitting, and attach a reinforcing or rectification column to it. Or, if you do not plan to use any of the items listed, - a steam pipe to the refrigerator.

Advice... When making a sidewall or reinforcing column on your own, you can choose such an inner diameter of the pipe so that, by cutting a thread, you can screw the sidebar directly into the neck.

Some "advanced" craftsmen, instead of a neck, make a flange connection for 6 bolts with a mandatory gasket for sealing. The best gasket material is silicone: not afraid of high temperatures, aggressive environment, does not enter into chemical reactions with mash components. By using a wider flange connection and widening the inlet, it is more convenient to wash the cube after ferrying.

2. Installing the thermometer is carried out based on the temperature measuring device you purchased. Non-contact measurement is more often used. Select the required length of the tube (based on the length of the probe) with a thickness of about 8 mm. The same hole is drilled in the cube, into which the finished capsule is welded (soldered).

The fitting, or a capsule sealed in the lower part, into which the thermometer is inserted, is fixed in the upper part of the cube - above the estimated level of filling with the wash. Usually not lower than ¾ from the bottom of the container. In the case of a keg, it is possible at the top, near the lid.

Attention... It is necessary to ensure tightness if you use open contact of the thermometer with the wash or vapors inside the cube, otherwise alcohol-saturated vapors can break through the loose connection.

For such purposes, use only temperature meters that have a threaded connection through a socket welded (welded) into the cube wall.

3. Serpentine made of a copper or stainless tube with a cross section of 15 - 20 mm. Length not less than 1.5 m.

Advice... When winding the coil, plug one end of the tube, stuff it tightly with sand, plug it on the other side, and only then twist it into a spiral on a suitable object (a piece of pipe, a piece of wood, etc.), otherwise the walls will flatten. At the end of the work, remove the plugs, pour out the sand and rinse the coil with water.

4. Refrigerator Is a water jacket. If the refrigerator is flow-through, a stainless steel pipe is sufficient, into which the coil can easily fit with a margin of about 1 cm on both sides. Slightly stepping back from the top and bottom of the cooling pipe, attach the pipes for the supply and drainage of water.

The coil leads should protrude from the plugs of the refrigerator in such a way that it is easy to pull the silicone hoses over them. In a non-flowing refrigerator, the top is open, and the coil tube is output from the bottom (a couple of centimeters from the bottom). All connections must be properly sealed so that nothing leaks.

Attention. As a container for a non-flowing refrigerator, you can use a small keg with a completely cut off top, and make the coil initially under it.

5. Installation of heating elements requires careful preparation. As a rule, heating elements come complete with washers, nuts and gaskets. Necessary:

  • make two holes in the wall of the keg, 5 cm above the bottom, into which the ends of the heating element will definitely pass;
  • take a fluoroplastic (plumbing) roll and wind several layers on the thread. When you tighten the nuts, the winding will be tightly squeezed and will ensure tightness between the keg wall and the restraints on the heating element;
  • connect the heating element to the wire recommended by the heating element manufacturer, reliably insulating the connections.

Important. When installing two heating elements, provide two switches so that during the haul one of the heaters can be easily turned off / on.

In addition, other systems can be connected to a moonshine still from a keg: a dry steamer, / column, tsarga. And also - to mount a faucet from below to drain the stillage.

Look at the step-by-step alteration of a 50 L beer keg for a moonshine still:






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