"Alex 25" and "Alex30" FRACTIONAL STILLS – now upgraded.
First of all - why are these
distillers called "Alex"? The answer is: the name will help
distinguish these kinds of stills from other types. The "Alex"
stands for Alcohol extractor, where 25, 30, or 50 is the
capacity of the still's boiler.
Second - the distiller was equipped with vinyl tubing and a
polyethylene ball valve. While these materials are considered
entirely safe and widely used for water and food handling,
spirit bottle stoppers, and even human artificial joint
replacement, we decided to move forward and replace all the
plastic parts with stainless steel tubes and ball valves.
All stills of this kind intended for food-grade alcohol
production will be equipped with stainless steel parts. The only
plastic parts remaining on the still are the ones that are used
for the cooling water supply and one tiny tube that is used to
show the ethanol level in the dephlegmator. This small tube just
gets filled up once during distillation. Technically there is no
ethanol flow through this tube, so there is no ethanol quality
affection.
Third, we came up with one extra part that can be fitted to any
"Alex 25" or "Alex30" distiller that was ever sold. This part is
optional and will be sold separately or with the distiller for some
extra cost. The piece is the herbal infusion chamber that makes it
possible to make herbal-infused spirits, such as Gin. In controversy
to classic Gin production straight out of raw mash while trying to
determine the "heads" and "tails" and wasting the precious herbal
goodness that escapes with an unusable head fraction - we do it the
safest and most economical way. So to achieve the best result, we
first use our stripping column and extract the raw spirit from the
mash.
Then
we run the fractional distillation with a fractional column,
separating all the impurities from the stripped alcohol. Then
collect the purified, free-of-impurities ethanol, and here is the
trick: the pure alcohol has no impurities, tails, or heads to worry
about. Thus the pure alcohol is added to the boiler and mixed with
fresh water, and then the infusion chamber is installed and loaded
with a botanic mix. The stripping column is mounted on the infusion
chamber, and distillation runs straight from the beginning to the
end of the infused spirit extraction. And there are no tails or
heads to waste the herbals in, plus there is no hangover the
following day. Moreover, the results are 100% professional, with no
terrible homebrew smell or taste.
"Alex 30" fractional still.
|
|
Just recently, we started the fabrication of 30L fractional
distillers. These stills are a bit different from the previous
"Alex 25" model; the apparatus has a bigger 30l capacity boiler
and a new kind of re-designed fractional and stripping columns.
The difference between the new columns and the ones from the old
design is that the new distillation columns require less water
for better cooling. Thus the new system consumes less water for
cooling. Now the fractional column is a bit higher, with the
smaller diameter of the dephlegmator - resulting in the better
cooling ability of the column. The unit is lighter now and has a
better water economy - while production ability remains the same
as with an old bulky dephlegmator.
The stripping column of the fractional still has a new design as
well - the cooler's outer diameter is smaller while cooling the
surface area inside the heat exchanger is increasing—as a
result, lighter and more efficient stripping columns with
reduced water consumption.
Another positive aspect: the still is lighter, so the shipping
is cheaper.
|
|