Review of distillers “NEXT” from “Pervachok Shop”

Many manufacturers of moonshine stills order part of the nodes on the side. This is a normal practice in the era of globalization, so it is not surprising that an enterprise that does not have its own production facilities is able to produce original products. Choosing successful nodes from various domestic and foreign manufacturers, you can assemble a moonshine still that is not inferior to competitors in terms of price and quality.

The staff of the Pervachok Shop went along this path, collecting, in their opinion, all the best on the moonshine stills market, and forming a modular constructor based on clamp connections. This is how the NEXT line of equipment appeared, which should be considered as the basis for building your own set.

Sellers do not insist on the completeness and absolute correctness of their device, on the contrary, they prefer to give the buyer the opportunity to select the components individually, after mandatory consultations. It is impossible, for example, to simply click on the “Buy” button on the site and receive the goods by mail after payment. There is simply no such button. There is a “Favorites” tab, then a discussion with the seller of both the kit and related products that are most relevant to the goals of the buyer.

Stills

Cubes under the brand name “NEXT” with volumes of 25, 37 and 50 liters are offered to choose from. All based on the LuxStahl pan. The material of manufacture, according to the seller, is food grade stainless steel. We’ll clarify from ourselves: AISI 201 steel grade, the shortcomings of which are well known.

Equipping cubes is minimal. A flange for a drain cock is embedded in the boiler, and there is a ½ inch thread not only outside, but also inside the cube. This is done to install a filter system when using the kettle to brew the wort.

The reinforced 3 mm lid is attached to the cube through a U-shaped silicone gasket with an adjustable crimp collar. The lid is fitted with a 1,5” or 2” column clamp connection, electronic thermometer nipple and overpressure relief valve from the pressure cooker.

An electronic thermometer is included in the kit, for an additional fee a flange with a clamp connection under the heating element, complete with a plug, gasket and clamp, can be cut into the cube.

The disadvantages are obvious:

• the emergency valve has a response threshold of about 2,5 atm. The dangerous pressure during the distillation of raw alcohol is approximately 0,5 atmospheres, when a sudden depressurization of the cube can lead not only to the release of boiling water from the cube, but also to the creation of an explosive concentration of alcohol vapors in a small kitchen room.
• the crimp collar is the bottleneck in this system. Depending on the quality of manufacture, it can be torn off already at a pressure of one atmosphere.

It would probably make sense to complete NEXT cubes with lids or blast valves manufactured by KB-223, especially since the store offers their cubes as an alternative. Yes, and inserting a fitting under a valve is much simpler than a flange under a heating element.

Loads

For 1,5” columns, drawers are available in lengths of 50, 60 and 70 cm, with a diameter of 38 mm. For 2” columns – 25, 40, 50, 55, 60, 70, 80 and 100 cm, with a diameter of 51 mm. The choice of parameters is strange, for example, there is no popular length of 75 cm, but there are 40 and 55.

Copper drawers as part of additional equipment have a length of 50 cm, a diameter of 42 mm. This is not bad and allows you to increase the performance of a 1,5 “column by about 30%, if, of course, the reflux condenser can handle it.

There is also a glass tsarga 50 cm long, but it seems that the seller does not understand why it is needed at all. Pervachok Shop offers to fill the side of the RPN or SPN, then observe the process. Weird…

The glass side only makes sense for placing plates inside it. Then the visual control of the work is useful. In the case of placing a nozzle inside the tsarga to reduce the amount of wild phlegm, good thermal insulation is needed from above. As opposed to a curious look, it is better to prefer technological necessity. This is understandable even for a newbie.

90 degree bends

An outlet with a liquid extraction unit is standard. From the know-how, only poorly welded seams, it is here that all sorts of things will accumulate, which is difficult to wash. These are provocateurs of future corrosion.

Simple taps are made differently. Everything is not so sad here. A nipple for an electronic thermometer to improve the accuracy of measurements, and the quality of welding and seam processing is not bad. Let’s just say it’s excellent.

Refrigerator and dephlegmator

The store offers shell-and-tube refrigerators and dephlegmators with a length of 400 and 200 mm with 5 and 3 baffles, respectively. For 1,5″ columns, reflux condensers and coolers have 5 steam tubes with a diameter of 8 mm, for 2″ – 7 tubes with a diameter of 12 mm.

Obviously, reflux condensers for 1,5” columns are absolutely not suitable for obtaining high-quality distillate. For normal operation, pipes of a larger diameter are needed.

Refrigerators are able to handle up to 2,5 kW for 1,5″ columns and up to 4 kW for 2″.

Optional equipment

As part of the designer there is also a newfangled feature – a horizontal selection unit, which is relevant only if the apparatus is equipped with a large-diameter plate column. Then it becomes necessary to move the product sampling tube a few centimeters away from the column, since it simply does not fit and interferes with the placement of the aftercooler.

The glass-type intermediate sampling unit with a thermometer sleeve, a needle valve and an inclined aftercooler is characterized by poor seam processing. For the selection of the “body” its design is unsuitable, it needs a partitioning unit for the selection, and for drop-by-drop selection of the “heads” the too powerful aftercooler is bewildering. Even a meter-long piece of PVC pipe copes with this without problems. This is an extra and expensive item.

Product discharge spout – due to the height of the glass, it is suitable for the operation of the column in the “potstill” mode. Even if the cooler is placed at an angle of 20°, the distillate puddle does not block the steam pipes.

There are also diopters, parrots and gin baskets that are loved by many.

The NEXT-Max gin-basket raises no questions, and its cheaper version, NEXT-Lite, is for those who like to wash the nozzle, as it is placed directly above the reflux condenser, so the sediment is drained directly into the column. Outdated and inconvenient design.

Electronics

Power controllers for 2, 3,5 and 5 kW are available for process control. All of them produce smooth and stepless adjustment by turning the knob. The first and last made in China, therefore of the appropriate quality. Even the seller recommends using a 5 kW regulator with a heating element with a power of no more than 3 kW.

The RM-3500 power regulator is a truly modern device that allows you to maintain a given heating power with the required accuracy and stability. RM-3500 informs on the built-in display about the voltage in the network, the power supplied to the heating element in Watts, the current strength and the consumed electricity.

Ready kit options

From the elements of the modular constructor, the store offers ready-made kits for creating a BC. These are AISI 304 stainless steel stills on NEXT 1,5”, NEXT 2″ and NEXT-PROF 2″ clamps, as well as NEXT Cuprum 1,5″ and NEXT Cuprum 2 copper distillers “”. Their characteristics are determined by the capabilities of the constructor nodes.

«NEXT 1,5’’»

Due to the high steam velocities in the 1,5” dephlegmator tubes, obtaining a quality distillate on one and a half inch columns is almost impossible. The base frame of 600 mm is more than enough to prevent splashing during the distillation of mash and will strengthen the moonshine up to 92-93% during the second distillation. Phlegm splashes flying out of the reflux condenser will fall into the selection and create conditions for the premature choking of the column.

An increase in extraction or a decrease in operating power can allow stabilization of work, but to the detriment of the quality of distillate purification. The selection of “heads” with the help of the liquid selection unit is not provided in the basic version, but here it would be very useful.

This configuration option is the most flawed of those presented on the site. For those who want to purchase exactly a 1,5” column, it is worth recommending to abandon the dephlegmator and purchase a liquid sampling unit instead of a simple angular outlet.

«NEXT 2″» и «NEXT-PROF 2”»

In fact, this is the same apparatus, differing only in the method of controlling the column.

“NEXT 2″” – with steam extraction (CM water flow control) and “NEXT-PROF 2” – with liquid selection (LM reflux control). Both devices are working and correspond to the declared characteristics.

The only thing that causes bewilderment is the use of a horizontal liquid selection unit. As already mentioned, the only justified purpose of this node instead of the corner one may be the need to move the aftercooler a few centimeters from the side. For example, if a tray column with a large outer diameter is installed. Here, there is no such need, and its use does not entail any benefit, except for an increase in the cost of the column. In addition, the horizontal selection unit shifts the center of gravity of the column, which will backfire when using additional drawers to produce alcohol.

Another important nuance of these columns is the possibility of using a gin basket. For “NEXT 2” this is a native detail, but for the owners of “NEXT-PROF 2” it will become a puzzle. The question of how to connect a gin basket so that the sediment flows into its glass without mixing with phlegm will occupy the imagination for a long time and make the owners of columns with liquid selection without a reflux condenser sweat.

«NEXT Cuprum 1,5” » и «NEXT Cuprum 2” »

These assemblies have a number of serious shortcomings. First of all, the use of copper in units where the steam and the resulting phlegm are directed to the selection of salt and copper oxides. And for a 1,5” apparatus, the steam speed in the dephlegmator is also too high.

The use of copper has been repeatedly discussed in all forums of distillers for almost a decade, and now it is simply wild to see its use in the refrigerator. Copper has its pros and cons. The task of the designer of moonshine stills is to fully use the first and exclude the influence of the second.

Upon contact of moonshine vapors with a copper surface, two types of chemical reactions occur: exchange and redox. Copper does not take a direct part in exchange reactions, but acts as their catalyst. On a clean, mechanically cleaned copper surface before distillation, a complex recombination process takes place with the formation of new esters, resulting in an excellent organoleptic drink.

But copper is directly involved in redox reactions. Sulfur compounds and acids, reacting with copper oxides, form both soluble and insoluble compounds on its surface. In a pair, they become smaller, the smell improves significantly. These are all positives, but there are also negatives.

Soluble compounds are washed away by the resulting phlegm. If they fall into the cube, everything is in order, since these substances are not volatile and cannot evaporate. But if soluble compounds are washed off into selection, this is bad, since for the most part they are harmful. Almost all copper salts are poisonous and they are not needed in selection.

From the foregoing, we can conclude: in order to use the positive qualities of copper without risk to health, it can and should be used on ascending steam flows, for example, for the manufacture of cubes and their lids, drawers, nozzles or plates. Where steam and flowing reflux can carry salts and copper oxides into the product, i.e. downstream, neutral stainless steel should be used.

conclusions

1. The team of the Pervachok Shop store has formed a basic set of modular kit for moonshine stills, which includes both good and frankly weak designs. Many nodes do not have the necessary add-ons, without which they are useless. For example, a glass column without plates.
2. All parts are made with different levels of quality, you need to pay attention to this.
3. The cubes are equipped with pressure relief valves with too high a threshold.
4. Of the proposed assemblies, only the NEXT 2 distiller can be recommended for purchase without reservation.
5. The “NEXT-PROF 2” distiller is based on a sound idea, but the selection unit unreasonably increases its cost. When buying, you need to insist on replacing it with a corner unit for liquid selection. Of course, if you do not plan to use a large diameter tray column.
6. “NEXT 2 ″” and “NEXT-PROF 2” in the case of purchasing additional drawers and nozzles SPN can become both excellent BCs and reach the level of RK in terms of cleaning quality.
7. A series of copper distillers “NEXT Cuprum” is not recommended for purchase, as the product obtained with their help can be harmful to health.

Reviewed by IgorGor.