Extractor Fundamentals: Soxhlet Loop for Scalable Extraction

Understand the extractor loop mechanically and operationally: condensation, chamber fill, siphon return, and why this gives high extraction without direct boiler cooking of ingredients.

Quick summary

Core principle

That's the topic I want to talk about next. And that topic is called, you've probably all read about it, the extractor.

The extractor is a tool, a new tool that we developed, I think, two and a half, three years ago. But in all reality, it wasn't really new.

I think it was invented in 1837 by a Belgian chemist living and working in Berlin, Germany. And he was the first one to create this.

We found out that the extractor actually has the amazing capacity to create bold and big flavors, as in boiler infusion, and actually more. And since no cooking takes place in the extractor, there is no risk associated with it.

That makes the extractor the best of both worlds. And we like to give you, as craft distillers, opportunities, possibilities, tools to out-compete big alcohol.

By not having to choose between two potentially damaging scenarios, we invented that tool for you. Or at least we made it available.

The Belgian professor was called Mr. So if you want to know more about what a Soxhlet still is, or Soxhlet extractor is, just Google Soxhlet, and you'll see how it works.

I'm going to explain it to you in my way and explain to you how it relates to the risks you're running otherwise with boiler infusion over cooking, or with vapor infusion not getting enough flavor over. And one or two anecdotical stories that go with it to show you how well it actually works, or how you can screw things up as easy as that.

For example, we have a distillation boiler.

How it works in practice

We put the herbs here in the vapor path. Boiler infusion, we put them in the liquid for boiler infusion. But now we're going to do extracting, or basically Soxhleting, but on an industrial level, not on a little laboratory glass still.

So what we want to do is we want to have the gases travel up, hit the cooler, and then return to an extractor. They liquefy and they fall down in the extractor chamber. The extractor chamber has a siphon.

So as the extractor chamber fills up with liquids from the distillation process, the siphon also fills up with liquids. And if we filled up the extractor completely, see, since there is more water pressure in the extractor than on the siphon, all of a sudden, the siphon will start to suck all of the liquids out of the extractor and return them to the boiler. OK, that's a nice little closed loop system, right?

So how do we make gin with this? Or how do we make bitters with this? Or how do we make the most amazing infuses and infused drinks out of this?

By filling the extractor with juniper berries, or with strawberries, or with blackberries, or with brambles, or with potato chips, or with any flavor that you basically want to extract. You remember how boiler infusion gives you bold flavor? That's because liquids are more dense than gases.

What kind of extraction do we get in here? Liquid extraction, like in the boiler. So we get all the flavor from, as if we were boiling and infusing.

What was the risk with boiler infusion? The risk with boiler infusion was overcooking. But we're overcooking the ingredients here, and we don't have any ingredients here in the extractor, in the sock sled on an industrial scale.

We have the ingredients in the extractor chamber. The extractor chamber does get warm, it does get warm, but it doesn't cook, so it cannot overcook your ingredients.

Common mistakes and decisions

So all of a sudden, we have a solution that allows you to create the big, bold flavors from boiler infusion and more, actually quite a bit more even, without ever running the risks of overcooking. And that's a solution I think is perfect for you guys, especially because you can make more gin this way. Is it going to turn cloudy if you dilute it?

Very because you pulled over the most incredible amount of taste oils. So you dilute with more GNS, and the more you dilute, the more gin you get. It's a lot of fun to work with.

Our laboratory manager, whom you've met, Willem, was the guy to bring it to, in general, our attention. And the rest of the world said, like, that's really fun, those glass little sock sleds, but they don't work for a craft distiller. You only have to build them out of stainless steel.

I'm going to show you one right here. And we've got one here next to us. Now, you say this is not an extractor like the one that I just drew.

For the smaller iStills, we make them integrated, as I just drew. So on top of your column, or on top of your boiler, with the bigger ones, 500 liter still, 100 liter extractor, we just have the extractor sit next to your system. So you do not have to actually change out your column.

You can just use your standard column, whatever column it is you have.

Continue with Links extractor output behavior to cloudiness interpretation. to build directly on this foundation.

How the Loop Works

Vapor condenses, liquid collects in the extractor chamber, and a siphon returns that liquid to the boiler. This creates a repeating extraction loop without direct boiler cooking of the botanicals inside the chamber.

Key Takeaways