StillSmart

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-05-24T04:49:41+00:00

So limit yourself to four glasses of orange juice. Make the rest home stillings.

Statistics: Posted by chill — Fri May 24, 2013 4:49 am

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-05-24T04:33:48+00:00

In the UK the maximum intake of Methanol, as recommended by the Department of Health, is 600 mg per day for a 60 kg adult, .

http://archive.food.gov.uk/maff/archive ... orange.htm

Statistics: Posted by YHB — Fri May 24, 2013 4:33 am

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-05-23T20:20:39+00:00

All fermenting processes produce methanol. Some more than others. Fruits and grains produce more than sugar washes.
In saying that, there is not enough methanol produced to be life threatening.

A bottle of whiskey has about 15-25mg methanol.
A glass of orange juice has....wait for it......anywhere up to 150mg. WTF?

But, there are other ingredients far worse and in greater quantities in alcohol production. Such as acetates and aldehydes. The greater the quantity, the bigger the hangover and headache.

No amount of sophistication of a home distillation apparatus will produce pure ethanol. (Even hearts will have some contamination). An understanding of Raoults law will shed more light. (It's very technical)

Also, take heart in the fact that the antidote for methanol poisoning is ethanol.
Ironic, hey?

Always remove the foreshots. Always make good cuts.

scarecrow

Statistics: Posted by scarecrow — Thu May 23, 2013 8:20 pm

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-05-22T18:19:20+00:00

Aiden is correct. "Can drink it" and "should drink it" are two very different things. If you are just discarding the fore shots you are drinking things that are neither water nor ethyl alcohol. Ultimately it is your liver and your brain. "Tastes OK with flavouring" is not a metric I will use.

Chuck

Statistics: Posted by chill — Wed May 22, 2013 6:19 pm

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-05-22T17:05:19+00:00

Guys, I'd be the first to defend everybody's right to distill in their own way and drink whatever you want, but I'd offer this opinion and advice to go with that.

It is established distilling fact that recycling the majority of the heads and the tails of the distillate is a best practice and will ensure a clean final product that will not cause bad headaches, jippy tummy or the screaming pyackies or other conditions which even more technical names

While these elements are not inherently dangerous, in and of themselves, and can be consumed, if you are prepared for the possible consequences which may not be immediately obvious or noticeable, it is generally advised by experienced distillers hereabouts and on other forums, that careful cuts should be made to your distillate to ensure a pleasant and safe drinking experience.

One of the "must have" attributes for good distillers is patience. With your own still you will produce much more spirit than you can ever consume so take a little time to make it as good as possible.

In any case it would be preferable if new distillers learn the "right" way before venturing into the Dark Side of drinking everything out of the condenser.

AM

Statistics: Posted by Almanac — Wed May 22, 2013 5:05 pm

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-05-22T15:38:47+00:00

jimbob wrote:
every drop apart from the heads is usable

Every drop you collect after discarding the fore shots (not heads) is, as the manuals,DVD's say, usable.drinkable. You are correct there,

However....

Having been t500ing for a good few months now, I started like you by just mixing it all up together (after fore shots) and was very happy with the results. Like all hobby's you tend to experiment and I started to make cuts as described elsewhere around here.

Did it make a difference to the finished product, yes, I have to admit it did. Using jars of pure hearts only and recycling the heads and tails into the next run, made a better end product.

However....

I no longer bother, I'm back to collecting it all, (after fore shots) and just using that, the difference for me and the couple of samplers that I allow to indulge in my hobby are perfectly happy with the end product from a full run.

I have done a couple of the double distils as mentioned above or another thread, i.e 2 runs, watered to around 25-30% then distilled again. That was really smooth but again, for me, not worth the effort to do every time. I will probably do a double distil run for Christmas, ne'rday bottles but that will be the only time.

I would suggest that you maybe experiment with cuts, if you think it's worth it, do it, same goes for dbl/trip distilling. It's up to you

There is only the one rule written in stone. "Discard the fore shots" Everything else is flexible.

Statistics: Posted by The_Angels_Share — Wed May 22, 2013 3:38 pm

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-04-17T06:10:58+00:00

Everybody has their own preferences and you should always follow your own common sense.

I run a 50l keg boiler and on the spirit run I routinely chuck 250ml as fores then I set aside 1000ml in three lots, (500ml, 250ml and 250ml), as possible heads. After airing, usually just the last 250ml gets into my Whisky.

After that I collect the distillate as Hearts in 750ml lots until I reach a point where I expect the Heart to end then I change to collecting in 250ml lots checking regularly for tails, some of which are required for my Whisky, but only a little

AM

Statistics: Posted by Almanac — Wed Apr 17, 2013 6:10 am

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-04-17T05:14:11+00:00

http://www.wineworks.co.uk/uploads/SS_T ... sion_7.pdf

Please read "step 8" of the user guide, the dvd that even came with it says the same and theres a interesting video that goes into great detail about the t500 how to operate and they all say every drop apart from the heads is usable, ive made 3 runs with the t500 and ive tasted the last few drops and the tasted as good as the 1st few,

As a novice myself I learn from other users of the same but ignoring other users of the t500 would make me a fool but hey im only doing what ive read up on and seen and leart along the way, I dont often join forums because you always get pushed and pulled into someone elses method of doing things too many chiefs not enough indians, I bow down to the masters read what they write learn from what I see, I had a quextion and its been answered now were moving onto googling links and pasting them

Wikipedia is a load of old dohsh1t I would trust a real person and a guide that came with it 9times out of 10 and twice on sunday over winki

Statistics: Posted by jimbob — Wed Apr 17, 2013 5:14 am

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-04-17T04:47:02+00:00

"every drop is of quality alcohol" Mmmmm, no. It may shut down at the tails, but you are drinking heads. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethyl_acetate Learn to make cuts. You head, mouth, and stomach will thank you. What you are drinking won't kill you, but it is not ethanol. Do NOT trust the instructions that came with the machine. They are trying to sell ease of use and quantity of product, not quality of product. Your call really, but not for me, thanks.

Chuck

Statistics: Posted by chill — Wed Apr 17, 2013 4:47 am

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-04-16T16:19:41+00:00

Direct from the user guide says that once you throw away your heads/foreshots the book and instructin dvd says this is 50mls on here its anything from 50-100mls I chuck 200ml sod it im not to 100ml better to besafe, the instruction book and dvd and other users have said that there are no recognisable tails with the t500 every drop is of quality alcohol,

I think theres a video from a guy who works for "wineworks" that goes into details about this, eitherway ivenad great success from the t500, my understanding iss that once the alcohol has been distilled then the t500 will stop collecting alcohol and stop dripping

Hey im just a newby doing what im told all I can say is im more than happy with the t500 so far

Statistics: Posted by jimbob — Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:19 pm

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-04-16T15:45:01+00:00

So you only discard 200ml and then start collecting hearts? I know nothing about the T500, but I am guessing that you are getting heads in with your hearts. 200ml is probably a lot for fore-shots, but not enough for all of the heads.

Can a more experienced T500 owner comment?

Chuck

Statistics: Posted by chill — Tue Apr 16, 2013 3:45 pm

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-04-16T05:10:34+00:00

Thanks everyone youve been a big help and agaain my apologies for the newby question, everywhere ive read about the t500 is saying that you dont get noticable tails apparently everydrop apart from the heads is useable alcohol, ive only done 3runs with my t500 and ive had fantastic results from all 3 and I believe that to be tru e ery drop was as good as the one before

Statistics: Posted by jimbob — Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:10 am

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-04-16T00:54:31+00:00

I have never used a T500, but it will not be the equipment that that determines the mount of tails/fusil oils. It will come from the beer you have fermented. Same with heads and foreshots. A grain wash will have more than a simple sugar wash.

Statistics: Posted by RumJohn — Tue Apr 16, 2013 12:54 am

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-04-15T23:12:38+00:00

I think you are confusing foreshots and methanol. You absolutely should be discarding what comes out at the beginning regardless of what you think is in it. Acetone is part of it. Methanol forms an azeotrope with alcohol, you can't separate them by distilling.

The only cases of methanol poisoning from a drink (commercial or moonshine) that I know of resulted from someone adding methanol to give it more of a kick. Don't do that.

Chuck

Statistics: Posted by chill — Mon Apr 15, 2013 11:12 pm

Re: yeast question/ t500 methanol

2013-04-15T20:27:13+00:00

Seriously orange juice? Thats mad, well yeah better to be safe than sorry rightly or wrongly its 200mls for me and I enjoy the results of my t500 im told you dont get noticable tails from the t500 just throw away the heads and your golden

Statistics: Posted by jimbob — Mon Apr 15, 2013 8:27 pm