StillSmart

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-08-04T17:33:27+00:00

Well I didn\'t end up filtering it, just wasn\'t warranted. Came out at 80% and clean and pure and odourless. So I made vodka, very nice, more scotch, don\'t know yet, and drambuie, oh my goat!! Lovely.
I\'m so happy with my new ss airstill.

Statistics: Posted by swill — Wed Aug 04, 2010 5:33 pm

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-31T05:19:20+00:00

Thanks for those ideas gents,
I discarded about 50mls on the second run. Adding the tails to the next wash was pretty good, distillate came out at 65% this time. There was a very faint sweetish aroma to the distillate that I picked up even after I added the SS classic whiskey essence. Now I\'m gonna strip the rest of the wash (16L) and then double distil it, dilute to 40% and then filter it.

Statistics: Posted by swill — Sat Jul 31, 2010 5:19 am

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-30T20:21:28+00:00

Agree with Jimmy here, the 100mL discard quantity usually refers to a 25Litre run by those with column type stills.

With an air-still, you probably only need to dump about 15 to 20 mL down the drain \'the Devil\'s share\'

But you need to do it each time.

Ciao.

Statistics: Posted by Ronbo — Fri Jul 30, 2010 8:21 pm

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-30T20:08:00+00:00

You should be able to get away with discarding less, some say as little as 5ml but I tend to go around 50ml personally - experiment and see what you think!

Statistics: Posted by Jimmy — Fri Jul 30, 2010 8:08 pm

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-30T16:56:24+00:00

I changed my mind this afternoon and ran off 4 litres as an experiment. I discarded the first 100mls and collected 700mls. It came out @ 60%. Clear as rainwater and no smell at all. I added 300mls to make a litre @ 40%, took out 300mls and added a Samuel Willard\'s Kafe express pre-mix. (Safe). Wow! So good.
Then I took off another 700mls and added it into the next run. Distilling now. I\'m gonna make some SS classic premium whiskey. I\'m pretty fussy with scotch (no mixer, sometimes ice) so I\'ll let you all know how it goes.

Statistics: Posted by swill — Fri Jul 30, 2010 4:56 pm

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-30T16:28:26+00:00

No problem, ask as many as you like!
The best way is to check here:
http://www.stillsmart.co.uk/smartstill/ ... martstill/
There is a link to the calculator but also the correct settings, about halfway down the page.

Statistics: Posted by Jimmy — Fri Jul 30, 2010 4:28 pm

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-30T07:12:14+00:00

Righto, I\'ll do it that way for sure. When you say calculator is that an online one somewhere or just a hand held one with a formula? Forgive me for asking all these questions but what\'s the formula?

Statistics: Posted by swill — Fri Jul 30, 2010 7:12 am

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-29T19:17:03+00:00

Yeah, if you measure the ABV before the second run then you can use the calculator to work out an exact yield and it tends to be pretty much accurate in my experience. If I triple distill I have got it up to 87% or so which isn\'t bad, obviously depends on what you put in at the beginning but 65 - 80% is reasonable for a cheapo tomato wash.

Statistics: Posted by Jimmy — Thu Jul 29, 2010 7:17 pm

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-29T14:57:16+00:00

That sounds pretty cool Jimmy. I suppose your final spirit is running out at around 80%?
I\'ve got 24L of wash sitting in the fermenter right now at around 20%. So when it clears in a week I\'ll do 6 runs, collect 6 litres in all, split it in two lots of 3 litres, add around a litre of H2O to each and run them through again, this time collecting (after removing 100mls heads), say 2 litres at around 80%. Sound about right?

Statistics: Posted by swill — Thu Jul 29, 2010 2:57 pm

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-28T21:29:29+00:00

That\'s what I do Swill - take about a litre in a stripping run. I collect each batch and put them into two glass demijohns - once the first runs are done, I top each up to 4 litres with water and run them again, this time taking off heads. This has two advantages - one, it\'s simple and improves quality, and two it allows me to use the spirit alcometer before the second runs to work out pretty accurately what I\'m putting in and therefore what I can expect to take out. You can do this by measuring the specific gravity before you ferment, then measuring again after it\'s done and doing the calculations but I\'m lazy so I skip that part as I know I\'m doing the stripping runs.
A \'traditional\' stripping run would take a lot more than this, basically collecting as long as there is any ABV remaining. It\'s horses for courses - I waste more like this, but it gives me good quality results and it suits me.

Statistics: Posted by Jimmy — Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:29 pm

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-28T17:21:33+00:00

Hi All
So I got myself an alcoholometer the other day (ta Phantom). The wash has been on 4 days and it\'s finished fermenting already! Couldn\'t believe my eyes when it checked it. (My beers often take around 2 weeks). Anyway I\'ll leave it to clear for a week or so before I distil it.
Say Optic, how much of your 4L wash does the 2 1/4 hour \'stripping run\' yield? I was also thinking of double distilling if it means I get a better product. I guess you just take the heads cut out when you do your final spirit run.. right?

Statistics: Posted by swill — Wed Jul 28, 2010 5:21 pm

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-28T00:54:31+00:00

I have in the past pre-heated the wash using an electric kettle to the temps that Phantom suggests and it does knock a fair bit of time off the warm up before the run starts,but as someone on here pointed out it works out cheaper to use the still from cold rather than the couple of minutes in the kettle,these days I run the still on a timer set for 2 1/4 hours to do the stripping run,I have had no problems doing it this way and you can get on with other things,and then I am with the still all the time doing the real fun bit-the spirit run.
Optic

Statistics: Posted by optic — Wed Jul 28, 2010 12:54 am

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-25T16:40:34+00:00

Well here\'s a little thought......
There should be no problem with pre-heating the wash, but I\'d suggest that you do it in a large pan on a cooker - use a thermometer though as if you go too high then you\'ll lose some of the alcohol.
I\'d suggest that you start warming the wash to something like 50 or 60 degrees C, no more and at the same time, if you then just warmed the boiler section with some boiling water (so there\'s no loss in temp when the wash is poured in), then in theory, it should be quicker to get up to distilling temperature.
As for testing for %ABV of distillate, I\'d suggest that you get a \"spirits hydrometer\" and a sample test jar (you can spend thousands on very technical test kit, but a standard spirits hydrometer is accurate enough for most of us.....)

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Sun Jul 25, 2010 4:40 pm

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-24T15:12:23+00:00

OK, so what would be the minimum reasonable temp to ferment this SW yeast at to avoid stalled ferments. I\'m happy to let it go for say 2 weeks before distilling. And I\'ll get that triple distil next week and get it in the other fermenter (when the double draught is done!).

Statistics: Posted by swill — Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:12 pm

Pre-warming the wash?

2010-07-23T19:19:33+00:00

Samuel Willard\'s original temp tolerant is on par with the still spirits classic to memory. yeah, you will have a few issues with the high metho and filtering it and may notice a strange background taste, wont notice it if you mix it with liqueurs. but the triple distill has 1/10 of the impurities of the next grade down (classic), thus better when using 60% yield still, that said i use it with my T500 which is 95% not that it makes a huge difference to the quality when using the triple distilled

Statistics: Posted by freelancement — Fri Jul 23, 2010 7:19 pm