StillSmart

How does one go about this...and why? I did a run a couple of days ago and ended up mixing up the hearts with foreshots/tails (don't ask). Anyway, I now have about 10 litres of 45% that I'm not totally happy with (a slight whiff even after filtering). Could I just put this back in the T500 and run again, or should it be more dilute? Will I lose much? Is it worth doing?

Any advice / guidance appreciated, cheers

For safety reasons it is not advisable to boil anything that has over 40% alcohol content.

So adding a safety factor most people tend to dilute to 30% for spirit runs.

Yes, after you have diluted it to 30% you can put it back in the T500, run it again and make cuts to get rid of the unwanted elements, this time it might be an idea not to mix them with the good stuff.

Yes it is worth doing, yes you will lose some hearts, but not much, the alternative is to drink something that is not pleasant, why would you want to do that?

Toodlepip

Brian

Thanks for the advice. I'll thin it out and do anther run tomorrow.

Cheers

H

@Heggsy, its been a long time since I drank anything that has not been at least double distilled. You may find you like the product . Distilling twice on the column is very time consuming though, its better to run it fast through a pot head first collecting everything, then watering down this spirit and doing the column run. This might not be something you can do now, but it may be something to think about doing in the future.

@YHB, Keeping under 40% is good practice for safety, but the reason I tend distil at 30% or less is for better separation rather than an additional safety margin.
The tails contain oils, and fatty acids that are soluble in high strength alcohol, but not in water. If the initial still charge is high, its easy for them to be dissolved in the alcohol and carry over into the hearts of the product, giving slight off tastes. By keeping the charge low these remain undissolved and stay in the boiler giving cleaner hearts.
There is an excellent book in Harry's library on whisky making that goes into this in detail, I'll see if I can find the bookmark and I'll post a link.

Sometimes when using the open top boiler, once I've added the water to let the charge down if I've left it a while I'm sure I've seen a very feint shimmer\oil on water affect, if viewed in the right light. Not the rainbow you get with spilt fuel, more like the almost clear bubbles when washing an oily frying pan without enough detergent.

Thanks Capt.

Will this still require filtering? I have to be honest and say that with a good clean spirit, I don't really notice the filtering having any effect.

Filtering is one of those things where experience will lessen the need.

No matter what type of still you have, the purity of the drinkable spirit is dictated by how the still is run and where the cuts are made.

Running fast will result in smearing of the different elements into each other and effective filtering will be absolutely necessary.

Cuts that don't accurately separate the heads & tails from the Heart, in the way you intend, may also require/benefit effective filtration.

We all strive to achieve better and cleaner results from our stills and I suppose it's fair to label us all as Distilling Practitioners trying to fine tune our art.

For what it's worth, I've learned that striping a clean wash in a pot still, then slow running the low wines through a column followed by careful cuts will produce finished spirits that do not require filtering.

However, a word of caution! the human palate is all too capable of getting used to just about anything, even poorly cut spirits like commercial alcohol products.

I'm putting together a rough guide to cuts (pun intended ) - and I stress the term "rough" It will be basic but may provide a starting point and, perhaps, some guidance to beginners who find the whole "Cuts" subject a little daunting, highly subjective and quite baffling

I'll post it in a separate thread under the Distillation heading.

AM

Thanks very much for the comprehensive reply, mate.

I'm still very much a novice...but enjoying the learning process!

I have to admit, my palate is not very discerning, but I use my wife as official 'taster' and she isn't slow to tell me if it doesn't taste 'right'. I'm doing the 2nd run now and am happy to run it as slow as I can to get a cleaner output. I'm going to try to keep it between 52-55 for the whole run and see how that works out.

Cheers

H