Not all that satisfied - help

[Indianamoonshine]

I bought my T500 a few weeks ago and I've made four turbo washes, and four birdwatchers washes. I'm doing everything I've learned from this website and other sites however it appears my finished product still has a harsh smell / taste. I keep my temp at 57 -58c which is slow as recommended. The Internet tells us we can make a clear, tasteless and odorless neutral from my T500 but mine continues to have a fingernail polish smell even at a lower 184 proof. I've tried to filter and it helps but it still smells a bit. I've also ran my likker through the still a second time after deluting down to 35% but it didn't help a whole lot. I've even considered running a third time through the still. Since day one I have seperated my likker as it comes out of the still in 200 - 300 ml to learn heads, hearts and tails. It is hard for me to tell the difference from any of my likker as it is seperated. HELP. Does anyone have any answers?

[billmcc]

Hiya m8 are you throwing away enough foreshots as nail polish remover is acetone
The alcohols in the wash begins to vapourise from the wash around specific temperatures. If by themselves they would be ...
Acetone 56.5C (134F)
Methanol (wood alcohol) 64C (147F)
Ethyl acetate 77.1C (171F)
Ethanol 78C (172F)
2-Propanol (rubbing alcohol) 82C (180F)
1-Propanol 97C (207F)

[Indianamoonshine]

So do you recommend keeping the temp at 60c?

[billmcc]

No m8 i dont even have a t500 but with you saying it smelt of varnish remover i wondered if you were throwing enough foreshots away as that is where the acetone is

[Capt-Cudellez]

You say you are separating the heads, hearts, tails. Are you then chucking the whole lot together and passing it through the filter?
Say you collect 6 x500ml jars of spirit - are you only filtering the middle 4?

If you just keep chucking the heads and tails back together you wont get any benefit to separating them out. Also I always air the spirit (leave it in the collection jar with a coffee filter paper over the top) for at least 24 hours before deciding which jars to keep, and which ones to recycle.

Just leaving it a few days can really improve it. And always water down to 40abv or under for tasting\ smelling\ making your cuts.

[Indianamoonshine]

I'm filtering my hearts seperately. Yes, I also found it helps to let my likker set for a day or two. Maybe, just maybe I expect too much from my likker. The videos tell me I can make a neutral that is basicall alcoholic water with no smell or taste but I have not found this to be true .... yet. I'm working on it. I've read where guys do not filter however I think it's a must for me. I haven't found the secret or what I need to do for an awesome neutral yet. Like everyone else, I discard the first 100ml and then collect in 200ml or 300ml jars. The smell gets better than the first 100ml but never really goes completely away. Am I expecting too much? Today I watered down batch and disilled it for the third time with the same results.

Indianamoonshine

[Capt-Cudellez]

I always strip then do a spirit run. I test the PH of the strip, and adjust to 7 with calcium carbonate - this gets really good neutral.
Be careful not to go higher than 7 as it will eat the copper saddles.

Since moving to my VM column, I have realised there is a big difference between 93+ and 95+ spirit. If I'm doing voddy for sipping neat, I sometimes re-run hearts and do a second spirit run even pulling 95 on the first run.

It sounds like you are doing the right things - how does your column smell? The ceramic saddles really can hold on to some flavours. I had a bugger of a job getting the flavour from a gin maceration out. Maybe just a wee clean will improve your results.

Run some water through the still and see what the output smells like then?


CC