StillSmart

Well I bought the still off someone from here and spent a long time waiting for my first wash to finish and reading lots on here before and after the purchase.

I've been using an airstill for over a year, and finally got fed up with the extremely long process of doing the stripping run then cut runs and head runs. . etc. So plunged for the T500.

I've just finished my first run - and I'll be honest did the lazy version

I use still spirits triple distilled yeast + turbo clear. Which provides a nice slow ferment.

I just did a straight run, removing first 200ml (partly by accident as I was wrapped up with some work but understand 200ml is good to "ditch"). Then kept it around 53C mark until finished.

I feel I've ended up with too much (prob because I've captured the heads/hearts and minor tails together). BUT - the result is already lots better than I was getting.

I've got the essencia filter as well.

So I got 3.3ltrs of 93% from the run, which watering down to 40% is giving me over 7ltrs?

I didn't expect to see quite that much so easily. . .I'm assuming I'm on the ball here and that is what I should expect?

I'll prob start doing a stripping run and double distilling when I've a cache saved. But for now - very happy and just want to say thanks to the really informative posts on here as well

Termite wrote:BUT - the result is already lots better than I was getting.

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And they will keep on getting better.

Welcome

Welcome termite, without knowing how much sugar you used or what the final ABV of the wash was its hard to know what your results mean.

I'm sure you are right that there is probably heads/hearts/tails all mixed in, it takes a little while to get your eye in and be able to identify all the different fractions.

For me, as a general rule the first 10-15% off the still of the available alcohol is going to be heads (when using a decent refluxing column)
So if you have 25L of 14% wash (3.5L of pure alcohol), then the first 375-565ml is going to be heads (@ 93% ABV)
Taking heads off slower pushes it towards the 10,% running faster at the start and you're pushing up the amount of product that gets contaminated with the heads.

I normally look to get 65-70% of the total alcohol as hearts, and leave about 15% as tails.

These numbers are rough guidelines that I find work for me, and knowing how much I plan to collect lets you know at what point you need to start paying attention.

Combining the stripped low wines from several washes (watered down to sub 40% (I prefer sub 30%) makes the spirit run much more productive.

A calculator and a stopwatch are 2 of the most important tools I use when doing a spirit run.