distillation techniques

[Dynamic]

Hi guys,

I didn't knew what fores, heads, hearts and tails stand for; So I looked it up.
First of all, nice technique, I studied chemical techniques and never knew about this.
But about those Fores (the methanol part as it appears on the Internet), if you use sugar you can't produce methanol, so why throw it away?

I'm missing something...

[Mash]

Welcome.

This is a damn fine question. One That has flitted through my grey matter but never posted.

I'm looking forward to the replies from the clever folks.

[Myles]

Yes.
Yeast produces a whole coctail of different alcohols inaddition to other products. Not just ethanol.

Out of this soup we try to separate the ones we want from the ones we don't. Each cut component contains a mixture, not a single element.

Your Hearts cut contains ethanol and small traces of lots of other compounds also.
If you get the cuts wrong it contains too much of the other stuff.

Edit. Even the Fores contains some ethanol, cant be avoided, but we use power management to try and minimise what we want to keep, and maximise what we don't want.

[Dynamic]

Fine, so I inhaled methanol 0.0

Thant's the answer I was hoping for, good to know there is MeOH in my wash (and other different stuff).
There must be some techniques to avoid them..

What the internet tells me:
(fores) Methanol: 64,7°C
(heads) Aceton: 56°C
(heads) Aceetaldehyde: 20°C

Wrong..? All those 3 products are fores right, they boil immediately.
So what to do with the heads? They contain aceton and aceetaldehyde, they say.

http://www.clawhammersupply.com/blogs/m ... mies-guide

[Myles]

Fores contain ALL the volatiles in the boiler. It is just the proportions that vary. There is a higher percentage of the lowest boiling point volatiles, but the fores still contain ethanol.

Heads are the same but because you have already removed the fores, the percentage of those components in the heads is lower. The heads still contain ethanol, which is why heads are often recycled. To try and get some of that ethanol next time.

Most of the time any ethanol in the fores is sacrificed.

Even the boiler on a reflux still produces all the components in the vapour. However, it then uses a thermal gradient to selectively RE-CONDENSE the components to improve separation. The boiler still produces everything as a mixture, but the column tries to separate them out.

Pot stills use power management to do the separation, reflux columns use thermal gradients, fractionating columns take it even further.

They are all dealing with a simple FACT. A boiler that contains a mixture of volatile components, ALWAYS produces a vapour that contains a mixture of volatile components.

Distillation trys to sepparate those vapours out to some extent or other.

[Myles]

Methanol. If the fermentation produces it, the still concentrates it. The quantity produced is so low it is unlikely to hurt you.

Sure it will give you a nasty hangover but fermentations will NOT produce enough methanol to hurt you.

In every case where there has been reported methanol poisoning it has been due to a couple of situations.

Someone has deliberately collected methanol from many fermentations, and then allowed someone to drink it OR

Someone has deliberately added methanol to a product to increase profits, without consideration for customers. They do it with anti freeze also.

Neither is the fault of fermentation or distillation but is deliberate action by an individual.

[Dynamic]

Good to know that the methanol concentration is very low.

But when are we talking about tails? Im thinking about collecting my heads en tails and puting them in my next still.

[Easydrinker]

I have come at this quite late, Myles has done a pretty good job of answering the original post.
Dynamic, it is nice to see you here, and you are not a clutz, maybe you need to do a little more reading.
Heads and tails runs, various takes on that to be found hereabouts.

Robert

[Dynamic]

Hey Eazy,

I've read a lot of topics and seen a lot of useful information, but as a non Enlish speaking 20 year old, it's not always easy I do my best. As a new guy in a new community, you always have tons of question. Tuesday or Wednesday arrives my SmartStill unit, then, all my questions will be answered in 1 day.
But I thank you guys a lot for helping me this far!

[Myles]

It is very common process to recycle heads and tails (collectively called Feints). Different ways to do it.

With Cognac all the feints from both Strip runs and from Spirit runs are collected. They are used to fortify the boiler charge on subsequent Strip runs.

Feints are sometimes collected to do an ALL FEINTS boiler charge for whisky. There are other blending methods used by various distilleries but feints always contain ethanol that is usually recovered somehow.

I normally pass my feints through a packed column to produce a neutral alcohol as a feedstock for infused products.

[Easydrinker]

Hey Eazy,

I've read a lot of topics and seen a lot of useful information, but as a non Enlish speaking 20 year old, it's not always easy Tuesday or Wednesday arrives my SmartStill unit, then, all my questions will be answered in 1 day.

NO, they will not!
But you will have a lot of fun finding that out

Robert.

[chill]

For an AirStill, as opposed to a fractionating column, I'd advise keeping the heads and tails separate. Then when you do a heads run, there are no tails to worry about and when running tails no heads to collect. If you mix them, then you will get smearing and a reduced return.