StillSmart

Hi

I have a Stillspirits turbo air still and i have been sucessfull in its

use but I have a question maybe someone can answer for me.

In normal use of this still it says in the instructions fill to Gallon

mark run off 70cl although this contradicts in the write up with 80cl

so I run off 75cl.

Question is if you forget and run off more than the desired amount and

you have to do a re-run (2nd Run) how do you know when you have to stop

the run to avoid the impurities again.Is there a rule of thumb.

Obviously you would collect all the bad runs and put them through in

one gall lots but lets say you put in a gallon how much should you run

off in this gallon to achieve the desired alcohol I would imagine it

would be most of it.

Jim

Hi

I would be hard to guestimate but I can tell you what I do with a re-run.

1.Throw away the first 50-60ml.

2. Then collect the next about 650-750ml to filter and drink.

3. Then collect the say 400-500ml to re-distil in the next batch.
When exactly to switch from 2 to 3?

Fistly I go by smell it seems when the Vol drop the distillate starts to smell.

Anyhow..... I measure the Vol content when in drop below say 50-55 I start collecting the second lot, (step 2).

When it drops below say 38-40 I turn off and throw away whats in the still.
This is for a turbowash with 8KG sugar so more alc.

Hi one of the best bits of advice i have seen on here was from Jimmy using the calculater below
http://www.homedistiller.org/pot_calc.htm
Dont allow the spirit to go less than 50% purity as thats when the smelly stuff starts to seep through, so much so i altered the way i do things.
This is how i do it now
In a turbo 48 i always use 8.5 kilos of sugar not 8, as 8 always max’s out at 18% not 20% and i am greedy.
I always go just slightly above the 5 liter mark in the bucket to make sure i have 6x 4 liter lots after syphoning of the sediment
I ferment it at 75 degrees using a fishtank heater which takes about a week but gives a neer oderless clean finished wash.
From the 4 liters, after discarding the first 20 ml, i take 1 litre of which is 60% to cut down to 40% later, i then take 500ml of for redistilling at the end this comes out at 30%.
At the end i have 3 litres of 30% (6x500ml), i add 1 litre of water which gives me 4 litres of 20% and just repete the above.
These are the settings for easystill
Initial Volume of Wash 4 L

Alcohol Content % by volume (you have to know the alcohol content of the wash)

Initial Temperature C (what ever the temperture is)

Power during Heat-up 320W

Power during Distillation 320W

%Internal Reflux 25%

Time-step for calculation 20min

bluecap - you get the gold star for being a master pupil - that's pretty much what I'd recommend to anyone. In fact, you're beyond me on that as I have never got 20% from a wash yet, and I am still waiting for a brew heater (Santa must have forgotten me!). Of course, different people have different methods but that works well for me and I'm glad it does for you.
As bluecap says, and I cannot stress this enough - the calculator IS GOD. When the still is running, it's a bit of a mystery what is going on unless you are taking constant measurements, disrupting the collection, etc. If you use the calculator and time things, you can be pretty accurate about exactly what is dripping out of that spout at any point in time. All hail the calculator!