distilled wash- can i recycle it?

[jeff5may]

I recently had an idea, and was wondering if it would work. I have had some stuck washes in the past, as most everyone has at one time or another. I\'ve tried mixing them in with new washes, midway, to help them to ferment out more completely, with some success. I was wondering if I could instead just distill the ethanol out to around 20% and make a new wash with the leftovers in the still. While it\'s cooling, I could add sugar. Once dissolved, I could add cold water, pitch yeast, and hope for the best.

Waddya think? Could/would this work?

[Phantom]

Well I don\'t really see the point when it\'s sugar wash we\'re on about mainly. Yes, I seem to recall that using some of the old wash would be similar to a \"sour mash\" technique, but I find it easier just to take my distillate as normal but then just leave the still running until the remaining product is coming out at 10% as \"tails\". That then goes back into the still and I top it up with fresh wash to run again......
Besides, what you\'ve suggested, surely would mean that you\'re using the still to ferment as well. You\'d dissolve the sugar etc etc but then you\'d only have 4 litres of a fresh ferment going in the still and you\'d have to wait until it was finished fermenting - so you\'d have to transfer it out to a fermenter.
What effect it might have on the taste of the distillate is anyone\'s guess. But it does sound more trouble than it\'s worth......

[jeff5may]

ok, let me clarify.

1. I have more than 1 still.

-The first is a smartstill. I use this as a spirit/essence still. It works faster this way with a 30-50% abv charge. It is also very predictible and reliable.

-The other is a custom built convertible. I used a bokakob design for the condensor head and scaled it down to 1 inch. I use this as a stripping pot still using just the head. I attach a 1 meter 1\" column to do neutral reflux runs. It is my workhorse.

2. I do experiment with fermentation batches and spirit runs.

-Some small, some large.

-Some econo-sugar washes, some cognac/whiskey/brandy runs.

3. I network with others.

-These ppl have garages/basements/etc who have space to run larger fermentations than I do.

-This allows me flexibility that I would not have otherwise.

-I do this as a hobby, so sharing the experience with others is fun.
Now having said this, suppose i visit Jack\'s place and discover his 15 litre batch of whisky has pooped out at 8%abv. I do a stripping run, which comes out around 28%. I save this 3L to take home and run thru the smartstill. I now have about 3 Gal of somewhat viable mash/spent wash left.It would be a shame to throw all that malt/corn/sugar down the tubes and would be easier to just make a bigger batch of wash/mash out of it. But how much dilution is needed for a fresh batch? Let\'s just say Jack has 6 empty buckets laying around.
I have some of the best tasting spirits ever come out of the heads/tails bottle (which is literally the trash can in this process)after re-redistillation, and that surprised me at first.I learned later that commercial distillers waste not one drop of drinkable spirit in their operations.

[Phantom]

Yes, but it still seems to be the case that once the mash/wash has been distilled, that it\'s only in the production of \"sour mash\" whisky that some of the spent wash/mash is then re-used for flavouring.
I haven\'t heard of this being done for anything else.
Of course, I can see how it does seem like a waste, as all the unrecovered flavouring does seem to go down the drain. So all you could really do is to replace the alcohol that you\'ve removed by distillation (irrespective of which still you use) with water, you\'d still then have to be measuring the gravity, pH, TA etc etc to make it like whatever the base recipe was in the first place i.e. if it\'s wine/sugar wash, then follow the normal wine making method, or if it\'s a mash/beer type base follow those techniques.
The problem might be, that you\'re only using the mash or wash as flavouring, and using extra sugar or whatever to re-ferment into alcohol. How much of the original flavour has been lost by the heating process ? I mean, if you distilled wine to remove the alcohol, and then added sugar/acid/nutrient to the spent (alcohol free) wine, then you\'re sure as hell gonna end up with something that tastes completely different. Not just the same as the wine tasted before you distilled it the first time......
So all you can really try is to experiment and see what happens. If your still kit is efficient enough, then at least you can recover any alcohol made as a result, hopefully to a high level of purity so it wouldn\'t matter if the spent wash/mash/wine with extra acid/sugar/nutrient tasted like shit........

[jeff5may]

Ok, thanks for the feedback. I was just trying to verify my reasoning and to see if anyone else was doing this. As a footnote, I tried this idea with my buddy as a guinea pig and it does indeed work! The whiskey that was distilled was actually pretty smooth. I roughly doubled the volume of the spent wash, balanced the metrics, and fermented again. Proof that the idea works came upon distillation of the recycled wash: we distilled approx 130% the amount of ethanol out of the new wash compared to the sugar mixed in. I agree with phantom that the flavor might not be the best, so doing multiple distillations or using a reflux condensor would be prudent advice if you don\'t like to experiment. But the resulting liquor in my case was more than acceptable. Cheers!