StillSmart

I came across this nugget here...

"try sodium carbonate @ 4.5 grams/ litre, add it when the wash temperatire is at 35-40 degrees C, add slowly then continue with your distillation in the normal manner. Sodium Carbonate is used in the production of soap and it combines with the oils to form a compound that does not evaporate at the normal distillation temperatures that we are using. Voila, cleaner spirit, less carbon treatment needed and more happy faces".

....I'm wondering if it's worth a try?? I can remember reading somewhere about adding SC to any heads you have and then running them...it helps to "cleans" them??

I've looked into this in the past, I believe is turns Ethel Acetate (the main component in heads) in to Ethanol and Sodium Acetate.

It also neutralises sulphuric acid, the idea is it turns some of your heads into clean hearts.

I know it's been tried in the past by members on other forums but it's never taken off in the mainstream, I think some guys reckoned they could taste it in the spirit.

You can also use sodium bi-carb but it need to be added 2-3 days before the run to have the same effect as sodium carbonate has instantly.

Just remembered, the guys trying this were adding the sodium carbonate to 30% low wines, not into their wash

This guy says in the boiler at 35/40c...then I suppose you lock the lid on and run....I've got a gallon of (Heinz 57) heads/tails in a DJ I'm thinking of running it through the airstill...will let you know.

ps...I need to buy some S Caronate...

It probably helps it dissolve better at 35-40°c

It works far better to run heads and tails separately in the AirStill than mixed. I do this regularly to recover the alcohol. Otherwise you suffer from more smearing. Running heads only there is no tails and running tails only there is no heads.

I've tried sodium carbonate (washing soda over here) and I could taste a difference in the distillate and did not like it. I think I only ever tried it with heads and I don't recall if I got meaningfully more product out of it.

I have also tried sodium bicarbonate (baking soda over here) and I can still taste a slight difference, but carbon filtering removes it. Again, I am not sure now if it really results in more clean spirit. I have used between 1 Tbps per 4L up to a fully saturated solution.

Cheers Chuck....that's sorted that out about mixing heads & tails.

Sodium carbonate is one of the materials often used in wine and mead making. It's used as a pH buffer and to prevent a ferment dropping too low (wines often have some natural buffering ability, but meads, especially traditionals, don't and can easily drop below the magical point of death (to yeast) of 3.0pH

But better than sodium carbonate, is potassium carbonate, which works as well but is less likely to leave a metallic taste if you get it wrong.

It's the same with sulphites in a ferment. We generally use campden tablets, but in the UK they'll almost definitely be sodium metabisulphite, which is fine when the recommended quantity is adhered to. Elsewhere and the professional makers will use potassium metabisulphite, which is less likely to cause issues when used wrongly but is generally about 4 times the price of the sodium equivalent (and it's harder to locate as well - I get mine from Vigo - about £17 a kilo in powdered form - not found Kmeta in tablet form here).

Whether I'm alluding to the same issue ? dunno.......

There are mixed opinions on this whole issue of cleaning low wines.

There are other alternatives to the chemicals though. You can use hydro separation to remove some of the Heads and Tails before you load the low wines into the boiler.

As for cleaning the feints, I mix my heads and tails from multiple runs (pot still) and just process them through the packed VM column. In fact that is all that I use it for.

Run it slowly and you can get a clean neutral out of it. Any heads and tails from that run are so disgusting that I would not consider re-processing them. I don't even bother collecting the tails, I just leave them in the boiler.

If you can get the Heads component on the packed column down to less than 10% of the predicted alcohol yield, you are doing a good job.