StillSmart

Due to ongoing health issues, I still haven't finished my first complete spirit making process. I got as far as doing the stripping run and it has stayed in glass ever since.

I know that I need to bring the volume up with water to 12 litres so that I have three full spirit runs in my airstill, but is the tails cut really necessary for what I will end up with from each of the three runs, compared to the price of energy usage.

Sugar is cheap everywhere at the moment and its still much, much cheaper in the long run making my own, compared to buying it.

Hi Still Brewing

If your just after a neutral spirit, you don't need or want the tail cut but you do need to find it in the first place.

If you have 3 lots to run from the same batch, the chances are all 3 will have very similar cuts, so do one run, let them air for a day or two then test, in theory the other two runs will be the same so you can just turn off when you get to it.

Saying that, I rand my still for over 13hrs yesterday the lowest power setting I used was 1.2kw and the highest was 3kw, it only cost £2.60 at 12p per kW/hr.

I think the Airstill is only 350w or similar so it's nothing really

I run my AirStill for 3 hours, 15 minutes (110V, my still may differ from yours, all of the usual caveats) when making neutral. After that I figure it smells bad and is diminishing returns. For rum, whiskey, brandy, etc I will tend to go deeper into the tails (damn the smell!) to get more product from an expensive wash and as sometimes good flavours are in the tail end.

Yes it is. When you run the data the biggest cost (after sugar) is yeast. .particularly if you use turbo's.

Thanks gents.

Once I have run it through, I will have to start thinking about filtering it. I do have one of those Z filters somewhere but it looks a right pain in the backside to use.

My birthday is coming up soon and the wife has been asking me if there is anything I would like. Is the Essentia system really worth the money.

I got my Essencia off my other half as a birthday present, it really is a good, I would recommend it to anyone, some people frown on it as its plastic but the manufacturer states it's safe, they suggest 55% is the max.

The ceramic filter is good for 450lt at 40% and they suggest replacing the carbon one every 45 litres


http://www.stores.essenciana.com/The-es ... ilter.html

Anavrin has quite a still these days.
I have the Smart still,and my silly still.which is just a larger version of it,and is a also a pot still.
If you have a smart/air still,or any other pot still,and aspire to a neutral spirit,then an Essencia filter is almost necessary.
There are other ways to do it,but IMHO,the Essencia is worth the expense.

Robert.

Cheers again guys.

Think I might start dropping hints to the wife for one as birthday time is only just over a month away.

Don't know what happened to my original 9 litres of stripped wash. Went to add another 3 litres of water to it last night so that it made 3 Airstill runs and there was only six sitting there. Looked everywhere for it, so I'm thinking it was accidently chucked out. Not to worry. My first attempt has taken months for various reasons so I just added two litres to make it up to two runs.

Even though this was very small scale I carried on with eagerness and heated up the airstill. Ended up taking 85ml foreshots as I took my eye off the ball, lesson learned. My hearts on this occasion were 1000ml. I finished at this because after 750ml, I started tasting on a teaspoon with a little water from a pippette. My pallette is pretty good and I could really taste the change once I had collected the litre. I have another batch to go but the litre I have is 70 % ABV.

The change in taste is massive compared to doing it the 'Love Brewing' way, and its a practice that I won't change. Like I said, this was my first attempt which I ballsed up in places, but I'm happy with my progress so far.

Now I have the litre of 70 % ABV, do I need to water it down again and distill it for a second time.

Did you collect the heads cut after the foreshots and before the hearts?

As Chill has already asked,did you make a heads cut in there?
Re-reading your post it seems that you did.
If this is so ,just dilute to your chosen drinking strength and enjoy in some way.
If you missed the heads cut,then it will taste better than the result of the instructions that come with a Smart/airstill,but could lead to banging headaches.
The way that I read your posts,You have stripped the wash,2nd distilled and taken Fores and heads out of the result,to be left with clean hearts.
If this is not correct,come back and ask more questions.
ATB

Robert.

Still Brewing wrote:...

I'm thinking it was accidently chucked out.

Just a footnote really, but I never chuck anything alcoholic out. I keep all my ullage and then run it as cleaning fluid. Comes in very useful and saves a lot of time for beer and winemaking.

Sorry guys, I did take out the heads.

I took a total of 250 ml out and aired them for 24 hours. Going to save them for my next wash which I will be starting later today so will post about it in the appropriate section.

Just a note that I find there is a lot more than 250 ml of heads in a 4L AirStill run. For my washes, it is closer to 600ml before I can't taste them anymore. You might want to follow the instructions here more closely and collect in small jars until the heads taste fully goes away. You will get a better produce. You really, really can NOT do this by measurements alone until you have a lot of experience and are running exactly the same wash time after time. And even then there will be subtle variations. Taste is your friend here.

Chuck

If that's the case with 600ml of heads you'll only get a small amount of good stuff??

Regarding heads..
I'm doing my second spirit run this weekend and I've got 750ml of heads from the last run... Is it more beneficial to save the heads until I get 2L for a cheeky little extra special spirits run or throw them in with the stripped wash then dilute before the main event?

S4BB

Chill

You are spot on mate. I wasn't happy at all with the hearts. There is still quite a strong smell to it, although it tastes much, much better than my previous attempts following ' Love Brewings' shortened version.

I'm going to mix the heads and hearts back together, water back down and restill it. I will follow your advice by taking the 600ml heads. Will I have to take as much fores, considering the amout I took out previously.

Will definately do it with the jars this time.