StillSmart

Good Day Everyone My name is Dave and I have just ran my first batch through the T500 and a small carbon filter. The final product was terrible I wouldn't feed it to the wife !! It Tasted tainted total undrinkable Can you please give me some tips or web sites I can to improve my process what is the best filter any tipe or advice gratefully accepted

by Davetherave
Fri Feb 17, 2017 12:22 pm
 
Forum: Recipes
Topic: Teddy's Fast Fermenting Vodka

Hi Dave.

Welcome to the forum. I am sure we can help. But I get the feeling you get to start :-)

We are gonna need some answers to some questions.

In as many words as possible

What did you ferment and how? [Recipe & what you did including temperature]
How did it finish and how did you clear it?
How long was it stood / Did you do anything else before you ran it through the sill?
What was the setup of the still? [What did you do to put it together]
How did you run it through the still? [What did you do when it was running - how did you collect the final spirit - and when did you stop]

I personally think this will be something to do with your stealing process, and we can give you all the books in the world to read. But let's start with the basics, and fix this one.
.
PS do not pour it down the drain, there is 99.999999999999999999% chance that it is recoverable.

With Mash here, you tell us what you did, we can probably tell you what you did wrong.

Robert.

Don't be shy now... We have all made some stunning fubars in the past. You are among friends

I've been there back when I started, we drank nail varnish remover the first time.

Mash has asked for more info, with that I'm sure you'll get good information to sort it out. One thing don't try to run before you can walk...take a step back, and start off with a straight forward wash...read up the posts on here about running a T5 and about making cuts...I promise it'll all start making sense in a while.

Hi Everyone
I’ve taken your advice and followed the posts. I’ve come to the conclusion that it could be the “Heads” and “Tails” of the wash. In my first batch I captured the first 50mm in the same bucket and discarded and made no capture of the final heads I ran the still into my container until it stopped dripping. My conclusion is that this may be what is causing my tainted taste. Any thoughts am I on the right track?

Yup! sounds like you mixed heads and tails with the hearts.
Try this
download/file.php?id=326
Intended for a smaller still, but a smart guy will get the idea.

Robert.

Sure does. Which is well and good if you were just doing a strip run.....not so if you were aiming at a spirit run.

Best understand cuts first, then run it again. You'll get a better result.
(Hope you haven't tossed it?)

You got it.

First run is a Strip gets rid of the bulk.

Second run is a spirit run. That's where you cut the heads and tails off.

A refractometer of eBay might be helpful too.

Well as usual, everyone else got there first......

The T500, being a reflux still will carry on separating out the alcohol until it hits 100% reflux and it stops dripping.

Hence I'd also guess that the batch is all the heads and tails mixed in.

I generally remove 25 mls of foreshots when using my smart still - and that's from a 4 litre charge. In theory that would mean that I'd dump 150 mls when using my T500 - in practice I dump about 100 mls.

From memory, the acetone notes are from the tails (someone with a better memory might be able to confirm or whatever).

again as a comparison, for a 4 litre charge of my airstill, I'd take 800mls of spirit. If I have the time (and can be bothered) I will then leave it running but collect in a separate container, and when the distillate is measuring less than about 5%, I switch it off - the final distillate gets mixed back into the rest of the wash waiting to be done.