Many thanks for taking the time to post your reply, found it very informative.
I have just put 16 litres through the still and after dilution have ended up with 4 litres @ 40%. I found that the spirit is a little harsh, (bit more of an alcohol burn) if that makes sense, now if I run that through the still again would this smooth it out a little?.
How much 40% should I mix up with water in my 4 litre still and what percentage spirit would you expect to get out.
Step by step instruction would be handy.
Well if the spirit has already been let down to 40% then you can "re-run" it. Though have you put it through a carbon filter, as that sometimes smooths it out (sometimes not). I don\'t usually drink it unflavoured (usual flavourings are SS classic Tennessee Sour Mash Bourbon, SS classic Gin, Prestige Malt whiskey, Prestige Calvados and a few others that I make less often.....).
Running it through a second time will just remove more water, but of course, that also means less product. I tend to go for between 70 and 80(ish) percent for the second run, but try to take regular samples to test for % ABV. You won\'t get much more than about 80 to 82% anyway from the table top stills, after all, it\'s just a modern version of a pot still. If you wanted to go higher, then you\'d have to investigate reflux stills.
There is no real instruction, it\'s just a case of putting the reduced strength spirit i.e. if it\'s 60 or so % after the first run, it\'s then let down to 40%. I don\'t know if there\'s any real reason why, other than the condenser tube is only about 6mm or so, and you don\'t want to overwhelm it with vapour/spirit.
As to how much ? well it\'s up to you. I just fill mine with 40% spirit and re-run it. Just remember, it\'s a boiler before anything else, so to make sure that you don\'t end up with any accidents (yes, I have had a burn...... well more like a sun burn type scald really - but I was trying to re-distill some 85% spirit that had come out of my reflux still cloudy and it was before I learned about watering it back down to something sensible)..... so if you are re-distilling, then it\'s sensible to run it somewhere where the wife/kids/pets/etc etc aren\'t likely to come into contact with it if it does decide to "burp"/over boil......
Also, I always used both rashig rings in the bottom of my still and a capful of distillers conditioner (I can still hear the rings being bounced around inside though) to prevent that.
As for the experience of the spirit being a little harsh etc, well in truth, what do you expect if it\'s pure, unadulterated spirit ? All you\'re drinking is basically pure alcohol with water in it. If you took a swig from a bottle of commercially produced Vodka @ 40% ABV you\'d experience a similar feeling.
If you have a good read around at the main site here, and particularly at homedistiller.org\'s main site, you\'ll find that the whole point of getting anal about it, is to achieve purity, so that your "shine" contains the absolute minimum of non-alcohol elements.... hence the attempts to achieve 95.6% ABV
If you achieved that, then you\'d follow that the harshness and alcohol burn is "par for the cause"!
What is a parrot?
Do you stop collecting the good stuff when it\'s droped below 80%.
(I understand the bit about lower strenght going back in the still, just need to know when you stop collecting what you are going to drink)
I have a standard meter for alchol content, looks the same as sg float
A parrot is a specially constructed tube container so that the distillate flows into it, you put your alcometer into it and it also has an outlet tube that runs to the collector jar/jug/DJ/whatever. The idea being that you can pretty much constantly monitor the strength of the distillate as it comes out of the still. If you go to the home page of homedistiller there\'s a search facility at the top right hand corner, if you use "parrot" for search criteria then you\'ll get enough info to see what one is like (it\'s actually pretty basic) - some of the pictures included are a bit rough, but it\'s a handy device to have as you can just watch the numbers and change the collector for "tails" after you\'ve got what you want to retain - then the tails can be added back into the still later for further distilling.
I\'d suggest that you do a run of 40% to see what your still is going to max out at, then you\'ll have an idea of what sort of strength you can attain.
don\'t forget, the whole point of commercially available kit like the airstill is so that you can make something that approximates commercially made spirits..... it\'ll never be the same because you\'re using different materials and equipment, but some of the flavourings do a damn good job of approximating.....
And yes, I also use a standard alcometer..... you can buy more accurate ones with a more defined scale, but as with anything, they\'re more expensive........ and you\'d need more than one as they tend to have a "range"....
dunno if any of that helps any......
regards
p
Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:59 pm
about 70-80%