Airstill, Best Practice and Results

[chill]

Heads have, to me, a nasty, sweetish artificial chemically flavour. Like some kind of truly nasty hard candy. They also burn your mouth in a different way than alcohol warms it. Mixing with hot water makes it easier to taste for me. I have heard that some kinds of soda pop also make the ethyl acetate stand out.

I am really not an advocate of running by measurement. To my mind, measurements are a guideline that you have to refine by careful tasting and comparison.

1.4L of 65% seems a low yield for a 23L wash. How much sugar are you using?

Chuck

[MalvAlv99]

Lol chuck, that's for a 4 litre spirit run Should have said

As its my first heads run, I think I'm going to have to collect the lot in 100ml batches. Have a taste of each as I go along.

So a burning sensation with a harsh taste is the heads. Cheers Chuck, I'll see how I get on.

[KerryW]

Did my first spirit run last week and an finding that the liquor is doing good,, although I am flavoring with Still spirits essences , it is doing the job,,
white rum is kinda tasty,,

[Capt-Cudellez]

Nice one KW, its good when it all starts to come together.

[turbonial]

hi all,

i'm new to distilling and got myself an air still recently. the first batch was done as per the instructions from the wineworks videos on youtube but after reading this forum i realised that i'm doing it aaaaall wrong.

unfortunately, i'm part way through doing the second batch so have about 2 litres of 40% and the rest as wash.

should i just put this 2 litres into the mix for the final spirit run?

also during the stripping run - how important is it to stop at 20% as some say or at 1350ml as others say? the reason i ask is that stopping at 1350ml would be a lot easier to do.

hope these questions don't sound too daft and any help would be really appreciated.

cheers.

[Normski]

hi all,

i'm new to distilling and got myself an air still recently. the first batch was done as per the instructions from the wineworks videos on youtube but after reading this forum i realised that i'm doing it aaaaall wrong.

unfortunately, i'm part way through doing the second batch so have about 2 litres of 40% and the rest as wash.

should i just put this 2 litres into the mix for the final spirit run?

also during the stripping run - how important is it to stop at 20% as some say or at 1350ml as others say? the reason i ask is that stopping at 1350ml would be a lot easier to do.

hope these questions don't sound too daft and any help would be really appreciated.

cheers.

Hi turbonial
Re: the stripping run. With an airstill, asuming your wash was around 14%ish it will be @ 20% around the 1350ml mark.
So you can either use an Alcohometer to measure whats comming off the still, or just stop when you have collected 1350ml. It wont make a lot of diffence.
Much more important when doing a stripping run.

Re: The 2L @ 40% you have collected. Keep it and mix with the next stripped until you have enough @ 30% to do a Spirit run.
Norm

[Almanac]

Also important to remember that the 20%ABV figure would be a measure of the product, in small batches in a trial jar or similar, as it comes off the still and not an average of the whole batch.

I had one guy, no names, who PM'd me in a panic as he was collecting the strip in a stainless steel bucket but with 2.5lt collected the ABV still wasn't down to 20%.

An Alcometer is an essential piece of kit in distilling otherwise you have to guess and that's not recommended.

As Norm said, 1350ml/20%ABV are nominal figures and will depend on the original wash strength.

AM

[turbonial]

thanks guys... and aidanmac, you've just answered my next question.
"I had one guy, no names, who PM'd me in a panic as he was collecting the strip in a stainless steel bucket but with 2.5lt collected the ABV still wasn't down to 20%."

[MalvAlv99]

Finally doing the heads run and really struggling

I've diluted down to 20% and put the first 300ml to one side.

I'm now collecting in 100ml. The first 2 sort of tingle my nose when I give a good sniff and burn the tongue a bit, so I'm guessing these are definitely heads.

The 3rd one I'm a bit unsure and the 4th,5th and 6th feel more like a warming sensation. They all appear to smell pretty much the same though to me. (apart from the tingling nose)

So I'm 600ml in where I think I have hearts, does this sound about right?

Edit: I've come back for an edit. The first 3 100ml collected definitely smell sweeter. The thing now is I seem to be smelling tails already. 1100ml total and tails detected so leaves me with 400ml hearts. Doesn't seem much

[Almanac]

The Heads run is made up of cuts from previous Spirit Runs after the removal of Fores and before collection of Hearts or Tails.

By its nature, Heads should not contain Foreshots or Tails. Remember, your Still does not 'make' anything, it just allows you to separate different elements of the batch at different temperatures. Therefore Tails should not be an element but the distillate can get odourful towards the end.

Airing the distillate from a Heads run is very important and should be done in an area where there is a good flow of air in and around the open containers. I usually air the distillate from my Heads runs for 48 hours before tasting and deciding on what is suitable for blending.

When I've decided on what I'm keeping as drinkable spirit I usually keep it for blending with main run spirits. It's a matter of personal taste.

AM

[MalvAlv99]

Cheers AM.

Yes it definitely got odorful at the end. Came on quite quick too. The heads I ran were a mixture of the first turbo washes I did and the more recent TPW's I've being doing. I'm wondering if it was the turbo making one last appearance, didn't want to go down without a fight

I ended up putting the first 100ml that I noticed it with the hearts I'd picked out. I collected the rest down to 30% for a wash boost.

I didn't air anything, just diluted and ran through the carbon. That's something I'm going to have to do next time. Also like the idea of blending with the main run.

Thanks for the advice Aidan

[Almanac]

Airing final spirit is essential as there are a small amount of volatile elements in the distillate that will evaporate during airing - the Angel's Share

Those volatile elements are detectable as unwanted smells and tastes in your spirit and need time to evaporate and they will evaporate because they are lighter than air and have a low vapour point.

If you mark the liquid level on your distillate containers, with a marker, after just 24 hours you will notice a small difference in the overall volume and your spirits will be ready for bottling/flavouring/ageing/oaking etc.. This minor loss of volume is accounted for by the evaporation of the unwanted elements and your spirits will taste and smell clean and delicious

AM

[MalvAlv99]

Lol Thanks again AM. I must remember the angels

[amaark]

As a total newbie to this, I have the following question.

To help ensure that I produce a spirit which is drinkable and for the sake of 50ml of fluid is there any benefit in separating and binning the fores from the stripping run.

[Frank]

Mate, there is a LOT of benefit in NOT consuming foreshots thats for sure ....it is basically poison for humans.

How you achieve this is open to consideration and 'debate';
there's separate foreshots at the strip run
there's separate foreshots in the spirit run
theres never use the initial quantity of collected spirit (ie put it with the heads/feints ad infinitum)
BUT it must 'remain' clear of your consumable product/spirit.
Just make sure you dont drink it. So....for simplicity etc......