Not much \'hearts\' from a SS Triple Distilled :(

by **MrCat** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:03 pm

Setup - SSreflux, 4 pot scrubbers, power controller, split water feeds.
Quite a dissapointing run yesterday.
I had high hopes for the SS triple distilled as it had fermented and cleared well. I calculated about 13% ABV in the wash which was as clear as water, smelled nice and tasted dry.
Brought the Reflux up to temperature, put plenty of water on to hold the column in reflux for about 20 mins and then slowly reduced the water to get some output.
Checked the first 50ml of output which smelled very strongly of nail varnish remover, put to one side and let it run to 100ml and it still smelled strongly, put that to one side and let it run to 150ml and then 200ml of foreshots - there seemed little point keeping this so the missues can have it for her nails...
I figured I had to start collecting sometime so I started the first jar. Once 500ml was collected I checked the ABV and it was 90% which given the low and slow flow rate was less than I had expected and less than I've had before.
The second 500ml didn't smell as bad - 91%
Collected 3 litres over the next few hours with some really good hearts, no smell at all but still only 92% at about 500ml / hour.
About 6 hours after starting to collect I noticed the smell of tails dragging in so I switched to a demijohn and collected about 1.5 litres but the ABV was rapidly dropping off. Shut down at 50%.
Cleaned everything, and put all the jars to one side.
Checked them this morning and esters are clearly present in the first two jars (1 litre) so that's a fair amount of heads. The next 1.5 litres has no smell at all but the last .5 litre jar has a faint tinge of tails creeping in.
I'll re-check the smell tonight and also the ABV but I'm quite dissapointed - the quantity is ok, the ABV is less than I thought it would be (I know it's only 1-2% under) and the ratio of heads / tails to hearts was a lot higher than I've seen in the past.
Some good positives from the run though. The split water feed worked ok. I had to add an extra water valve into the condenser pipe water output to keep pressure on the system or the water valve on the column jacket didn't work well. However once I'd done that it worked very well.
I also was running a temperature probe in the column water output which gave me a very good indication on the adjustment on the water feed - I could slow the flow and watch the column water temperature climb quicker than the same change affected the vapour temperature.
To sum up I was expecting a lot more hearts from the triple distilled than I actually got.
I've got an alcotec 23% on the go and I've got an alcotec 48 to try out some time but I think I'm done with turbo's for a while. Next up will be the modern day m/shine from Artisan Distillers followed by the birdwatchers sugar wash from Home distillers.

by **marc83** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 4:58 pm

Forget the QUANTITY side of things,think about the QUALITY.very important,Oh and do try the birdwatchers,you wont be disappointed.One of the easiest alternatives,you wont believe how easy it is.

by **MrCat** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 6:08 pm

I guess that\'s what I\'m having trouble getting my head around.
The output is 90% ethanol - does the quality of the ethanol depend on what it is made up from, or the distillation process, or is it just the 10% that it\'s mixed with that is affected by the source ?
I was expecting more hearts which I thought was the \'quality section\' of the run - and I got about the same hearts as I normally get from a SS turbo classic. The esters in the triple distilled lasted a lot longer into the run.
I\'m happy that the fractions you get out depend on what you start with so the esters aren\'t generated by the process, they were present in the source wash. Perhaps I \'smeared\' them further across the run?? I\'m not sure how as I\'m getting more and more precise with the temperature control, the build up to reflux and holding it in total reflux to get the methanol (etc) out earlier. Unless it was the extras pot scubber this time which continually refluxed the esters across a wider range of the run?
It\'s not going to be wasted as I\'ll put the heads and tails to one side and they will all go back through at some time in the future.
Funny - 2 months ago I\'d have been happy with what I got yesterday. A little learning does not make things easier as I now know I can do better.

by **Jimmy** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:06 pm

How fast/hot was your ferment? If you pushed the yeast then you may have generated more off-products during the process, even just in the first day or so if you ran warm. Just a thought! Sounds like everything else went pretty well to me, hard to tell without being there obviously. At the end of the day you can always dilute the lot and re-run to get cleaner fractions.

by **MrCat** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:23 pm

The ambient never went above 21 the whole time. If anything I was more concerned about it getting too cold. It should have taken 6/7 days to ferment but it took 11 days to drop to under .990. I only opened the fermenter when the C02 stopped to minimise the possibility of any oxygen getting it. I then left it three days with SS turbo clear before running it.
I guess it\'s just one of those things. I was tempted to just dilute the heads and tails to about 30% (so there is plenty of water in the boiler) and go again with them on a small batch but I\'ve got an alcotec 23% to run soon which will give me more heads and tails so I\'ll probably keep them and run them all at the same time.

by **marc83** » Thu Sep 02, 2010 1:40 am

yeah the beauty of it is if you are not happy with what has been collected you can always dilute and put aside and run again to clean it up.

Sounds like you are trying a few different brands of turbo MrCat,exactly what i started doing,i tried em all.Once the stock had built up enough for me to play around with i tried my hand at non turbo alternatives.But i i still throw on some turbos every now and again,when i need to build up the cupboard again quick.
The SS triple distilled has to be my pick of the bunch.Usual ferment for one of these for me is at least 7 days.Then clear for a week(with the turbo clear),then run.

I leave the fermenter sealed but not covered for the first day/night,then for the rest of the ferment i cover it at night with a blanket,and just use its own heat to keep it going.The blanket is merely to insulate from the temp change in the room.

But i guess it all varies and depends on where you ferment,be it inside or out in the shed etc.
damn some double distilled Triple distilled wash will make some goood vodka!

by **MrCat** » Thu Sep 02, 2010 2:20 am

A couple of tubs of yeast and nutrient dropped through the letterbox today and I've just emptied two fermenters so the modern day moonshine and the birdwatchers will be going on this weekend. I'm getting 50 litres of spring water on saturday to try out with them - but they are going to have 5 weeks or so to ferment and clear as I'm hols in a couple of weeks

And then my Turbo 500 should be arriving