StillSmart

Hi Folks

I read with interest comments regardings cuts (heads / hearts and tails) and would appreciate some clarity regarding percentages.

I have an air still and for the past 9 months have been making spirit the "wine works" way with some good results (for a novice). However on one or two occasions I have had a strong acetone smell in one of my batch runs (750ml) I didn't and haven't ever done a cut or thrown out the first 25 - 50 ml of foreshot. Is the acetone coming from the foreshot or heads.

I am about to double distill using Mozrs instructions (thanks) and look forward to the experimenting. The question I have is regarding the percentages and cuts;

What would you consider the following percentages to be coming from an air still with a 14% wash stripped?

Hope this makes sense and thanks in advance

Simon

Hi Nobby.

There are lots of good posts here, some more difficukt to find than others.

If you have not found it already, this post by Mozr was well received and went into an alternative, method of using the Airstill. It concentrated on giving a quality product rather than trying to squeeze as much alcohol out of the wash as possible.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=765&start=30#p6738

The post describes making cuts and seperating the product into different portions which will let you to be able to smell where the acetone is and discard it.

Hope this helps

Brian

Hi and welcome Nobby

Mozr's post is great but if you don't want to go straight to those lengths you really should discard the first 50 ml where most of the acetone/methanol nasty smells come from and then maybe cut at about 650ml when ABV starts to drop off. you'll probably see a marked improvement in spirit quality

AT

Thanks for the quick responses.......especially considering the great weather.

I take it that the acetone is from the foreshots, as it really ruined one or two batches of spirit and gave my "head bone" a good kicking in the morning.......

Right it's 17.10 and the air still has been turned on for the first stripping run (batch), will do one each night and should be finished by the weekend.

Looking forward to the double distill and my first ever cuts.........

Let you know the results

Hey Knobby
hope the virgin strip runs are going swimmingly....
+1 re all advice about removing foreshots (at least 50ml) and, because noone has told me its a bad idea..., I remove 50ml foreshots on strip runs AND spirit runs (plenty of non-consumptive household uses for it BTW).

Depending on the quality and strength of your wash as it ends up in your Airstill, I would suggest 650ml is enough to collect too (personally I go 650ml even for a striprun). Thing is, its cheap grog no matter how you look at it; I just reckon it doesn't have to be cheap tasting. and 'wastage' is a relative measure afterall.

http://homedistiller.org/index.php?mn=c ... 0&timeti=0

Hi Folks, it's the newbie again keen to learn and experiment more
I have read a post by Jimmy that pointed me to the Home Distillation of Alcohol website that had some great calculators on it.
I am very interested to knowif I have understood it correctly though, jimmy says to use the following figures

30 (whatever your low wine %is)
4 (litres in my air still)
20
320 (watts)
320(watts)
25
20
120
0 (I put this in for no tails)

When I press calculate it gives me a breakdown in ml and %
Would I be correct in saying that if I enter the figs above I should in theory end up with The following after removing 50ml foreshots and 250ml heads

1.21 ltrs of hearts........??

I know it's lots of questions just keen to learn quickly

Hi Knobby
That looks a bit too much to me. If your stripped is at 30% and you have 4l.
Your hearts will be more like 500ml. Then you will be getting into your tails. If you then collect 100ml at a time. Keep them in seperate containers. Keep collecting until it smells rank. Then keep collecting in another container until the spirit leaving the still is down to about 20%. Switch off the still.

Remember to start with removing 50ml foreshots(dontdrink) then the next 250ml heads (keep and redistill)
Norm

I've slightly modified how I do this.
1. Discard 50ml as fores
2. Collect 250ml and keep for heads run
3. Collect 3x100ml as "pre-hearts"
4. Collect 500ml as hearts
5. Collect 5-7x100ml as "post-hearts"

I often find that I can detect heads in the first 100-200ml pre-hearts after the usual 250ml. If I do, those jars go in the heads jar, if not into the hearts jug. Usually the first couple of post-hearts also go in the hearts jug and the rest into the tails collection.

Chuck

Cheers Chill

It's great to get feedback when just starting out and I have another question that will probably sound daft is probably more difficult to answer but here goes....

What does heads smell like......??

Fores smells of acetone....pretty straight forward

Tails I am told smells rank like wet damp dog or soggy cardboard which again is pretty straight forward.

Heads though I could do with a little more help with

Thanks in advance

Heads smells a little perfumy to me. But I make my cuts by taste not smell. Taste some of the first 250ml, spit it out. Do that a couple of times and you will recognize it. It also makes my tongue and mouth burn in a way that the hearts don't. The burn and taste is what makes me direct a jar to the heads container. When I get about 2L of heads, I split it into two 2L jars, then water it down to a total of 4L and add baking soda until no more will dissolve. Then I let it set for a few days and then run it for neutral (get carbon filtered after). The idea of the baking soda is to break some of the ethyl acetate down into ethyl alcohol and acetic acid. I am not 100% sure that it makes a significant difference, I must test the theory one of these days. It does not affect the taste in a negative way.

Chuck

Thanks again for the replies.........cheers Frank just read through post again this morning and realise I didn't acknowledge your reply (how rude of me).

Well tonight I will do my first spirit run off a stripped wash and will let you know how I get on. I aim to take alcohol readings every 100ml and record.

Hopefully should end up with a decent "vodka" that will fool my sister as she won't taste my normal "wine works" neutral spirit (no cuts in other words)

Post results over the weekend and update you

Ps my TPW is bubbling like crazy with a cracking foamy head good job I made it in a big fermenter or her indoors would of hung me by my testicles if that would of erupted out the container

+1 re heads having a strong/burning taste.
also if you rub some between you fingers you will/may get a bit of the foreshots -like acetone smell too. Hearts rubbed the same way will smell much more 'neutral/pleasant' and taste less astringent.

Its all good practise mate and all us are still on the learning curve somewhere. IMHO the best you can do is take quite a lot of cuts from your spirit run, let them air (preferably overnight under, say, a coffeefilter lid) and smell/taste in the morning after diluting a tiny bit of each cut 50/50 with clean water. That seems to make the separations MUCH more obvious to me....and you can fast forward your learnings etc

Another nooby here. I've just completed my first strip runs using Vodkastar. The wash came out at 16+%. The 1.5L strip runs have all come out at 38-40%. My question is, should I dilute the 9L of stripped wash to 12L of 30%, or run the lot through at 38-40%? Views appreciated.

I took advice from the Cpt'n on this and I dilute to just under 30%. It does seem to seperate the alcahol better