FIRST EVER USE OF THE T500. MY EXPERIENCE

[Flybynight]

Hi all, I just thought I'd give everyone an insight on how I did last night.

I bought an Airstill a couple of months ago and have upgraded to the T500 after a few runs with it and not being happy with the results (following the instructions rather than making cuts etc as I hadn't read about them at that point!)

I'd heard about the T500 so had a glint in my eye...Christmas came at the right time!

I made a wash using Turbo Clear and household sugar.
Everyrhing brewed out well enough and I set up the T500 for the first time. I cracked on and soon sussed out the water flow. Not long before some alcohol was coming out. I discarded the first 200ml and then made collections of 500ml - my first ever cuts and I just winged it to be honest.
1st 500ml smelled like Pear drops so God knows what the stuff I discarded would have been like.
2nd 500 was nectar. No real smell.
3Rd to 6th 500ml were all good but not like the 2nd cut.
7th 500ml. Meh!

I measured all distillate at about 92-93%. Very happy.

I left everyrhing out to air overnight and am certain some evaporation happened but there was a definite noticeable decline in smell of the smellier cuts.

I'm filtering right now with the EZ filter buckets. Results are very good with no background tastes that the Airstill results always gave. (Think that I could've filtered my Airstill though!)

Anyway, by keeping the cuts separate through the filter stage I ensures I'd keep the best quality cuts separated just in case. Most of the batch could be white rum or similar with some going to vodka. The stuff at the start and end of the run will be dark rum or similar.

Next time I will double distill and am planning to make 2 x 25L washes but by splitting the last turbo yeast I have (I understand it still works okay but reduces the unwanted flavours). After that I will try making a wash with fresh yeast (birdwatchers?)

Anyway, there you go. I've enjoyed it and although I'm probably doing a lot wrong, I still managed to do some rough cuts and tell the difference. I'll experiment some more but the difference even on my first attempt with the T500 is night and day when compared to the airstill, not least of all in terms of time and efficiency.

[Anavrin]

Good work :-)

Smell is a great way to quickly eliminate the first heads jars, in my experience, you'll find the next one or two will also contain heads but you won't be able to smell it, you need to dilute them and taste them.

If you take a middle jar of hearts, dilute it down and use it as a reference against the suspected heads jars, it helps better identify what you want to keep.

Tails is normally a much easier cut to make, in most cases it's far more obvious.

Also, when tasting, try not to actually drink any, just taste it, swill it around your mouth then rinse with water, booze on :-)

[Flybynight]

Top advice, Many thanks. There's always a way to improve. Thankfully I have lots I can do but I'm please so far, but can do better as my teacher used to say!

[Easydrinker]

Glad that you got a good result there, that pleases your enthusiasm!
I don't own a T500 but believe others claim a better result from a double distillation.
Also, splitting a Turbo yeast in half and perhaps only using 5Kgs of sugar per fermenter is a way to go until you try a different wash.
Cuts, you get better the more that you do.
Just sayin' here, carbon filtering works best at 40%-45%, unsure where you are doing it?
Whatever, you have lots to occupy your time.
And it is worth it.
ATB

Robert.

[Icefever]

Not a lot more to say, other than try a double run.
Start the strip run, throw the first 100/200ml then just collect everything down to 30/20% in one DJ.

Then run a sprit run with you doing the cuts. You will see & taste the difference.

[Flybynight]

Brilliant advice everyone, so grateful.
For what it's worth I decided that the middle 1.5L was vodka (it was sampled tonight straight and deemed to be a premium type and better than most)
I then let them try some of my 'level 2' stuff and they didn't like that straight but then again they don't drink vodka like that anyway - when coke was added they still loved it so yay!

I had cut everyrhing to 40% prior to the filtering as id read that the carbon doesnt like it above 50%. What I had cut as the tails was filtered then I added still spirits 'Tenessee Whiskey' flavouring. Now I know it's strong flavoured but what I am drinking right now as I'm writing this is REALLY nice stuff. I never cut corners with spirits when I'm buying it so I felt like I knew what standard I was looking for. I have to say that the Tenessee Whiskey is really lovely, not a compromise or me kidding myself on (like I may have with my airstill).

I will definitely do a double distill next time. Along with doubling the wash volume by halving the yeast as well , to lower the after taste, I'm hoping to increase the yield on the hearts or 'nearly hearts' if you know what I mean.

I also need to get a decent way of drawing out some liquid to put in a trial jar or glass (small amounts ( so a turkey baster is coming to mind. Ah well, a trip to the local homebrew shop tomorrow will no doubt sort it.

Cheers

Cheers!

[Flybynight]

I've now noticed a small amount of white cloudiness at the bottom end of 2 of my better bottles of vodka from my last run...just those 2. The whole run was filtered so I'm stumped. Any ideas and do I keep drinking it?

[Easydrinker]

You have distilled it the once, and filtered.
It won't kill you.
Somewhere on this site are comments on cloudy spirits.
I forget where.
Try the search box.
Do remember to ask it pertinent search terms.

Robert.

[Flybynight]

Thanks. Continued searching elsewhere found that it's likely to be salts from the carbon during the filtering and perfectly safe. Hic!

[Anavrin]

This is copy and pasted off the Home Distiller Parent Site

Cloudy Spirit

Sometimes your spirit may turn a bit cloudy when its been left by itself. This can be due to a couple of reasons ..
Fusel oils : you've got some tails in there. They may be tend to form a slight "oil slick" on the surface. You may have some sucess in carefull decanting off from underneath it and then passing it through a coffee filter to try and capture it. Obviously the way to avoid it is not to collect the tails in the first place - see above.
Mineral precipitates : your drinking water may have a high limestone content (calcium carbonate) , that has somehow come over with the distillate. Haven't heard how to fix this one, other than softening your water before you use it, or going to the trouble of using distilled water in the first place.
Dirty carbon : Johan advises .. activiated carbon is normally not perfectly clean it contains diffrent kind of salts. Before you mix activated carbon and alcohol clean the activated carbon by boling it in a saucepan and then discard the water, taste it to see if there is any impurity. This will make your activated carbon much more effective as well!

[Flybynight]

Thank you. As the bottles were from the start/middle of the run I'm concluding that this has been a salts/carbon filtering thing. Something to watch out for next time.

[Zappa]

Was it a like a white film settled on the bottom of the bottle ?
I had this problem when watering down with highland spring water ,I watered a couple of litres down to 60% in a demijohn and maybe 3/4 days later the bottom of the glass was covered in i white film ,it may have been down to the natural fluoride and minerals in the water or something else as others suggested,
switched to Aldis strathrowan brand and never had that problem since,

[Flybynight]

Zappa' yes that just about describes it perfectly. I used tap water. It's getting used regardless as the contents are lovely.

My current batch is cracking, double distilled and soooo smooth.

[Zappa]

Your quite right I wouldn't waste it either at worst case sinario put it back through the still with another batch or save with the heads n tails and re run,(this might be debatable with others )

If using tap water use boiled water cooled to be rid of the chlorine and whatever else the water board put in to clean it up ,I prefer the bottled water as my water has a strong smell of chlorine straight out the tap (in my location it does ) >:D

[Mr Four Square]

Hey Flybynight well done .

I always cut my spirits with bottled water. It's a small cost for something that is 50% of your finished product. The chlorine etc might not be that noticeable when you are adding flavours but it is when you are making sipping vodka.

Are you clear about double distilling ?