StillSmart

My way of thinking about this goes something like;

Running a reflux still results in the vapours stacking up in the column with the lowest temperature elements at the top.

For this description lets call the stuff at the top "heads".

During the initial part of the run the reflux action of the still will cause the heads to stack up at the top until all the heads have been removed.

If you take off the product quicker than your still is capable of stacking up the heads than you will start and pull a mixture of heads and hearts. resulting in either a larger amount of heads that need to be cut out or hearts that are "smeared" with heads. If you can reach "equilibrium" with the amount of heads being produced equal to the amount of spirits being removed then you will have a smaller amount of heads which will have been "compressed" or "compacted" and a larger amount of cleaner hearts.

If you start taking product too early then you will only have a thin layer of heads at the top of the column which is easily depleted and will result in smearing. If you leave it in 100% reflux for a longer period then you will have a larger amount of heads as a buffer and reduce the risk of smearing.

Hope that helps.

YHB,

that's the first time I've had heads compression/equilibrium explained to me and it actually makes sense!

YHB wrote:If you can reach "equilibrium" with the amount of heads being produced equal to the amount of spirits being removed then you will have a smaller amount of heads which will have been "compressed" or "compacted" and a larger amount of cleaner hearts.

that verbage above is golden.


Cheers!

Drewzy

Nice job Brian. I don'tknow if you have ever described equalibrium on here before but I have noticed that you and AM have to answer the same questions, with a slight variation perhaps, over and over again. I acknowlege your generous contributions to the art and science of distilling. Its all great reading.

they are both great sources of information, along with many others on this site.

I'm glad I found this place.


Cheers!

Drewzy

Being blessed with the lazy gene, I let the T500 clean itself. From turn on, it is ready to produce 1.25 hours later. I start with way too much water flow so it is in full reflux. What is a better cleaner than hot alcohol vapour?

At 1.5 hours from turn on, I wind the water flow down and start the run. Haven't seen inside the column since the day I did my first run with it.

after all the posts on the topic of cleaning the column or not...I've decided that I am going to not worry about how clean the still is for stripping runs but will do an acid wash before each spirit run to clean the copper...unless that is a no-no?

would a citric acid wash in the column with a good rinse afterwards affect the taste of the product during a spirit run?


Drewzy