StillSmart

Don't ever run your t500 without cooling water. It will melt the plastic top. T500 is not meant for stripping. The t500 will give you a really nice nuetral if you avoid turbo yeast and run it at around60C.

Hi and welcome Alison and Paul

I agree, the T500 isn't suited to full powered stripping because of the plastic bits, but there's nothing stoping you from running it a little warmer than normal and collecting everything from all 4 batches before combining all the strip for a spirit run.

In a standard pot still, filled with 25lts of say 12% wash, you would expect to get around 5lts @55-60% if you run it until your output gets down to 30% (measured on a distillers parrot)

However the T500 has a packed column and you need the coolant running, so I would suggest running it a little warmer than normal to speed up the collection, also because of the reflux in the packed column, your out out ABV will be high and never get down to 30%

So the question is, when to stop collecting???

This is how I would do it, for example, 25lts @12% contains 3lts of alcohol, so run it and collect, measuring volume and ABV% once you've collected 80% - 90% of the calculated alcohol shut it down, save what you have and move on to the next wash, here's some idea of what volume you might expect depending on the ABV%

90% = 2.88 - 3.11 litres
80% = 3.25 - 3.50 litres
70% = 3.70 - 4.00 litres
60% = 4.33 - 4.66 litres
50% = 5.20 - 5.60 litres

Do this for each 25lt batch, then combine them for the spirit run and water the total down to 30% to make the charge for the spirit run.

Baking soda/powder is either sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate, it can be added to the charge before the final spirit run and can help reduce ethyl acetate (heads) by breaking it down into ethel alcohol and sodium acetate (a salt that doesn't boil off), there's no point adding it direct to the wash before stripping, I've never used it but I know that sodium carbonate works instantly and sodium bicarbonate needs a few days to have the same effect, hope this lot makes sense, my heads battered now

Very nice write up Anavrin,

A valiant post Anavarin,for the time of night.
alisonnpaul s shield's post was kind of scary to read.
Hopefully you have given them something to consider.

Robert.

The only thing I would add is the turbo yeast can leave a nasty taste so I use either bakers yeast or ec1118. Yeast can make a big difference in finished abv and flavor.

edwatters wrote:The only thing I would add is the turbo yeast can leave a nasty taste so I use either bakers yeast or ec1118. Yeast can make a big difference in finished abv and flavor.

I couldn't agree more,and a small joy today was my local Tesco selling 125g Allinson's at 65p and 3 for 2.
Needless to say I cleared the shelf.
I admit to being gobsmacked that they had also reduced sugar to 59p,to compete with the cheaper stores.
Or maybe the store manager has some knowledge of home brewing/distilling............?

Robert.

I think the gauntlet is down...
39.1666p is gonna take some beating. Well done you.

I thought £12 for 25kg was good - not even close.

The T500 really isnt suited for stripping. I ran it a few times with just water running through the product condenser - no reflux. You had to run the cooling so fast to knock the vapour down due to the teenie condenser it has.

I have seen posted a few times not to do this as it will melt the plastic - has anyone got a link to anyone who has experienced first hand - got pics? Or is this another distilling myth?

I cant see the plastic melting that easily handles 80oC in normal use going to pot when the temp is pushed to the mid 90's for a short period of time. I could be wrong though.