Most foul tasting spirit you could imagine

[vino-tinto]

Yesterday I ran my 25 litre Boka on a 40% spirit run.
After taking off 1.2L of fores and heads I started to collect Hearts @ 94% in 1 litres.
The temp was rock steady @ 78.2 and all was going well, after 5L the temp suddenly shot up to 82.5 in less than 2 mins. I took a sample, diluted it with distilled water and took a taste, my God, it was the most foul tasting spirit you could imagine.
Never had anything like it before after dozens of runs, always get a good drinkable 7L and 2L of tails. I always use the same TPW and do the same strip run in my pot still.
All I can think is that I got muddled up with my labels and added heads and tails from previous runs instead of good strip.

[Anavrin]

Hi VT

Not sure exactly, maybe like you suggest it was more of a heads run, I do have a question though!

When you say you normally get 7lt drinkable spirit, do you mean you collect 7lt in cuts off the still that you then dilute or 7lt of good spirit after diluting?

I find that on a spirit run using 30% strip, I only recover about 1/3 of the alcohol in the wash that I deem good enough to dilute and filter as neutral.

[vino-tinto]

I have a 1.2m Boka filled with SPP and can normally get 7L in cuts off my run which I normally stop as soon as it drops to 88% in the parrot, then dilute with distilled water to 40% to put through the Essencia.
I only take down to 30% on my strip run, so perhaps this combination of good in, gets good quality out.

EDIT: I have just done a strip down of the column and soaked every thing in OXI, then distilled vinegar to clean out the column and cooling coil, smells like the wife's washing.

[Capt-Cudellez]

Sound to me like you flooded the column, this can drag the tails from lower down in the column into the product, which will be foul. Bung it all back in the boiler and have another go, maybe give the column a good shake to settle the packing.

[Almanac]

+1 what the Capt said, that was my first reaction too.

Bung it all back in and run it again.

AM

[vino-tinto]

Thanks Capt / Aid, Yep I think this is the most likely, never happened before, still, first time for everything.

[RumJohn]

Or, the sudden sharp rise in temp could indicate that you have pulled off the bulk of the alcohol

[Almanac]

I thought that too RJ but VT had only pulled 6.2lt of a potential 10lt which made me think that even in the thick of the tails it shouldn't be foul tasting that early.

AM

[vino-tinto]

I'm about to do another run since cleaning everything, and just to make sure it doesn't flood, I'm reducing the boiler to 1500W with the power controller once it starts giving off a product. I normally run at 1750W throughout the entire run, so the drop will only make a few minutes/L difference.

[RumJohn]

@Aidan: The rapid rise in temp indicates (to me)that VT ran out of alcohol in his boiler. And if so, the next thing will be the foul taste. The anticipated 10L was probably due to a miscalc somewhere in the equation, especially if only getting 62% of what he had planned.

@V-T: Reducing the wattage to the boiler might just introduce you to a whole new taste. I do push the rums, but only so far. I want flavor to come across. Beyond a certain point is a waste of power. Scorching should not be an issue on a spirit run but could well be on a stripping run.

I will be interested to hear what answers you arrive at.

[Almanac]

You could well be right RJ, I tend to assume figures posted are correct

AM

[vino-tinto]

I have always had 7L of hearts from my 25L 40% spirit runs @ 1750W. I can only presume it was flooding.
I have completed the next spirit run after a complete strip down & clean.
After taking off the fores & heads, I took off another 1L then switched to 1500W and my product dropped 2% to 92%, so I upped the wattage to 1600, this brought the product backup to my usual 94%, so this is a lesson well learnt.
I had always presumed that every spirit run would be the same as the last, but it would seem not. 1750 was pushing to hard, 1500 not quite enough and 1600 just right (Goldie locks and the 3 distillers comes to mind).
I'm using a 25L T500 boiler containing a 40% mix from strip runs, 1100mm of SPP top & tailed by SS scrubbers in a 54mm copper Boka column and a solid state power controller.

[RumJohn]

@ V-T: "Flooding" does not explain to me where nearly 40% of the alcohol went to. There is something going on that I can't see.

When I am doing a neutral (95% or so) I run at the absolute minimal heat. Just enough to keep the boil. ABV stays high. In your case, you upped the power and got a reduction in ABV. QUESTION: After the wattage change, did you allow time for the column to equilibrate again?? If not, might explain the drop.

If procedure remains constant (contents, temps, strip and spirit run) from one run to the next, spirit runs should remain constant. The time it takes, temps and ABV. It is almost uncanny how.

Question: 1) Is the "25L boiler" the capacity or the content volume?
2) "top and tailed by SS scrubbers". Do you have a gap between top and bottom. If so, might result in turbulence that will affect end result.

[vino-tinto]

@ V-T:
Question: 1) Is the "25L boiler" the capacity or the content volume?
2) "top and tailed by SS scrubbers". Do you have a gap between top and bottom. If so, might result in turbulence that will affect end result.

1, 25L is the "max mark" to fill to.
2, At the top of the column, below the slant plates I have a centralising reducer which is fitted with a mesh on the bottom. The top scrubber goes up to this mesh, then the column is filled with SPP and another scrubber as a stopper so none can fall into the boiler.
3, I must admit, when I adjusted the power I did not shut the take off valve for a while and let it reflux.
I was told when I bought the SPP, it likes to be pushed, but beware of flooding if you go to high, about 2KW was the absolute max. This was the first time it ever happened in dozens of runs. I am now starting to wonder if I included a DJ of feints by mistake as my labelling wasn't that great, which, by the way I have now corrected with clip on named labels.
I have just dug out some data sheets which I fill in or tick any changes I make during a run, after comparing, all are pretty consistent so I made an error somewhere, and not the tools I use.