StillSmart

I have tonight checked the fermenters and we are sub 1.000 so I have moved them in to my workshop next to an open window to cool and settle, how much do you settle, just a few days or until it is clear right down to the yeast bed?

I tasted some of the finished ferment and was pleasantly surprised!

@Maker. Dont be too hasty to terminate fermentation. Let it run its course. A good ferment will have a high enough alchohol content that will kill the yeast. Fermentation activity will cease and the dead yeast cells will drop to the bottom. If they remain in suspension it is probably due to continuing fermentation which will maintain a slight degree of motion in the wash.

When the yeast cells drop out of suspension, the wash will look several shades darker. This will happen whether you move wash out into the cold or not. Cold will speed up the process, but not necessary. Depending on the wash, a cleared wash might be almost black. If your looking for something that resembles water, not going to happen.

That is what a stripping run is for.

@Rum John
I left the fermenters alone and they settled well so I ran the stripping runs, I got a gallon from each 25L fermenter stopping collecting at 35% ABV ish with a average of 50% ABV, mixed the pair of collected gallons with a gallon of water and ran a spirit run, I went a little quicker than usual as you suggested and got 10 x 100ml heads to be decided on, 4 litres of hearts and about 500ml of tails stopping at 40% abv.
Does that sound right?

Little update, I removed a sample when the ABV was at around 75% and have watered down to 40%, just poured a glass and it stinks of tails, it's the same smell I get from Vodkastar tails, I think I may have ruined the lot by not cleaning my still properly, I only ever rinse it out, I may have just learned another lesson.

@Maker. A common mistake that people make is to try and extract as much alcohol out of a run as they can. Making your cuts outside of the perfect point can contaminate the whole run with off flavors.

Be reminded, that in a stripping run stopped at 40% ABV, that 60% of the content is what you started with. Taking it down to 30% gets progressively worse. What you spend in time, heat, etc. is just not worth it.

I give my equipment a good scrub out prior to a spirit run. Essential.

Hi John

The sample I took was when the still was producing at 75%, I took 300ml, I presumed I would get a really nice sample at this point in the run. I have collected the rest of the run in a demijohn so from 80% down to 40% and got about 4 litres.
I suspect the vodkastar washes I have recently run have left my still a bit stinky and the flavours have carried over.

Lesson learned, I will get some more syrup in the week and try again, this time with a sparkly clean still.

I got hold of a bottle of star san so decided to try making this again, I cleaned the fermenters to a clinical level and fermented 2 x 25l and left these brewing at 26 degrees untill finished then left to clear in a cool place.
Just in case there was some funk in the still that I could not clean and for no other reason than I wanted one, I built another boiler and ran a vinagar run, then soaked everything in VWP for 12 hours, rinsed and used star san.

The strip was added to the boiler (nearly 2 demijohns collected down to 30%)I added 2 more demijohns of water and brought to the boil, turned the power to 85 volts and settled down to a slow collection, collected the heads in glasses and when I was sure the heads had passed I moved to a demijohn checking every few minutes, I collected about half a demijohn and was collecting at just over 60% when the tails turned up, I'm doing something wrong here, 12 tins of GS and only half a gallon??

I'm happy all the kit was as clean as it could be and the process was nice and slow so I can only think it maybe how the still is set up, as you can see in the picture I dont have any column, could that be the problem?

Back to basics. What was the OG before and after fermentation.
My thinking is you can't still out what ain't there!

It fermented all the way out, got a gallon of strip at over 50% per fermenter.
It was still producing at 60% when the tails turned up.
I have emptied the boiler and saved the juice for another go, it's at 9% with no off smells or taste.

My thoughts are as there is not a column it's throwing over undesirables far to early in the run, I have a column I can use, 2" by about 500mm but I don't know if that will remove flavour?

I susspect this may also be the issue with 'Lumpy booze' from the other thread.

Maker wrote:I got hold of a bottle of star san so decided to try making this again, I cleaned the fermenters to a clinical level and fermented 2 x 25l and left these brewing at 26 degrees untill finished then left to clear in a cool place.
Just in case there was some funk in the still that I could not clean and for no other reason than I wanted one, I built another boiler and ran a vinagar run, then soaked everything in VWP for 12 hours, rinsed and used star san.

The strip was added to the boiler (nearly 2 demijohns collected down to 30%)I added 2 more demijohns of water and brought to the boil, turned the power to 85 volts and settled down to a slow collection, collected the heads in glasses and when I was sure the heads had passed I moved to a demijohn checking every few minutes, I collected about half a demijohn and was collecting at just over 60% when the tails turned up, I'm doing something wrong here, 12 tins of GS and only half a gallon??

"I'm happy all the kit was as clean as it could be and the process was nice and slow so I can only think it maybe how the still is set up, as you can see in the picture I dont have any column, could that be the problem?"

Easydrinker replied......

I think that may be your problem, don't quote me.
Wishing you a better 2019.

My still leaves Tails in the boiler, and I throw all boiler contents after a run, I have never tried to re-use them.

I dunno what you are using or why, to measure in Volts, I thought we all measured power reduction using Watts?
Hey, what do I know.....
Robert.

@Maker. I am intrigued by your problem and wish to see it resolved. I will go back over your posts and see what I can find. Right now I am jet lagged to hell, having just arrived in the states. So bear with me.

With an 30,000 cachaca stills operating in Brazil, I would suspect the bulk of them are without a column. It is certainly not a necessity.

Cut a corner for me and show me your recipe.

Hey John, on the run again...!

The recipe is simple, I ferment 6 x 907g tins in a 25 litre bucket with 50g of bakers yeast at a temp of 26 degrees until finished, I then strip the alcohol with my still on full power and collect nearly a gallon, I don't go below 30%.

When I have a couple of gallons of strip I then add to the still with the same amount of water and bring to the boil, once hot I reduce the volts to the heater until I get a drip, drip, trickle coming out. I take a 100ml as fores and collect in 100ml measures until I have passed the heads, collect the hearts and keep checking by smelling until I detect tails, then back to 100ml glasses to collect a few just to make sure I'm right. I measured the alcohol and it was still at 60% when I had to stop, this seems way to early.

The first time I made this I collected down to 40% on the spirit run and it was undrinkable, nasty tails funky smell/taste, this time I stopped when tails arrived so it should be drinkable but the yeild is very bad, I have used 12 tins total and only have half a gallon of spirit, that can't be right.

I checked the leftovers in the boiler and there is no foul smell or taste.

I had a quick look at the numbers you are getting to see what you might expect.

Your 6 tins of GS in 25 litres should give you about 10%ABV in the wash so you start with 2.5 litres of alcohol max. You then collect say 4litres @50%ABV in the strip so you have about 2 litres of alcohol per strip, 4 litres total now from both batches. So you have most of the alcohol from the wash now.

Measure the ABV of your fores, heads, hearts and tails left in the boiler and you should be able to see where all the alcohol ends up. Your half gallon of clean spirit may be all that your system is capable of.

Making up some numbers purely for illustration, starting from an 18 litres spirit run:-
100ml of fores @90% = 90ml
500ml of heads @80% = 400ml
2500ml of hearts @75% = 1875ml
15000ml of boiler tails @10% =1500ml

Adds up to 3865ml which is close to the 4 litres of alcohol you started with. Plug in your own actual values and you should see where it all goes.

RJ I have been following this. That's a good explanation for me.

@Mash. I dont understand your last. My time zone is AWOL.