Smart Still Safety Q\'s

[makum101]

Ive been using a smart still for 8 months. I am wondering if anyone could place my mind at rest over a couple of fears I have over its safety.
1) I collect the first 700mls without discarding the the first 20mls as this is what the instructions in the box says. I emailed the importer and he said I didnt need to discard the forst 20mls as the filter system cleans it. SHOULD I BE DISGARDING THE FIRST 20mils?
2) After I have collected 700mls i continue to collect another 100mls in a separate container. This comes out at 40% (the first 700 comes out at 60%)and stinks. After doing this on all 6 runs in a batch I Chuck it back in the still and mix it with the next wash. IS THIS OK?
3) I normally use Still Spirits triple distilled turbo yeast. This takes 10 days. To speed things up I got a bag of Alcotec 24 - this is a turbo yeast that ferments out to the same strength as above in just 24 hours. Again I asked the importer and he said it was bad and would produce the \'wrong kinds of alcohol\' I emailed the manufactures of Alcotec 24 and they said it was safe for the Smart Still and had been developed for it (I used the carbon sachet with it). I also find the finished product is nicer - something my local home brew shop disagrees with and backs up the importer by adding that I am killing myself using this yeast. I am wondering if these reports are due to the homebrew shops and the importer wanting me to buy a particular brand. IS \'Alcotec 24\' SAFE for the smart still wash usage?

[optic]

Hi makum 101

sounds like you are doing everything ok to me,regarding the foreshots i think if you are running just sugar washes and just running it through the still once its probably ok not to bother removing foreshots,i now always chuck the first 20mls or so when i re distill because to be quite honest at the end of the day you have got plenty of alcohol left and anything we can do to make the end product cleaner has to be worth doing IMO,regarding the alcotec yeast the importer of the still just wants you to use the yeast he sells,my favourite yeast is the alcotec vodka star seems to produce a nice clean tasting alcohol,so carry on with your alcotec24 its fine, hope this helps

Optic

[makum101]

Hi Optic
Many thanks for confirming what I suspected. Just wanted to make sure I was not killing mesell! (they eyes are slowly getting worse year on year but thats probably age!)
I do do a sugar wash, but will now discard the first 20 mils. Thanks for the advice.
With the Alcotec 24, my finished spirit - once mixed with the required amount of water - comes out at about 38% where as the SS Triple hits 40%. I emailed the Alcotec people about this and they suggested their Alcotec 48, takes 48 hours but is slightly higher in %VOL. I\'ll post my findings.

[HangOver]

1) I collect the first 700mls without discarding the the first 20mls as this is what the instructions in the box says.
The box is IMO crap, there is MORE than enough evidence to encourage anyone to dump the first 20ml, so YES you SHOULD DISGUARD THE FIRST 20ml, you will have a noticably better spirit and not be poisioning yourself.
2) After I have collected 700mls i continue to collect another 100mls in a separate container. This comes out at 40% (the first 700 comes out at 60%)and stinks.

*** if you remove the first 20ml it will smell better, try it and see***
After doing this on all 6 runs in a batch I Chuck it back in the still and mix it with the next wash. IS THIS OK?
YES this is Fine.
3) I am killing myself using this yeast. I am wondering if these reports are due to the homebrew shops and the importer wanting me to buy a particular brand. IS \'Alcotec 24\' SAFE for the smart still wash usage?
** I think your HB shop is wrong alcotech is fine **as long as you dump the first 20ml **
just a note: try the tomato wash you WILL get a MUCH better taste but you will get less spirit IMO i\'d rather a better product but a bit less.

I find carbon in the wash or distiller not 1/4 as affective as carbon filtering afterwards.
Good Luck mate, but don\'t worry too much,

[Phantom]

700 mls ?
Well that creates another because when I got my table top still, the SS instructions said that I should harvest 800mls @ 60% ABV per 4 litres of sugar wash - which in turn, should have reached 14% ABV/0.980 gravity etc etc.
Now I don\'t often get exactly the same numbers that \"they\" suggest on the packets/boxes etc, but they\'re not far out. The numbers aren\'t exact as distilling isn\'t an exact science, but it\'s not far out either.
I usually use the Still Spirits Triple Distilled yeast and carbon, as that\'s what the local homebrew shop sells, but if I can find cheaper alcotec etc then fine I\'ll buy that.
There is some question about binning the first 20 mls, which as you can see from other comments here, don\'t forget that as you\'re probably already using refined table sugar in the wash, it\'s unlikely that it will produce much, if any, methanol during the ferment. The idea of binning the first 20mls is a safety margin thing.
But, it\'s up to you when you bin it. If you bin 20 mls on each 4litre run, then at the end of running the 25 (well 4 really) litres of wash, you\'ll have binned something like 120mls of spirit, the majority of which is likely to be good. So I tend to bin the foreshots, only once I\'ve run all the wash, then let it back down to 40% or less, which usually means about 5 litres from the initial distillation topped up with about 3 litres of water to make 2 x 4 litre batches to run. I then bin the first 20 mls as all of the tiny amount of methanol will be in that, then I just keep distilling until the \"product\" is down to 40%, which is then kept. I leave the still running and keep checking the strength so that when it\'s coming out at 10% I switch the still off. The second \"weaker\" part of the distillation is retained to be added to another batch of wash later for re-distillation. I do the same for the second 4 litres of 40% or less. then the bit that\'s kept for drinking is let down to 40% and only then is it run through the filter.
I end up with good spirit that is neutral in flavour. It\'s then flavoured up as I need it.
Finally, It doesn\'t really seem to make any difference about which yeast is used i.e. One of the alcotec\'s or one of the still spirits. The whole point being that the still will remove most, if not all, \"off flavours\". Even if you have to distill it more than once/twice.
I don\'t like the idea of making stuff like grain mashes/washes or even the tomato paste wash if you need to be discrete. Sugar wash produces about the lowest of smells/odours when it\'s being distilled, so for me the discretion point is excellent. You don\'t want a neighbour to really know what you\'re up to unless you want them to know. After all, you wouldn\'t want to attract the attention of the \"pointy heads of HMRC\".....

[optic]

what i have been doing on my last few washes is to run the still until ive collected 1ltr which is 50-52% so out of the 25 ltrs of wash i end up with 6 ltrs at 50ish%,then i know this goes against advice but i dont cut it back to 40 but run it as it is,i find i can collect a lot of spirit over 80%,i keep checking the abv every 100mls that comes out and call it a day once this drops below 80% then carry on collecting the rest to run through again when i have got enough,this when its been run produces some fantastic spirit which i reckon i could use without carbon filtering.

[umpa]

The Smart Still is such a low volume of liquid that as said above you don't really need to discard the forshots. Using a pure sugar wash reduces the chances of making methanol in any relevance even smaller.
I have found by experimentation that you don't have to use turbo yeasts of any type at all. If you have the time & a good recipe you can use simple bakers yeasts and make your wash in a demijohn - no need for big 25L fermenting buckets as the still is tiny and I found it no fun trying to distill 22L of wash with a 4L still (took all week).
I always carbon filter, what I make has to be drinkable and tasty else there is no point in doing it. Don't be afraid to experiment, unless your a complete idiot you cant hurt yourself with a smart still.