New T500 owner with some questions

[Goodolboy]

Hey guys..New to the site and new to distilling.

For whatever reason I got an itch to start learning to distill. After some research, I decided to go with the T500 with stainless reflux, and also bot the copper top pot still kit. I bought these with two things in mind.

1-Reflux for the pure neutral spirits of high ABV that can be cut down and mixed into flavored stuff(blueberry pie, Apple pie, etc)

2-Copper pot still kit for using fruit based washes and dabbling with learning how to distill with cuts.

After a bunch of reading, and watching YouTube, it seems like there is a lot more to it than the SS videos showed(mix water,sugar, yeast, and carbon. Let ferment until finished, use turbo clear,and dump in T500. Boom you have 93% abv spirits.)

I've already started the SS triple distilled turbo yeast that came with my kit. I did use the carbon in it as well. It finally started fermenting after 1.5 days. I have a pack of the turbo clear for when it's all done to clear it up.

I know a lot of people say to use the tomato paste wash(which I will try eventually). I have quite a few packs of the Alcotec Vodka star turbo yeast on the way so I will use all those up first.

With all that said, I am more concerned about quality over quantity. With this batch, should I do a stripping run with the pot still attachment first, and the use the reflux to distill it afterwards? Will this give me a better end product? Should I run it through twice in the reflux after I strip it with the pot still? I would like to end up with a very high quality,smooth 190proof spirit, no matter how little that may be from this first 25L batch of wash.

Any guidance is extremely appreciated.

[Jaggie]

starting with a turbo wash will give you a baseline DONT be too worried at the start about things, it will get easier as you get used to it. I hope you have a pressure reducing valve fitted it will stabilize the water pressure for you. make it easier for you to control the water flow. i run my T500 for 1hr 20m to heat up then i reset my timer and the run for a further 3 hrs.ive tried the tomato paste wash and the lentil wash they're both very good.

[Anavrin]

Hi Goodolboy

Sounds like you've got a good selection of gear to get started with.

With the pot head for the T500 you should strip your wash first, in fact it would be a good idea to strip 3 washes before you do a spirit run, each striping run will produce about 5 litres of strip, if you looking to make a neutral spirt, I would recomend stripping until the output ABV from the pot head reaches 30%, after that point you will have collected all the useful alcohol you need and the average ABV of your 5 litres should be around 50%

So after 3 strips you'll have about 15 litres at 50% you can then water this down to 30% and have a full boiler charge for your spirit run, about 25 litres.

[Goodolboy]

Thanks for the helpful relplies.

So a few more questions.

1-when I'm doing the stripping runs, should I dump the first 50ml or leave it in since I'm going to redistill it anyways in the reflux?

2-how many times should I run it through the reflux? Is one time after the stripping runs good enough to give me a nice smooth 190 proof neutral spirits?

3-I only have two carboys and don't really have any room for more. So when this first batch gets done stripping, is it ok to keep it in glass jars while I ferment the other two batches? Should it be refrigerated or can I leave them out?

4-Do I need to use the turbo carbon and turbo clear with the Vodka star yeast?

Thanks again gents.

[Anavrin]

Hi Goodolboy

1, when stripping you can just collect everything, throw 50ml if it makes you feel better but it's not needed as you can do that on your spirit run

2, one time through the T500 should be good enough to get a clean 90% plus spirit

3, glass and stainless are perfect for storage of high strengh spirit, always avoid plastic containers and temperature is not important, so long as it's not hot as the spirit is highly flammable

4, vodka star is one of the better turbo yeasts, you shouldn't need the carbon but if you need to clear it fast use the turbo clear, it will clear by its self if left somewhere cold for a few days

You should also do a bit of research on making cuts, not everything you collect will be drinkable, the forshots (50ml per wash used) can be tossed away, after that you will collect heads, hearts and tails

The heads might make up the first 30% of what you collect after the fores, you should collect them slowly in numbered glass jars, I use 500ml Kilner jars and collect upto 400ml in each jar before swapping to the next, after the first couple of litres collected, you could decrease the water cooling a little and collect a bit faster, try to keep around 1lt/hr while you collect, towards the end of your run you'll notice the output slows down this is when the hearts are ending and your starting to collect tails, knowing how much alcohol is in your still before you start is important for planning how long you spirit run will take and how much to collect.

If you start with 20 litres at 30%, you have a total of 6 litres of alcohol in there expect up to 30% (1.8litres) to be heads and the last 20%ish (1.2 litres) to be tails, maybe more.

That means the clean alcohol in the hearts can be estimated at around 3 litres, make sure you have enough glass jars to collect it in 400ml batches.

Then you can leave the jars to air for a day or two with some cloth over them to stop and bugs or dirt getting in.

The hardest part is the determining from you jars where the heads end and the hearts start, you really don't want to get any heads mixed in with your hearts, it'll ruin your spirit and give you a nasty headache, tails are easer to spot they will be in the last few jars and will taste like wet dog or damp cardboard, the best way to determine your cuts is to water a sample from each jar down to 40% and taste it, the first few heads jars you can easily spot just by smelling them, but around the cut point you'll need to taste a little to see where the clean (hearts) begin

[Mr Four Square]

I hope you have a pressure reducing valve fitted it will stabilize the water pressure for you. make it easier for you to control the water flow.

I found temperature adjustment the most difficult aspect of running the T500. When you do need to adjust water flow to maintain or move to another temperature things can come unstuck for a while. Even comparatively small adjustments can send the temperatures rapidly up and down.. As a newbie this is very disconcerting. Thats why Jaggie is suggesting a PRV on the water supply. I use the Still Spirits supplied water controller but it's not that effective.

The design of the T500 cooling system means that your adjustments to water flow affect the whole column. Coolant input changes result in rapid changes to output cooling temperature (the temperature you are watching) Plus I'm told the SS supplied thermometer polls temperature every 2 seconds not instantly so you can find yourself making adjustments against temperatures that have already been achieved. So between those 2 things it can be a bit of a wild ride.

So what did I learn? First of all its not you. Second learn to make small adjustments. And then pause to see the effect.

[Jaggie]

I hot glued a 3" nail to the top of the silver adjustment knob(I tried to solder it but failed). The nail gives finer adjustment to the water control.

[Admiral Toad]

Agree with Jaggie I did that with a nail and it certainly helps

On my new setup I use control valves similar to these which give a more gradual control

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-4-3-8-1-2-I ... 1e9d63a42c

[Jaggie]

AT can you take a pic so i can see how you've connected it please ? 1 pic says a thousand word
thanks
jag

[Admiral Toad]

I got 3/8" ones from SDE and eBay I simply pushed the small pipe supplied with the T5 into a bit of spare 3/8" and this allowed the push in fitting to grip but means I can run 3/8" on the larger boiler condenser and dephlegmator

[Goodolboy]

Thanks for the help guys!

Anavrin, thank you for taking the time to give a detailed response and answering all my questions. It is very helpful.

So I took your advice, and got a 60L Spiedel fermenter to go along with the 30L that I have. That way I can do 3 batches at the same time.

I also went ahead and ordered two more things. I ordered the SS water pressure regulator kit so I don't have to deal with the water fluctuation temps. I also ordered a copper parrot.

So my question is, can I use the parrot to tell me when to make the cuts based on the ABV%?

I am just trying to make this as easy as possible for myself..being new to all of this.

[Anavrin]

Hi Goodolboy

A parrot will quickly show you in real time the percentage the alcohol is coming out of the still at, lots of people ask if it can be used to make cuts by %ABV but I'm afraid the short answer is no, although many well established whisky distillers do make cuts based on ABV, but that's because they're running the same recipe they've been making for 50 years and can predict where the different fraction are.

For us it just gives a usefull indication during a stripping run or pot still run how it's progressing, you still need to know your temperature of the product as the alcometer that sits in the parrot will be calibrated at 20°c, if the products too cool, it'll read low or if it's to hot it'll read high.

In most cases it's not possible to adjust the output to exactly 20°c but it can be accounted for with a correction table.

It's also useful when using a reflux tower, to keep an eye on to ensure your still getting something in the 90's, you'll seen it drop slightly when the tails start coming through or something goes wrong!