StillSmart

HI All,

ive read a lot about the foreshots, hearts and tails of a brew, so ive just finished a batch which ive divided by taste alone and thought id share my findings.

I aimed to catch the output in 250ml jamjars until the almost flavourless hearts came out

The first 300mls seemed to have a sharper taste than the main part of the batch and it seemed to sweeten at the 300ml mark.

The next 500mls didnt seem to differ in taste so its all in the same jar.

As i was planning on making a cherry brandy essence and a whiskey, id use the 300mls (with another run) to make the brandy as it will be sweetened and the 500mls (with the other part of the run) to make the whiskey.

Any views would be appreesh.

MM

yep running an airstill. collected 300mls of heads and 500 ml of hearts and disgarded the first 50ml of foreshots. should I be collecting a litre of output as the still instructions say collect 750ml output @ 60%

They'd like you to believe what they claim but with an Airstill a second run is a must if you want good stuff.

If you just want gargle glug away after the stuff comes out of the first run otherwise as follows;

Airstill is quite inefficient so the best use is put your wash through a stripping run where you collect everything (no cuts) until the output get down to 30%. (you should get about 1.5lt or more depending on the strength of the wash)

When all 6 X 4lt batches are done you'll have about 9lt+ of cleaned wash - not really good enough to drink yet although some do!!!!.

Check the ABV and cut to 40% (if higher) then do Spirit Runs and what you'll get from your Airstill should start at 82-83%. Discard the first 50ml for safety. After that the cuts are up to you.

I cut off spirit collection at 70% and what comes after that, down to 30%, goes in my next wash - when its finished to boost the initial ABV going into my still.

Good luck with it and whatever you decide enjoy it!

AM

wow, thanks for the info.

there is a "twang" to the output,but i just wanted to test the flavours out so have been drinkin it.

you say you get about a litre and a half from the first run, what about the second?

id better bookmark this page...

From each 4lt of stripped wash at 40% I pull 1.3Lt of Spirit after the foreshots. Because I'm making whiskey I blend a percentage of the heads with the heart and what heads I don't use are saved until I have enough, diluted to 40%, for a spirit run. I also collect tails all the way down to 30% and this goes into my next wash when it's cleared and ready for the still this boosts the output as well as the volume.

Some people add their tails to the wash at the beginning but I think this just kills off yeast cells and doesn't serve any purpose.

Get yourself a DJ and label it HEADS. You'll be surprised how quickly you'll fill it and 4Lt of heads from Spirit runs will be at approx 80%ABV - that's 8Lt @ 40% from which you'll get over 2.5Lt with an ABV around 75% which will give you around 4.7Lt when diluted to 40% - that's almost 7 standard 70cl bottles - well worth doing.

The product of each wash goes on and on. The Heads and Tails are constantly being reworked and recycled....

...and stop drinking from the still output it's not fit for drinking till its diluted and filtered or you won't be with us for long LOLOLOL

AM

Run 1 : Collect everything until the output of the collected wash is down to around 30% (about 1.5 litres). Repeat until you have enough for second run.

Run 2 : Disgard foreshots and collect 1.3 litres of wash then dilute to 40%.

Do i need to be using a parrot or any other kit that might make things simpler?

I realise that everyone has their own methods and im currently trying to get a routine together and understand some of the logic behind the collection process.

So cruedly, if my starting wash is 4Litres @ 15% does my output volume drop to a quarter but my ABV is multiplied by 4. So 1 litre at about 60%?

So essentially i want to strip most of the alcohol out of the wash leaving the "dirty" cogen, fusel filled water behind. I then dilute the output with clean water thus removing the flavours?

First the Parrot; Yes, a Parrot will make things less messy for you in that you'll have a constant general indicator of what's coming from your still but remember it is an averaged figure. There is simply no substitute for your taste buds and your nose. Having said that, if you have one you'll always use it.

Output from your still is a great variable because no two washes are the same - even if made with seemingly identical materials; Operating temperatures vary, how clean/efficient is your still on a particular run, water quality on the day, etc, etc, will all have an effect, not just on the ABV of a wash but many other factors too.

Run 1: The vol you get from a stripping run in subject to all those things up above. 1.5Lt is generally what I take from each batch but I have a well nailed down routine. What you take from 4Lt of wash depends on what's in it to start with. So the vol you can take from each 4Lt of wash is dictated by when the alcometer gets to 30% and you may well take more than I do because I'm not so concerned with volume (there's no particular reason why you can go down the 20% on the stripping run, the 30% figure is just what suits me)

Run 2: Spirit Runs; Again 1.3Lt is from my set up and I used those figs as example only. As above it's subject to all those variables. The foreshots is easy - chuck 50 ml regardless. The Heads is a matter of judgement and personal taste because that's how you know you've reached the end of the Heads - taste!

In my case I generally get 300-350ml of heads from my Airstill before getting into the Hearts. The 1.3Lt I mentioned includes Heads & Hearts.

When I was starting out I had the same questions as all noobs and what I did, in the end, was decide to treat the first 500ml, after the foreshots, as heads. Over a number of washes I collected this 500ml in 100ml batches in little jars numbered 1-5. I let the jars air overnight and the next day I smell tested and finger tasted each jar starting with number 5 (Don't swallow when sampling and rinse with water between each sample) It took very little time to find that point, the one jar, where the Heads disappeared and the hearts started. I was then able to differentiate between to two tastes. I quickly learned what the exact taste and smell to look for so now I finger test what comes directly off the still - a single drop on my well cleaned little finger straight to the nose then a second drop straight under my tongue. You'll be surprised how quickly you'll get to that point too

The maths you suggest at the bottom of your post - I wish!

As far as I can determine there is no direct mathematical correlation between the wash strength and the output. For example, if your supposition was correct then 4Lt @ 40% would become 1 Lt @160%

The ABV of your output is constantly changing with almost every drop from the still. Therefore what's in your total collection had some output at, say 83% but you stopped collecting at 70% and the final ABV will likely be somewhere around 75-77%. So your overall strength depends on where you stop the Spirit collection and let everything else go to the Tails jar.

OK this is getting too technical now, not to mention too long!!

Good luck

AM

Thanks for the info. Ill make myself a parrot at the weekend.

One final Q, the 30% figure.... is that the cumulative ABV of the collected wash or the ABV in the parrot? Or are these closely related anyway.

Thanks again for takin the time out.

Maybe there should be HOW TO section in the forums.

Best regards

MM

If you have a parrot its when the meter gets down to 30% otherwise you should be monitoring the output and checking the output at 100ml intervals after 800ml total collected. (never leave your still unattended when running )

When the parrot reads 30% the ABV of the entire batch is likely to be about 50% depending on what you started with. The initial output is high and drops off as the run progresses. A stripping run might start off at around 55-60% and run down from there.

Happy to help.
AM

Just noticed the parrot comments.

I am about to make some more (well as soon as order number 4 happens) as I have 3 people who have asked me to make them one and the amount of material I have to buy to get a reasonable price makes 4 at a time.

They work out at £35 + P&P and you will find comments elsewhere on the forum. If you are interested drop me a message

metalmickey wrote:So cruedly, if my starting wash is 4Litres @ 15% does my output volume drop to a quarter but my ABV is multiplied by 4. So 1 litre at about 60%?

So essentially i want to strip most of the alcohol out of the wash leaving the "dirty" cogen, fusel filled water behind. I then dilute the output with clean water thus removing the flavours?

You're right about your ABV thinking, but just not calculated for the inefficiency of the still. No still is 100% efficient anyway but the airstill (and other pot stills) are low down the efficiency stakes. By some quick calculations, if you put 4l in at 15%, the first 200ml or so will be at 60% and dropping from there down to about
48% overall for a litre. The key column is 'purity' - this is what's coming out of the nozzle and you can see it drops off pretty fast. For decent drinkable product you probably don't want anything lower than about 50 odd (many would say much higher) so you can see why double distillation is a winner with these small stills!




Remember kids, the calculator knows all!

So based on the table, my stripping run should yeild about 1300mls with a total avb of 42%.

so if i collect 3 of these ill have approx 4l for the second run.

Just to follow that up, if you did have 4l of 42%, here's the calculations to match - again look at the purity column to see what's coming out. If it were me I'd be taking 2l on this run so that I'm never allowing spirit lower than 60% into the overall mix, then collect maybe 500ml after that and chuck it into a demijohn to use later.

As you can see, the figures look substantially better the second time around!