Airstill, Best Practice and Results

[yeastbeard]

Hi ya folks, it's been a while. For good reason it has been a while, this forum and the airstill guide set me on the right track long ago so I haven't really had to look back. THANK YOU ALL! I was lucky enough to start reading this BEFORE I got started so I was already a hundred legs up. Anyhoo.. it's time to shut her down. Here is my question.

I have 250ml heads @ 71%
2950ml low wines @ 30%
900 ml tails @ 30%
and
800 ml hearts @ 70% should it be necessary to get the best product out of my last run or runs.

I need some marching orders on this last run. How best to proceed to get the most spirit in the quality range of the double distill guide. I hope that makes sense. I've been doing this long enough to know cuts etc, but how do I maximize this last run (or runs) with quality still in mind?

Thank you in advance and thank you all once again for the guidance you have provided here. If I tipped my hat to ya'll as much as I should I think I'd rub a hole in my skull.

[yeastbeard]

just to be clear the 2950 ml of low wines has ALREADY been watered back to 30% so 1950 is the TOTAL number for the low wines.

[hampk]

Hi YeastBeard

Personally I'd dump the heads and tails, run the 2l of low wines as normal for cuts, and then blend in the hearts you already have. I can't see much point in trying to get anything out of the rest, but others may of course see it differently!

Cheers

Hampk

[yeastbeard]

Thank You HAMPK for the quick response. Please see that I have adjusted the number of low wines in an edit. (I had the wrong note in my book ) I actually have 2195 @ 30% of LOW WINES.

[hampk]

To my mind that doesn't make a difference - run the wines you have and make cuts. I can't see you gaining anything by adding the heads and tails back in. Ok you will wind up with 375mls of heads after combining - but it can't be worth the effort to run that for maybe 50mls of dubious hearts can it?!

[yeastbeard]

You are so right. I have been doing my own "thought experiment" on this for a few days. Just wanted to check with those who know better. It never did make sense to me to use any hearts, but then again it would have never made sense to me to double distal either. Thanks again!

[chill]

I save my tails and distill when I get 4L. Same for the hearts, but at 2L, cut to 4L with water and distill. You can get some decent neutral out of that, depending on what your base wash was.

[yeastbeard]

Thanks Chill. I hear ya on that, but I am shutting her down down.. like no more down, so I was just wondering how to clean up the last of it the best I could. Wasn't sure if I should dump it all in, or a combo of it and shoot for that ultra clear last boil. I'm just cleaning up the operation and the only thing I want left is a jar or two of the cleanest spirit possible. The gear is going away so no saving anything but the goods after this one

[gaza the instructor]

What a masterpiece on airstill double distillation, beautifully diagrammed even an idiot like me can understand the basics of your diagram.
I have just one question.Assuming we mix any unwanted tailing or low wines in with the next striping run.If I collect 4 liters of heads for a spirit run how big will the heads be or how will i know when im into the heart ?? (im guessing 4 litres of heads will mean a larger than usual head cut).

[chill]

First, have you measured the ABV of heads? Are you sure you want to be boiling 80+% alcohol? That is not something you would want an ignition source around. You will probably also find that the still runs dry. I've done it, I lived, but I don't do it any more. A better plan is 2L of heads mixed with 2L of water.

You can't do it by volumes in and out. Early heads have more of the undesirable elements than later heads. You are never going to collect exactly two (or four) litres evenly from X runs so each heads run will be a bit different. You have to do it by taste and taste alone.

You will get more heads in volume. But the initial heads will be more concentrated than from a normal spirit run. I collect 250ml and put them back in the heads jar. Every few heads runs, I will discard this to prevent it from getting overly concentrated. Then I collect about 6 x 100ml jars. After that I can taste that it is definitely hearts and start collecting in a larger jar. You won't get any tails from a heads run, but the taste deteriorates as you get below 50% ABV.

I'd keep my tails separate and run them, but you don't need to dilute them with water. You won't get any heads from a tails run, but tails will start sooner, in terms of ABV, than they usually do.

[Easydrinker]

Nice one Chuck.
I may cut and paste your response at some point in the future,spot on.
We all feel the urge to try loading the still with high ABV stuff, to see what happens, I have tried stuff like this, I no longer do so.
High ABV charge in an air still is not very smart, and does not yield better tasting results.
But maybe we all need to try for ourselves and see how high a % we can attain.
Dream on and buy your self a different still if that is your goal.

Robert.

[chill]

I was running pure heads as an experiment to see if I could recover more ethanol. My theory is based on the fact that pure heads will boiler at a lower temperature than heads mixed with water. My expectation was that this would result in more concentrated heads and thus more pure alcohol. That seemed to be the result, but slight increase just did not justify the risk (I'll admit that I'd not even considered the risk when I started this experiment). I'd rather make another wash and keep my house and self in the state they are in. Such as they are.

[gaza the instructor]

Thanks for the words of wisdom. Always safety first.
Am doing a run this week, have my collections jars ready.
I have learned more in the last week reading your postings,
than i have in 6 months on the internet.

[Icefever]

That's what the forum is all about.

[hampk]

+1 Chill

From memory (as I don't have my notebook to hand to check (yes I do write everything down!)) my last heads run took 1.6l of heads diluted with 2.4l of water to give me 4l at roughly 30%. I used hot water to decrease the run time, and collected around a bottle or so of decent hearts.

I must admit I chuck the heads I cut from the result, but might try Chill's idea of recycling a few times just to see.

High ABV anything in a boiler strikes me as a recipe for disaster!

Cheers

Hampk