Still Smarter

A few years back I failed to make a neutral I was happy with, I got bored with distilling and went off to do other things. The product was hot and kinda burnt my nose. Last month I figured I have another crack at.
I dusted the Boka Still off and I bought a couple of stainless needle valves replacing some that had corroded and knocked up a pot still attachment to the boiler for stripping runs, so eliminating any contamination of the still packing from the wash. I also placed a roll of copper mesh just under the slant plates as the still is all stainless and has 4ft of stainless scrubbers as packing.
I made up 50L of Birdwatchers Tomatoe paste wash using bread yeast; I had previously only used Vodka Star wash. The Tom paste wash took around 3 weeks to munch its way thru the sugar, which is incredibly slow given it was kept at 25c. I then cleared with a little gelatine and cold crashing.

So yesterday I fired up my Boka with a 30% stripped charge and got it up to temp, and then backed right off on the power to the point it was just maintaining a stable temp around 1Kw. I’d read the other day that if there is too much activity in the coulomb it mixes up the various components and smears them out. So by reducing the power I was hoping to really compress the fores and heads. On my previous attempts years back I think I was running full power, so loads of reflux.
I let the still equalise for an hour and then slowly opened up the tap at about 1 drip a second. I took off a good amount for fores.. Strangely there was no real smell to it.
I then took off the heads at the same rate…. Again no real bad smells or acrid nose burning. Nothing like my previous attempts, It was abit like distilling for the first time all over again, as nothing was familiar.
I then turned up the heat a little 1.5kw for more reflux and removed the hearts at 95%
So this morning I had a nose in the shed to inspect the product after airing out in 500ml Jars. The hearts jars are perfectly neutral, no off smells or tastes whatsoever. No carbon cleanup required. Heck ..even the heads jars smell way better than my previous attempts hearts.

So having changed so many factors in one go.. What’s the cause of my huge improvement? The wash?, proper wash clearing, stripping runs, copper addition, low power on the fores and heads.
At the moment my money is on the wash ..due to the fact the fores and heads don’t really smell bad. I have a batch of Vodka star bubbling away (id forgotten what Id previously used) .. so if my product stinks again I’ll have a clue.

My money is on your "knowledge" has made the difference. Tasted it yet?

Aye, twas suppin some earlier. Tastes like a nice clean vodka.... Now I need to convert it to something else. The wife is interested in making a Gin botanical basket of her liking to dangle in the pot still. I also picked up a bag of JD smoking oaks chips to soak.

Congrats Boozoids

I'm with mash your knowledge and patience is probably the difference.

Happy to hear of your of your success!
Knowledge and foreknowledge/experience must surely be your friends here.

Robert.

Glad that you're pleased with your product
Good luck with your comparisons and flavour experiments!

Well done.

Boozoid wrote: Sun Nov 03, 2019 7:22 pm Aye, twas suppin some earlier. Tastes like a nice clean vodka.... Now I need to convert it to something else. The wife is interested in making a Gin botanical basket of her liking to dangle in the pot still. I also picked up a bag of JD smoking oaks chips to soak.

Nuking JD will not disappoint. Slight bit of honey helps.

"dangling" concerns me. Design it so the vapour goes through the basket.. Do not let the vapour get around it too easily. Also give the bots room to move, don't ram them in. Sieves work well as a starting point just find a way to keep it over the output.

I forgot to thank you Boozoid, for the detailed post.

The more detail, the better the quality of response.
Information is key.

Robert.

Yep, you definitely dived in heads first at the start, hence getting burny.

Yesterday I diluted down to 40% and ran some thru the Essencia carbon filter for laughs and added a little glycerin and ice.... wow, its smooth as anything I've ever drunk. Well Chuffed.
Unfortunately we don't have a microwave, so today I placed a 500ml jar in a water filled pot on the stove. 50g of wood, topped up with 40% and 3 heat cycles later ..its very good. I think I'd like a little more oak in the next batch, but very quaffable.

With regards the Gin, I'll have to work something out basket wise, the pot still is an odd size near 3" diameter. Shopping at the market with my vernier calipers always gets me odd looks.

Boozoid wrote: Tue Nov 05, 2019 4:29 pm Shopping at the market with my vernier calipers always gets me odd looks.

LOL!

I get odd looks measuring saucepan lids in charity shops!

Robert.

Have you got a link for the stainless needle valves please ?

Cos I'm still procrastinating about column designs and a decent sized boka would be fine..........

The ones I used are like eBay item number:303268114666 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Needle-Valve ... 65lsa5cBYg But I bought them from Aliexpress, they look identical to be fair. They have a ptfe seal under the top nut to stop leaks, and come with stainless olives to fit your pipe. Adjustment is a little course .. but hey what do you want for £5.

Many moons ago, I tig welded a short stainless takeoff tube to my column threaded female 1/8 NPT i think ..which fitted my old rusted nickel plated valves, Of course the male threads on the ones I purchased was not the same. I ended up having to spin the valves up in the lathe and re-thread one of em to fit, thankfully there was enough material. All the pipes on my still are 6mm microbore copper pipe so unaffected and the valves nipped up tight and didn't leak.

At that price you could use 2 inline, operating the first as a course control and the second a fine. Good find that man.

One of these days, I will be brave enough to try Ali express..

Robert.