Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

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Sailman
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Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

Post by Sailman »

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I'm running a 15 1/2 gallon beer keg in pot still mode with a 3500 watt heating element and a two inch shotgun condenser. I just finished the last of four stripping runs on a sweet feed whiskey. When I did the last run I had to take off of about 1200 ml in an hour. It was a decent-sized stream about the size of a pencil lead but I feel like this is too slow, am I correct and what what is a normal takeoff rate for a stripping run? The reason I ask is that it took about 10 hours to do a stripping run on a 12 gallon wash. I was running somewhere between 8 and 9 amps.

In my stripping runs I've been taking about 300 ml of foreshots and all of the runs have been anywhere between 12 to 13 gallons. From the four stripping runs I wound up with 12 to 13 gallons of low wines collected down to 10% so this should get me down around 40% or so for a Spirit Run. What would be a good amount to collect for foreshots? The rest of the cuts will be made in 300 ml increments and stored covered for at lease 24 hours.
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Windy City
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Re: Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

Post by Windy City »

Turn up your power. You are running a pot still and not a Boka
When I ran a keg/pot still I would get a quart every 15 min (approx)
You are running a sweet feed and want to push those flavors over in the strip.
To be honest I would run only slightly slower than the above speed on a spirit run .
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jonnys_spirit
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Re: Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

Post by jonnys_spirit »

For a strip run i go as fast as my PC can take which is full power @ 5k5W and will strip that size boiler in about 1h after taking fores.

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Twisted Brick
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Re: Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

Post by Twisted Brick »

I take 150-200ml fores on both stripping runs and spirit runs, but everyone is different. Since I don't include early heads in any of my spirits the amount of fores is subjective. As you learn your still, it will become apparent when to start collecting different fractions in quart jars (ie: hearts) in order to minimize the number of jars you need.

I run my keg pot on full (40k btu NG) and it takes around 4hrs to strip 12gal down to 10%. Early on, I collect 1500ml every 14-15min. As the alcohol depletes, takeoff becomes painfully slow and boring.

BTW, I love pics of stills in the house :mrgreen:

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Last edited by Twisted Brick on Sun Aug 16, 2020 7:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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OtisT
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Re: Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

Post by OtisT »

Hi sailman. You could run your strips at full power (puking aside) and be done in about 4 hours +/-.

You said your low wines should be about 40% ABV. Can you measure that to get an accurate number?

The reason I ask About your low wine ABV is so that you can do some math to work out collection jar size. 300 ml collection jars would be a PITA. If you plan to collect in 300 ml increments you will need about 80 jars. There is a nice calculator on HD, on the “Calculations by RAD” page, that will calculate how much volume you can expect to collect. I think it is called the “distilate to water calculator”. Using that calc, 12 gallons of 40%ABV low wines through a pot still collecting at an average of 70% ABV will result in 24 liters collected. If you collect in 1 liter increments each jar is still less than 5% of the total volume you will collect.

Re: how much foreshots. Just my opinion. If you are pulling just acetone slowly, you could get away with pulling just 200 ml over about an hour and be good. That is a rate of about 1.5 drips per second. If your not pulling fores slowly and the acetone is coming over with your heads during a gentle boil (Another acceptable method) all the fores should be gone long before you are done with heads and before you get near hearts. For me, that heads to hearts transition is always >15% of total volume collected. On your coming run, that would mean you will collect around 3 to 4 liters of heads +/- before you are near your first cut point.

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Re: Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

Post by Sailman »

Thanks for all the help guys it looks like I've got a lot more reading to do before my next run. All this is new to me and I have read before that you run a stripping run wide open as long as your condenser can handle the vapor. I was afraid of a puke and or scorching the batch. The way you guys are describing it and the way I've been running my stripping runs I guess they were just Spirit runs, well at least I've got some experience on Spirit runs. One thing that I have noticed with my still is that once it hits 100 degrees at the point of no return you better not take your eye off of it because it'll be 150 before you know it. That's where I start producing.
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Corsaire
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Re: Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

Post by Corsaire »

If you put that sight glass on the bottom of your riser you'll have an easy indicator for pukes.

I agree with the run it as fast as the condenser can handle on a strip run.
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Re: Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

Post by Twisted Brick »

Your shotgun is strong and will handle wide-open strips without blinking.
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Sailman
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Re: Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

Post by Sailman »

To be honest I'm unsure of the percentage on the low wine as far as alcoho.l I said that because I read on the form somewhere that if I was to strip down to 10% that would probably get me in the neighborhood of 40% low wines it could be lower but I will cut it down to at least 40%. I don't have anything large enough at the moment to be able to combine all of the low wines to get an accurate reading.

Holy crap I just went and looked at the calculator and for 12 gallons of low wines at 40% on a still that collects at 70% I'm going to wind up with about 6 and 1/2 gallons of spirit. Does that sound correct ?

Also I've always thought that I should collect in small amounts of cuts. I've read to do it this way to keep from smearing the different fractions. on a run like this what should be a normal cut jar?
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Re: Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

Post by jonnys_spirit »

On my still I run my spirit run somewhere between 35-40% low wines maybe 12-15 gallons topped up with backset and get about 2-3 gallons of 125'ish proof after cuts depending on teh variables. I will collect fractions using a combination of mason jars and clear wine bottles (because they're available and easy) - Seems like I usually end up numbering to 24 or so collected fractions and by the time I'm into fraction #24 the proof off the PC has dropped significantly and I'm into tails so I'll stop the run and dump the boiler - after a couple days I decide my cuts and I may save the feints perhaps discarding the extreme ends of the fractions. Six gallons total sounds about right if divided into 24 fractions = almost 1 liter per fraction. I'll collect my hearts into 1/2 gallon or even gallon jugs and 500-750ml/fraction on those runs depending on where in the run it's at and based on prior runs...

Yes - Three gallons of 125'ish proof is quite a bit of likker IMO but also consider that you may leave it on oak for a year with some testing. Three mash/ferment/clear/strips and a spirit run may take me a couple months total so i'm not actually running it that much but I could probably do more if I wanted.

I feel like straight up sugar wash neutral can be somewhat quicker to process beginning to end or even UJ but I generally fiddle with it all and take my time - plus I'm not drinking much anymore either so that makes a big difference.

Cheers,
jonny
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OtisT
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Re: Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

Post by OtisT »

Sailman wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 7:53 amHoly crap I just went and looked at the calculator and for 12 gallons of low wines at 40% on a still that collects at 70% I'm going to wind up with about 6 and 1/2 gallons of spirit. Does that sound correct ?
Yes, about 6 gallons is what you should expect to collect IF you run to the end of tails. On spirit runs, some folks will end the run when they are well into tails, past their cut point, so if you do this you may only collect about 5 gallons. When you make cuts, you will likely only be keeping about half of that 6 gallons collected, so you should end up with about 3 gallons of roughly 70% spirits, +/-. Otis
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Re: Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

Post by Sailman »

I need to go get bigger Cuts jars
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Re: Stripping runs Spirit runs and cuts questions

Post by jonnys_spirit »

A couple/three cases of mason jars works pretty well and they have milliliter and pint measurement marks on the sides too... Recommend large mouth.

Cheers,
jonny
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