Turbo Yeast: Alcotec 48

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Odin
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Re: Turbo Yeast: Alcotec 48

Post by Odin »

Rad, Whiskeymonster,

Some more information on how I distill to make something good out of Alcotec 48. Hey, it's weekend (at least here it is!), I just lighted my first sigar of the evening and poured myself an Akvavit ...

When I did not have a fractionating still yet, I used to make my neutral vodka's with a potstill. I have a few. I started with an airstill (5 litres table top, you probably know them) with 350 watts and a button to regulate power downwards. Then I started using a copper alambic of 10 litres. It was heated on a hotplate of 1500 wats max. Turning it back to 2/3 of the power worked good enough for the skip run. Spirit run was then performed in the airstill. I now also have a 30 litres potstill build with a submerged 2000 wat heating element. Again, good for skip runs, but a bit too agressive (my triac does not work proparly, so it is "full throttle" all the way) for spirit runs. The airstill (untill I had a fractionating still) was useful again to do the spirit runs.

With the cuts described before, and after deluting to around 40%, I got something decent. It had a bit of a brandywine smell and taste and it tickled the tongeu when you drank it, but I liked it. A friend of mine told me, he also liked it, but he made an interesting discovery. One night he did not finish his drink. Next evening, since it was still there, he did. He told me it actually tasted better. Less taste, no "tickling on the tongue" (I hope you understand me, since I am no English speaking native). I was surprised, but tried it myself. Just leaving pot distilled liquor in a glass for a night did give a better result. Arter reading some books (rereading, actually), I found that oxygen might have an effect on higher alcohols that inevitably come over when pot distilling. Esterification, I think it is called. Higher alcohols being broken down into more pleasant ones as I understand it.

What I did since, and advice anybody who wants to make a neutral out of A48: buy a beer wort air pump/stone (there must be a better name!) and put in in your (almost) finished liquor. If you lett it bubble for 48 hours and then give it another 48 hours of rest, taste improves greatly. Without a wort thing to bubble air through your drink, you might want to bottle your vodka in big 5 litre bottles, but leave a lot of head space (1 1/2 litres) and unscrew the cork or cap every few days. In a week or 2, maybe 3 you get pretty much the same result.

Now, since I have bought (sorry guys, building will be my next project!) a fractionating still, I do a skip run in my 30 litres potstill and then (having some 10 litres of 45% "low wine"), put it in my fractionating still. Since it can hold around 6.5 litres netto, I have to do this twice.

What kind of fractionating still I have? I almost feel like starting to tell a very bad story, but I actually bought a CM (cooling management) still. Yes, even one with a cooling tube pretty low in the tower (at around 1/3) and the other one just some 5 or 6 centimeters under the take off point. The still has 3 feet of pacing (small lava stones). The tower is 1 1/2 inch wide and the cooler is pretty oversized. The temperature measures sits through a silicone cap at the top of the tower. Heating is done with the same 1500 wats hot plate.

Now, I haven't found anyone on this forum who actually loves a CM still, but I am (having no other) pretty fine with it. I heat up the wash slowly (around 60% of max power). Equilibrium cannot be achieved, but due to the efficiency of the column, the most volatile parts will get out first. I discard the first bit (50 ml per run of around 5 litres of 45% low wines). Temp settles at around 78 degrees and stays there rock steady all the way. In around 3 hours I collect a little over 2 litres of 96% abv. And since the wash and low wines are soo pure, temp does not rise above that. There just is not any higher alcohol (that might vaporize at 82 degrees for example) there. CM 's got a great tail compression, too, so if you use a wash containing abundant tales, they will be held back to the very last part of your run, anyway. But, when you work at 60% of the max power of a 1500 watts hot plate, this is just enough to get the ethanol over (actually, by 2/3 of the run you might want to put the power a little higher, since more water damp - relatively - is pushed up in the lower part of the column. But if you go no higher than 70%, there just will not be enough power to bring over higher alcohols or water. And you will reach an equilibrium when all the ethanol is distilled over. In that way, my still stops automatically. But still, I like to stop at 2 litres, or when the temp meter starts to move a bit (downwards, actually!). It means, ethanol is finished and waterdamp is refluxing the measuring part of my temp rod.

The result is a 96% pure alcohol with no off flavours what so ever. No carbn filtration is needed. 48 hours of rest, after deluting, is recomended. Brings water and ethanol in balance. Eastern European friends who love Prince Eristof vodka were sure that Eristov was better vodka than mine. In a blind test, they choose the Eristov ("definitely, this is much better, this is the Eristov!"), only ... it was actually the drank I made.

Rad, is this the kind of detail you want of at least apreciate, please let me know!

Regards to all, Odin.
"Great art is created only through diligent and painstaking effort to perfect and polish oneself." by Buddhist filosofer Daisaku Ikeda.
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Re: Turbo Yeast: Alcotec 48

Post by rad14701 »

Nice overview of your equipment and methods, Odin... If it's all working for you that's great... Sounds like you want to get your hands dirty by building a still in the near future and I think you'll find the experience enjoyable...

With your CM rig you are essentially running it as a Power Management (PM) still just as much as Cooling Management... Most folks don't run in this manner and it helps explain why your thinking on auto-shutdown works with your setup... However, other types of still will not experience the auto-shutdown of spirit take off that you have described... Most will power right through the hearts and run as deep into the tails as you let it go... The added heat input provides the additional reflux that helps maintain high purity... In fact you may actually be leaving some good alcohol behind in the boiler that other methods would collect but it's hard to say for sure...
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Re: Turbo Yeast: Alcotec 48

Post by Prairiepiss »

Is it me or is Odin having the exact opposite outcome on all the points everyone else complains about? :wtf: It just seems to me Odin has found how to use everything that is disliked around here. And makes something he loves that nobody else has been able to do. I think he has listed everything that is frowned upon here.

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Re: Turbo Yeast: Alcotec 48

Post by Odin »

Hi Prairypiss and Rad, thanx for the feedback. Wow! Even got positive feedback and that is pretty much a first with the way I do things. Great! Rad, if I look at what is left in the boiler, I think it is pretty much close to nill, but I will take a reading on sunday or monday. Just some stats for now, not 100% exact, but let's see where we get ...

If I make around 24 litres of 18% wash, that's about 4.320 ml's of alcohol millilitres. Now I get usually around 10 litres of 40% neutral vodka's out of my runs. Taking in consideration I get rid of 100 mils of "fores/heads", around, that would leave around 200 millilitres of alcohol left (incuding tails, congeners, etc.) in the kettle. My feeling sais: "not bad at all!", but please correct me if this is a mediocre result.

A question for Rad: you define my distillation method as a combination of CM and Power Management. What is Power Management? Can you give some insight, since I am not familiar with the term? Or maybe a link I can use to read more ...

Another question for PP and Rad: I have been reading a lot on VM's and CM's, and since my own CM/PM was not supposed to work as good as it actually does, I also thought a lot about why my rig works and how a CM or turboyeast like mine works. Would it be a good idea to start a thread on CM distilling? I would love to put some effort in that, but how to start it, and would you guys be willing to critically look into my findings?

Regards, Odin.

Update: I just took a reading on the alcohol content left of what is left in the bucket. Around 1% is left in a total of 5 litres of lees (correct word?). That would mean some 50 millilitres of alcohol is not distilled.
"Great art is created only through diligent and painstaking effort to perfect and polish oneself." by Buddhist filosofer Daisaku Ikeda.
chris69ca
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Re: Turbo Yeast: Alcotec 48

Post by chris69ca »

oldin ill give your method a go cant hurt and my little fish tank heater (was new b4 i started using it in my mashes) works hard out in the shed might have to put it near a window as well next time i may have under did it with it ill talk to the brew shop they seam to be experts with alcotek 48 i do 5 day runs ill use the finnings as well see if that helps i guess it cant hurt giving a few goes dont think we ever get things right first try ok off to my whisky making
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Re: Turbo Yeast: Alcotec 48

Post by Odin »

Chris, I would not use a heater at all in the first two days! Yeast produces so much heat, that even with temps as low as around 5 degrees centigrade, you should not have a problem. After 2 days heat production (and alcohol production) do slow down a lot. If your shed is cold, maybe it's better to go for the 14% / 6 kilogramms recipe. That will pretty much be ready in 2 days, so no heating is needed at all.
Regards, Odin.
"Great art is created only through diligent and painstaking effort to perfect and polish oneself." by Buddhist filosofer Daisaku Ikeda.
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Re: Turbo Yeast: Alcotec 48

Post by chris69ca »

Odin wrote:Chris, I would not use a heater at all in the first two days! Yeast produces so much heat, that even with temps as low as around 5 degrees centigrade, you should not have a problem. After 2 days heat production (and alcohol production) do slow down a lot. If your shed is cold, maybe it's better to go for the 14% / 6 kilogramms recipe. That will pretty much be ready in 2 days, so no heating is needed at all.
Regards, Odin.
might be an idear ill have to give it a try thanks
Australian made and Australian owned that the way i want it
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