Burn taste in final spirit

Sugar, and all about sugar washes. Where the primary ingredient is sugar, and other things are just used as nutrients.

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Dnderhead
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Re: Burn taste in final spirit

Post by Dnderhead »

amyl alcohol slightly soluble in water, easily soluble in organic solvents. It possesses a characteristic strong smell and a sharp burning taste.
this is one of the main things in fusols ( tales)
how your getting it i have no idea,,running "hot" improper cuts?
improper ferments can create more by stressing yeast.
use proper nutrients..good yeast...medium temperature(for what yeast your using)..and not to high of ABV..(just because a yeast says its good for 17% or what ever that dont mean you should go that high.
Usge
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Re: Burn taste in final spirit

Post by Usge »

Dnderhead wrote:from my research its in the tales .not heads..it can be aged out.but mite take time.
This has been my experience too. Particularly right past middle of run.
Spriit Tisler
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Re: Burn taste in final spirit

Post by Spriit Tisler »

Can anyone help me determine where the issue is? From all-bran wash that is stripped and then refluxed and reflux I get spirit that has sharp taste and burning sensation in mouth and throat, something that commercial spirit does not do. I can blend it max 5% so it does not taste or burn, but at 10% it tastes so strong it cannot be drunk, not speaking of higher volumes. Drinking 30-40% commerical liquors is ok but a total no-go with my spirit.

I have made cuts as proper as I think by splitting the gains into 150ml portions, and foreshots, heads, hearts and tails are all noticeable. The tails were clearly smelling at the last 2 glasses and first two glasses had clear fruity odor and third and fourth had somewhat sharp odor. Last time I collected 20 glasses, I threw the first one in foreshots bottle and then spread the first and last 4 glasses and began checking at the center and took two extra glasses from each end so only the main hearts were collected.

I've read this topic and it introduces the possibility of ethyl acetate which should be eliminated in basic conditions. There must be some chemical that causes this burn. I suspect maybe ethyl acetate or something similar. I tried sodium hydroxide last time with one batch and it seems to smoothen it a little, but not enough to fight with commercial spirits even. I see that people are able to blend stuff up to 20-40% with liquors and sweets and drink it like no tomorrow but my stuff burns the shit out of your throat at 10% and it somewhat palatable at 5%.
rad14701
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Re: Burn taste in final spirit

Post by rad14701 »

Spriit Tisler, something doesn't sound quite right here... Let's get some details...

What is the %ABV of your final distilled spirits after running through your reflux column...???

What are you using to calculate the dilution to drinking strength...???

How are you going about blending your cuts...???

Is this only an issue with the All Bran recipe or have you had issues with other recipes as well...???
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still_stirrin
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Re: Burn taste in final spirit

Post by still_stirrin »

Tisler,

From your description, to me it sounds like you are tasting heads in your spirit. Heads (sometimes in the very early hearts) will have a sharp bite and burning sensation. I've noticed this before with sugar washes, including the all bran recipe. Clean hearts are almost tasteless...well, maybe a little sweet. But they won't have that mouth and throat "burn" that you're describing.

The solution would be to take more conservative cuts (and increasing the portion that goes to your feints). Collecting in small jars will help you make the cutoff better. That, and getting a lot of experience with determining where the transition points are.

If you're using a reflux head, you should reflux longer at the start to compress the heads more too. It will help with a better defined heads to hearts transition.

Use your nose and get a good smell of the sample...if there are heads in it, it'll smell "fruity". The nail polish smell is in the early heads/late foreshots region, so if that is where you're making the cut to "keeper's share", you're cutting over too early.

Experience will help...but you've got to work at it.
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Spriit Tisler
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Re: Burn taste in final spirit

Post by Spriit Tisler »

rad14701 wrote:Spriit Tisler, something doesn't sound quite right here... Let's get some details...

What is the %ABV of your final distilled spirits after running through your reflux column...???

What are you using to calculate the dilution to drinking strength...???

How are you going about blending your cuts...???

Is this only an issue with the All Bran recipe or have you had issues with other recipes as well...???
It's 96% based on glass alcometer at 20C. I mistook the temperature reading in another topic when I found out that my altitude and air pressure explains the 0.xC anomaly and it really sits at 78.2C when corrected. I collect the stuff in glasses, 1.5dl for each one until run is done. Last time the foreshots, heads and tails were clearly noticeable by their signature odors, and the hearts (which I took off 2 extra glasses from each end after I drew off the heads and tails just to make sure) had a very slight pungent side-odor which I couldn't determine what it was, but it could have something to do with the burning sensation.

I use volume, aka if I want approx 40% I will use 6dl of water and 4dl of alcohol which gives somewhat close to that. It was used in a punch for friends that had juices, sodas and fruit pieces and 5% of alcohol by volume, all measured to be exact. Increasing to 10% will push the sharp burning taste through and makes it undrinkable.

All bran is only real recipe I've tried so far after messing up with turbos.
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