Triple distilled Irish whisky

[PoppaW]

So my brain was clicking away while I was enjoying some Irish whisky. If it’s triple distilled, which I believe it all is then how do we home distillers copy that with 40% abv as a Max allowable in the still? I can double distill easily and keep the abv to 30% but if I was triple distilling my boiler would be 50% easily or more. I am assuming the second run is just another strip with the fores removed.

Anyone done a triple and can say how to avoid the 40% abv issue? I would guess saving feints of tails or some extra wash would work.

Just thinking right now and not planning an Irish run. Too busy after harvest and processing a moose to make whisky. Hope to figure out a new run before Christmas but...

[bacstill]

Can easily add some distilled water to drop the Abv in the boiler

[jonnys_spirit]

I don’t know specifics for say Jameson but how about this for triple distilled @ Home:

First run collect until total abv is 20%
Second run collect until total abv is 40%
Third run collect in fractions and blend for cuts when done.

Rinse / repeat - Experiment and adjust as needed.

Cheers!
Jonny

[Saltbush Bill]

I cant see any point in triple distilling unless you make cuts on the last two distilations.
Not much point in running the same stuff twice and not cutting.

[zapata]

Triple distillation doesn't just add another distillation at the end, it adds it in the middle. You don't just rerun a spirit run, you run... yeah, I'm not gonna get this in words. Lemme find a pic...

Or you could do it Woodford style, even if they aren't Irish

Remember almost all commercial distilleries run low wines down into the 20's, and then they are mixed with heads and tails, but still unlikely to be very high strength. I've seen pics with percentages on them, but didn't have any on this computer.

[NZChris]

Get the target abvs and protocols from as many commercial, Irish, distilleries as you can. Choose one you like the sound of and follow their method.

[8Ball]

A spirit charge of 60% low wines and 40% feints will get you there. You have to do a few runs to collect enough feints. The idea is you make very tight heart cuts — leaving some hearts in your heads & tails. These heads and tails are recycled (here is the 3rd distillation part) as your 40% feints charge during next spirit run.

Here is an example of what my next all malt spirit run boiler charge will look like in my 5G copper pot and 16 inch x 1.5D riser with 24 in Liebig:

Spirit Charge
Reserved Fermented Mash 0.50G @ 8.0%
Low Feints (eg Tails) 0.50G @ 38.0%
High Feints (eg Heads) 24.64 oz @ 80.0%
Low Wines (1/3 of boiler charge, stripped) 2.00G @ 28.0%

Total charge: 3.2G @ 28% abv

[NZChris]

Because I'm not commercial, there is no need to go recycling the feints back into my washes and low wines, so I put them in the feints collection for an All Feints run.

There is no need to add water. The commercials don't, so I don't. They run until they have their preferred ABV in the receiver. This means long stripping runs and larger heating bills. I strip using a preheater and during the later part of the run there is more alcohol coming from the preheater than from the main boiler. The next strip is already hot and partially stripped when it goes into the main boiler, saving a lot of the time and energy normally gobbled up by triple distilling.