Just bought me Still

Stangas · Post by **Stangas** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:45 pm

cheers guys..

i am starting this morning.. i had heard that it can sometimes take many hours to complete..

will post resuslts this arvo

Stangas · Post by **Stangas** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:49 pm

workin beautifully..

got almost 3L out of her at the moment..

cooling is variable... i get what you were laughin at

havent tested it yet

knuklehead · Post by **knuklehead** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 8:46 pm

What rate are you collecting at Stangas? Between the above two posts is about 4 hours. If you started collecting when you made the first post and by the second post you have 3 liters you are collecting at 12.5 ml/minute which if you have a 2" (or close) column is a good collection rate for optimum purity. If you just started warming up when you made the first post then your collection rate may be too fast. What kind of still are you running. If post more information about your setup and what you are running we can offer better advise. Do you have testing equipment? If so what is the ABV?

Stangas · Post by **Stangas** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 9:47 pm

couldnt figure the pic.. so the avatar tells all

I have nearly 3L now and stopped
The drip rate got quite slow, so i stopped... normal practice?

The stuff i got is at 76%... so pretty happy with that

Do i need to carbon filter? it looks very clear, and tastes like nothing

Stangas · Post by **Stangas** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 8:48 pm

kewl.. will filter today.. i finish me second wash soon

One question... what is the ideal temp to control the head space temp at??

I have been doing 78 deg cel.. does that sound about rite?

Stangas · Post by **Stangas** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 8:57 pm

yeah.. its a super reflux.. using 5kg dex into 20L washes i got about 3.5L of 80%

I could have kept it going, but the drip rate got pretty slow, and the cooling water was getting excessive.

I ran it at 78deg. maintaining flow of cooling water.. the max i got to was like 80deg for about 5min.. i took the alcohol when i got to 78 and waited for about 50mL.

I flavoured most of it.. put 4L with oak.. cowboys stuff (Irish cream, and butterscotch) using extra pack for each (sugar i think.. and paid $4).. Some Bundy, 2L Instant Jacks with some bottled oak flavour 10mL, and still had 4L left for oaking more

I did 3 x 20L washes.

Good fun, but ya cant leave it for too longer periods.

Bujapat · Post by **Bujapat** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 10:20 am

For information, here is a time table of a sugar wash run made a few months ago :

Time T° Remarks Total Collected
00 : 00 18°9
00 : 26 25°
00 : 48 31°4
00 : 58 34°1
01 : 13 50° Cooling opening
01 : 20 61°
01 : 30 70° a few drops are comin' out
01 : 35 74° 64 ml Collected(méthanol ?) 64 ml
01 : 36 68° Nothing's goin' out
01 : 37 75°
01 : 41 76°
01 : 52 77°8 It comes out 114 ml
01 : 55 77°8
01 : 57 77°8 Purity : 92 %ABV 164 ml
02 : 03 77°8 Purity : 92 %ABV 344 ml
02 : 06 77°9 Purity : 92 % ABV 414 ml
02 : 14 77°9 Purity : 92 % ABV 664 ml
02 : 21 78° Calculated flow : 1850 ml / h !
02 : 24 78° Purity 90 %ABV 914 ml
02 : 33 78° Purity 92 % ABV 1164 ml
02 : 42 78° Purity 92 %ABV 1414 ml
02 : 44 78° Purity 92 % ABV 1500 ml
03 : 05 78° Purity 90 % ABV 2000 ml
03 : 44 78°5 Purity 90 % ABV 3000 ml
04 : 40 81°3 Purity 85 % ABV 4000 ml
05 : 01 81°5 Purity 83 % ABV 4500 ml

I distilled 25 l sugar wash, fermented with Turbo yeast.
My still is a reflux with coolin' tubes in the upper half of the column, 2" column, 104 cm high, packed with 12 SS scrubbers (50cm high).
I noted more infos, but it's in a word file... Difficult to rewrite all here, but I think it gives an idea...

Bujapat · Post by **Bujapat** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 10:24 am

Sorry, I clicked "submit" instead of "preview"

So it's possible to read... Imagine 4 columns :
1 : time in hours:minutes
2 : temperature °C
3 : remarks and purity measure
4 : total collected (cumulated)

Hope it would be readable.

Stangas · Post by **Stangas** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 11:16 pm

Well i have knocked off me first bottle of bundy.. and i am still alive.

My conclusion is think i would like to make rum and sour mash properly. So i getting the mollases and corn thing happening.. the sugar wash is great for shooting stuff

I have done the UG Simple Sour Mash.. that i put in today

Waiting on a bloke thats gonna give me some mollases.. he's got a 1000L tank of it.. gonna send some my way for nothin.. well botts here n there anywho

This is easier than beer.. but i really like me beers too.. LOL
now i have 180L of beer in storage.. and about 18L of hootch

hehehe

Swag · Post by **Swag** » Mon May 01, 2006 11:20 am

Well i have knocked off me first bottle of bundy.. and i am still alive.

My conclusion is think i would like to make rum and sour mash properly. So i getting the mollases and corn thing happening.. the sugar wash is great for shooting stuff

I have done the UG Simple Sour Mash.. that i put in today

Waiting on a bloke thats gonna give me some mollases.. he's got a 1000L tank of it.. gonna send some my way for nothin.. well botts here n there anywho

This is easier than beer.. but i really like me beers too.. LOL
now i have 180L of beer in storage.. and about 18L of hootch

hehehe

Good score on the molassas. I've been trying to find a cheap source locally, but no luck so far.
You're going to like the sour mash. It really starts to get good after 5 or 6 ferments. I usually strip 4 or 5 mashes and then do a spirit run. Much easier to figure out the cuts and you get a more consistant product.
The only hard part is waiting.

possum · Post by **possum** » Mon May 01, 2006 11:37 am

Swag, maybee a natural foods co-op would have blackstrap molassis in gallon jugs. I figure there aren't too many animal feed mills in San Francisco.

Swag · Post by **Swag** » Mon May 01, 2006 1:37 pm

Swag, maybee a natural foods co-op would have blackstrap molassis in gallon jugs. I figure there aren't too many animal feed mills in San Francisco.

I can find molassas, the problem is finding some cheap molassas. There are a few feed stores that I haven't checked with yet so I need to do some leg work.
I've just started fermenting some rum with a gallon of molassas I bought for around $15. It works great but I don't want to spend anywhere close to that much for a gallon. Maybe for 50 lbs.
It has made a very happy ferment. Gonna run it this weekend.

partsbill · Post by **partsbill** » Tue May 02, 2006 1:38 pm

possum wrote:Swag, maybee a natural foods co-op would have blackstrap molassis in gallon jugs. I figure there aren't too many animal feed mills in San Francisco.

Hey possum; where ya find it near R'lyeh?

possum · Post by **possum** » Tue May 02, 2006 2:17 pm

The Amish sell it.
They are in league with me, but I keep eating the delivery men.

I'm actually on the east coast of USA now, the sunken city is just my permanent mailing adress.

Stangas · Post by **Stangas** » Thu May 04, 2006 8:21 am

hey swag...

what do you mean when you say you strip 4 - 5 washes and then do a spirit run?

its prolly the lingo i not up with yet

Bujapat · Post by **Bujapat** » Thu May 04, 2006 9:11 am

A strippin'run is a fast one, collectin' all the product goin'out the still between (for example) 80 and 50%ABV. You don't try to keep constant 78°C and/or 90% ABV...
Spirit run is a final run, made slowly... to increase alcohol level and purity of the product comin' from your strippin' runs.
Thats double distillation!

TEC · Post by **TEC** » Thu May 04, 2006 12:41 pm

gulflarger

yes you can do a stripping run first .
but with a few added things and a little tunning you can do it all in one run and acheive between 90 to 95.5%

I have no problem getting 95%+ out of my still. It does a very good job at separating ethanol from water, it's what is in that other <5% that is the problem. If I do several stripping runs and then combine them and dilute to 40%-50% abv with clean water. The end product comes out cleaner and the separation between heads and tails is more pronounced.

Edit, that should read "separation between heads - mains and mains - tails

Swag · Post by **Swag** » Thu May 04, 2006 2:07 pm

hey swag...

what do you mean when you say you strip 4 - 5 washes and then do a spirit run?

its prolly the lingo i not up with yet

Stripping is running with no reflux (or a pot still), and taking everything from the forshots up to 96 - 98 degrees C. It refines and greatly reduces the volume of your wash. You then combine a bunch of stripping runs together to do a spirit run.
I find I get a much better end product if I do stripping runs first. That goes for whiskey and vodka.
It's much easier for me to make cuts in a spirit run than right from a wash, especially with whiskey. And like TEC said, you get a much cleaner vodka if you strip first.
People do it both ways. You may want to try it and see if it works for you.

knuklehead · Post by **knuklehead** » Thu May 04, 2006 2:30 pm

I always to double runs for flavored spirits in which I strip of several batches and do one combined spirit run however for neutral spirits I do a single run in my reflux. I have a very high column so I find it makes just as good a product with one run then if I did a stripping run first. I am not disagreeing with the point Swag made but for me if there is any difference at all it's not worth firing up the still so many more times to get virtually the same result. If a reflux tower runs well it should be able to do the job in one run.

Stangas · Post by **Stangas** » Thu May 04, 2006 4:43 pm

chhers guys

next question... i just started me pot still with UG Simple Sour Mash

the still temp went straight to 85deg and is staying there. Is this ok as drinking alcohol?

and is it still design that alters this temp? as cant reflux

Swag · Post by **Swag** » Thu May 04, 2006 5:07 pm

chhers guys

next question... i just started me pot still with UG Simple Sour Mash

the still temp went straight to 85deg and is staying there. Is this ok as drinking alcohol?

and is it still design that alters this temp? as cant reflux

After your heads cut it will be.
A pot still only has one "plate" of distillation, while a reflux column has a bunch. 85 degrees sounds fairly normal. Try testing the ABV and make sure you taste and smell it throughout the run. A little bit on a spoon right out of your still will get you accustomed to the different flavors and odors that develope during your run. Collect in a bunch of little jars and number them. Then you can better tell where you like your middle cut to be. Taste the beginning, middle and end to get a better idea of the different flavors.
Read Tony's site for a more detailed description of where to make your cuts.

Stangas · Post by **Stangas** » Fri May 05, 2006 4:41 pm

WOO HOOO!!

The distill went well, got 3L @ 40%.. first litre was at 50%, the second at 45% and the third at 30%, the fourth was at 20% so i discarded this portion.

The Woo Hoo was from the fermenter.. i half filled the fermenter with cold water, then put in 5L of sour mash, put in 3.5kg of sugar, and a teaspoon of di ammonia?? (yeast nutrient).

The bloody thing went off.. literally.. it bubbled, then started foaming throught the bubbler, so i took it out of me brew shed and put it on the lawn to settle, came back an hour later and there was a 6" slice out the side of the fermenter and grog all over me patio, concrete, lawn. Quite a sight really. At least i knew me lid was sealing.

The question is... where did i go wrong? Too much sugar? Yeast Nutrient?

ps.. i was using turbo yeast from the previous ferment.

Thorin · Post by **Thorin** » Sat May 06, 2006 3:40 am

turbo shouldnt be kapped for the first day, i think, because of the extreme speed of fermenting. (leave the lid of, and use a piece of cloth or something to stop bugs from entering you wash) else than that, i cant really see any error...