A More Flavorful Whiskey - Lowering Spirit Run ABV

All styles of whiskey. This is for all-grain mashes.

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Bushman
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Re: A More Flavorful Whiskey - Lowering Spirit Run ABV

Post by Bushman »

Also noticed mention of collecting rain water for cooling. I'm definitely not opposed, just dont have a practical way to pump it to the still. I'll hopefully begin building a house soon enough and the lady has agreed to me having a specified brewery/distillery room, so that will become a much more viable option--just have it right outside the wall and have it pumped right to me.
Looks like you have an understanding lady! Also like Corene stated above I collect my backset and let it sit overnight to cool before making a decision.
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Re: A More Flavorful Whiskey - Lowering Spirit Run ABV

Post by BlueSasquatch »

If I understand this topic correctly, your stripping run gives you 60 proof, your spirit run hits 140 proof and then you end up "watering" it back down to 120-130 proof and you're looking at ways to hit this lower end-proof, without re-introducing water into it.

The two avenues that come to mind and have been discussed here it seems, are to either run longer, resulting in collection of lower proof. Or, add back in some of the left-over wash from the still, after your run is finished.

I expect the time/cost of a longer run to hit a lower proof yields a product similar enough, to the "standard" route of adding in normal water afterwards, to be to high for to small of a difference. I know this thinking isn't always correct, but if this was the case, you'd think the big boys would have followed suit as I'm sure they've attempted the same thing at one point.

Interesting thread either way, I'm not happy with the flavor strength of my browns yet, even pre-aging anything store bought "white" packs much more flavor than my all-grains, and I've heard others on the forums express real strong flavor to their white product that doesn't line up with mine.
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squigglefunk
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Re: A More Flavorful Whiskey - Lowering Spirit Run ABV

Post by squigglefunk »

Avalir wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 8:21 am The objective is to have my 5 gallon charge at or below 60 proof.
seems high
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Re: A More Flavorful Whiskey - Lowering Spirit Run ABV

Post by Avalir »

squigglefunk wrote: Wed Oct 06, 2021 7:40 am
Avalir wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 8:21 am The objective is to have my 5 gallon charge at or below 60 proof.
seems high
I know. That's what I had been doing up until now. The biggest setback is regulating cooling water temp when nearing the end of my strips.
But from all the feedback offered so far, I'm going to stretch it to the 20-25% range for my next batch and see where that gets me.
"I am a man. And I can change. If I want to. I guess." ~Red Green
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squigglefunk
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Re: A More Flavorful Whiskey - Lowering Spirit Run ABV

Post by squigglefunk »

Avalir wrote: Wed Oct 06, 2021 8:00 am
I know. That's what I had been doing up until now. The biggest setback is regulating cooling water temp when nearing the end of my strips.
But from all the feedback offered so far, I'm going to stretch it to the 20-25% range for my next batch and see where that gets me.
now I'm corn fused
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Re: A More Flavorful Whiskey - Lowering Spirit Run ABV

Post by shadylane »

Depending on what you want.
I figure there's several ways to lower the spirit run abv.

1. Use a lower grain to water ratio during the mash.
2. Run deeper into the tails on the stripping run.
3. Dilute the low-wines.
4. Run deeper into the tails on the spirit run.
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Re: A More Flavorful Whiskey - Lowering Spirit Run ABV

Post by kimbodious »

Get your cooling water set up sorted first. Then follow Shady’s suggestions.
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Re: A More Flavorful Whiskey - Lowering Spirit Run ABV

Post by Avalir »

Whelp, after a couple sleepless nights of lying awake, rethinking my cooling system build, the much more simple solution that didnt involve building addons or a new system hit me like a ton of bricks. The old system was designed for my plated column and reflux setup that had a much lower input and only needed to cool significantly lower temps than with the pot still. So the output water went through a 20' copper coil submerged in cool water before draining back out into my reservoir... the quick mod I made, I simply put my pump in the same bucket as the coil to use as the reservoir, then pumped water from a separate bucket through the coil and drained that back into itself to just cool the reservoir as a whole. A good 60% efficiency increase there, using with the pot still; I never had to worry about heat until the still head was in the 98-99C range. From there, a frozen gallon jug of ice could get me through. Just finished my strips, haven't checked ABV of low wines, but it's easily 20%, judging by yield volume, if not closer to 18%. Gonna get a couple hour nap in before the spirit run, but I'm excited to see what my keep cut lands at now. Based on everything shared here, I imagine I'll be happy to find no dilution necessary before putting on wood.
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Re: A More Flavorful Whiskey - Lowering Spirit Run ABV

Post by Avalir »

Wanted a 2hr nap, woke up 8hrs later. Oh well. Mixed low wines, feints, and a little wash I set aside and my charge landed at 20% on the money. High hopes for this spirit run.
"I am a man. And I can change. If I want to. I guess." ~Red Green
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Re: A More Flavorful Whiskey - Lowering Spirit Run ABV

Post by Avalir »

Just proofed my spirit run cut. It landed at 64%, and that's with me dipping deeper into my head adjacent jar than my gut told me to (it wasn't enough to bring over nasty heads whatsoever and I'm aging anyway, but it was just a tad more than I normally would.
"I am a man. And I can change. If I want to. I guess." ~Red Green
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Re: A More Flavorful Whiskey - Lowering Spirit Run ABV

Post by LordL »

If you want examples from the commercial distillers, Wormtub has a few points to aim at. :)
8.9vol proc mash
~25 volproc low wines
~68 volproc hearts
http://www.wormtub.com/distilleries/dis ... =Lagavulin

But, that's just to get something to start with or relate to. It depends heavily with equipment, wich in turn, may be something that could be trimmed in by using these numbers + the known charge volumes. :)
20L Boiler
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