"cloudy" spirits

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Mac0904
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"cloudy" spirits

Post by Mac0904 »

i'm not really sure how to describe what i've got in a headline for a topic, and for that matter, i'm not even sure how to search for it...

i have a jar of spirits that were recently distilled and when it sits for a while it looks all good. when you shake it up it gets this weird double liquid thing going. i'm sure its impurities and i probably need to run it through the still head again with a smaller boiler to control temp better. but what it looks like is when fresh water pours into salt water. imagine you're pouring clear food coloring into clear water and you can see it right as its pouting into the jar. i can't figure out how to explain it and i can't get the damn picture small enough to be allowed as an uploaded attachment so i took a tiny screen capture that might help me describe what i'm facing.

fluidmixture.tiff
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Dnderhead
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by Dnderhead »

sounds like it mite be tales.
BentJar
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by BentJar »

Tails with make your shine blue tinted after you add water to proof out. Is that what you have? If so make better cuts and dont get too greedy.
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red dirt shiner
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by red dirt shiner »

I'm going to vote tails as well.how does it smell/taste?does it smell kinda like cardboard and tast a little like dirty or old water?
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by Prairiepiss »

BentJar wrote:Tails with make your shine blue tinted after you add water to proof out. Is that what you have? If so make better cuts and dont get too greedy.
They don't turn blue unless you have another problem.

Better cuts next time. :thumbup:

Oh and I hope your not trying to control temps. As your post said a smaller boiler to control the temps better. You can't control temps. The ABV of the boiler charge does that.
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Mac0904
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by Mac0904 »

it doesn't appear to be blue, just looks like different density clear liquid floating around in another clear liquid. once i get plenty of first-run stuff i'll make another run with better cuts to strip it all out and see how it turns out.


regarding controlling temp, what i meant was i wanted to use a 3 gallon or 8 gallon boiler and one of those nuwave PIC induction boilers to create a constant temperature supply to the boiler so i can more easily tell when the still is telling me something's changing inside. i currently use a propane turkey cooker from the wally world to apply flames to the bottom of my keg.

when i finally get to a point where i can produce excellent quality neutral spirits i want to make some really good scotch so i need to make sure i know how to read the changes in the boiler, right?
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by Dnderhead »

If your after "scotch" and such you don't look for "boiler change" its product change.
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by Prairiepiss »

I'm with Dnderhead. There shouldn't be any reason you can't run that propane just as good as an expensive induction burner. Your controlling product takeoff. Comes off to fast turn it down a little. Coming off to slow turn it up a little. If you are having problems with turning the burner down far enough. Raise the boiler up off the flame more. That will give you a little better control.
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by Dnderhead »

basically the boiler is "set and forgit" once you bring it up to temperature turn it down to the output you want and then keep your hands off.from that time until the end, you pay attention to to product.and once you git to know what to expect that even gits boring because like a ferment 90% of your time is spent waiting.
Mac0904
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by Mac0904 »

thanks to everyone for their replies!

i wasn't even sure how to begin searching this huge forum for help with what i had, but now i can easily start my search for "tails" and go from there.
Dnderhead wrote:If your after "scotch" and such you don't look for "boiler change" its product change.
agreed, i will be changing to different recipes and ingredients once i learn to listen to my still. didn't want to waste a bunch of time and effort running a great wash just to get a crappy output and then thinking it was the wash. gonna keep practicing with the turbo yeast and sugar until i can start learning where the different cuts are. until then, i'll keep using these spirits to dry out the poison ivy i'm getting from mowing the yard haha. might even see if i can get my Husqvarna lawn tractor to run on the spirits i'm producing until i get confident that i know how to talk to my still.
red dirt shiner wrote:I'm going to vote tails as well.how does it smell/taste?does it smell kinda like cardboard and tast a little like dirty or old water?
it tastes like dirty ass haha. testing the proof looks like its 180'ish coming out of the first run. i drained some of it through some activated carbon and that seemed to improve the taste and smell a bit. i can't even begin to think about how to properly describe the taste.
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by BentJar »

Prairiepiss wrote:
BentJar wrote:Tails with make your shine blue tinted after you add water to proof out. Is that what you have? If so make better cuts and dont get too greedy.
They don't turn blue unless you have another problem.

PP, what other problem are you refering too....
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by rad14701 »

Never tasted a dirty ass but my vote goes to tails as well... Better cuts and being a bit less greedy will help... You can dilute and redistill... You never said how big of a boiler charge you started with or how many jars you collected in... The more information we have, the better we can be of assistance...
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by Prairiepiss »

BentJar wrote:
Prairiepiss wrote:
BentJar wrote:Tails with make your shine blue tinted after you add water to proof out. Is that what you have? If so make better cuts and dont get too greedy.
They don't turn blue unless you have another problem.

PP, what other problem are you refering too....
Do a search for blue distillate or blue product.
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by BentJar »

PP
Tried the google search for blue distillate and blue product and neither one gave me anything...

perhaps you could explain your statement sir
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by Prairiepiss »

1050 results for blue distillate.
http://www.google.com/search?rls=en-us& ... &rls=en-us" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
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Re: "cloudy" spirits

Post by BentJar »

Found it in another post, it helps to spell corretly....
thanks
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