Typical Alcohol Proof From A Pot Still ?

[fizzix]

I was planning to distill a 20 ABV Sugarwash with a worm. What can I expect in the first run if I keep a portion in the middle?

What kind of extreme gravity yeast would you use?
20% will just about be impossible with an average strain, and as Saltbush Bill alluded, you'll be way into diminishing quality territory.

[Yummyrum]

I was planning to distill a 20 ABV Sugarwash with a worm. What can I expect in the first run if I keep a portion in the middle?

What you can expect is some pretty nasty tasting spirit . It sounds like a typical turbo wash to me ......there's not many yeasts that will push to 20% .and when they do they produce so many foul tasting byproducts that it contaminates the good stuff . You are better off making multiple low ABV washes around 10% ABV , stripping them and combining for a spirit run . This will result in a much nicer product >

However to answer your question regarding ABV out then you could expect around 60-65% ABV in the middle of the run .

Check out this chart .

You run a line up from the start ABV until you hit the first curve , run a line across to the second curve , then run back down to the bottom and that's you output ABV . You guess where you think the middle of your run will be and work it out yourself .

[Boda Getta]

With my electric ran pot still (15.5 gal keg w/liebig) My final cut with all grain usually ends up around 125 - 130 proof; I make pretty good cuts, real careful with heads and just enough tails to add some taste.

BG

[Fivey]

I was planning to distill a 20 ABV Sugarwash with a worm. What can I expect in the first run if I keep a portion in the middle?

Hi Sherrod, you sent me off to look at your other posts, so here I am. Are you trolling?

Two weeks ago I suggested to you that you should forget trying to math your way to a result, but you appear to be insisting on it.

The way to distill product is not to decide on a target output ABV then do a calculation to decide on the ABV the wash needs to be and try to ferment to that point.

First, pick a tried and true recipe, they have received acclaim for consistently good results. When you brew it, you get whatever ABV you get. It might be 8%, it might be 12%. It might be 6%.

Split into say three washes and strip deep into tails. Whatever the output ABV is, that’s what you get.

Combine the low wines from the stripping run. If it is over 40%ABV combined (unlikely if you stripped deep into tails) dilute to 40%ABV. Do a spirit run.

As the distillate comes off on the spirit run, collect into a series of small jars. 500mL or pint jars are popular. If you measure the ABV of each, they will all be different, and this is ok. The later ones will have increasingly lower ABV.

Then you carefully go through the cuts and decide which jars are nice and which are not. You pour the nice jars together for storage, and you collect the rest together to add to the low wines for your next spirit run.

You can now measure the ABV of your keeper distillate. And the ABV will be: whatever it happens to be.

Ok? There are no targets. If you make targets, even if you hit them, you will not achieve other more important goals - like quality.

Well, there is a target. After you have done the above, let’s say your ABV is too high (it usually is too high to drink). So you dilute it to the right level.

But I hear you say: I want a higher ABV than this process gives me! The answer to that is “why?” Are you just chasing numbers? But let’s say the answer to that is: ‘I want the cleanest neutral vodka I can” - in that case, the answer might be to ensure your still design is capable of extracting to those sorts of levels. Without changing the still, you might try a triple distillation but again, dilute to a 40%ABV boiler load. Again, the target for the output would be good taste and not ABV. Because whatever the output ABV you get, it is what it is. Ignore the alcometer. What does your tongue tell you?

Make sure you dilute down to say 30% for tasting.

I’m begging you. I can almost see the gears shifting in your head as you try to precalculate the results. Just stop. Listen to what we’re telling you. That isn’t the way to go, seriously. Snap out of it, and get in a different head space. Start thinking about quality. Go read the recipe sections, and see what people are doing to bring out interesting flavours and subtleties. Read the mashing and fermenting threads about keeping your yeast happy. Re-read the guides in the New Distiller Reading Lounge on running stills. Start dreaming about small volumes of high quality spirits rather than large volumes of high ABV stove fuel.

Please.

[Fivey]

Sherrod, check out Jesse’s YouTube videos to see a guy getting started and following the advice here and being successful: https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.php/Still_It" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[SherrodBrown]

If you read back through this thread you will see that many people have said that pot stilling high abv washes is not the way to go. 20% would be considered extremely high.

My wash landed somewhat lower. 12bv ( I guess it's on the higher side ) With two distills I reached 42. Let' s assume I had started with only 6 ....that takes a lot of rounds to increase..How much mash volume is reasonable to throw away.?

Just for the sake of comparison my yield was just 4 ounces from a 2/3 gallon wash. And it cost me 2.50 to produce.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

I don't know what it is, but you are doing something wrong. Probably a few things wrong.

[still_stirrin]

....my yield was just 4 ounces from a 2/3 gallon wash....it cost me 2.50 to produce.

Uhhhh, can you run that by me again? Your making less than a gallon of wash at a time?

How big is your boiler? It’s no wonder your return is all out of whack....you’re trying to produce with lab sized equipment, yet using “backwoods” recipes and processes. You’ve got something all screwed up, as SoCD said. Micro-scaling does affect performance.

At that rate, it’s probably faster and easier to just drive to the package store.
ss

[bilgriss]

Cheaper, and probably better than whatever was derived from 2/3 gallon of a 20% abv ferment.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

My wash landed somewhat lower. 12bv ( I guess it's on the higher side ) With two distills I reached 42...

I couldn't do that if I wanted to. 6% wash one time through the pot still gives me 50%. 8% wash will give me 60%. Again, that's the FIRST time. At least at the beginning before I run to 10% for an average of 30%.

The second comes off around 70% or better.

So, with 12%, you are doing something wrong. Besides everything else with volume size.

[knapper42]

Not sure if I'm posting in the right section of the forum but have been reading what I can find on doing a spirit run. I have about 2 1/2 gals of product collected from sugar wash runs on my pot still and now want to re-run that but I still confused as to how much I can run in my 5gal still. If i'm understanding it right the advice is to dilute what I have collected down to 40% mixture. I am assuming that is to be diluted with fresh water? is that right? As a complete new guys to distilling I'm wondering if there would be any benefit by using the backset from the sugar washes, taste, etc.
If there is another section of the forum that I can find info for this please point me to it and thanks for the help.
knapper

[Expat]

Not sure if I'm posting in the right section of the forum but have been reading what I can find on doing a spirit run. I have about 2 1/2 gals of product collected from sugar wash runs on my pot still and now want to re-run that but I still confused as to how much I can run in my 5gal still. If i'm understanding it right the advice is to dilute what I have collected down to 40% mixture. I am assuming that is to be diluted with fresh water? is that right? As a complete new guys to distilling I'm wondering if there would be any benefit by using the backset from the sugar washes, taste, etc.
If there is another section of the forum that I can find info for this please point me to it and thanks for the help.
knapper

Yes, fresh water. Backset would be added 'back' to a new fermentation to increase flavor profile if desired.

How much in your 5 gallon depends on you 2 1/2 gallon of product. Dilute it back to 40%, add to the boiler and leave an inch or 2 for head room. If you have too much for one run, save up for another.

[knapper42]

Thanks Expat but I'm still confused by the percentages. do I mix the spirits 40% volume to 60% water or do I dilute the spirits down to 40 proof. sorry for being slow.
Knapper

[Yummyrum]

You dilute your collected strip down to 40% ABV ( 80% proof) before doing the spirit run .
However in most cases you’ll find that your stripped wash is pretty close to 40% abv anyway .

So say your strip is 45% abv

45/40 = 1.125

1.125 x 2.5( gal) = 2.8125 (gal) ...... this is howmuch you end up with
So
2.8125 - 2.5. = 0.3125

You add 0.3125 gal of fresh water to your 2.5 gal of strip to dilute it to 40% abv

Or use the calculator here https://homedistiller.org/calcs/dilute" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Saltbush Bill]

or do I dilute the spirits down to 40 proof.

Proof and ABV are the same but two different things.....confused now ?
40% ABV is 80 Proof.
Proof is always double the ABV......just two different ways of measuring the same thing in different parts of the world.
Your Low wines / Boiler charge should be 40%ABV or less.

[knapper42]

I do understand ABV vs proof and thanks for clarifying the dilution part for this old man. Like the calculator, got that saved.

[Tom Kat]

I was planning to distill a 20 ABV Sugarwash with a worm. What can I expect in the first run if I keep a portion in the middle?

Hi Sherrod, you sent me off to look at your other posts, so here I am. Are you trolling?

Two weeks ago I suggested to you that you should forget trying to math your way to a result, but you appear to be insisting on it.

The way to distill product is not to decide on a target output ABV then do a calculation to decide on the ABV the wash needs to be and try to ferment to that point.

First, pick a tried and true recipe, they have received acclaim for consistently good results. When you brew it, you get whatever ABV you get. It might be 8%, it might be 12%. It might be 6%.

Split into say three washes and strip deep into tails. Whatever the output ABV is, that’s what you get.

Combine the low wines from the stripping run. If it is over 40%ABV combined (unlikely if you stripped deep into tails) dilute to 40%ABV. Do a spirit run.

As the distillate comes off on the spirit run, collect into a series of small jars. 500mL or pint jars are popular. If you measure the ABV of each, they will all be different, and this is ok. The later ones will have increasingly lower ABV.

Then you carefully go through the cuts and decide which jars are nice and which are not. You pour the nice jars together for storage, and you collect the rest together to add to the low wines for your next spirit run.

You can now measure the ABV of your keeper distillate. And the ABV will be: whatever it happens to be.

Ok? There are no targets. If you make targets, even if you hit them, you will not achieve other more important goals - like quality.

Well, there is a target. After you have done the above, let’s say your ABV is too high (it usually is too high to drink). So you dilute it to the right level.

But I hear you say: I want a higher ABV than this process gives me! The answer to that is “why?” Are you just chasing numbers? But let’s say the answer to that is: ‘I want the cleanest neutral vodka I can” - in that case, the answer might be to ensure your still design is capable of extracting to those sorts of levels. Without changing the still, you might try a triple distillation but again, dilute to a 40%ABV boiler load. Again, the target for the output would be good taste and not ABV. Because whatever the output ABV you get, it is what it is. Ignore the alcometer. What does your tongue tell you?

Make sure you dilute down to say 30% for tasting.

I’m begging you. I can almost see the gears shifting in your head as you try to precalculate the results. Just stop. Listen to what we’re telling you. That isn’t the way to go, seriously. Snap out of it, and get in a different head space. Start thinking about quality. Go read the recipe sections, and see what people are doing to bring out interesting flavours and subtleties. Read the mashing and fermenting threads about keeping your yeast happy. Re-read the guides in the New Distiller Reading Lounge on running stills. Start dreaming about small volumes of high quality spirits rather than large volumes of high ABV stove fuel.

Please.

As a newbie, this is one of the best posts I have ever read here.

[Durhommer]

I usually hit 82 83 percent in the front of a spirit run and it gradually drops in abv