Measuring abv on small spirit run

[NormandieStill]

I will soon embark on my first spirit run, but due to a lack of planning, space, and available fruit my initial wash was only 10l. I have about 3l of low wines which I will be running (gas so no minimum boiler load) which are currently of unknown strength but I would estimate to be around 20% based on the wash. This should give me somewhere around 1.2l of distillate.

I'll be collecting into jam jars and looking to make cuts every 100ml (limited by the available jars). The biggest problem I forsee is that I don't have any way of measuring the abv of these cuts as my alcometer in the measuring flask that I have will probably require at least 200ml in order to not bottom out. I don't want to collect in those quantities so that I've got some chance of seeing differences and finding what I like.

Do I just ignore abv altogether and dilute "to taste"? That seems like it might be an unreliable way of evaluating the jars.

Or do I fiddle the numbers in the purity calculator until the cuts more or less match and go by those numbers?

OR is there some magivc 3rd way that I've not thought of?

Waiting until I have more wash is not really an option. It'll be at least one and possibly two years before I have enough fruit for a new batch!

[zed255]

The ABV of individual cuts doesn't matter beyond your own curiosity. Make your cuts by smell and taste and blend to your personal desires. Once blended together you can measure the aggregate ABV for proofing.

There are alcohol refractometers available, I have one and do use it often. They only need a couple drops to test but I find are not super accurate above 60% ABV because of the compression of the scale. They seem worthwhile for quick tests when stripping and proofing.

[NZChris]

For mini runs, I use mini alcometers bought from Ukraine on Fleabay.

https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... =2&t=54494

[Yummyrum]

What Zed said

https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... 2#p7500094

[NormandieStill]

The ABV of individual cuts doesn't matter beyond your own curiosity. Make your cuts by smell and taste and blend to your personal desires. Once blended together you can measure the aggregate ABV for proofing.

There are alcohol refractometers available, I have one and do use it often. They only need a couple drops to test but I find are not super accurate above 60% ABV because of the compression of the scale. They seem worthwhile for quick tests when stripping and proofing.

Knowing the ABV was more for proofing down for sampling rather than making cuts. If I end up disappearing down the rabbit hole ("if"? Who am I kidding?) I'll almost certainly be investing in some refractometers. For wine-making it's a pain to have to sanitise a large sample flask and the hydrometer. A 3 second task ends up taking about 15mins and at least 5l of water.

For mini runs, I use mini alcometers bought from Ukraine on Fleabay.

https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... =2&t=54494

OK. Now that looks cool. Thanks.

[NormandieStill]

What Zed said

https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... 2#p7500094

Thanks. Already read that one which is why I was wondering how to guesstimate the ABV. For the minute I'm making cuts by volume, simply to match the available jars. I do need to scrounge up some extra jars though.

[Yummyrum]

If its a pot stilled spirit run , it will be roughly 80% at the start of the run ( heads end) , around 65% in the middle of hearts and stinky tails around 55% .

These are just approximations so you can ballpark your dilution water for taste testing .

Obviously they mean nothing when it comes to making your cuts .

You won’t be far out if you go 50/50 water ..... it will be good enough for an initial test

[8Ball]

If its a pot stilled spirit run , it will be roughly 80% at the start of the run ( heads end) , around 65% in the middle of hearts and stinky tails around 55% .

+1

I get similar percentages with my pot still spirit runs.

[NormandieStill]

Run finished. Cuts made every 100ml (including 100ml for foreshots which seems a little generous given the "standard" amounts people talk about. I ran 12 jars + the foreshots for about 1.3l of distillate. Going by odour alone (I'll let them breathe overnight, as much as anything because there's I want to go to bed now), jars 1 & 2 have a sickly sweet aroma that doesn't appeal. Jar 3 is starting to get some interesting fruity notes over the top of the sweetness. 4 smells really fruity and strong, 5 & 6 seem to carry that same fruitiness but less strongly without anything else noticeable. 7 is still fruity but there's something starting to come in that makes it less pleasant. I would go with wet cardboard, but I'm not certain that it's not just that I've heard the expression so often that my brain is bending it to fit. 8 is about 50:50. There's still a lot of fruit there but that "flat" smell is clearly taking over. I even feel that they are detected at different points / places in the nose. Certainly thereś fruit first then it goes flat. 9 is more flat than anything else. 10 very suddenly has that acidic tang of vomit. 11 & 12 have the same but much milder and some oilyness on the top.

3l @ 23% in.

I have a feeling that re-reading these notes tomorrow may make me wonder about my state of mind this evening. Anyway, I'm happy. It all ran smoothly and while I wonder if cuts every 50ml wouldn't have been advisable, I just didn't have the jars available.

[still_stirrin]

That “sickly sweet” smell of jars 1 & 2 is more like “solventy, I would suppose. Ethyl acetate smells like fingernail polish remover and it is reminiscent of “sweet & fruity”. You can recognize this smell when your wife does her fingernails.

Another solventy smell is acetone, one of many ketones possibly in your fores and heads. The ketones won’t be as pronounced in a fruit ferment, but will be noticeable in a sugar wash, especially if you started with a high alcohol potential. If tasted, it will give your tongue a strong “burning sensation”. And the ketones will give you that “crack skull” feeling, usually with very little consumption.

But you should practice and train your olfactory senses.

“Green apple” is often the very first smell coming off a still, even before it starts to produce. This smell is acetyaldehyde. It has a very low boiling point, so it flashes off early in the run. It’s very noticeable, as your nose is very sensitive to it. Likewise, fruit flies can smell it too and miraculously appear around your still.

The “fruitiness” you noticed in jars 4 (strong) and 5 & 6 are esters, produced by a rapid ferment, especially with a fruit must ferment. To some degree, they will “mature” with time, that is, the “big fruit” aroma and taste will subside as the spirit ages. Since a lot of the esters are volatile, some will simply evaporate. But, some of the esters can be converted to ethyl alcohol with time and heat. This is what happens inside a cask during the aging process.

There, that’s a “springboard” for you to “jump into the deep end”. Practice your “nose exercises” to learn to decipher the different smells. Try to identify common smelling “paradigms” that can “graphically” relate the character. Descriptors like “funky” don’t describe anything, except that it is unusual and possibly unpleasant. But “wet cardboard” or “doghair” or “dirty socks” are smells we can relate to, so they’re much better descriptors.
ss

[NormandieStill]

Thanks ss. I just finished tasting and making a blend so I thought I finish the story.

In the end I took jars 4, 5 & 6 as my base and added a little (a bit less than 1/4 each) of 3 and 7. 3 was a little chemical but had an interesting butteryness on the nose and a slight almond flavour on the palate. 7 was starting to drift to wet card on the nose, but there was a buttery sweetness (like a really subtle butterscotch) on the palate. I'm hoping that the gods of distilling will soften up the harsh notes from number 3 but leave me the almond. All in a little over 300ml of "cask-strength product" (I've not measured the ABV yet). The idea is now to leave that to age for a good while. The rest is now in my feints jar.

My other half sampled my test blend and decided it was a little chemically but seemed really interesting. So we'll see how that pans out. I don't plan on oaking this. Just want to keep the flavours from the wash. The next project is an apple brandy (I'm too far north to be allowed to call it calvados!). The wash has fermented out slowly over the last month and half. I'll just need to find the time to strip it.

Thanks all for your help in this initiation.

Edit to add: final ABV was 55%

[NormandieStill]

Just a little update for my notes as much as anything. I have sampled tiny amounts two or three times since I blended it and had started to mentally chalk it up to a "learning experience" which would finish up being thrown in with the feints at some point.

This evening I tried again, so 6 months since I blended. And suddenly there's something interesting there. The fruitiness is coming to the fore and there's a surprising sweetness. There's a bit of tails on the finish, a sort of bitterness at the back of the tongue, but compared to my notes from 6 months ago, it's definitely settling into something. Sadly this year is a no-show for sloes, so it'll be next winter at the earliest before I get to try this again. The 2kg of sloes in my freezer from last year will combine with a gin later to make this years sloe gin.