What could my still be adding to my wash?

[Ole]

The last two times i've cooked a batch of wash, my spirit has come out with a golden/yellow tinge to it (also a little bit cloudy).

A few days soaking in carbon solved got rid of the color and cloudiness. I figured it was just some sort of yeast that was in the wash.

Well, today I was bored and ran a batch of all nearly finished hootch. I dumped about 5L of ~50% ABV clear spirit into my still. My intent was to make 2.5-3L of 90-95% ABV and dilute/filter it again. (I guess to try to purify it, but really I was just bored this morning)

Even though the stuff I loaded my still with was clear, it still came out with this yellowish/cloudy tinge again. The first L of 95% that I collected is fairly concentrated with the yellowish color, then the color gets less dramatic, but it seems to get more cloudy as the run goes on.

You guys have any ideas on what to check/change in my still? The only thing I can think of is maybe the brass fitting that's on my condenser is adding something to the spirit?

The still is all copper except for the packing rings, which were suppose to be stainless, and the boiler which is a stainless beer keg with a stainless bowl on the top.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions/insight.

Matt

[knuklehead]

Are you using a cork gasket? I remember a while back someone had the same problem because of the type of cork casket he used, he said his distillant was coming out yellowish.

As for the cloudiness, any plastic in your setup?

[Ole]

I originally used a small PVC tubing to collect the spirit, but after the first batch (and reading about it on here) replaced that with a rubber hose. I did use clear silicone on the top of the keg to seal the bowl/keg mating point.

The seal itself is rubber based weatherstripping.

[knuklehead]

There is your cloudiness. Replace the collection hose with a copper one and use flour paste or cork to seal the bowl.

[copperstill]

Is it just a light yellow? if so I have seen this as well it was is a batch that had sat in the pot for a few days, a partially run batch that was finished later. when they started to run again it came out yellow(light yellow). The speculation was that the colum was not cleaned often enough. After a good cleaning of the colum the next batch ran clean.