First time distiller but not the last - help needed

[Mares]

Hi guys, last night I did my first distilling process (spirit run) with 10 liters pot still I have. Prior to that, I've read through the forum most beginners guides and I must say this community is very helpful.

As I am finished with my first spirit run, and experienced for the first time "live" run, I need some advice from more experienced people about process as I experienced some misleads compared to stories I read on this forum and over the internet.

Some basic information:
- I have 10 liters copper pot still (hobby style)
- run it with a gas burner
- I make gin with neutral 96% diluted to 43% with distilled water (+ maceration with herbs for 3-4 days before loading a still with entire macerated spirit), hence I do only spirit run
- I loaded a still with 7 liters of macerated spirit. As I plan to test different gin recipes, I plan to load a still with 7 liters capacities for future runs.

It took about 20mins to heat up the still and to start with the first output. I've read guides about cuts and tried to follow them, so here is my cuts process:
- 1st jar, 100ml...is this foreshot? Indeed it does not smell perfect, but I am curious if my spirit run contains any foreshot (acetyl)? Regardless this is or not a foreshot, I think I took it a bit too much? How much millilitres of foreshot should be in 7 liters spirit run? I planned to take about 60ml but my run started a bit too fast to drip, probably due to strong heat up fire and 60ml looked too small to me.
- 2nd jar, 150ml .... this should be head? It smells a bit different compared to the rest of 3rd-8th jars. How much this in millilitres should be extracted from 7 liters load?
- 3rd-8th jar, 300ml (jars capacities 600ml/jar, so half a jar filled during run). Unfortunately my alcometer measures max 70% avb, so all these jars are above 70% avb, but not sure how much. Does it mean all these jars are filled with good ethanol? It smells nice, I can smell macerated herbs. Anyhow, I will buy proper alcometer that can read up to 96-100% abv.
- 9th jar, about 500ml at 58% abv, still smells good, but I am not sure if I should mix it with main jars (3rd-8th jar). Somebody says drinkable spirit should be down to 70% abv, but I also read someone is going down to even 50% abv. What should I do with this jar?
- 10th jar, about 450ml at 33% abv, this is definitely tails as it smells unpleasant and I noticed oily appearance in this jar, so this one will be rejected from mixture of drinkable spirit. Anyhow, what should I do with the first two jars and last one? As they are not supposed to go into spirit, should I mix them all together and use for some cleaning/firestart?

I do not know if my run was a bit too fast due to strong fire, which I actually reduced later on, it took me about 2 hours in total to finish everything (20min for heat up time + 100min for distilling), most of time spirit was slowly pouring into jars, maybe it should drip slower, actually it started to drip but at the final jar of tails.

Here is a short video on my instagram how it poured most of time, is this good speed? There was no any vapour going out so I think I was not forcing it too much with fire:



I also noticed in guides on this forum some people are not recommending to follow temperature gauge to make proper cuts. I followed this and basically did cuts based on smells (I did not even taste any of these as everything was running quite quick), but as you can see my still has temp gauge and what I noticed first droplets started to come out when temp reached about 82C (and this should be foreshots or heads? Should not they start dripping earlier as their vapour temperature is between 40-60C roughly). Most of run was done at 85C and around the end of the run I had to turn the heat up to around 100C as dripping became very slow, and basically this was almost the last jar (tails). Should I pay attention to temp gauge or just dismiss it?

Last night when I finished with the run, I kept all jars open to overnight so volatiles can evaporate (covered jars with cloth). Should I practice this or no need for this part? I still did not dilute spirit with distilled water, I am curious if I should mix jar no 9 (which has 58% abv) with remaining jars no 3 - 8?

Maybe too much questions, but as I total beginner, advice and answers would be highly appreciated.

[seamusm53]

If I read this correctly you are starting with 96% neutral, i.e., everclear, and diluting it to 43% for a gin run. Given your self-description as a rookie, am I right in believing that you are using store-bought neutral? If that is true then you don't really need to describe your cuts as foreshots....tails, but it might be true that the character/flavor of your gin could vary from the start to the end of your run and there might be fractions which you prefer over others. But you shouldn't need to toss out foreshots as is normally done for a spirit run as I doubt there is much in the way of danger from your first cut, traditionally called a foreshot. Similarly, I am not sure you need to 'air' out your cuts though admittedly little is lost if you do.

[Mares]

You are right, I use store-bought 96% neutral, dilute it to 43% and add herbs for maceration, afterwards all goes into pot still for spirit run. So you think with this bought neutral there is not much of foreshots and heads, ie. acetyl and methanol presence? Nevertheless, I do not like the smell of the 1st jar so I did not mix it with hearts (also 2nd jar is out of game).

Last night I mixed jars no. 3-7 and diluted to 43%. Jar no 8 is still out of mix, it has a bit different smell and taste than previous jars, but I have just tried gin from jar no 8 and it has interesting feedback, so decided to mix it with previous jars. Last night, during mixing process I drunk about 3dl for tests and I am glad no any headache today.

I am curious what to do with jar no. 9 which has 58% abv from spirit run(not diluted)? Is this too low % abv to include it in final gin? I do not know how low should I go for gin during spirit run? I am not sure if I read somewhere that running down to 70% adv is the limit to maintain quality of drinkable spirit...

Anyhow, I will mix a small sample from jar no 9 together with main mixture into separate shot glass just to check the taste....and if it is ok, should I mix entire jar with the remainig main mixture of gin? That 58% abv is still confusing me whether it is welcome into main mixture or not... would not like to ruin entire mixture.

One more question, as my pot still capacity is 10l, recommendation is to fill it with max 8l, I did run with 7l, what would be lower capacity limit in order to make proper run? As I am beginner, I want to do more and more (but quality) trials, meaning I should be also costs effective for runs. Could I make proper runs with 5l macerated neutral into 10l still?

[Saltbush Bill]

Everything I've ever read says that Everclear is far from a good neutral......I've never bought it and don't think you can in this country......so just passing on what I've read and heard many times.

[Mares]

I am not sure what you reference to when you say Everclear. Is it general reference for any 96% neutral or you are meaning about neutral made by specific company? I am from Europe (Serbia), I purchase 96% neutral from renowned local ethanol factory with has several certificates confirming its quality.

[Tummydoc]

You are using a neutral that already had foreshots, heads, and tails removed by the commercial distillery. Everclear is a US commercial neutral. Like many commercial neutrals it may contain more heads in the final product than we would include on the hobby level. Once you have macerated you can't do heads/hearts/tails cuts. Youll be cutting out botanical oils that distill at different times and waste your effort. If you want to clean up the commercial neutral prior to maceration, distill it again before any maceration and keep the best tasting jars to macerate. If the commercial neutral is clean enough out of the bottle, then macerate and follow the instructions for Odin's easy gin. The first 15cc will have concentrated citrus oils. Those are excluded to minimize clouding/louching but not because the are heads/methanol/toxic.

[Mares]

Thanks for clarification! Btw, do you think adding a jar with 58% abv (which I mentioned in previous posts) into gin mixture will have bad effect on total quality of gin, or it is just about taste?

One more thing, tails are definitely noticeable in my last jar as oily product with bad smell appeared...is this due to neutral quality or it comes from herbs located in a still?

[Tummydoc]

Read and follow Odin's easy gin scaled up you to your volumes. In Odin's, only the initial 40% of the starting volume is kept (starting with a liter of macerated 43% neutral you keep 400cc of ditillate). Beyond that you can collect separately in small volumes (100 cc) and add if you like the taste but eventually you'll collect undesirable flavors from the botanicals. You don't need (or want) to measure ABV as product comes off the still. Once you've collected the 40% ( minus the small volume of concentrated citrus oils first off the still) and added any later jars that you like, the combine it all, measure ABV and proof down to 43% with water.

[Mares]

What should I do with my leftovers which I keep in one 5 liters bottle? This is mainly mixture of useless tails from different spirit runs, mixed with small amount of heads (not sure if I have any heads as I use 96% liquor store neutral mixed with botanicals to produce gin, anyhow I remove first 50ml during spirit run). Average ABV of this mixture is around 52%.

I am not sure if it is wise to use it as a base for maceration and spirit run as it already contains tails from previous run. Maybe to use it as a windshield cleaner for my car? Should I first lower its abv to avoid damaging pumps, hoses and nozzles of cleaning system?

This is generally small quantity, but what to do with such "waste" on larger quantities? Would it be worth distilling it again to get neutral for future spirit runs, what do bigger distillers do with this?