Distilling all rye. Silver deposit on plates

[vqstatesman]

Hi All,

My setup: 4 plate bubbler column. On top of a BM boiler used for fermenting and distilling on the grain.

I have been mashing and distilling all grain recipes for some time now. Never have I tried rye in any of my runs.

So I decided to jump in the deep end with rye and do a 100% rye batch. Fermented and distilled on grain. I thought this would be a good opportunity to understand the flavour profile and potentially blend into some of my ageing stock.

After running the batch (single spirit run) I switch over to stripping and pull out the tails for a feints run. I stripped down to about 20%. So onto my question/problem... After completing the run and emptying out the boiler I looked inside my column and the bottom of all my plates is covered in a silver coloured deposit. The silver deposit is heaver on the bottom plate and tapers off on the higher plates. So what the hell is the silver coloured deposit???? I can only assume this is fusel oils, however I have never seen anything quite like this.

Keen to hear from anyone else who has done all rye and seen this.

[rgreen2002]

vq,

Does it look anything like this: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 3#p7468753 ?

There are several other posts regarding this deposit.: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =16&t=8433 , http://w.homedistiller.org/forum/viewto ... 16&t=66454" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow , and of course the one above to name a few.

When I first noticed it in my flute I also noticed this: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 8#p7440558

I first noticed it on my flute about a year ago and posted a question about the same. I am beginning to think it is because of the rye... I have done many other grains before but the times I notice it the most is when I use rye.

Long story short.... I believe it's a residue(oil) from the grain being carried up in the vapor path that deposits on your plates. It seems more abundant in the tails.

[bluefish_dist]

I have got that on a few runs. If it's what I get, it washes off. I have experienced it on runs without rye and assumed it was an artifact of the still cooling and reacting with the dunder.

[vqstatesman]

Thanks for the responses guys. And yes rgreen2002 it does look like that, maybe a little bit more metalic/silver looking, and quite a lot of it too.

I was 99% certain it's just oils from the rye. Just being so metallic it sorta weirded me out.