Home Distiller

I have an 8 gallon dual purpose still from Mile Hi Distilling. I have been making 6 gallon honey bear bourbon mash batches and stripping them in anticipation of running a spirit wash soon. I have a 5 gallon Balcones barrel waiting. I'm thinking 6, 6 gallon Mash batches should get me to where I need to be for a Spirit Run....

Once I squeeze out the grains after fermentation I'm left with about 4 gallons per mash batch. I'm getting the following averages for my mashes: SG 1.05-1.06 FG 1.00 avg... this puts the potential alcohol in my Mash to around 6% - 8%. I strip until I'm averaging about 25% ABV out of the still. I'm getting about 1 and 1/4 gallons of low wines per 8 gallon stripping run which seems about right by my math (Texas public school system)

When I fill my 8 gallon still up with about 8 gallons of mash I still have some headspace and don't have any problems with puking / foaming.

Right now I have about 2 gallons of 40% low wines saved up. It took me to stripping runs of about 8 gallons a piece to get that.

Okay and now finally to the questions:

1. Will a still charged with 8 gallons of 40% low wines sufficiently fill a 5-gallon Barrel once I pull out my hearts and a few tails?

2. I have this crazy idea of filling my still for the spirit run with 6 gallons of low wines and 2 gallons of Honey Bear bourbon Mash to get more flavor but I'm not sure if this is something that's done or if I'll just screw everything up with the taste what say you?

Open floor to all the experts and as always thanks for your help

Running low wines topped up with fresh wash can make nice product. If you are in a hurry it is very helpful.

My trick for getting a decent quantity ready for aging is to use a fermenter capable of filling the still at least three times, then spending a weekend hard out distilling to get it done.

I often work backwards, e.g. starting with the amount of finished product I want, then calculating how much ferment I need to put down to make it.

When I fill my still with 9 gallons of low wines, I get roughly 2 gallons at 62% to keep. Give or take a quart on ferment conditions. Pretty standard with most recipes.

Collect to lower %. Say less than 10% on stripping runs

jb-texshine wrote:Collect to lower %. Say less than 10% on stripping runs

Is that for flavor or efficiency?

jon1163 wrote:

jb-texshine wrote:Collect to lower %. Say less than 10% on stripping runs

Is that for flavor or efficiency?

Both.

jb-texshine wrote:

jon1163 wrote:

jb-texshine wrote:Collect to lower %. Say less than 10% on stripping runs

Is that for flavor or efficiency?

Both.

Roger that... Thanks

jon1163 wrote:

jb-texshine wrote:Collect to lower %. Say less than 10% on stripping runs

Is that for flavor or efficiency?

Flavor. The energy and time costs for squeezing the last dregs of alcohol and flavor out of a strip are quite high unless you are using the waste heat in a preheater.

Well,flavor mostly,but I want that alcohol also.

Gents, I'm in a similar situation as jon1163. I've been mashing and stripping all year (from time to time) to accumulate enough low wines to fill a 5 gal charred barrel. I currently have about 3 gal of clean tasting low wines and 3 gal of low wines from two large infected mashes I did. This last bit of low wines smell like overripe kiwifruit. If I do two spirit runs of 3 gal each will I end up with less good stuff than if I combined them and ran one batch of 6 gal? I'm concerned about this tutti fruity character overwhelming everything. Perhaps I could run again the feints of two batches?
BTW, I am working with flaked corn and malted wheat.

If you are worried about a particular flavor in a product, I reckon it's best to keep it separate because it's easier to isolate the flavor in a couple jars of a spirit run than to dilute it to an acceptable level with your best product.

jb-texshine wrote:Collect to lower %. Say less than 10% on stripping runs

So I just ran it down to 10% on my last run and my distillate was cloudy with fuel oils floating in my collection jug. My other collection jug (filled when I stripped down to 30ish is very clear. Will this cloudyness clear up in the spirit runs? Is the cloudy low wine batch okay to include with all the other runs for the spirit run? I didn't notice puking just cloudyness and fusels...

The majority of my low wines are cloudy. It isn't a problem for the spirit runs.

Not a problem at all. It will come out just fine on the spirit run

jb-texshine wrote:

jon1163 wrote:

jb-texshine wrote:Collect to lower %. Say less than 10% on stripping runs

Is that for flavor or efficiency?

Both.

If you collect way way past the alcohol until your combined low wines are 30% or less you get more flavour because your not diluting with water for the spirit run. Then on spirit run your hearts should end up very close to barrel strength, meaning you don't lose more flavour diluting to 62%. That's how most of the KY Bourbon distilleries do it, if I'm not mistaken.