cloudy after carbon filtering.. fixed it

[cheech]

after distilling (92%), things looked good (clear). i think it was still okay after i took it down to 50%. after running through my copper pipe with carbon it came out quite milky. mostly in the beginning of the run. after looking at the stuff that came out towards the end, it seemed to have cleared up. i did distill it kind of fast.. maybe fusels?

anyway, wasnt sure what to do at this point. my last run was cloudy from that blue crystal formation and it was cleared up nicely with citric acid. so i decided to add a pinch.. literally. in the gallon i had collected, i put about 20 granules (pretzel salt sized granules) and it cleared the whole thing up instantly.

in the end i have no clue why it was cloudy, but it tastes good and the only plastic it touches is the food grade funnel i use to catch from the carbon filtering tube.. (it was cloudy inside the copper tube before it reaches the funnel, so i know it wasnt that) but the tiny bit of acidity worked like magic.

[Grayson_Stewart]

If I read that correctly, it sounds like you started with a clear product cut down to 50%, got cloudiness at the beginning of the filtering process with carbon, but it tended to clear up near the end of the filtering.

Did you wash/soak the carbon with water as some recommend? If so, what type water? Do you think minerals could have precipitated out of the water that was initially in the carbon? The reduction of cloudiness could have been from the water in carbon being replaced with product towards the end of the filtering prtocess.

[Guest]

yes, you read correctly..

i threw the carbon in boiling water 4 times to clean it. then i ran some tap water through the funnel/filter assembly which came out clear. it didnt turn cloudy until the alcohol started through.

[Grayson_Stewart]

Then it sounds like minereals fell out of solution from the tap water when it came in contact with the alcohol. Happens alot. Use bottled water next time.