This is what I found with sugar washes.
We use Gert Strand 8kg Turbo Yeast. We decided rather than refluxing right off the bat, do a couple of stripping runs first and then run em through with some reflux. We did 2-50 litre strip runs, then threw all the product in the boiler again, heads, hearts and tails, everything except the foreshots. Almost all of the final distillate came out 93-95 av, but it still had an off smell and taste.
These last 4 washes we pushed to the max probably using about 9-10 kgs of sugar per 25 litre wash. We were not anal about checking sg on these washes, but I figure they were all pushing 18-20 %. None of these washes would clear up all 4 were milky looking when we distilled them. Also when we emptied the boiler after distillation the crap that was left was quite blue looking.
The yield was great I'm guessing there will be about 32 litres of 40-45 % after the filtering and final cut is done. (not bad for a long days work
)Sugar washes we have done in the past that have been 14% or so did not smell nearly as skanky as the high % washes. They also clear up nicely and are not nearly as smelly when distilling and the final product was better smelling and tasting even at 88% that the high test wash product was at 93-95%.
Just wondering. You guys who say you don't need to polish your neutral spirits. How strong are your sugar washes and what kind of yeasts are you using?
