HOLY CRAP GENTLEMEN! SUCCESS!!

[goinbroke2]

I actually did it! I ran off the "purple passion" I made. It came out like shnapps! It burns bright blue with no beard at all!

I have covered bottles in the garage airing over night! WOW!

So, here's some observations.
18-20L of wine basically.
1st 500ml (foreshots) was pale blue and DEFINATELY foreshots!
2nd 500 was almost clear and smelled the same.
The rest were clear after this, (like water).
First 6L (including foreshots) all the same slowly getting better smelling,
Next 3 1/2L lost all smell (as in none)
Last 3 1/2 got stinky again, ok actually started smelling like plums again.
Stopped at 13L

Came off around 3-4L an hour. Had to stop/start twice, once to go down road to bring kid home for bed, then 45min later go in and put him to bed. The first time was a 20min or so stop right after the first 6-7L. Started up and had first drops within 3-4 minutes. Second time I wrapped a blanket around and was gone for 1 1/2 hours, took about 10-15 min to get the drips going.(I shut it down both times, just to be clear, for safety's sake)

Now, this was the first run by this still and I know the first batch you throw away...but...I ran water, then water/vinigar, and now about 6-7L alcohol before the body. After all that, is the body "really" bad or can I try it?

As far as tests, I rubbed it on my hands and smelled...engine oil,grease, the wife...I'm a mechanic with dirty hands apparently, or my nose is really bad.

Did the rub test, it felt like water, not really dry like rubbing alcohol or not oily either.

Did the burn test and got blue flame with no beard.
Tried to burn some from the last bottle of tails and wouldn't burn. (duh)

The size of the liquid coming out was about the size of a big pencil lead, and I have 1/2" line. Came out fairly consistent until about the 10L mark then stopped and started until the end.
I stopped at 13L because after I started I realized I had no idea when to stop! The book was in the house (where the wife was ) Memory said 1/3rds so 3-6L=18 will be the total if I run it dry, so maybe 15 or so would be good. Ran until 13L and it was midnight so I stopped.

Comments/questions/answers/help?

Did I mention, WOOHOO, IT WORKED!!!

[CoopsOz]

Well done, it's a good feeling isn't it? Why ask us whether the hearts "are really that bad", we all know you are gonna try it ....I did with mine as well.

[goinbroke2]

No, no, no...well, yeah

I was just reading up on why it was blue at first. Just to refresh my memory. I think I didn't let it settle enough after fermenting, it was fairly clean but I think I should of let it clear for a week or two to be safe. As it is, it's only the foreshots so who cares I guess.

I have 2 20L UJSM clearing right now! WOOHOO, can't wait!


Oh, yeah, your right, "what a feeling"..and I don't even really drink anymore! LOL!

[big worm]

be careful this stuff is addictive .....congrats

[goinbroke2]

OK, a day of airing later. Silliness gone, looking at what I've got.

First, the heads seem to smell pretty strong and burn invisible. (bottle 6, end of 3rd L)
But after that the smell goes away and it will not burn. By the 12 bottle or so (tails) the smell is back and of course won't burn either.

So, reality check. I guess I have "low wines"? If I redistill this then I assume I will get the ABV I want? I poured everything from bottle 5 on back into a big carboy. Mixed all together it now has a smell...not bad, but of skanky plum I guess. Since this was the first run I don't think I'll bother redistilling though.

Oh yeah, big beads in the heads, small in the tails, small/medium in the mix.

Question, since it lost all smell and tastes watered down, could I have been running it too fast? It certainly didn't seem so, a pencil lead size liquid from a 1/2" copper tube. Or could it be there was less alcohol than I thought in the original wash? (no I didn't measure but from wine experience it tasted over 12%)
Does the hearts of something (whisky/rum/whatever) lose flavour and you HAVE to add heads/tails to get flavour? I know everything comes out clear and you must oak for colour, I was wondering if the same is true for taste/smell.

At first I was like "there is no smell or taste...crap this could be as easy as drinking water to get drunk"!

[junkyard dawg]

sounds like you might be a little fast. Try to get ahold of a hydrometer and you'll know exactly what you got.

[goinbroke2]

I have a hydrometer, but don't I need a alcohol meter or whatever it's called?
Anyway, might run it through again just for practise.

[showrguy]

if yer stillin you'll probably find that a alcoholmeter is much more usefull than a hydrometer, especially when it comes to diluting to a certain % for tasting/consuming..
what kinda still are you running anyway ?? sounds like you were running kinda fast..

[goinbroke2]

I posted pictures in the thread I started named "various questions".
I tried to cut and paste but it doesn't seem to work..http://homedistiller.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
58L keg, 1/2" copper worm, propane rim burner.

[tracker0945]

I have a hydrometer, but don't I need a alcohol meter or whatever it's called?
Anyway, might run it through again just for practise.

They are all hydrometers, just calibrated differently to suit various purposes.
A beer (or wine) hydrometer is what you use to test the alcohol potential of your wash. (S.G.)
A Spirit or Alcohol hydrometer is what you use to test your distillate strength. (abv.) or (proof)

Cheers.

[Hawke]

If you collected 13 t0 14 litres from 18. you either had 77% wash or distilled a whole bunch of water.
18 litre wash @ 12% ABV = 2.6 litres total alcohol @ 100%. Collecting much over about 6 litres, you were running way too fast. Get a proof and trails hydrometer and you won't be wasting propane and time 'stilling water.

[goinbroke2]

Hmm, sometimes things are so obvious you miss them. Yes I had the heat cranked up and was happy collecting away, then it hit me..when do I stop? I figured by smell/touch but when the still was almost empty and the output was getting stinky I thought I'd shut down about right. (obviously have no idea what I'm doing still)

Hawke, your dead on and it never even dawned on me. If I have 20L of 12%, then the most 100% alcohol I could have is 2.6L like you say. DUH! Well bit by bit I'm learning as I go.

I guess the good news is the burner I built has lots of heat.

The down side of this though, is that I had about the size of a pencil lead of liquid coming out of a 1/2" line. If THAT is too fast, just how slow do I have to go? Near the end I could here the sound of boiling water inside, in hindsight THAT should of said something right there...

Thanks so much for all the help, back at it again!

[Hawke]

The good news is, you can run it again. Once you get your first drop turn the heat down to just maintain a simmer in the pot. You may still get a pencil lead size stream, (it will just be higher in ABV) or it may just be a drip. Either way, patience is one of the first rules of this game.

[goinbroke2]

I'll be trying it tomorrow night, mama's gone with the young one and I can stay in the garage without the incessant whining. (have to get a ball joint done on the one ton though first. )

I have two batches of ujsm ready though so I think I'll run that instead. Since it's a 58L keg and I was running 20L that might of been why it went from start to first drips in like 30min or so. I figure it will be considerably slower this time if I run 40L.

Speaking of which, what is the general concensus here, strip 40L all at once or do two stripping runs of 20L each?
Or just run the 40L slowly and distill only once?

[Hawke]

I'd do a single stripping run. Should take about 45 minutes to first boil. Another 2 1/2 to 3 hours for the run. You should end up with around 8 litres of low wines (more or less depending on how hard you push it) Pull your backset to restart your ferments and leave about a gallon or so to add with your low wines for a slow spirit run.
I'd pull 200ml as foreshots, then collect everything else on the strip, down to 15 or 20%.

[goinbroke2]

Thanks, I'm heading out there to start now.

Back later to report...

[goinbroke2]

OK, (left my notes in the garage again...)
Took 43 minutes to get the first drips.
I ran it slower, probably more like a spirit run than a strip run, but anyway.
Threw out the first 500ml as foreshots.
Collected another 8L at approx 5L per hour.

Tried bottle number 9 (4.5L mark) and holy crap it was sweet whisky!
Smelled excellent and just wetting my lips gave me the heat feeling all through my chest. Strong stuff!
By the 7 or 7.5L mark I could tell the smell and taste were "off".

Some strange things I encountered though.
I have a 20L pail with the worm in it. I have a garden hose with a valve hooked to supply water and a garden hose to get rid of water. Because the garden hose doesn't take away the warm water as fast as I'd like I dip a butter dish in and scoop some water out. The weird thing is, if the output it dripping slowly (2-3drips a second) and I scoop water out (not touching anything) the output pours steady for about 5-7 seconds. This happened EVERY TIME I scooped water out of the worm pail.
In fact it is SO predictable that when the jar is almost full I "finish" topping it up by scooping water out of the worm pail. There must be a chemical/scientific/logical explanation. If I ran the pail only 3/4 full of water the output was faster. Maybe this makes sense to somebody but I found it very wierd.

The second thing, was after doing two batches of ujsm and replacing about 2lb's of corn, there is a lot of yellow corn in the bucket. I've heard you only do 3 batches with the corn, but why is there so much yellow corn left? This time I scooped maybe 1/4-1/2 pound out and didn't replace it with fresh because there is so much left in the bucket.
Perhaps I started with too much? My recipe is 30L water/10lb's cracked corn/10 lb's sugar/2tbs of bakers yeast. The second batch I added 10lb's of sugar and a pound or two of fresh corn, no yeast. Third batch no corn just fresh water and 10 lb's of sugar.
Should I throw out the corn after the third batch anyway?

[rad14701]

You may be experiencing shock cooling which causes a vapor collapse within the worm when you scoop water out of the bucket... The evaporation of the little remaining water from the outside of the worm could potentially drop the copper temperature, and thus the vapor in the copper, to the critical point...

[punkin]

Dunno where you got the figure of three gens for UJSM, but you should get plenty more than that. I find i can usually get at least 6-8 before problems start and can often get up to 10.

[Hawke]

On my 6th gen for this one. Tasting pretty good.

[goinbroke2]

Shock cooling, sounds plausible.

Did another run this evening, dipping water did the same.
Anyways, I had two batches that were still giving the odd burp here and there and I said heck with it and siphoned it off and ran it. It only sat about three hours so it was still kinda cloudy. (40L) I got to about the 6L mark and thought I could taste tails starting. By the 7L mark it was definately tails.
I put the heart on the back of my hand and when I blew on it, it evaporated right away with no residue. When I did it with the tails, it was slow to evaporate and left my hand a bit wet. As far as tasting goes, the heads are hot and strong tasting, the heart is sweet and hot and the tails are kinda, well, off, I guess.

Anybody rub the output on their gums? I found the heads burnt, the heart stung a bit and the tails were weak and didn't do anything.

Well, I now have 15L or so of low wines or first run or whatever you want to call it.

Good to hear that about the ujsm, I'm sure I read you only do 3 batches. Do you guys ever add yeast? I've just been topping up the water and adding sugar. The third batch I started today is bubbling away now. I guess I can't really call mine sour mash as I've never put any backset in...too impatient to let it cool.

[punkin]

No, you never add yeast. You can use the backset to dissolve the sugar, save you heating water...either way, you have to let it cool...


I find if you put the amount of cold water you need in first (say 65-70%), then mix boiling backset in a bucket with your sugar, stir it up real good till it's all disolved, then tip it into your brew. It'll be around the right temp anyway...

[goinbroke2]

Yeah that's true, you only use a small amount of backset I guess. I'll save a gallon or two from the run I just finished.

So, the run I just finished; I put a total of 15 1/2L of low wines and 1 1/2L of water(I don't know why either,I thought I should have some spare I guess)
Started at 1:13
Misting the foreshots glass and boiling chips getting noisy at 1:30
Foreshots at 1:33
collected in 500ml jars
tails started at 2:53 (after about 9L total output)
Stopped at 3:10 (I think, I forgot to mark the time at that moment)

Going by taste/rubbing on back of hand;
Threw away 500ml of foreshots
Looks like I have about 2L of heads
6 1/2L of heart
2L of tails

This will probably change when it airs out over night but it's what I got right now.
I think it was around 6L per hour with the lowest setting on heat.

Does this sound about right? The hearts tasted MUCH better than the low wine hearts. Warm and sweet.

Glad the wife was gone this weekend because this burned the whole thing up! Two low wine runs and a spirit run...yowza!
Oh, and I don't think I will do any diluting until I get a alcometer to tell me exactly what I have.

To sum up my weekend;
Strip run of 40L ujsm = 8L low wine
Strip run of 40L ujsm = 7 1/2L low wine
Spirit run of 15 1/2L of low wine and 1 1/2L water = 10 1/2L total (head/heart/tail)

The 6 1/2L of heart will be diluted to X amount of whisky.
The feints (head/tails) will be saved for next spirit run.

Am I catching on yet?

[trthskr4]

Sounds like you're on track to me, I have started throwing my heads away and not using them at all for the next run,etc. I have found that they just compound over time and throw off my percentages on heads, hearts and tails. Tails I save and rerun. You can also use backset in the spirit run instead of fresh water to keep more flavor on a spirit run and it'll keep your still from running empty.

[punkin]

Yeah that's true, you only use a small amount of backset I guess. I'll save a gallon or two from the run I just finished.

So, the run I just finished; I put a total of 15 1/2L of low wines and 1 1/2L of water(I don't know why either,I thought I should have some spare I guess)

Don't bother with the dregs from your spirit run, they are terrible, just use backset from your strip runs.

You are running heaps faster than i do, i run about half what you do around 3-4 litres an hour on a sprirt run.

I have found a different value with my heads than trthskr4, i find i get a couple litres (2.75 litres on my last scotch type ujsm spirit run of 32l low wines on saturday) of heads and that's it, so i recycle em.

You don't have to do it all on one w'end, you can do a strip run after work of an afternoon (or any other time it's convenient) and save the low wines for as long as you want. My 32 litre run took about 6-1/2 hours from go to whoah and has produced 17.5 litres product at 81%, that's with some late heads (500ml), some early tails (500ml) and some late tails (1litre).
So if you save 4 strips up you'll only have to spend a saturday a month. diluting 17.5 l of 81% down to 40% with 18 l of water would give you 35.5 litres of drinking strength. Will that see ya through a month?

[goinbroke2]

"So if you save 4 strips up you'll only have to spend a saturday a month. diluting 17.5 l of 81% down to 40% with 18 l of water would give you 35.5 litres of drinking strength. Will that see ya through a month? [/quote]

HAHAHAHA!!! 35L?!?! That would do me a few years, until I start giving it away of course. In truth, I don't really drink much anymore, I just want to do it to see what I can do. Basically have a little sippin stuff for company/gifts.

I don't know what my spirit run is ABV but if it is 80% or so.. I should have 13L minimum just using hearts, and maybe 17L if I use a bit of heads/tails.
17L of whisky! Man I'm just trying to wrap my head around how much that is. I just finished a 1.75L "handle" from two Christmases ago!

You said "17.5 litres product at 81%, that's with some late heads (500ml), some early tails (500ml) and some late tails (1litre)."

...I've rewrote this question about four times because I don't know how to ask it.

Late heads would be my jar (500ml) before it was obviously hearts, right? Strong smelling and "not quite right"?
Same as the tails, mine seem to still contain alcohol, but turn...watery for lack of a better description. If I add these as you did, that won't ruin the taste?

I have to check tonight, but as I've said I have 2L of heads,6 1/2 heart and 2L tails. I can/should add the last jar (500ml) of heads and both litres of tails to my hearts?
Just kind of sceered of f#$%ing up my first true batch being greedy.

Thanks to all for the excellent info and guidance so far!

Oh, one last thing, I dilute a teaspoon of product with a teaspoon of bottled water to taste right? And if it's good I'll add that 500ml jar in my "hearts jug". Same goes for the heads/tails I want to use, if it tastes good add it, tastes bad diluted don't add, right?

(sorry if it's getting to the spoon fed stage, I got this far I really don't want to drop the ball a foot short of the line if you know what I mean)

[punkin]

Oh, one last thing, I dilute a teaspoon of product with a teaspoon of bottled water to taste right? And if it's good I'll add that 500ml jar in my "hearts jug". Same goes for the heads/tails I want to use, if it tastes good add it, tastes bad diluted don't add, right?

Yes, thats correct.

Definately do not go throwing your whole tail collection into your hearts.
I was merely saying what i did for my latest spirit run. There was bottles in the middle between bottles that were good, that tasted like shit. There was a couplea litres of heads that i didn't use or even taste. The same with the tails.
Just giving an example of a run.
My still is different to yours, my recipe is different to yours, my tastebuds are different to yours and my experience level is different to yours (while still being a rank learner, i have a few runs under my belt)

You're much better off doing the airing, diluting and tasting. Keep only what you know is good, till you start to taste what may be complimentry further down the track.
You will make some errors, but if you take it a little at a time, it's nothing that can't be aired out or rerun.

[goinbroke2]

Thank you so much Punkin.

I'll remember this, when in a couple years some guy keeps asking me "what now, and then what, ok now what"
Gotta remember how I am starting out and keep humble.

What a great site!

[punkin]

You're welcome mate, don't worry, not only am i still learning, i'm regularly chipped for being rough on the newbies

[goinbroke2]

A follow up..
I bought a spirit hydrometer ($9.99 at noble grape) and found out I have 7L of 75%abv! I mixed in 1/2L of the first of the tails or the very last of the heart.
Now I don't know how you guys do it, but, I took a tiny spoon and mixed in a tablespoon 1/2 bottled water and 1/2 spirit. Smelled then tasted it. Hearts were fine..then the second bottle of hearts...then third....um...I can't taste/smell NOTHING NOW! I dumped the rest of my hearts in and tried to rinse my mouth with water but the first bottle of tails tasted great too so I added then stopped. I couldn't tell the difference anymore and I didn't want to ruin it. I kept all the heads/tails in a carboy marked "feints". So now tonight I'll go home and mix 7L of whisky with 6.125L of water to have 50% corn whisky! woohoo!!

The whole freaking garage smells of whisky and I can't smell/taste in there at all.