Here is an odd question for you old pro's. I got interested in home distilling a few years back through the prodding of a friend who built a reflux column for me and suggested a rum wash recipe for me. So i prepared the wash which was 23 litres total made with mango puree, molasses, brown sugar and things like pectin enzyme and I believe I used a champagne yeast. It appeared to ferment fine and appeared to finish and clear just like any beer or wine I had made in the past. When it was finished I was busy and hadn't completed the setup so I put it aside for about 4 years give or take a year. It was in a primary fermenter with an airlock which lost the water lock due to evaporation probably 4 years ago. So there it sat for all these years lonely and neglected.
I finally ran it off this past Saturday. There was approximately 20 to 21 liters in the container down from the 23 I had initially. It smelled really nice and didn't have nay mold or uglies growing on it. I did a stripping run first and got about 4.5 liters at a maximum temp of 96 deg. I added one liter of water to it and then ran it through my column again with no packing but I took a variety of cuts at the recommendation of my friend. My friend is conservative and told me to take one liter as the combined heads and fore shot and then to save the next 3 liters or so as the body. I thought some of that initial (at least half) was smelling pretty good but kept it in that fore shot container. I only got about one liter of good smelling and tasting hearts and then the tails started. I stopped at this point and I had three liters remaining in the boiler.I am really happy with that one liter of hearts and think it tastes better than some of the other spirits such as grappa or pear william that I have had that were commercially produced, even the same day it was produced. But I was disappointed at the produced volume.
Long story; now the questions. Would the alcohol in the wash have preferentially evaporated over the water thus reducing my output of useable spirit? Should I try recombining and do the run again?
I will start something again right away, probably the Bird Watcher Wash. It was great fun playing with everything on Saturday and when my wife commented that it was rather time consuming I caught her by suprise when I replied...yes kind of like knitting only I can do some yard work at the same time and this will keep you just as warm as that scarf you are knitting
.BTW it was my wife that finally prompted me into finishing it up.
Thanks for any comments you may have.
