Double Distill

[noshybabs]

Hi everyone,

Im very much a novice at this, so this maybe a stupid question.

I running an easystill pretty much to the letter of the instuctions, and i am distilling 24 litres of sugar wash made with Turbo Yeast. (dont worry im already looking at alternate wash recipies)

i distill 4 litres of wash at a time to produce 700ml of alcohol. (im not dumping anything at this stage)

I keep reading that i would get better results if i double distilled the spitirt, and i was just wondering, with this set up, how do i double distill?

thanks in advance.

[Intoxicated]

A quick search tells me that it's an AirStill. These things work pretty much like a pot still (Correct me if I am wrong people).. So you will double distill by diluting the distillate to 40% or less and running it back through the still.

Intoxicated

[noshybabs]

I think so, from what ive read on here its a pot still.

So if i distill my wash untill i have 4 litres of 40% alcohol and then distill that, but how much do i run off from that run?

[rad14701]

Yep, the EasyStill is an air cooled pot still... As Intoxicated stated, dilute the collected stripped spirits to 40% and then re-distill making proper cuts just like you would with any pot still...

[hstuurman]

Yes, Easystill is a simple pot still, I use it for watermaking (yes it is true )
Nice thing, air cooled (fan), electric heating with dry-cook safety. Turn it on, and do not have to watch it, untill it switches of (by water making ,never NEVER leave an ethanol still )
Never used it for ethanol, how does it work?

[olddog]

Its very limited in its application for alcohol, from a 4lt wash you will get 700ml of spirit after you discard forshots, it's near impossible to make cuts with such a small volume.


OD

[noshybabs]

I think im not grasping the idea of cuts, although Olddog you say its impossible to make cuts with such a small ammount so maybe its not an option. I have seen some guides on cuts here but to behonest hadn't got as far as reading them yet (although i will soon.)

I currently have 4 litres of 40% spirit which i want to distill again, and im a huge fan of just trying things. I might just run it through, and measure the alchohol quantaty every 100ml or so and see what comes out.

I imagining that i will get apporx 1.5 litres of good 90%+ alcohol out the otherside begore its starts to get a bit crap, although this is mostly based on maths as apposed to any real knowledge of the art of distilling.

Please feel free to yell at me if i am going to poison/blow myself up

[MuleKicker]

I imagining that i will get apporx 1.5 litres of good 90%+ alcohol out the otherside begore its starts to get a bit crap, although this is mostly based on maths as apposed to any real knowledge of the art of distilling.

Please feel free to yell at me if i am going to poison/blow myself up

Depends on yer definition of "good" you may not poison or blow yerself up. Just gag yourself....Thats all Sorry man, but keep imagining. The reason for cutting heads/tails is they taste like shit, among other reasons. You propose leaving heads/tails in your drink..... from a turbo wash none the less? Chances are you will not like it.

[noshybabs]

They dont tell you anything about heads and tails in the Airstill manual, but i have since coming on here started ditching the first 100mls or so that i run off.

I was getting some truly amazing headaches after drinking this stuff so anything i can do to stop that is all good.

[MuleKicker]

I was getting some truly amazing headaches after drinking this stuff so anything i can do to stop that is all good.

yes, you can do something. Build a real still. Your head is trying to tell you something.... It doesnt like the swill your feeding it. Not trying to be a dick/smartass. (although Im told that is hard for me )

[Dnderhead]

your still missing the cuts, there called thirds but their not really.it is just three parts, fore shots the worst of the worst.
their about 3 percent of take and smell like pant thinner, next is heads witch is a mix of fores and harts,when these diminish ,then you are into harts ,these will start out quite high in alcohol and move slowly into the watery side also they will increase in flavor until they become overwhelming and bitter.some where in between you will want to stop collecting harts and start as tales.with tales you just go until it is not worth going any further, save the heads and tales as they still have alcohol in them that can be removed later.
how much you collect of each will very depending on what wash/mash you are running, your still and how you run it.
now saying that you can see that no one can tell you the amount or percent to stop,start,each cut at. but it will be about 1/3
of your total take,so out of 1.5l you will have about 600ml maybe more to save. best to run all off in small jars and sort later.
at some point as you learn the cuts you can eliminate the jars.

[noshybabs]

I was getting some truly amazing headaches after drinking this stuff so anything i can do to stop that is all good.

yes, you can do something. Build a real still. Your head is trying to tell you something.... It doesnt like the swill your feeding it. Not trying to be a dick/smartass. (although Im told that is hard for me )

I am planning on building something at somepoint, but for the min this all i have.

I always wanted to build a still every since i watched mash as a kid

[noshybabs]

so far i got 100ml of 80% spirit and it smells just like normal really. I have tried to cut it but i think i need to read up on it more.

I've have been checking every 100ml or so to see if the alcohol % decreases or if the smell changes and so far its all the same so far.

still running mind.

thanks for your help everyone.