cloudy hooch

[bgrizzle]

OK... so I have done everything I know to do, but when I dilute my high spirits, it ALWAYS turns cloudy...

I run RADs allbran and WPOSW... probably 10 times each... I potstill keeping everything... then I strip using my LM/VM rig...

I am collecting a solid 95%+ ABV at a room temperature. I toss the fores and heads... I keep the tails and throw back in the spirit runs... I am diluting the high spirits to 40% using PURE water... I have a reverse osmosis water purification system that was just installed and test at less than 5 PPM. So it is PURE H2O!

I let the spirits air for 24 hours.... there is NO plastic or rubber in the vapour path or distillate path... I ferment in HDPE buckets, and keep all low and high wines in glass containers...

WTF am I doing wrong???

One more thing... the stuff tastes great... just a little cloudy EVERY TIME I dilute...

Please help... and thank you...

[Dnderhead]

sounds like your getting into tales,oils in these will cloud.
you can also try putting your tales into the beer/wash/stripping run if your doing one.

[bgrizzle]

I don't understand... I'm adding tails to spirit run... if I'm getting into tails why would I add more tails?

[MuleKicker]

I have noticed this with my cuts closer to tails. I may not notice tails when I cut, but I think there is just enough of a hint to to it. I have used distilled water and filtered water. If you dont mix your hearts cut all together, try labeling which jugs come off in what order. The later ones will start to get that tint. I have noticed it in commercial whiskeys. Sometimes more than others, but I notice a "cloudy amber color" after the likker sits on the rocks for a few minutes. Thats my experiece anyway. Maybe someone can give the scientific explantion. Or just call me crazy.

Im sure your still is clean, so I wont mention that.


edit: Woah.... Super late on that one... Dnder get it again!

[Dnderhead]

??????????? if your doing stripping run ,,add your tales back to that instead of the spirits run.
that way more is going to be removed.

[bgrizzle]

Dunder.... that makes sense and is my idiotic error! That being said I can collect 10 mason jars 1 quart each in my spirit run. Every jar when diluted will cloud...

[MuleKicker]

Are you running too hard? pushing tails through the run? That controller will fix that.

[bgrizzle]

I dont think I'm pushing the run too hard... My last run I was taking off about 1.5qts per hour. From now on I'm going to throw the heads and tails and into the stripping run and not the spirit run.

Everything is clean, no plastic, Reverse Osmosis water for diluting, copper mesh in 50" column, running slow... The only way I've gotten good clear 40% vodka was by carbon cleaning, but what a pain that is!! I really dont know what I'm doing wrong.

MK, I've got your heating controller ready to go. I think that should help being able to maintain a constant heat input.

I should be getting a 6 plate Flute in the mail from K.S. after Christmas. I'm curious how the product will compare to my current setup.

[ozone39]

I was having that problem with my gin. I could get it to 48% then it would cloud up. I dropped my berry count down and it solved that problem. I did some research and i found that the botanical oils from the berries cause this effect....Not sure if that helps....

[rad14701]

bgrizzle, are the spirits and water both at the same temperature when you are diluting...??? Cold water can make even pristine neutral spirits cloud at times... If you are getting clouding of all containers throughout the run, regardless of cuts, and are pulling 95%, which could still contain some smears, then perhaps you need to consider giving the whole still a good cleaning... Just throwing that out there... I've only ever had clouding a time or two and only once did it not clear with time...

[WeeStiller]

When diluting, always pour the alcohol into the water, not the water into the alcohol.

[bgrizzle]

I'm going to try to clean the hell out of my still... AND I have been pouring the Water into the alcohol, NOT the alcohol into the water, like you seuggest Wee... I will try that tonight when I get home to see if it makes a difference. Thank you for the advice guys...

[tomgndallas]

so what ever happened with this? i just made some cloudy diluted neutral and think it was due to the following mistakes:

used cold bottle water out of the fridge on a room temp spirit
poured water into the likker instead of vice versa

oh well, just finished stilling my all bran. got about 2.5 liters of spirit spread across 10 jars of cuts.

[Horse_Shoe]

I dont know about this, but I've had my own run-ins with cloudy spirits. I experimented with my distillate on four different waters: distilled, pure spring water, my home tap water, and water from the Old Man's house in North Texas. Turns out that they all clouded up. However, the well water from the Old Man's settled on the bottom after clearing out. I started taking my cuts earlier into the tail and that fixed everything. I just use my tap water now and don't have any problems.

[frozenthunderbolt]

I had this happen on some 40% DWWGW - i stuck it in the freezer and then used a paper towel to skim some of the oils off the top (a thin patchy sheen) then filtered it through coffee filters at room temp - sorted.

[tomgndallas]

just diluted nearly 2liters in two seperat bottles of Rads all bran recipe. used room temp bottled water and add likker to water instead of vice versa. i got 2 beautifully clear bottle of 90 proof spirit. woohoo