Last question before distillation

[naeco]

I will be distilling Wineos Plain Ol Sugar Wash that's been sitting in secondary for a week now as soon as it clears and I have a final question. My plan is to distill twice using a pot still and then age the final spirit with pears for as long as it takes to have a strong pear flavor "a la" Poire William. After lots of reading on this board, I think I understand the concept of the different flavor present in the head, body and tail but when using Wineos Plain Ol Sugar Wash, would it be advisable to keep some of the head and tail or is the taste from the head and tail from such a wash not desirable in a flavored spirit like I'm (hopefully) trying to make ?

My plan:
I will first do a stripping run in the still as fast as I can and only throw away the foreshot keeping everything until 96 degrees Celsius.
The second run will be done as slowly as possible(again throwing away the foreshot even if it's overkill) and this is my question: For a flavored spirit "a la" poire william,and using this Wash do I only keep the Ethanol(78 to 82 degrees Celsius) or do you recommend I keep some head and tail.

Yes, my plan was to keep some head and tail in separate container and do some testing but I'm wondering if anyone has experience using that specific wash and can save me some time or a mistake.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[rad14701]

naeco, sounds like a fairly accurate plan with a few exceptions... For the stripping run I would drop the heat back and collect the foreshots a bit slower and then bump the heat back up... Once the slow spirit run is completed, making proper cuts, you can let the collection jars air and then decide whether you want to blend some of the heads and tails in or save them in your feints jar... Just remember that your masceration might reveal notes from the heads and tails that weren't noticeable beforehand...

[WalkingWolf]

For the sake of novices reading this I would recommend you consider making cuts from taste and smell. The temp method will be tough to pin down. Once you have run the same wash recipe several times you will have predictable cut points where temps can be a guide. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=11640

[naeco]

For the sake of novices reading this I would recommend you consider making cuts from taste and smell. The temp method will be tough to pin down. Once you have run the same wash recipe several times you will have predictable cut points where temps can be a guide. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=11640

So I read the tutorial and was also already planing to use the ABV as a guide with my 12% wash but some of the numbers in this tutorial seem a little different from what I have ? I'm not quite sure I understand how to try and predict what the ABV will be after a tripping run of my 12% wash so I can predict the outcome for the spirit run ?

After the stripping run, I was planning on using these numbers to get the purest hearth but I'm not sure anymore:
- over 75% is head and I might use some of the last 500ml jar if the taste is right. (under 78 degree Celsius)
- between 75% and 55% is Hearts ... this I was planning on keeping for sure for the maceration. (from 78 to 82 degree Celsius)
- under 55% is tails and I was going to put all of it in the feints jar (from 82 to 92 degree Celsius)

Do these numbers seem accurate ?

By keeping everything in separate 500ml jug, I hope to be able to tell just by tasting them after I water them down to 80 proof but I would still like to know if these ABV seem right ?

Thanks

[Dnderhead]

forget the temperature,you mite not git anything out of your still until it reaches over 80c,the temp.depends on ABV of wash and how fast you run,,so run off in jars keeping in order.sort by starting in center working out,saving what you like.

[naeco]

How many 500ml jug do you think I will need if I'm doing a stripping run and then a spirit run with my 12% wash ?

[rad14701]

How many 500ml jug do you think I will need if I'm doing a stripping run and then a spirit run with my 12% wash ?

That would depend on the size of your boiler charge... You want to collect in a minimum of 9 - 11 jars regardless of the size of the run and on smaller runs you only want to collect 200ml - 250ml per jar... For larger volume runs 500ml works well... You'll need more jars when pot stilling than refluxing for neutral spirits...

One trick I have been known to use when I end up needing more jars than I have at the ready is to combine two of my center hearts jars so I can sneak it down to the tails end... But it's better have enough jars before you start because you don't want to get distracted trying to source another jar mid-run... It's canning season so you can pick up boxes of jars fairly cheap if you don't have an ample supply on hand...

But back to your question... If you had a 10 liter boiler charge of 12% wash there would be 1.2 liters of alcohol in the boiler... You won't get all of that alcohol out but you will also get some water and the amount of water is dependent on the type of run... For a pot still figure on 30% of the boiler charge to be collected, or 3 liters... Always calculate in a couple extra jars...

There is a section on the parent site that covers how much to collect as well as calculators...