milky spirits after diluting

[Lagdaddy]

Anyone why did my first run turn milky after I diluted it.
suagr wash through a reflux still.

[pothead]

Anyone why did my first run turn milky after I diluted it.
suagr wash through a reflux still.

You probably collected into the tails. Try putting the product in the fridge for a couple days and see if the cloudines solidifies and drops to the bottom of the bottle. If so, you can probably just filter it out......Although, I would try that and then use some carbon.
Do you use any rubber/or palstic hoses anywhere?

[Josesillo]

plastic hoses or receiving bottle may cause cloudiness in the products

[Lagdaddy]

This is an all copper reflux,with one exception, I am using a PVC cap at the end of the stack with my thermometer through it. Might this be a problem. But very good odds I ran into the tails. So the cloudiness can come from the fusels???

[Josesillo]

maybe both you should get rid of that pvc cap, and replace it with a copper one about the cuts, i dont completely understand when to start collecting the tails, some instructions on this could help

[Grayson_Stewart]

i dont completely understand when to start collecting the tails, some instructions on this could help

Catch me up on a few things first, everyones setups kind of run together in my mind. What type still are you making? It's super easy to avoid tails with a reflux. Do you have a hydrometer?

I use the hydromter to calculate the volume of alcohol in a wash. Take that volume and divide into three segments. the first 30% of the alcohol volume will be the sweet tasting heads. The next 40% of the volume will be the premium stuff you want for a vodka. the remaining portion will be the tails.

Using these cut percentages will be almost foolproof depending on the way you run your still. These are conservative cuts and there will be some premium alcohol in the heads and some in the tails. None of this will be wasted because you would likely want to use the heads in a flavored drink and redistill the tails after you have collected a large enough volume to warrant a redistillation.

[Uncle Jesse]

If you don't have a hydrometer, you can learn to do it by taste. Mix a few drops of your distillate on a spoon with an equal amount of filtered water. Sip it throughout the run. You can taste when the heads stop and when the tails start with some practice.

[knuklehead]

@ lagdaddy, So your high proof product never touches any plastic at all? My first thought was the same as has already been mentioned because on my very first run I collected my product though a "chemical resistant" plastic hose and the same thing happened to my product. The tails could defiantly be part of the problem but when running a reflux still and pulling really pure product out of it, it's like a slap in the face when the tails start to come over. After the heads have come over and gone and you start on the heart of the run and collect for a few hours smelling every 100 ml or so then all of the sudden bam, you smell the stuff and the expression on your face tells every one in the room that the good stuff is gone, lol. Even a beginner should notice and that is why I would lean toward some sort of contamination form plastic or something that has dissolved in the spirits.
My suggestion is to use the method Grayson suggested becuase it is fool proof. This way you kind of have a back up in which after you have collected a certain number of ml you know that now you should be getting in to the heart of the run. Keep on using your senses and notice the differance in the smell and taste of each sector and you will get the hang of it.
One last suggestion, when you are into the tails then shut down all reflux and start to collect fast. Turn up the heat a little just so that you have no vapour escaping and collect your tails till they no longer burn easily. Save them for a future all heads/tails run.

[level Joe]

I'm just a newbie but could it be from hard water? When the alcohol is added the water can't hold the as much disolved mineral, so the mix gets cloudy and the minerals settles out?

[nzbourbonhead]

an easy test to see if its tails or something else. in the middle of your run collect a couple of hundred mills seperately and water it down. If it doesnt turn cloudy it must be tails that caused the cloudiness

[knuklehead]

Cloudy Spirit
Sometimes your spirit may turn a bit cloudy when its been left by itself. This can be due to a couple of reasons ..

Fusel oils : you've got some tails in there. They may be tend to form a slight "oil slick" on the surface. You may have some sucess in carefull decanting off from underneath it and then passing it through a coffee filter to try and capture it. Obviously the way to avoid it is not to collect the tails in the first place - see above.

Mineral precipitates : your drinking water may have a high limestone content (calcium carbonate) , that has somehow come over with the distillate. Haven't heard how to fix this one, other than softening your water before you use it, or going to the trouble of using distilled water in the first place.

Dirty carbon : Johan advises .. activiated carbon is normally not perfectly clean it contains diffrent kind of salts. Before you mix activated carbon and alcohol clean the activated carbon by boling it in a saucepan and then discard the water, taste it to see if there is any impurity. This will make your activated carbon much more effective as well!

[knuklehead]

Checking for Fusels
Jack recommends a simple (no chemicals needed) test to check for the presence of fusels :
I came across this "test" to see if spirits contain a large amount of heads/tails. It requires no chemicals (mention permanganate salts in California and everyone thinks your running a drug lab or something), and no skill. Heres how:
Take a glass that you would normally drink out of and rinse it heavily with water- there should be no soap residue. Then dry the cup with a clean towel (to prevent mineral salts from being left behind after the water evaporates).
Pour in a little of the spirit you are testing, and swirl the glass around until the spirit has totally coated the inside of the glass.
Once there is a thin "film" of alcohol covering the inside of the glass- pour out the excess alcohol (drink it), and leave the glass somewhere where it won't be broken.
The next morning, smell the glass -
If there is a nice perfumed aroma (for aged or other flavored spirits) or absolutely nothing (for vodka), congratulations- you've made good booze.
If there is any brackish, sour, solvent-like, or wet cardboard flavors- shame on you- you got greedy and ended up with heads or tails in your spirit.
That's all there is to it. Suprisingly effective test, considering how easy it is.