perfume odour in distillate

[moose11]

Let me start out by saying I love this forum, and I spend many hours on it daily reading and more I read the more need to know, I think it's becoming an addiction.

I have run my still three times now, 1 vinegar and water cleaning run, 1 old wine run (2nd cleaning run) and now one run with a WPOSW finished clear and dry @ 12.9% abv.

My still is a 3" boka 55" tall with copper scrubbers for packing, and a triple wound condenser with a cold finger, three 3800 watt elements in a 100 litre boiler presently controlled with a variac. I posted my build on this forum if you need pictures.

I let the still reflux for 40 Min's before taking off 400mils of fores slowly and then proceded to collect about 14 one litre jars three quarters full each at 90-92 abv , over the course of six hours, I then covered the jars with coffee filters and let them air for two days and they have a perfume odour in all of them, which I find undesirable.

I rinsed the boiler and all the other components out really well after each run, and cleaned the scrubbers and condenser in a vinegar bath and rinsed really well again after the wine run because they were very darkened and foul smelling after the old wine run.
The copper components were off smelling and dark again after the WPOSW run as well.

Should I be neutralizing the copper components with baking soda after the vinegar bath?

Is it possible that even with a really good rinse some vinegar is remaining on the copper?

Or let them get fouled with each run and just rinse?

It doesn't seem right to me to leave them dirty and fouled, but I have been accused of being a little OCD

Or do I need to let the ethanol air out longer? I need to figure out what is wrong with my booze because I 'm not interested in drinking perfume.

I need some help figuring this out, and appreciate your time to review my questions.

[Dnderhead]

most just rinse the column.
what was your wash? and how was it treated?
sounds like posably ethyl acetate? this can be cased by acetic acid combined with ethanol.this has a sweet /fruity smell.its the base for many artificial flavors/essence.wine brewers strive to create it.

[moose11]

most just rinse the column.
what was your wash? and how was it treated?
sounds like posably ethyl acetate? this can be cased by acetic acid combined with ethanol.this has a sweet /fruity smell.its the base for many artificial flavors/essence.wine brewers strive to create it.

I had a plain sugar wash, made with municipal tap water which is quite good, 5 kg white sugar per 6 gal pail, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1 pinch epsom salts, 1 one a day vitiamine , 120 grams bakers yeast, x 4 pails, totaling 23 litres per pail, stirred daily, brewed in a plastic home brew wine pails with airlocks, finished @.985 sg and crystal clear, setteled and tranferred into glass carboys and sat for 6 weeks. It was the colour of ginger ale and smelled good, kind of wine like.

Could you explain what you mean by how it was treated?

Unfortunately I was not striving to create a perfume smell. I was looking for a clean odourless neutral.

[Dnderhead]

"and sat for 6 weeks" that could do it .... acid+ethanol =ethylactate.. it used for flavoring etc.it vaporizes just below ethanol.,,,,you can add sodium bicarb leave it a while,,dilut and rerun.

[moose11]

I was thinking I might have some ethyl acetate in my ethanol, because of the vinegar I used to clean everything.

What ratio of sodium bicarb should I be using per litre?, and should I dilute it before or after treating with the sodium bicarb, and for how long before reruning it?

I thought I read somewhere about 1 tsp per litre but now I can't remember.

Thanks for the help!