a few questions

[Beam]

hey all, i have a few questions,

one, my bottles all have floaties in them they didnt for the first day or 2 is there anyway i can remove them or not? also im guessing there harmless?

second, im new to this, but i have only just read about the whole cutting and what the head, heart and tail is so my bottles are a mixture of the 3 atm and as you may guess there quite off tasting there good with coke though as a mixer , but my question regarding this is, can i do much about these off tastes like for example would in the future adding wood chips and what not help "hide" the off tastes? or is the only real way to get a nice spirit by cutting and chopping the heart out of a few and then adding all the flavours and whatnot?

three, with the head, heart and tail im not sure how much to remove of the head and tail from the heart i mean i have a air still, and i would get 700ml of spirit from 4 litres of wash so do i just work it out like 700ml divided by 3 and thats how much has to be removed before the heart to get the good stuff?

thank you in advance

[OBX Phantom]

Sounds like you need to reread the making cuts section.

And the only way to get rid of the off tastes from not making the cuts would be to rerun it and make the cuts, also rerunning it will get rid of the floaties what ever they might be. Maybe you could add it back into your next wash when you get ready to run it, and be sure to make the cuts.

[Bushman]

First to address the floaties, what did you make? Second as mentioned rerun it through your still but before doing that you need to bring the abv down to know higher than 40%, I prefer 30% when rerunning. Read the thread on making proper cuts and airing. Good luck and keep us informed.

[Beam]

thanks for the replies, the problem is the floaties formed days after i flavoured them so i dont know what i can really do and i have read it but i just dont understand it,
i need it well, dumbed down hahah like i need to know ok i have an air still it takes 4 litres of wash to create 700ml of spirit blah blah now what i dont understand is do i basically leave the still running untill i cut that 4 litres of wash down into the head, heart and tails or is within that 700ml of wash the head heart and tails? as you can see im quite confused haha

[MitchyBourbon]

First, you should make sure you fully understand the process of making cuts. You can find this info here:

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 46&t=13261

It's pretty simple, the first portion you take off the still is fore shots. You throw that away, do not drink it. Next you should have several small glass containers that you number 1 - 12 so you can tell which was collected first, second, third etc. Then let them air out for a day or two. Your heads will be the first containers, hearts in the middle and tails at the end. That's a general description. You should go by taste and smell. But make air you check out the link I gave you, it has much more detail.

Good luck.

[Prairiepiss]

The first stuff that comes off the still in a run is the foreshots. That's the stuff you should already be tossing.
The next stuff that comes out of the still will be the heads. You collect this in another jar. When you have collected all the heads. The next thing to come out of the still is hearts. So you collect this in the third jar. Until you have collected all of the hearts. Then you change over to the forth jar this is when the tails come out. Collect them if you want?

You have to determined where to make these cut points. There is no set amounts. All stills and washes are different. So the best thing to do would be get a get more like 8 to 10 little jars. And collect what comes off the still spread out over these little jars. Number them in order as they come off. So if you get 700 ml. Collect 70ml in each of 10 jars. Once you are done collecting. I would suggest covering them with a coffee filter or paper towel. Let them air for 24 hours. Then go back to them and taste smell feel them. Find the ones you like the best. From the middle jars. This will be your hearts. Now you can tell how much of each you will get. So next run you collect that Mich for heads and this much for hearts.

The other problem your gona run into. Is you are probably using a turbo yeast? This is gona give you off flavors too.

Not to mention the still is just way to small and sucks.

[Beam]

thanks for the replies i understand what you all mean better now so i have a starting point, but do many people collect the whole stills worth of the wash and seperate them from there as you said its all different i mean if i only collect 700mls and throw out the fores, which i do would this be all heads for the next 700mls or would i roughly work it out to be 700ml divided by 3 parts equals 233ml of each part? or could the hearts start 1 litre into my wash blah blah this is the only part i need to work out and i should be right, also i have used turbo yeast, im guessing samual williards and all the others that you buy in a brew shop would be turbo yeasts aswell? if so then yes i have been using turbo yeasts

[Dnderhead]

the easiest way is take off fore shots,,then the rest put in jars.let these air for a day?
then sort by smell/taste/feel. the heads will have a chemical smell,harts a neutral,tales ,a cardboard or bitter taste.when in doubt leave it out,this is just in general,it takes some practice.
there are no set amounts.its what you like.

[Prairiepiss]

If in one run you collect a total of 750ml. That 750ml contains fores heads hearts and tails. 750ml from 4 lt would make your wash was be around 18%abv.

[Beam]

well basically all i have been doing is throwing out about 100ml of the fore and then collecting the rest so is this pretty much poison or just not high quality compared to what it could be, but last night i made 700ml but i threw out the first 200-220ml this time to see if theres any difference and i think it is abit nicer smelling but i also noticed after the collected the 700ml i collected abit more i was smelling and collecting a little bit every 100-120ml to see if i could smell a difference and i couldnt really except at the end it smelt like a kinda burnt smell maybe tails?

[Wasserwerks]

I used these percentages on my last run... Seemed to work ok if you know what the total amount of alcohol output will be. Took the foreshot and heads percentage, combined it. Switched containers when into the hearts. Took several containers when collecting the hearts, saved the tails for the 2nd run. You'd have to recaculate the hearts and tails numbers with the tails added.
Foreshots
(3.1%)

Heads
(17.4%)

Middle Run-Hearts
(57.1%)

Tails
(22.4%)

Maybe I'm way off here....

[HolyBear]

Now yer getting there... if those percentages taste right to you then so be it. That sounds about right. I personally HATE headaches so I cut more heads than most prolly would. In the end, its up to you...
also I would add that different washes/mashes will give you different percentages. So its not a one %a fits all formula...

[Wasserwerks]

Yes, I agree the calculations will vary. The apple cider (wine) I ran I thought it was only 12% and formulated my (estimated) results based on those calculations, however the alcohol level was much higher. I think once I make a few batches from scratch and record everything the calculations may become tighter. Oh, and yes I took a little more from the foreshot/head combined number for headaches sake.

[Beam]

thanks for the replies, yeah i took a fair bit off the start 220ml i think to be exact and i ended up making a tequila out of this run and i must say if i taste between the say jimmy and tequila that have been sitting there for say 6 days now i can actually i think taste the difference like the jimmy has a strong i guess "bite" or a yuck taste to it aswell as the jimmy flavour but i can taste the difference but the tequila i made yesterday so just a day old has just a tequila taste like no other taste ontop also the jimmy i made and this tequila i made both came from the same batch so im happy that i got a cleaner tasting spirit also i would like to add i used a alchotec 48 hour yeast and 8kg raw white sugar and i have a samual williard 48hour i will be using next had any good results with either, and i know these a turbo's and people dislike them but is there a decent turbo to use? and if not what can i use to replace the turbo yeast and im using dextrose in my smaller 10 llitre wash and i noticed my dextrose mix smells really sweet