Vodka turned cloudy?

[Fishhead]

Hello, I am new to this forum and recently have returned to distilling. My first batch in many years was a vodka. I used crushed wheat for the mash. I distilled it with a pot still and copper coil. I tossed the first cup or so and avoided the tails. I then ran everything through glassware twice (a beaker with glass condensor). I did this slowly, keeping and eye on the temperature. My hydrometer indicated that my final product was 80% alcohol. I cut it down using distilled water to 40% and stored it in glass bottles. This was around two weeks ago. I just returned home from a business trip and found that my vodka has turned cloudy.

What would cause this?

[heartcut]

Most likely tails, dissolved in the 80% but formed an emulsion at 40%. No problem, run it again a little slower.

[Prairiepiss]

Most likely tails, dissolved in the 80% but formed an emulsion at 40%. No problem, run it again a little slower.

+1 and make better cuts. Collecting in small jars and making cuts afterwards. Or letting it air for 24 to 48 hours. Will make it easier to make those cuts.

Edited to add. Don't make cuts by temps. Make cuts by taste smell feel and looks. See the novice guide to cuts thread for cuts information.

[Cardinalbags]

If vodka is your drink, consider a reflux design rather than a pot still. Its a lot more efficient time wise than running many runs through a pot still design. Personally, I find it very easy to make cuts for neutrals made on a reflux still as there are no flavour carryovers to get confused with when trying to pick out the heads and tails...

Then again, I only make neutrals so I don't have a lot of experience making cuts on a pot still!!!

[Fishhead]

Thanks to all for the replies. This evening I began re-distilling my vodka. I noticed once the fluid began to warm, the cloudy-ness was gone. I find this strange. Does anyone have an explaination?

[Richard7]

I don't have an explanation but a question... how did you see it in your still to see that it cleared up when it got warm?

[heartcut]

Increasing the temperature increases the solubility of most fluids, so it dissolved again, if you cooled it off instead of distilling it'd probably return to the cloudy state.

[Fishhead]

To Richard7 - I was using glassware. I filled a 1 liter flask connected to a glass condensor. Small scale but it is fun.

To Heartcut - that makes sense, and is bringing back information from Chem class 40 years ago. That is where I obtained my glassware btw.

[scrap]

I had a run turn cloudy after dilution once. I think mine was due to not rinsing the still properly after the stripping run where i ran deep into the tails. Cleaned my still and reflux packing, ran again, crystal clear and tastey

[mealstrom]

I'm fairly new to this too, so my info may not be 100% correct. Hopefully some of the experts will chime in. I'd think with a run that small your window for hearts is going to be very tiny. I'd think it'd be very hard to do a clean cut without any tails in it with something that small.

I've cleared up cloudiness by filtering it through coffee filters and those round cotton makeup wipes. With the exception of some Buffalo Trace I diluted down and some rum everything has come out very clear after a couple passes through those. (And to be fair, the rum was hard to clarify because I'd added a lot of stuff afterwards for flavor. I've found that once you add sugar it's hard to get it completely clear.)

[Oxbo Rene]

FORCED REFLUX FRACTIONATING LM COLUMNS RULE ! ! ! ! ! !
(cept for flutes) Lol, Lol ..........