Ok, I'm ready, pick my first run apart...

[BGreene]

Ran my still for the first time yesterday. Exhilarating. Anyway, about a 6 gallon charge, feel like I got the cuts close, and based on a book called "The Home Distiller's Workbook" I collected (after the heads) up to about 195f. It was Winoes Sugarwash (which was one of the T&T recipes) which fermented to about 6%abv.

Anyway, the last jar off was about 110 proof, and wasn't bitter. So I mixed my runs, and the stuff averaged to 143proof, in 3 pint jars. Not bad I thought. I did the calculations, and added filtered water (Brita) to cut it to 110. And overnight it turned cloudy.

Ok...so here's my train of thought. Most of the people on here say "must have had too much tails into it", and that would make sense. Others say, nah, it could be minerals in the water.

I am absolutely NOT opposed to running it again...because good grief that was fun as h*ll. Still ran absolutely perfectly, like nothing I could imagine.

What say ye?

B

[S-Cackalacky]

You could run it again or add it to a new wash and run it that way. Next time you might try distilled water for diluting. You could have been too far into tails, or it could have been the water.

[Bigbob]

One thing I'll say is don't run by temp, run by taste. 3 pints out of 6 gallons is a little low. But it's your first congrats!

[ben stiller]

Curious if you added the water to the alcohol or alky to the water? First time I added Brita water to my alky it turned cloudy. I then read that you should add the alcohol to the water. No problem since.

[BGreene]

I added the water to the alcohol...it would be nice if it were something that simple.

[HDNB]

The yield makes sense, imho you got tails in it. since you are going for neutral, make another wash, step it up to 8-10% and add this to your next still charge, you will get some more quantity to make better cuts with.
collect in smaller fractions.

[woodshed]

Brita and too much tails. Go distilled water.
Never seemed to matter which you add first to me. Can't get greedy with your tails, which varies with recipe, type of still, how you run it...
Plenty of time to air out helps as well.
Like said above collect smaller.
Oily tails are a sign of less than optimal ferment IMO. A house is no better than it's foundation.

[bellybuster]

Sounds to me like you're making cuts right off the still. Get a crapload of 250ml jars and collect in them. Completely disregard what goes in the jars but keep them in order.
Lay a coffee filter over each jar and let air for 24 hours, then do cuts by smell taste and feel.

Glad you're having a good time
The cuts link in my sig line is a great read

[goblin]

i use brita water all the time. add product to water no cloudy, you running a reflux?

[BGreene]

No, it's a Mile Hi Hybrid still. It's a column on top of a milk can boiler, but I packed the column with copper mesh. Then I used the reflux chamber at the top of the column to flush it back down. Because it was a sugarhead, I was trying to get a decent neutral flavor. But now that I think back, I clearly went too far into the tails. But it was very drinkable, so that's why I thought I was still ok. There is a definite art to this. The good news was, even the bad stuff wasn't really bad. I can't imagine what the good stuff is going to be.

I made what I "thought" were decent, small cuts...but I only used 8 jars (over the 3 pints). So I'm going to go even smaller (like baby food jars) and taste with a spoon along the way.

Bill

[firewater69]

Be sure to cut with water before you taste, it will help you with cuts & you wont burn your taste buds.

[BGreene]

Thank you...great tip. I think it'll be a week before I recover from last time. Seriously, by the time I had my 4th or 5th taste, it was harsh. Thanks again.

[goblin]

the more you do the more you know. i did the same runnings for months, not much changes.

[W Pappy]

Thank you...great tip. I think it'll be a week before I recover from last time. Seriously, by the time I had my 4th or 5th taste, it was harsh. Thanks again.

You said a week to recover you must have slapped a good amount of heads in there too.When you taste them sample jars after airing cut it to about 35 to 40 proof
for tasting. And rinse your mouth between tasting.