Sacrificial run

[KingE]

Yay! It all went smoothly. I built a 3" ccvm. It is 5 1/2' to the tee with a foot above for the reflux condenser. I've got 4 1/2 feet of marbles in there. Product condenser is a 2" X 30" shotgun. Loaded it with 8 gallons of birdwatchers that kind of stalled out at 1.02 from 1.07. 1/2 an hour to heat up and shut it down after 2 1/2 total. production slowed dramatically at the 2 hour mark. Had to add more and more heat and also cooling flow to keep it going.

I am looking forward to learning what the smells mean and to recognize them better. I would describe the whole thing as apple related. Green to applesauce to some kind of harsh and nasty. I can smell whatever nastiness comes out first and then acetone smell early. I'll some out and sniff jars tomorrow before I put them together in the fire starter jug.

Mostly want to thank you all for the redonculous amount of typing that you have done. Kept me reading full time for several months and I've kept up and reread a lot for the last year. I have been busy with work and want to keep this in the fun zone so I didn't rush it to get started.

I will probably run the other half of my birdwatcher wash tomorrow and the on Monday I can do a first gen UJSSM that fermented all the way dry from 1.07.

Vacation and the wife out of town!!! If I am going to be missing her, might as well be doing something new, interesting and fun.

Thanks every one!

[GrassHopper]

Congrats King on your success with your build and in getting going. Put that UJSSM on some oak for a fine spirit. I too have a CCVM and am hoping to upgrade to 3" from my 2". Have been very happy with the results so far.
Keep us posted on your future runs.

[KingE]

Alright, I ran the other half of my birdwatchers a couple of days ago. Made a few improvements to my cooling plumbing and finished my parrot first. This hobby is going to be challenging for a while. That's ok. If it was easy, it would be a jetski and all lonely in the garage. I can smell the acetone in the heads fine, but then I get lost. I can tell that the distillate changes as the run progresses, but can''t figure what might be tails. My still runs steady until it suddenly slows dramatically and I had to go from the 8 amps I was using to full throttle 22 amps to keep it going. Pretty quick it was over even at that input level. Nothing truly nasty ever comes out. I wouldn't say any of it is awesome either. I'll probably dilute and run again. I've got my first gen UJ to run also. I'll pull the reflux condenser out and cap the top for that. More runs and different stuff will help me. Thanks again you all!

[still_stirrin]

.... My still runs steady until it suddenly slows dramatically and I had to go from the 8 amps I was using to full throttle 22 amps to keep it going. Pretty quick it was over even at that input level. Nothing truly nasty ever comes out...

Yep, that's the way the VM works, at least mine does. I use the LM to start with and compress the heads and then open the VM valve to collect to the end. When the product is near the end, output almost stops completely...just like you noticed.

As for the lack of "nasty tails" in your wash, Birdwatchers is pretty clean especially if the ferment was well attended to. It doesn't produce much in the way of tails...just a little astringency near the end.

Sounds like all went quite normal. Good job.
ss

[KingE]

Thank you SS! That matches what I noticed at the end. Glad to know I was hoping to find what turns out to be a unicorn. I'll carry on.

Thanks!

[KingE]

Ok, I pulled the reflux condenser out and capped the top of my still to run pot style my first gen of UJSSM (10 gallons). I left all the marbles in because I read in a thread somewhere here that packing doesn't make a big difference without active reflux. The run went smoothly. I collected a half pint of fores and then a full pint and two half pints of heads before I couldn't detect heads smell anymore. I suppose I will get more sensitive to that. I can smell, taste and see the tails but even in pot mode nothing super nasty smelling. Sure looks gross though; cloudy and oily on top. After a quick initial decline the ABV dropped steadily throughout the run. Total collection was about 5 750ml bottles. I found this graph this morning http://homedistiller.org/forum/download ... &mode=view and that matches my experience, yay! Now, that doesn't match what Uncle Jesse recommends in the UJSSM recipe where he recommends starting with collecting using cuts from 80 down to 70. That would have been my first jar of heads so I assume he is referring to a reflux column of some sort or a second run through a pot still.

What I did is make two gen two ferments using the backset from the first gen. They are ready to go. Any suggestions on how I should proceed? I could do one with pot still and the other with reflux. I could add the first gen collections to one of the washes and then pay it forward into the third, or i could just keep collecting for a second run later. I am interested in learning more than production at this point and want to use my fermented assets wisely

Thanks all!

It sure is fun to taste that honey dripping from the still! So sweet UJSSM is.

[ericrichards420]

I run my 2" vm packed with 6 copper scrubbers. Reason is my still is 316 stainless. So far I have only run with 1, 2' column section. My reflux condenser is a 1/4" double helix, made of copper. I close the 1" valve to compress the fores and again to compress the heads. once I'm in the hearts I run in reflux with the valve fully open. I get right at 1 liter from a 6 to 6 1/2 gallon wash 172 proof with plenty of flavor not stripped away. I know your running a ccvm but the process is close to the same. Just letting you know running in reflux mode would be ok, although I would might only pack half the column with marbles. good luck on your next run!

[KingE]

Column is about 2/3 full. My take off arm is same size as my column, so supposedly I take off 1:1 reflux:takeoff. I think I'll do one run reflux and one run pot still.

Should I add the feints from last run (pretty much all of it) into those washes or save them up? Why? My tendency would be to add them in, at least this time.

[ericrichards420]

I always take off 150 ml of fores and 200 ml heads, I collect most of the tails but when it starts tasting bad I stop the run. I just add the 200 ml of heads to the next run each time.
My UJSM is really good third through fifth run. After that I usually start over cause the ph in the mash gets pretty high and the yeast start to have problems doing their job.

[still_stirrin]

...After that I usually start over cause the ph in the mash gets pretty high...

You mean "low". pH is a (logarithmic) measure of the hydrogen ions, an indication of the acidic strength. But low pH numbers equate to greater hydrogen concentrations, hence more acidic.
ss

[KingE]

Wow, only 200 ml of heads? I haven't gotten them compressed that tightly. I can tell when fores are done. It is a pretty dramatic transition. My sister with her super sniffer helped me with cuts during my run last night. We didn't cut from heads until after 4 pints collected from a 10 gallon wash. We will go out and check this morning after the overnight air out.

Thanks again you all!