Double distill.

[ChrisSoCal]

So for this run I was considering doing a double distillation of my rum. I have always aged my first run and/or spiced my rum. I was thinking I would do a bit of a three way run this time. One group aged, one group spiced and one group clear. What I don’t want to happen is to lose my beautiful flavour. My still is a 23L pot still and I usually get 4L if 70% hearts each run (3 hours)... so, if I fill my still with 23L of 70% and I lose my flavour, it would be a significant waste of time... thoughts?

[acfixer69]

Your low wines need to be watered down from 70% to at least 30%. It is very dangerous with high ABV spirits. As few as results with 2nd distillation why not try a small batch and see if it is something you want. It will be cleaner at a cost of some flavor.

AC

[Kareltje]

There are several reasons to not fill a still with 70 %. You want to have some fluid left in your boiler at the end of the run and you want to raise the strength of the product significantly. These are both quite difficult when you start at 70 %.
Some people talk about the flammability of strong alcohol, but in almost all stills there are points with very high flammable percentages.

I think 23 l of 70 % can be put to better use than simply running it again.
As acfixer69 suggested: dilute it and make some experiments. If you lose too much taste for your taste, 5 ltr is less loss than 20 ltr! And 5 ltr @ 70 % is 10 ltr @ 35 %.

[NZChris]

You need to introduce yourself and your still. No simple pot still I'm familiar with would produce a significant amount of 'hearts' in a single run.

[ChrisSoCal]

You need to introduce yourself and your still. No simple pot still I'm familiar with would produce a significant amount of 'hearts' in a single run.

It’s a turbo 500 pot still. It’s fairly common. I have no reason to lie. I didn’t always get as much as I do now, but a few years ago I changed up my recipe and it brought me great results. I also add all of my heads and tails from earlier runs to each run. I use the temp gauge to determine my cuts and I have fantastic flavour. Regardless, I’m trying to decide if I should go for the second distillation or just let it be as it is.

I don’t mind the idea of diluting it and re-running it again. I will let everyone know how it goes!

Thanks everyone!

[HDNB]

whats your rum recipe? i have not made a lot of it, but i have had to triple distill to reduce flavours to a palatable level...otherwise it's like licking the bottom of the molasses pail.

while you are at it, love to hear about the spice bill for the fancy stuff.

Edit: posting w you...i doubt NZC meant you were lying, more just interested in what you are up to. from what i know about NZC he has about 30 years experience, so with the right info he can help guide you to a better spirit.

cheers!

[NZChris]

This?

https://stillspirits.com/products/turbo-500-still

[Pikey]

whats your rum recipe? i have not made a lot of it, but i have had to triple distill to reduce flavours to a palatable level...otherwise it's like licking the bottom of the molasses pail.

while you are at it, love to hear about the spice bill for the fancy stuff.

Edit: posting w you...i doubt NZC meant you were lying, more just interested in what you are up to. from what i know about NZC he has about 30 years experience, so with the right info he can help guide you to a better spirit.

cheers!

Why not reduce the molasses to a lesser extent and run on a 1.5 basis as I do ? White sugar reduces flavour as well - whilst keeping the abv up !

[ChrisSoCal]

This?

https://stillspirits.com/products/turbo-500-still

Yessir! That’s the one.

I definitely don’t have 30 yrs experience as you do. However, I’ve found that using fancy molasses and a super whisky yeast with fine Sugar has got me my results. I have also brought my water levels down about 5L for the wash and it helped tremendously. What kind of ABV and quantity are you getting?

[ChrisSoCal]

whats your rum recipe? i have not made a lot of it, but i have had to triple distill to reduce flavours to a palatable level...otherwise it's like licking the bottom of the molasses pail.

while you are at it, love to hear about the spice bill for the fancy stuff.

Spices I buy in bulk at a local spice market. I’ve got a good repor with the staff so I get some good deals. I also happen to really like the molasses flavour in my rum. It’s not quite like licking a molasses pail, lol, but I love the aroma.

I’ll give a little hint on my spice recipe... I use loomi. It’s a dried black lime. Crush that bad boy up and it gives such a nice citrus note to the spirit. Some are more potent than others, so sniff em up good or crush the lot of em together to balance your outcome.

[NZChris]

That is not a pot still, it's a reflux still. That company also makes a copper alembic pot still head for the same boiler.

Unless you are trying to clean up bad rum, a second distillation through that would be a mistake.

[NZChris]

What kind of ABV and quantity are you getting?

I don't use a reflux still for rum. Mine is a pot still similar to their copper alembic, but is home built and larger. Scaled to your boiler, my double distillation would roughly go something like this:
Stockfood molasses, with or without sugar. Jaggery/panela with no added sugar. Sugar cane if I can be bothered doing the work.
Four still charges worth of ferment at 8% ABV = 2/3 of boiler volume * 4 = 65l.
I do not recycle feints as I found that doing so for several cycles decreased the size of my heart cut.
Strip discarding 100ml of foreshot on each strip then running until the total low wines are 40-25% depending on the style of rum.
Spirit run into at least 12 equal jars and select the cut very much like Kiwistiller's Novice guide to cuts.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 63&t=13261
The final selection is usually so close to my desired barrel strength that it doesn't need dilution before aging.
From a 23l boiler, I'd be expecting around 5l of 64% heart cut.

[ChrisSoCal]

That is not a pot still, it's a reflux still. That company also makes a copper alembic pot still head for the same boiler.

Unless you are trying to clean up bad rum, a second distillation through that would be a mistake.

My bad, I have the copper top. I didn’t actually click the link. I don’t have the reflux top.

Thanks for the advice on the double distill. I won’t be doing a double.

[ChrisSoCal]

What kind of ABV and quantity are you getting?

I don't use a reflux still for rum. Mine is a pot still similar to their copper alembic, but is home built and larger. Scaled to your boiler, my double distillation would roughly go something like this:
Stockfood molasses, with or without sugar. Jaggery/panela with no added sugar. Sugar cane if I can be bothered doing the work.
Four still charges worth of ferment at 8% ABV = 2/3 of boiler volume * 4 = 65l.
I do not recycle feints as I found that doing so for several cycles decreased the size of my heart cut.
Strip discarding 100ml of foreshot on each strip then running until the total low wines are 40-25% depending on the style of rum.
Spirit run into at least 12 equal jars and select the cut very much like Kiwistiller's Novice guide to cuts.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 63&t=13261
The final selection is usually so close to my desired barrel strength that it doesn't need dilution before aging.
From a 23l boiler, I'd be expecting around 5l of 64% heart cut.

Wow!