spirit after stripping run

[RickyNZ]

I did the spirit run Saturday for the two stripping runs i did the other week.
Just a neutral spirit from form a birdwatchers batch, my second batch for drinking, this time from a 60L wash that last a bit due to me knocking the plastic tap off the bottom of the 60L plastic barrel while full on my lounge carpet and having to quickly tip it over to stop the flow and replace the valve while blocking the airlock. I think the plastic threads flexed and it popped out so lesson learned replace with bung and use a siphon.

I had plenty of room in my boiler so could have managed another two stripping runs so maybe 120L wash in my 50L boiler if I wanted. I had about 15L of low wines from the 60L wash.
I added 10L of water to make sure my element was covered and to water to lower the ABV.
Probably way more water than I needed but as far as I can tell from reading its only really going to affect heat up time.

I heated my still up with full flow flow in the reflux condenser at 4.5KW but ended up backing way down to 30% power once it started boiling so I could get full reflux as the reflux condenser couldn't knock everything down at full power. I closed the needle valve slowly so that it was still maintaining full reflux (no output) and let it sit for 30 mins then slowly reduced the flow till I got the broken stream. After the heads subsided i sped it up a little to a thin unbroken stream.

collected foes then started on my numbered jars. for the first time I diluted a tiny amount of each jar with water to taste and definitely got better a couple of jars in then was good till jar11 where it developed an odour that was hard to describe and funny taste as well as the ABV dropping to 80% so I guess thats the tails starting. From this point I decided to just speed the still up to collect the tails as feints as it was getting late. I started filling jars at 4pm and packed up by 10pm, I probably spent a bit long collecting tails but learning is good.

I will double check my cuts but the run was smooth, no leaks or issues and the hearts seamed really good watered down straight off the still. I did spit not swallow.

ps: Don't let your cat sit on your lap while you rinse out collection jars with 95% ethanol...
a drop landed on her and before I could stop her she licked it... she is fine, I don't think she actually got much but it wouldn't take much to cause problems.