New Still, New problems!

[fival]

Just finished building my second still. It is a 10 gallon copper pot still. I can get it fired up, and distilling at an ideal place, but ran into several problems that I have never experienced before.

#1 I ran the still for about 6 hours and in this six hours my proof moved only from 91 to 89 proof. This is entirely way above where I normally have began pulling hearts, but as the run continued the distillate began to smell like tails. It became stinky and didn't taste good at all, but still at 89 proof. My previous collection jars did have some sweet smooth smelling jars, but those were also around 90. I have never seen this before. I tried several hydrometers and nothing changed. I pulled out what I wanted by taste and smell and ended up with about a gallon of distillate. Never seen anything like this before and am very confused.

#2 My hydrometer flask turned cloud white. I have always used plastic cylinders for my hydrometers (my dogs like to break glass) and never seen anything like this. It happened to two of them and never went away. I attached a picture.

#3 When I proofed down my distillate it turned cloudy. It was extremely clear at first and once I put RO water in it, it went cloudy. Always have used the same water and never had a problem. I have read before that if you add water to a high proof distillate it can do this, but again mine just was not moving.

Any Advice would be helpful. Cheers"

[acfixer69]

You need to give more information. What is your new still Pot, Plates, VM , LM. What was your old still. What were you running. Plastic is not acceptable as a testing vessel for high ABV ethanol. Do the mandatory reading at the bottom of the page and you should be able to answer your questions yourself.

[jonnys_spirit]

Hi Fival, you don’t want to use plastics because they leach into the ethanol (solvent). That’s expected with a plastic cylinder. What’s your recipe? You didn’t mention whether this was a strip or spirit run.

Got some pics of your still?

Cheers,
Jonny

[jonnys_spirit]

Hi - That looks like a brewers hydrometer. You’d want to use a different kind for spirits. Proof and Tralle hydrometer which is calibrated for measuring spirits instead of wort/wash. Recommend getting two while you’re at it if you don’t have a couple already. I’d go ahead and pick up a glass graduated cylinder or two as well.

Proof and Tralle Hydrometer

Cheers,
Jonny

[fival]

Hi - That looks like a brewers hydrometer. You’d want to use a different kind for spirits. Proof and Tralle hydrometer which is calibrated for measuring spirits instead of wort/wash. Recommend getting two while you’re at it if you don’t have a couple already. I’d go ahead and pick up a glass graduated cylinder or two as well.

Proof and Tralle Hydrometer

Cheers,
Jonny

Thanks. I have both hydrometers, sounds like the plastic was the issue. I will pick up a few glass ones.

[The Baker]

You need to give more information. What is your new still Pot, Plates, VM , LM. What was your old still. What were you running. Plastic is not acceptable as a testing vessel for high ABV ethanol. Do the mandatory reading at the bottom of the page and you should be able to answer your questions yourself.

fival said, 'It is a 10 gallon copper pot still.'

Geoff

[acfixer69]

You need to give more information. What is your new still Pot, Plates, VM , LM. What was your old still. What were you running. Plastic is not acceptable as a testing vessel for high ABV ethanol. Do the mandatory reading at the bottom of the page and you should be able to answer your questions yourself.

fival said, 'It is a 10 gallon copper pot still.'

Geoff

Well that clears it all up. With that info I guess you can straighten him up have at it Geoff.

[The Baker]

You need to give more information. What is your new still Pot, Plates, VM , LM. What was your old still. What were you running. Plastic is not acceptable as a testing vessel for high ABV ethanol. Do the mandatory reading at the bottom of the page and you should be able to answer your questions yourself.

fival said, 'It is a 10 gallon copper pot still.'

Geoff

Well that clears it all up. With that info I guess you can straighten him up have at it Geoff.

Not me, acfixer.
Just thought you may not have noticed that but I have no idea of the technical stuff.

Geoff

[Tummydoc]

Single run on a pot still and you're trying to make cuts? You've got a lot of reading to do. Need to do a stripping run followed by spirit run. The louche is due to fusel oils carried over in the stripping run.

[Hambone]

Did you do a cleaning run?

[NZChris]

Unless you did vinegar then sacrificial alcohol runs, you could also have problems caused by toxic flux and oils from the build.

I glue a larger glass foot onto my glass measuring cylinders so that they are harder to knock over.