My first all-feints run through VM, obviously no good... twice.

[Deethe]

So okay, I've collected about 20 liters of feints at 26% ABV. These were mostly tails, plus some failed experiments to make homemade cognac, plus some low wines I kept aside and forgot about, etc. There were no heads in there - I always dump heads separately to use as sanitizer.
Why not put it through my CCVM and get a good neutral, I thought... Will make about 4 liters, I thought...

Well... Yes and no. I really got about 4 liters of spirit, that's a good part. The bad part is, I discarded more than 1 liter of heads, but the rest of the spirit still has this acrid, piercing smell of paint thinner/nail polish remover. So I collected 3+ liters, switched the CCVM into a potstill mode and got 4 more liters of the distillate at about 10% ABV total. I felt greedy.

Okay, I thought. Maybe I should have pot-stilled the feints first to get some low wines, and then rectify them low and slow. So why not do a second CCVM run?

For the second run, I've dumped the 3+ liters of spirit and the 4 liters of "tails" from the previous run into the pot. Added 3 liters of water to bring the ABV to around 39%, and started my CCVM low and slow. And I am still running it right now.

So far I have collected 1 liter of heads, spent 6 hours and done dozens of smell tests. Still get this nasty acrid smell.

I am resolute to push this to the end. There must be an end to this, right? I either end up dumping everything into the heads jar, or finally arrive at some neutral that has no funky smells...

[jonnys_spirit]

If you're feints were collected from prior reflux runs they're probably already tightly compressed and you might not get any meaningful hearts out..

Cheers!
-j

[Saltbush Bill]

What ABV is your CCVM pulling? is it packed properly with mesh or other packing? is it insulated ? At what speed are you pulling product from the still?...how many Ml in 10 min for arguments sake. what size column...length and diameter.
Without knowing those things its very hard to say.

[Deethe]

What ABV is your CCVM pulling? is it packed properly with mesh or other packing? is it insulated ? At what speed are you pulling product from the still?...how many Ml in 10 min for arguments sake. what size column...length and diameter.
Without knowing those things its very hard to say.

It's pulling 96% ABV. Just checked: my alcoholometer floats at 99% ABV, the liquid is tepid (30.7C), so the ABV is 95.79% or something like this.
Here is my column:

Top to bottom:
- Dimroth cooler
- Steam valve (currently open)
- junction with a round looking glass
- copper pipe (2", 500 mm in length), insulated.
- glass pipe (2", 500 mm), not insulated
- 50 liter pot (not insulated)
- 2000 w induction cooker (not shown, currently working at 1000 w).
To the left of the junction:
- steam valve (currently about 15% open)
- 90 degree corner
- two coolers

Pipes are packed with 3.5x3.5 mm stainless steel SPP.
I am pulling at around 30 ml in 10 minutes now.

[Saltbush Bill]

It all looks good to me, only thing I can think is that maybe 1.8L per hour is a bit fast for 2 inch still, however your high ABV isnt indicating that your running to fast, to fast it would be lower I would think.
Interested to see what others think,

[Swamptrout]

The temp it is coming off the still will make it appear more piercing than it probably is.
are you trying to make cuts straight from the still ?
A lot of the burn you get straight off the still will dissipate after airing overnight.

[Saltbush Bill]

The plastic hose from your condenser needs to go, as does the plastic bottle it is in, if that is plastic...sure do look like it to me, use of those sorts of materials arenot condoned on this forum, DO NOT post any further photos that contain things of that type. Safety comes first here.

[Tummydoc]

Doesn't affect taste, but your configuration is not CCVM, it's a valved vapor management configuration (VM).

[Saltbush Bill]

Good catch Tummy, I should have noticed that
That still also seems to have another valve in the main column below the reflux condenser, if that is the case its a bomb waiting to go off. All stills need to be built so that they are open to atmosphere at all times....NO ,IF'S ,BUTS or any other excuses. Pull it to pieces fix it , DONT put another photo up until the WHOLE THING is fixed.
One moment of forgetfulness , both valves shut at the same time , your life and house will be trash.
If you bought that still pre made that way we need the name of the supplier.

[NZChris]

There was a news item online a few years ago that had photos and a video of a distiller taking a hot shower in front of visitors to the distillery. You could see that the two valves to the receivers were both closed. He took a holiday in the Burns Unit, but he did survive.

[Deethe]

It all looks good to me, only thing I can think is that maybe 1.8L per hour is a bit fast for 2 inch still, however your high ABV isnt indicating that your running to fast, to fast it would be lower I would think.

I am running at 30 ml per 10 minutes - that is 180 milliliters per hour, not 1800. Low and slow.
Although the still can output 1.8L per hour for sure.

are you trying to make cuts straight from the still ?
A lot of the burn you get straight off the still will dissipate after airing overnight.

Good catch Swamptrout, will try airing.
This burn is something new to me. I checked the cuts straight from the still before, and the smell was sweet, not acrid. At least for the hearts.

That still also seems to have another valve in the main column below the reflux condenser, if that is the case its a bomb waiting to go off.

Yes, I know. It's a test setup to check how this shiny new valve fits the column, normally I do not put it there. You are right, this configuration should go.

In my defense, there is a safety valve on the lid of the pot (not seen on the photo as it is behind the glass pipe, but it is there).

The plastic hose from your condenser needs to go, as does the plastic bottle it is in, if that is plastic...

The hose is food-grade silicone, so I guess it is suitable for brief contacts with ethanol. I collect cuts into a glass cylinder (and then pour them into glass jars), so that is okay too.
The bottle is plastic, but it contains mineral water - to cool me down.

Doesn't affect taste, but your configuration is not CCVM, it's a valved vapor management configuration (VM).

Oh... you are right, Tummydoc. I am new to this terminology, sorry.

[NormandieStill]

The hose is food-grade silicone, so I guess it is suitable for brief contacts with ethanol.

The european standard (which is likely to be fairly similar to any other internation standards) for food-safe materials requires leeching of chemicals from synthetic materials to remain below a certain threshold under various test conditions. The condition for alcohol is 15% at 20C. You're potentially pulling 95% abv at higher temps (although unlikely unless your condenser is woefully underpowered) which far exceeds the tested limits. You might be OK. You might not. But you have no idea. Which is why the forum declares that plastics should not come into contact with high-proof ethanol. Once it's coming back out of the still it needs to be glass, stainless or copper all the way!

[Saltbush Bill]

The hose is food-grade silicone, so I guess it is suitable for brief contacts with ethanol.

You need to start thinking beyond food, we are not making food here, you are dealing with a high grade solvent.

Read the RULES~~~~>https://homedistiller.org/forum/app.php/rules
" Safety first and foremost! These forums take a very strong negative view on the use of plastics and synthetics in distilling. It simply is not safe to use these during any part of the distillation process with the exception of HPDE buckets which are acceptable for fermentation. There simply are too many types of plastics and a lack of reliable information for us to reliably advocate their use anywhere in the distillation apparatus. Also, from past posting history, this topic seems to quickly boil down into an almost religious flame war. Thus we simply will not put up with it, and posts about any form of plastic use will be edited, deleted or locked. # "

[Yummyrum]

Deethe

I’ve moved this to things not yo do/use .

I appreciate that you have said you will remove the valve below the Reflux condenser . … I really hope you do .

Thing is that some folk unfortunately aren’t too good at reading and look at pictures or stills and think its a good idea to copy .

Secondly , what you are doing , trying to do a reflux run of already refluxed heads and tails is a pointless exercise .

Sure , you can do a feints run in a reflux still from rejects from a Pot still run and recover some good hearts but what you are trying to do is simply re extracting the same shite that you already removed … there is nothing good left .

And that brings me to point three .

The Silicone hose . While it might be good for food , its not good for dealing with what comes out of a still . In your case , its not even Ethanol but all the other solvents .

Short contact time you claim ? Well , several hours in contact with solvents is not short contact