Improving neutral/SPP packing

[ginfitz]

I’ve read on Home Distiller that you can end up with a cleaner neutral if you dilute your strip from a sugar wash to 20% or even to 15% before running it in your reflux still. Can anyone please explain to me why? Will this hold true if you are using SPP packing which I use in my 3" column? Thanks

[NormandieStill]

The idea is to dilute the congeners with water. The reflux will concentrate the alcohol but (parallel discussion about Fusels rising up the column aside), the water that's left will contain fewer congeners than if you hadn't diluted it.

Someone recently (I don't recall who) said that they strip two or more times. Essentially pulling the same trick with a second stripping run to clean up your low wines before the reflux run.

I don't see any reason why the type of packing would change anything.

[bunny]

The idea is to dilute the congeners with water. The reflux will concentrate the alcohol but (parallel discussion about Fusels rising up the column aside), the water that's left will contain fewer congeners than if you hadn't diluted it.

Someone recently (I don't recall who) said that they strip two or more times. Essentially pulling the same trick with a second stripping run to clean up your low wines before the reflux run.

I don't see any reason why the type of packing would change anything.

That was probably me. I am presently coming to the end of a spirit run that had the strips run through my stripper four(4) times. Each time the remainder in the boiler was less offensive. I did this to see if "dilution theory" would help me find an even cleaner product. The further away from the yeast supposedly the cleaner the product. I'll admit it is very good, but it's turned into work. If you have the time, you won't regret it.

( I'm using manu's spp)

[Saltbush Bill]

Diluting and stripping will both always improve the product when trying to make quality neutral......there is no question about it in my mind.

[WithOrWithoutU2]

SB and Bunny,

When doing multiple strips, how far do you go on each stripping? What is the abv coming off the spout when you cut it off?

[StillerBoy]

how far do you go on each stripping?

When stripping for neutral I stop the run at 50% ABV overall average or 35 - 40% at the spout, I don't strip the tails, and dilute down to 40% for spirit run.. and for flavor I strip down to 35% which is less than 10% at the spout with no dilution..

Mars

[bunny]

SB and Bunny,

When doing multiple strips, how far do you go on each stripping? What is the abv coming off the spout when you cut it off?

Whether this is right or wrong, I have not made any cuts in this process of stripping 4 consecutive times. I don't worry about the ABV. I strip to a couple minutes into 208*f at the point of no return. I must be leaving at least a little something in the boiler each time.

The product I ended up with is outstanding imho. I did err by dumping some of the very last product in with it. So, I will do it again, what a shame.

[bitter]

I normally strip at higher speed but about 95 percent..... I stop when jumps upto 205 to 208f. Then dilute and do spirit run.

It's pretty darn clean with spp after that. Nothing there. But starting with a cleaner tasting wash means less the column needs todo

B

[Salt Must Flow]

I normally strip at higher speed but about 95 percent..... I stop when jumps upto 205 to 208f. Then dilute and do spirit run.

It's pretty darn clean with spp after that. Nothing there. But starting with a cleaner tasting wash means less the column needs todo

B

Just curious, when you say you "strip at higher speed but about 95%", do you mean you strip with a reflux column or with a pot still with 95% power? Just not sure what you mean by 95%.

Just yesterday I stripped using my 3" VM with a 1" gate valve wide open at 5500W. It was much slower going in comparison to using a pot still. With a pot still I get 10.2 lph at 5500W. With the VM I got 4.6 lph. To get a higher takeoff rate, I would have to remove the valve to open the takeoff opening.

The reason I tried stripping with a reflux column is because the day before I stripped with a pot still until my total collected low wines was 40% ABV. I cooled some spent wash to 60F, tested it and it read 3% ABV left in the boiler. So for the next run, I stripped with no reflux until the product exiting was coming out 20% ABV, turned on the reflux and completed the run. The spent wash barely read any % ABV. Cool test and I'll compare both products to see if there was any detectable difference and/or more product by doing it that way.

EDIT/UPDATE: My first batch I got 2.5 gal azeo after the spirit run & cuts doing it the normal method. The 2nd identical batch I stripped the remainder of the wash using the reflux column and got 4 gal azeo after the spirit run & cuts. That's a significant increase, but it did take some additional time.

[bitter]

I normally strip at higher speed but about 95 percent..... I stop when jumps upto 205 to 208f. Then dilute and do spirit run.

It's pretty darn clean with spp after that. Nothing there. But starting with a cleaner tasting wash means less the column needs todo

B

Just curious, when you say you "strip at higher speed but about 95%", do you mean you strip with a reflux column or with a pot still with 95% power? Just not sure what you mean by 95%.

Just yesterday I stripped using my 3" VM with a 1" gate valve wide open at 5500W. It was much slower going in comparison to using a pot still. With a pot still I get 10.2 lph at 5500W. With the VM I got 4.6 lph. To get a higher takeoff rate, I would have to remove the valve to open the takeoff opening.

The reason I tried stripping with a reflux column is because the day before I stripped with a pot still until my total collected low wines was 40% ABV. I cooled some spent wash to 60F, tested it and it read 3% ABV left in the boiler. So for the next run, I stripped with no reflux until the product exiting was coming out 20% ABV, turned on the reflux and completed the run. The spent wash barely read any % ABV. Cool test and I'll compare both products to see if there was any detectable difference and/or more product by doing it that way.

EDIT/UPDATE: My first batch I got 2.5 gal azeo after the spirit run & cuts doing it the normal method. The 2nd identical batch I stripped the remainder of the wash using the reflux column and got 4 gal azeo after the spirit run & cuts. That's a significant increase, but it did take some additional time.

I strip in reflux setup hit close 5 lph for first 3.5 to 4 liters then slow down last run stripped was 96.5 percent. Spirit was 97 and ran at 3.2 lph till close to end then slowed down to about 2.5 lph.

B

[Salt Must Flow]

I normally strip at higher speed but about 95 percent..... I stop when jumps upto 205 to 208f. Then dilute and do spirit run.

It's pretty darn clean with spp after that. Nothing there. But starting with a cleaner tasting wash means less the column needs todo

B

Just curious, when you say you "strip at higher speed but about 95%", do you mean you strip with a reflux column or with a pot still with 95% power? Just not sure what you mean by 95%.

Just yesterday I stripped using my 3" VM with a 1" gate valve wide open at 5500W. It was much slower going in comparison to using a pot still. With a pot still I get 10.2 lph at 5500W. With the VM I got 4.6 lph. To get a higher takeoff rate, I would have to remove the valve to open the takeoff opening.

The reason I tried stripping with a reflux column is because the day before I stripped with a pot still until my total collected low wines was 40% ABV. I cooled some spent wash to 60F, tested it and it read 3% ABV left in the boiler. So for the next run, I stripped with no reflux until the product exiting was coming out 20% ABV, turned on the reflux and completed the run. The spent wash barely read any % ABV. Cool test and I'll compare both products to see if there was any detectable difference and/or more product by doing it that way.

EDIT/UPDATE: My first batch I got 2.5 gal azeo after the spirit run & cuts doing it the normal method. The 2nd identical batch I stripped the remainder of the wash using the reflux column and got 4 gal azeo after the spirit run & cuts. That's a significant increase, but it did take some additional time.

I strip in reflux setup hit close 5 lph for first 3.5 to 4 liters then slow down last run stripped was 96.5 percent. Spirit was 97 and ran at 3.2 lph till close to end then slowed down to about 2.5 lph.

B

Ah that makes more sense. Thanks for clarification. I've done an entire stripping run with reflux before and it took a lot longer than I prefer. I went with two elements to cut the time in half. I do like finishing a tripping run with reflux because it takes the remaining 3% of alcohol out of the wash without excessive amounts of water like pot stills do. Since I do 45 gal batches so to me, it's worth some additional time for 1-1/2 extra gallons (after cuts).

[bitter]

yeah I find distill to as high a proof as you can and then dilute again gives even cleaner results. Also I like to have a bit more in the boiler for a longer run as since I went SPP runs are pretty fast. So I strip under pretty high power as fast as I can maintain 95%. since I got SPP just feelign it out from now on I think I will be doing 1 strip and add back with wash next time.

Perfectly clean neutral is great but I like some character like in FFV to come through. Also will be doing some making pure whiskey and for that you can push things more as you want some smearing due to the extra feints added as well to get 95% whiskey. Then dilute and age as you want. This will be one the next things I do with the SPP as I just finished a while ago 200L worth of FFV. I used it for testing the SPP as it has some flavor.. and wanted to see how well the SPP stripped flavor compared to copper packing. Its does great also wider cuts... with SPP compared to the copper.

B