Pot stilling wine

[bryanjohnson]

"Hi everyone, I have been on here before, but my password wasn't working so changed my loggin. I have been running the machine a little and learning.....I have a psII. my last reflux of sugar wash came out ok but had a rubbing alcohol smell to it. I started collecting at temp 169* and stopped early. the final proof came out around 165 first run. I tried running as slow as possible. so does this sound like not throwing enough heads or tails? then emptied the pot took off the bottom column and pot stilled some red wine that my neighbor wanted to make into choopurro. spelling? like raki. pot stilled 3 gallons first run came out 110-120 proof. didn't separate the output much-a bad idea. smelled ok but a little grapey. threw that run back in with some other grape strip run from before with a bunch of anise seeds to get the licorice flavor. came out 150 or so. good licorice flavor but a off smell that reminds me of grappa but stronger. so maybe a tail smell or head smell? so lesson learned I think. cut out more heads and tails but run everything longer.

Anyone have any experience advice for running red wine? do the smells sound like a cutting issue? I have really slowed my process down since starting. I know they make brandy out of wine. any issues with some of the stuff they use to balance wine during ferment to give off flavor or smells? or is it just me and my learning curve-which is more likely I think.

Thanks

[Bushman]

PM sent.

[zach]

" pot stilled some red wine that my neighbor wanted to make into choopurro. spelling? like raki.

Are you talking about Tsipouro?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsipouro

[NormandieStill]

It sounds to me like you're doing a single run. Most brandy that I'm aware of is stripped in a first run, then the resulting low wines are run again slowly and cuts are made. You want to be making cuts by smell and flavour, not volume or abv. There are guides on the forum that will help with making cuts.

It's possible though that you're having issues with sulphur dioxide (meta bisulphate) that has been added to the wine as an anti-oxidant and stabiliser. If so, getting some more copper into your boiler might help. Or not... opinions seem to be divided. I recently used H2O2 to clean up some sulphurous low wines (smelled like onion juice on your skin) from an apple brandy.