Home Distiller

Hi all--new to posting on this forum, but been reading it since last summer or so. Been poring over the forum, but I can't tell if it's worth it to save a terrible smelling distillate or not, assuming I'm not going to use carbon.

I'm stripping my first batch of rum at the moment, maybe my 10th time firing up the still in general, and while the wash didn't smell too off, it's coming off of my pot still with a horrible smell of behind. The smell off the collector before distillate started coming out was so damn nice, too. I preheated on a gas flame to about 50C before moving to a 1000W hot plate.

It tastes almost burnt, but more just tastes like rotten eggs in an outhouse. I'm assuming the mash was infected, which was causing a slight funk before that's now turned into death on the end of the still. Should I bother saving this for neutrals, or just throw it out? I wonder if it's worth it to try to get rid of the sulphur.

Anyway, I've got 10 gal of Pugi's Rum recipe going on hour 16 right now, bubbling away like mad. I'm hoping the faster ferment will keep this healthier than the one I'm running now.

Background info:

Brewhaus Essential Extractor Pro II, no scrubbers on this run, so no copper in it right now--maybe shoulda left some scrubbers in.

I basically read the fancy vs blackstrap mollases thread, and modified the following post slightly for my wash: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 5#p6751731, ending up with 2.8kg BS, 2.1kg sugar inverted with a tsp of citric acid, a pinch of gyspum and a tsp of DAP. Started with 2 Tbsp yeast, which didn't start in 24 hour, so I added 2 more. Went from gravity 1.075 down to 1.008 in a bit over a week. Racked, leaving a healthy dose at the bottom to avoid the lees.

Any advices would be appreciated--thanks in advance.

Lots of times molasses is treated with sulfur as a preservative. Copper neutralizes sulfur compounds on contact. You should redistill with a couple copper scrubbers in the path. Might fix you right up.

And next time try to get unsulfured molasses, if that is indeed what you used.

Happy stillin'
-Mud

Thanks for the response. I should have mentioned I used unsulphured organic molasses. I made sure of that part on all my molasses purchases.

I suppose now that the run is done, I'll just clean out the still, throw in a few scrubbers, and attempt a another run, so long as I've got the still and equipment out.

Rather than asking questions, I'll just call this posting a report on an experiment for the possible benefit other new distillers. I'll post my results later in the evening, then.

What kind of yeast did you use? Some kinds of yeast will make a sulfur smell, too.

Didn't answer your original question, did I? You can redistill most anything into neutral with a proper column. As for turning rum into vodka with a pot...Not sure. Never tried vodka in a pot still.

I used baker's yeast, since I've seen a lot of recommendations for it with molasses.

Yeah, I guess I was just wondering if sulfur smell could be cleaned up into neutral in a column, so thank you again for the response. I was having a bit of trouble finding info on whether or not sulfur could be taken care of. The still from Brewhaus I've got might not be a proper column, but with the whole thing assembled it does have a coolant management column, which might not be the best, but is what I would have used for a sort-of neutral with this stuff...

...except that now I'm done cleaning up again but with copper scrubbers, and I was so impressed by the lack of funk that I treated it as a spirit run. I've little control over the heat, so at 1000W it stayed, three copper mesh scrubbers in the column. I discarded the first 100ml, threw the next 200 into my to-be-neutral jug, and collected 200ml at a time as I've been doing of late. I didn't take very good notes this time, but I'm going to let these sit out with cheesecloth on top for a day or two and taste a bit before I decide which to keep and which to relegate the neutrals jar.

So, the copper helped incredibly. I'm really kind of blown away by the difference. My house stinks from the first run, but the spirits in front of me ain't half bad. Not sure if they're good enough to keep yet, but I'll check on 'em tomorrow. Either way, it's not going down the drain, which is good.

That "proper column" bit wasn't meant as a shot at your still. I wasn't really paying attention and have never run one, so couldn't comment on that. It was a reference to height and the presence of copper.

-Mud

Heh, no I didn't think it was a shot at my still, I figured you're not familiar with the unit. I just don't think it's quite proper myself after going over all the still design info here. My own opinion is that it was great for an inexpensive, ready to go unit for a beginner, but definitely leaves something to be desired. I've been inspired by this site, and I'll be getting some help with welding and building my own after all the reading I've done on this site.

use copper (sulfur smell), distill at higher abv (general funk) and rack twice (burnt smell)

liquidmusic42 wrote:I suppose now that the run is done, I'll just clean out the still, throw in a few scrubbers, and attempt a another run, so long as I've got the still and equipment out.

There rumours (which I haven't verified) that throwing scrubbers into the distillate could also clean things up. This may result in some copper salts which hopefully wouldn't be too soluble and would filter out. The higher the proof, the better in this respect. Apart from that, most sulphury compounds are fairly volatile, so some ventilated ageing could help.