Calculations potential Cut points? Reflux novice questions.
Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 11:53 am
HI everyone I've been looking over the forums and the main site for a while now trying to figure out what to do and not to do, but here is where I am so far:
About a year ago I first began with ordering a eazystill from brewhaus (http://www.brewhaus.com/EasyStillSUPFON ... 31C96.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow). If your not aware of it its a self contained plug it in and go pot still. Well like most I bought the 48 hr turbo yeas and made a 20Gal wash at about 15%. I took this put it in the pot still and collected about 5 gallons of a 45% collection ( there were no cuts or any alterations). I was trying to make vodka but this is before I learned that a pot stills not really good for it, it tasted bad. Well I put it in a big jar and put a couple scoops of active carbon in it and its sat for almost a year.
Well I ended up buying a new reflux still from brewhaus (http://www.brewhaus.com/Essential-Extra ... 18C96.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow), I wanted to give making liquor another try since I build a nice AG beer system for 10 gallon batches. With AG i could make bourbon
. Its a 4' tall SS design and filled with a copper mesh. The cooling water has a ball valve connection to adjust cooling to the column and then full speed to the condenser, all this is using a recirculating pump (its all inside a cooler with ICE). I also am using a propane burner as a heat source. To test it I bought 20Ls of cheap wine that is 12%. I fired up the reflux still and waited for it to get up to about 78C. Then it started to drip out at about a drip per second. I threw about about 40ml and then collected the rest to about .65 gallon. During the time the temperature would go between 78C and 81C and I would increase the flow of cold water to keep the Temp stable. The collection was about 90% and it smelled and tasted bad kinda like the raw cheap wine.
I realized this was because I was dumb and didn't make any cuts except for in the beginning. I was watching a youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8extS_WCAM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow) of a guy that started with a sugar wash and then first ran it through a pot still and then ran it through the reflux. During his reflux run he was calculating how much total alcohol he would be collecting and then calculating percentages for the an estimate of the good and the bad. From what I understand you throw away the fore shots, collect the heads ( for flavoring if used for whiskey or rum etc), then the hearts is the good flavorless ethanol ( 90% to 95%), the tails will be water down and used for flavoring and re distilling ( about 45 to 50%).
So over all my questions are:
(1). How to estimate the amount of cuts collected like shown in the video?
(2). I would like to that my initial 5 gallons of 45% (from sugar turbo) from a year ago and add it to the 1 gallon of 45% from my cheap wine ( .63 gallons with .43 water added) and distill the total and make the proper cuts. Any advice?
Thanks for looking and your advice. I probably missed this somewhere on the main site or I didn't quite under stand it. I have also read through the sticky's at the top of the forum.
About a year ago I first began with ordering a eazystill from brewhaus (http://www.brewhaus.com/EasyStillSUPFON ... 31C96.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow). If your not aware of it its a self contained plug it in and go pot still. Well like most I bought the 48 hr turbo yeas and made a 20Gal wash at about 15%. I took this put it in the pot still and collected about 5 gallons of a 45% collection ( there were no cuts or any alterations). I was trying to make vodka but this is before I learned that a pot stills not really good for it, it tasted bad. Well I put it in a big jar and put a couple scoops of active carbon in it and its sat for almost a year.
Well I ended up buying a new reflux still from brewhaus (http://www.brewhaus.com/Essential-Extra ... 18C96.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow), I wanted to give making liquor another try since I build a nice AG beer system for 10 gallon batches. With AG i could make bourbon
. Its a 4' tall SS design and filled with a copper mesh. The cooling water has a ball valve connection to adjust cooling to the column and then full speed to the condenser, all this is using a recirculating pump (its all inside a cooler with ICE). I also am using a propane burner as a heat source. To test it I bought 20Ls of cheap wine that is 12%. I fired up the reflux still and waited for it to get up to about 78C. Then it started to drip out at about a drip per second. I threw about about 40ml and then collected the rest to about .65 gallon. During the time the temperature would go between 78C and 81C and I would increase the flow of cold water to keep the Temp stable. The collection was about 90% and it smelled and tasted bad kinda like the raw cheap wine. I realized this was because I was dumb and didn't make any cuts except for in the beginning. I was watching a youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8extS_WCAM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow) of a guy that started with a sugar wash and then first ran it through a pot still and then ran it through the reflux. During his reflux run he was calculating how much total alcohol he would be collecting and then calculating percentages for the an estimate of the good and the bad. From what I understand you throw away the fore shots, collect the heads ( for flavoring if used for whiskey or rum etc), then the hearts is the good flavorless ethanol ( 90% to 95%), the tails will be water down and used for flavoring and re distilling ( about 45 to 50%).
So over all my questions are:
(1). How to estimate the amount of cuts collected like shown in the video?
(2). I would like to that my initial 5 gallons of 45% (from sugar turbo) from a year ago and add it to the 1 gallon of 45% from my cheap wine ( .63 gallons with .43 water added) and distill the total and make the proper cuts. Any advice?
Thanks for looking and your advice. I probably missed this somewhere on the main site or I didn't quite under stand it. I have also read through the sticky's at the top of the forum.