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I get rid of the first 50ml.
Then I collect untiI I start noticing the cardbourd taste.

Is that it for the cuts(neutral)?

Must I carbon filter what I have collected, if I do the above 2 cuts.

I have a 1 meter tall colmomn filled with stainless steel scrubbers.
95% stuff comes out of it.

Is there another cut just after the first 50Ml?

Thanks

Hi Screech! Yes there's more... foreshots - heads - hearts - tails.

Heads have a sweet acetone smell and will burn your lips when diluted to 20/30% for the tasting test, and tails will have that 'tails' smell at any %

"I have a 1 meter tall colmomn filled with stainless steel scrubbers. 95% stuff comes out of it." Yeah, that's exactly mee too!

I run mine quite slow making sure there is always reflux happening. Reflux is happening when the temp at the top of the column remains steady. I collect in small bottles and then wait a day or 2 and taste. If one of the bottles is in doubt that bottle shall wait another day and be tasted again. If doubt remains then it is rejected into the heads/tails bottle to be run again. No heads and no tails allowed in my hearts, therefore I only get about 1/3 of the total run for drinkin. No carbon except for rare mistakes.

I like my hearts pure, and enough flavour comes thru at 95% to not have to call it vodka

Thanks Ayay,

I will have to try the lip burning test.
So that sweet stuff is not good?
I liked the sweet stuff (heads). I didn't noticd any acetone smell to it.
Is the sweet stuff safe to drink?
and must I filter these heads?
If the first 50mls are the forshots, how many mls, do you think are in the heads?


Regards,
Screech.

Screech, check out this page on the parent site...

This thread was written with a pot still in mind, but might be useful for your understanding.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=11640

screech try this,toss the fores and collect in small containers depending on the size of your boiler. baby food jars-to beer bottles...whatever. run till you get wet dog or cloudy- oily. the next day place some on a spoon with an eye dropper then add 3-4 times that of water and taste. decide whats good and whats not....trick is.....this is the hardest part of distilling, making good cuts. you can make perfectly good hooch that just tastes like shit just depending what/how your making you can bet that about 1/3 of total collected is drinkable.....round abouts. all the stuff leading up to charging you still is 97.6% text book scince stuff.......what happens after it gets distilled is pure art...or craft. no one gets it right every time not even ezera brooks
edit
im a pot stiller and don't know to much about the column stills and cut points, but heads and tails are still there

1/3 of total collected is drinkable.....round abouts.

OMG.
Maybe I'm lucky to not have such a good sense of smell and taste.
I collect a lot more than 1/3 for drinking with carbon filtering, and it tastes good to me.

ok, I will try again with all this new info, and try to home in on the cuts with this new advice.


Thanks guys,
Screech.

with a column, you'll get a lot more than 1/3 drinkable. I haven't measured, but I'd guess at around 70% or so depending on the design. some are good with heads compression, some with tails...

If you have a good clean ferment and good cuts, you won't need your carbon.

yea he will get more than a third, using a column. pot stilling don't scrub out the etho like a reflux does. i was trying to make a point that you have to cut out the nastys on either side of the hearts. i would hate the haingover from a fores only cut
edit....
kiwi was it you who had a graph of a run that shows sorta how a run looks head-hearts-tails i was looking and could not find it again i just wanted to have screech take a look for better understanding.
2nd edit...
dern it was the one you pointed out early on in this thread....and posted atop of the forum...lol i knew i see it some where. that should help anyone understand cuts thanks kiwi

kiwistiller wrote:with a column, you'll get a lot more than 1/3 drinkable. I haven't measured, but I'd guess at around 70% or so depending on the design. some are good with heads compression, some with tails....

Now we're talking
That puts my heart/hearts at ease.

I take about 1/3 hearts from a reflux run. That's because I like my hearts very pure and making the cuts is worth takin 3 or 7 days to do.

Re-running the heads and tails produces some great stuff with another conservative 1/3 hearts cut, but that's me any my tastes. Drinkin too much without a painful hangover...just a little fuzziness next day is the only danger sign.

Too easy to go overboard; a painful headache (ie more liberal cuts) may be a good reminder to know where you're at .

Ayay wrote:I take about 1/3 hearts from a reflux run. That's because I like my hearts very pure and making the cuts is worth takin 3 or 7 days to do.

Re-running the heads and tails produces some great stuff with another conservative 1/3 hearts cut, but that's me any my tastes....

Ayay, that's interesting. May I ask what reflux design, and if you are using sodium bicarb or carbonate or similar in the low wines?

big worm wrote:kiwi was it you who had a graph of a run that shows sorta how a run looks head-hearts-tails i was looking and could not find it again i just wanted to have screech take a look for better understanding.
dern it was the one you pointed out early on in this thread....and posted atop of the forum...lol i knew i see it some where. that should help anyone understand cuts thanks kiwi

No worries mate, it's not like I came up with the info, just compiled it. Graph kudos goes to Ayay

Hi Guys,

Here is a graph on both the boiler temp and the temp just under the weer
Hope it help

Regards Ubar

kiwistiller wrote:

Ayay wrote:I take about 1/3 hearts from a reflux run. That's because I like my hearts very pure and making the cuts is worth takin 3 or 7 days to do.

Re-running the heads and tails produces some great stuff with another conservative 1/3 hearts cut, but that's me any my tastes....

Ayay, that's interesting. May I ask what reflux design, and if you are using sodium bicarb or carbonate or similar in the low wines?
....

Kiwi,
column diameter 2" 50mm,
column height, 39.5" 1m, (copper)
packing, 36" 920mm (stainless scrubbers)
LM, the dam (or weer accordin to SaltUbar ) is inside the condenser which sits on top of the column. 96% In the early heads, 95% most of the rest, 94% in late tails.
I've not tried bi-carb in the wash yet.

Heads - I run very slow during the heads take-off, lots of reflux at low heat and 2 drips/sec. Got this idea from Snuffy's posts re compressing the heads.
Hearts - When I'm sure I'm in the hearts then a bit more heat and 6-8 drips/sec. 78.2 to 78.5*C depending on the wash and what temp the heads ran at.
Tails - I used to only smell for the skanky cardboard smell, but have found that a slight oilyness after rubbing a drip between the fingers gives an earlier indication. The take-off will have to be slowed a bit to maintain the hearts temp at this stage. I also found out that the slight oilyness gives a hotter after-burning on the lips similar to the heads.

The cuts (for me, for now) - I'm looking for any unpleasantness when diluted to around 20%. Tails skank cannot be tolerated even the smallest trace of them. Then it's hotness/burning on the lips after spitting out the sample. I only recently discovered the tails hotness. Out they go!

After treatment - Tried oak chips and they add a dimension but will not make much difference to liberal cuts. Activated carbon granules are more potent and in my opinion should be the first chioce for correcting mistakes. Cheaper and quicker than re-running the whole lot. For me it's the cuts. Spent 7-10days fermentin the wash, a day or 2 running it, then it's cuttintime! Cuts can take 4 or 5 days - let is air out a day or 2, do cuts, some bottles/jars are doubtfull so try again another day. It's worth it.

Flavour - single run reflux in my setup using the above methods produces flavour all the way through the run. The cuts are not about flavour but all about unpleasantness. My hearts at roughly 1/3 of the whole output have flavour and are very pleasant to drink. Flavour comes from the wash, and I'm finding that using backset as in UJSSM and now cornflakes (accordin to Rad's all-bran recipe but with cornflakes and backset) is where the flavour is got. Tried stripping runs followed by a reflux run but the flavour disappears leaving behind good vodka, provided the cuttin is good..