Home Distiller

Hello Folks I am a new member.
I have been distilling for some time, and use a copper reflux still which on average gives me a return of 85%AV.
I distill from a white sugar /yeast /nutrient wash.
From a 23L wash I discard the first 200ml and catch the remainder until the run off reduces to 65%AV or the temperature at the head of the reflux chamber reaches 90 degrees.
The collected spirit is around 75%AV,crystal clear with a pleasant ethanol nose, HOWEVER from time to time when I break down the spirit to 40%AV with filtered water the resultant mix turns slightly cloudy after a couple of days at room temperature.
It still tastes and smells OK but a little off putting if I use it for a Vodka base.
Can anyone out there tell me what is causing the turbidity or what I am doing wrong.

I eagerly await the solution from your collective expertise.

Regards I.

What kind of water did you use? Maybe it's too" hard". I only use bottled water.

Do you run the water through a carbon filter??? Are you on a municipal drinking water system or a well.

Sounds like your water is very hard, I have the same problem in my neck of the woods. Tried carbon filtering and it help a bit, but still a little cloudy. Be sure not to overfill your boiler when stillin' also. If your mixing don't sweat it, drink it. If your going for the appearance I would use only distilled spring water.

G'day,

The instructions I got with my still showed, "Always use standard tap water to dilute...filtered and or distilled water can create cloudiness in spirits."

I followed the instructions for the first batch and ended up with a clear result for my gin and vodka.

For the second batch I thought I would try using filtered water. The filter cartridges were replaced about 2 weeks earlier and working properly. The end result using filtered water was a bit cloudy. I also filtered the diluted spirit.

I thought that the filtered water would be better as it didn't have the chlorine and impurities in it.

After all, water is water.

Oh well, when in doubt follow the instructions.

All other batches I used ordinary tap water and without filtering the distilled spirit with no problems. Although I do use water that I have stored in 19L water bottles with a cloth over the top to allow the chlorine to escape. Smells and tastes like filtered water.

Hope this info may shed some light on the subject.

Cheers.

there is two things that come to mined,,, minerals in water or tales.(oils)

i had the same problem and after i used distilled water i never had the problem again. regular filtered water is not good enough. you can let it set for about a month and it will clear and the cloud will settle on the bottom. that's what i did.
i thought bottled spring water was good enough but if the alcohol is not pure enough it will cloud up. like dnderhead said, tails. tails plus spring or tap water can cloud the final booze. i have calcium in my tap water and i learned to buy jugs of distilled water from Walmart or such. Even my best hearts will cloud with my tap water. but it will settle out.

fester

I don't know about the "under counter" filters ,, but the neighbor bought a larg system cost several grand. there is a place that does water testing for free so we sent in 3 samples before after the filter and finished, found that this one did not remove all , it removed the stuff that whould have settled out , but the rest , it "neutralized" with "salts",