Smell of 95% Neutral Spirits

[licquyd]

I just done my first sugar wash and distilled it.... it smells quite like isoprohol alcohol.....I am wonder what it should smell like when it in such a pure form.

[flip]

mine smells very little of any stuff,especially when the sugar wine was cleared,and the still was very well cleaned before.
try charcoal filtering it.

[licquyd]

actually doesn't taste bad, and i just drank too drink, and i got good buzz....i'm just scared of the effects....i though away the first 100ml...

[mrhooch]

Yes pure ethanol does have a distinct smell. If you got rid of your foreshots, it should be good to drink, the hangover happens when you add too much tails. Because most of the equipment around here does a total recovery, some of the other smells from your wash will come over in the distillate. As well if you are using copper in your vapour path, you will get some ester formation. Esters are alcohols combined with an acid and your nose can detect them at very small concentrations parts per million. A fresh batch does smell and taste a bit different than one that has been aired for a day or two. Over time the esters will break down back into the alcohol and acid it was before.

Hooch.

[Bagasso]

Yes pure ethanol does have a distinct smell. If you got rid of your foreshots, it should be good to drink, the hangover happens when you add too much tails. Because most of the equipment around here does a total recovery, some of the other smells from your wash will come over in the distillate. As well if you are using copper in your vapour path, you will get some ester formation. Esters are alcohols combined with an acid and your nose can detect them at very small concentrations parts per million. A fresh batch does smell and taste a bit different than one that has been aired for a day or two. Over time the esters will break down back into the alcohol and acid it was before.

Hooch.

It has been my experience that what causes hangovers is in the heads. Even did a test. Drank 500ml@40% of heads on one day. Felt like hell the next. After a couple of days I drank 500ml@40% of tails and felt a little off but nothing like the heads hangover.

Copper in the vapor path does not create ester formation. What copper is supposed to do is eliminate sulfites but it's my understanding that it has to be elemental copper meaning copper that has not reacted with anything. Copper in a stills column has reacted with oxygen to form a patina so it is not chemically available to combine and remove sulfites but a copper pot should.

Esters in distillate do not break down in any significant amount because the organic elements that cause these breakdowns are left in the backwash (in the pot). The only way to break esters down would be to add an alkili (baking soda, sodium hydroxide) to your distillate. You would then have to run again.

What does happen with airing out is that any volitiles that are in your distillate evaporate. This would include acetone methanol and mainly ethyl acetaldehyde.

Wikipedia says this about acetaldehyde:

Acetaldehyde
Acetaldehyde occurs naturally in coffee, bread, and ripe fruit, and is produced by plants as part of their normal metabolism. It is also produced by oxidation of ethanol and is popularly believed to be the cause of hangovers.

[mrhooch]

Bagasso: You are a braver man than I.... I tried reusing the heads, which was a disaster, and now I just use them for stove fuel, cause I don't like the taste of the heads, and I've given up on redistilling them in the next batch.

Tails, I do toss in the next batch.

Hooch.

[Bagasso]

mrhooch thank you for being considerate and using the word "braver" instead of the better fitting "dumber". I just had to know.

Wanted to point out that I run a pot still so heads where not as compressed as on a column and 500ml of heads from a column probably would have killed me or at least would have made me want to end it all the morning after.

I've read that many do toss heads and/or tails cause "it's just much easier/cheaper to make up another wash than mess with them".

If it gets your boat to float, sail on.

[mrhooch]

I believe that what you do with your body is your own business, as long as you don't involve anybody else. After running a few batches, I came to realize that there is no point in being greedy and trying to recover every last drop. Your body hates you the next day.

I know my limit with the high proof stuff, I had a few spectacular crashes before I learned what my limits where.

But I enjoy not worrying about getting a hangover unlike the storebought stuff.

Hooch.