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I have another thread going but this is more specific. I'm distilling a 5.6 abv wash I made from dry malt extract. It was clear going into the still (used gelatin). I loaded up it's 4L capacity and when it started pouring it went FAST. It was practically spurting out, not dripping. I had planned on tossing the first 50ml (turbo air still, I know you may suggest another one but this is what I've got), though now I noticed that the first 250ml are murky and thick and the rest is clear as water. Do I need to toss all 250ml? I have no sense of smell (was born without it) so I can't go by that. I have the first 50ml in one glass measuring cup, have the next 250ml in another measuring cup, the top 50ml of which is completely clear the rest is not. So I have a fresh cup now collecting as I assume I'll end up having to chuck that first bit which was a real bummer because 200ml when starting with 4l is much more waste than I was planning on. I want quality over quantity so if I have to toss all that's yellow and murky I will.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I cut the first 100ml of clear spirit (not including the little bit that is on top of the murky badlooking stuff, in case this was my real heads. I'm wondering if that first bit spurting out (now it's dripping like it should) was just the beer/wash boiling over? I filled it to the 4L line and wonder if I shouldn't fill it that high as maybe a whiskey wash tends to boil over? I could use fermcap which I use to prevent boil over when brewing beer.. Any thoughts? Thanks!

if "murky" then it boiled over/flooded/puked
you either had the boiler to full or did not turn the heat down in time.
depending what is being run most only fill boiler 1/2-3/4 full.

Dnderhead wrote:if "murky" then it boiled over/flooded/puked
you either had the boiler to full or did not turn the heat down in time.
depending what is being run most only fill boiler 1/2-3/4 full.

Cool that's what I figured thanks for confirming it. So what I did was after I noticed it was running clear switched cups, collected the next 100ml of clear spirit to be safe, and now am collecting in a new container. So next time I'll put less in, and calculate for about 50ml foreshots. I probably didn't need to chuck the 100ml I collected this go round but I'll chalk this up to a lesson learned. As for turning the heat down this is a turn on and go still. I don't control the temp at all I just let 'er rip. I'm really glad the spirit is now clear I was worried at first and thinking it would take some time to clear. It's really cool to watch a clear spirit be collected drip by drip, knowing it wasn't clear going in (was clear for a wash, but definitely didn't look like water ). Fun stuff. After getting this distilled to the abv I want it's on to oaking! Woot. Thanks.

you probably just "wasted" heads.
you have it a bit wrong any way..
these are approximate...
first 3% -----for shots
next 17% ---head
next 57%--- harts
next 22%-- tales
as I say these are approximately as it makes a difference on what your wash/mash is.
as you can see out of 4 l of 6% wash your not going to git much to keep.
4l of 6%mash=240ml totel alcohol. 136 is keeper diluted to 50%/100pr=272 ml

Dnderhead wrote:you probably just "wasted" heads.

Good, glad I thought that right when I saw it. I would be pretty annoyed if I had collected that with the rest and decided it was good spirit. Of lessons to learn that one wasn't too bad just won't fill it up so much next time.

The best advice I can give you is to not think you will end up with 100% of the available alcohol as drinkable... The best rule of thumb is to consider 1/3 of what you think you'll get as drinkable and the rest either being thrown away (foreshots) or redistilled (head and tails)... That way you won't be disappointed... In fact you feel proud when you actually end up with more than that, especially with an Air Still...

If you want to reduce the chance of puking in the future you should leave a good amount of head space... Like only putting 4 liters in a 5 liter Air Still... And then you can always add a small amount of cooking oil (somewhere between a teaspoon and tablespoon) to reduce potential foaming if you suspect that there may be unfermented sugars left in the wash...

And, most of all, don't panic if you think things didn't go as well as planned... You can always dump everything back into the still and run it again, leaving out anything questionable if you like... I'll go out on a limb and say that you'll probably outgrow that Air Still pretty quick...

rad14701 wrote:The best advice I can give you is to not think you will end up with 100% of the available alcohol as drinkable... The best rule of thumb is to consider 1/3 of what you think you'll get as drinkable and the rest either being thrown away (foreshots) or redistilled (head and tails)... That way you won't be disappointed... In fact you feel proud when you actually end up with more than that, especially with an Air Still...

If you want to reduce the chance of puking in the future you should leave a good amount of head space... Like only putting 4 liters in a 5 liter Air Still... And then you can always add a small amount of cooking oil (somewhere between a teaspoon and tablespoon) to reduce potential foaming if you suspect that there may be unfermented sugars left in the wash...

And, most of all, don't panic if you think things didn't go as well as planned... You can always dump everything back into the still and run it again, leaving out anything questionable if you like... I'll go out on a limb and say that you'll probably outgrow that Air Still pretty quick...

Thanks for the tips! As for volumes absolutely, I've been playing with the pot still purity calculator for a while now and that's what I was using to guage my output. I just collected my first 475ml of good spirit, and took a tiiiny taste and it's delicious! I'm excited for the final product.

Okay so another place I went wrong is for some reason I thought I tossed the first 50ml and then collected until the abv went down to whenever I wanted to stop, which should have been a little less than 18% abv for everything. Instead AFTER the 50ml I tossed I was supposed to separate some more to add to another run and THEN collect the hearts for distilling again, etc.. Then I've read that on the first run I shouldn't make any cuts, just stop collecting at a certain abv, then add several of these stripped runs to one bigger run, and THEN toss the first little bit and keep everything that comes before the abv drops too low.. Is the reason there is so much varying information because these are just different methods (chucking foreshots during the first run or waiting until after the stripping run) or am I just reading this improperly? I know with brewing there are dozens of ways to get an almost identical end result and am just wondering if this comes down to preference.

Also, since I already ran one charge through and now it's a clear colored spirit, when I run it again should I only fill it 1/2-3/4 again? Bare in mind that on the turbo air still the 4L level is not the top of the boiler, it's just the max that you're supposed to fill.

Thanks!

A lot about pot stillin is figuring out what works for you, and yes there are different ways to get to the same point. On strip runs I just put everything in gal jugs until I have enough for a spirit run. Collect down to whatever abv you want; you can toss fores now or later, up to you. Spirit run, make your cuts. I toss my fores here, cutting from heads to hearts and hearts to tails is subjective. I use abv as a guide only and make cuts based on taste, etc. Some then combine tails with next strip run, some save tails and do an all feints run. Up to you.

Big R

randomdistiller, remember this... The brew shops and online sellers of air stills are mis-marketing turbo yeast for use with those units... An air still is a pot still and turbo yeasts are made for reflux stills... So any documentation that you may have read about single running a turbo wash through an air still is inaccurate... Treat the air still as a pot still... That means doing stripping runs and then a spirit run once you have enough low wines from the strips... No, you don't need to make cuts on strip runs unless you want to... I would suggest that, at the very least, you remove any foreshots when doing stripping runs...

There are several very informative topics in the New Distillers Reading Lounge that you might find helpful... There are no shortcuts to good spirits... Boosting the %ABV of a wash, thinking that it will speed the process, is not the way to get to where you want to be... You should never need clearing agents or activated carbon in order to make potable spirits... While some pot stillers do single runs many also go by the same methods I described above... The only difference is that they start out with more wash in each boiler charge and end up with more potable spirits at the end... Everything else is the same...

Rad - Word. I have no intention of using turbo yeasts. This is a 5.6% ABV whiskey wash made from dry malt extract (I have a ton of it and I don't feel like doing my standard all grain process, I like how fast the steps are in this hobby. There are a number of them but I can fire up the still while doing my normal morning routine around the house whereas with brewing I have to a lot a good chunk of time).

So this morning I filled the boiler up about halfway, so approximately 2L of 5.6 wash, tossed the first 50ml and am collecting the rest until what comes out is approximately the same ABV as what I put in. Tomorrow morning I'll put what I get from today and yesterday together and run that through. I know I won't get much quantitywise but I'm not as concerned with that as I am quality Fun. Thanks folks.

I shared this with some family members last night and they enjoyed it quite a bit. I didn't bring much so we had small tastes but everyone who enjoyed spirits said it was quite tasty. The only constructive feedback was that it tasted and smelled a bit yeasty which I attribute to not filtering. I plan on getting a Brita filter pitcher to run it through next time. I'm quite pleased with the result and think that's not too shabby for my first spirit. I still have about 1 1/2 gallons of the same wash to run through and with the pointers I'v'e been given here that will result in an even better product. Thanks for your help!

I plan on getting a Brita filter pitcher to run it through next time.

Have a look -

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 33&t=14358

blind drunk wrote:

I plan on getting a Brita filter pitcher to run it through next time.

Have a look -

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 33&t=14358

Wow, thanks!