1st wash, 1st run , vrs second.

Enlikil · Post by **Enlikil** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 10:05 am

Some history.
My first wash was
5 grams yeast.
12.5 lbs sugar
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 sqeezed lemon.
fermented for 2 weeks.
I got Ummm. LOL 1% alcohol.
I think this becuase i had 40 liters and got roughly 750 mls of ethonal/tails and heads all together. heheh. UI took most of it off at 174-178 degree's by my still's thermostat
( would love to hear other stories on 1st washes and 1st runs )

Anyhow...... My new Trial
** New wash **
10 grams yeast.
12 lbs sugar
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 sqeezed lemon.
fermented for 3 weeks.
I am hoping this one will be 12%.
So by my guess at 12% it should take me
1 hour to heat up, 2 hours to equlize.
2.5 hours to pull off the methonal at 100 ml's an hour (250 mls)
Then Kick it up to 450ML's an hour for the heads/hearts.
Heads at 450 ml's for 1 hour
hearts at 450 mls an hour for 4.8 Liters of ethenol (10.5 hours)
Skip the tails soon as i see themi or just jack it up and save them
So i'm lookinng at roughly 16 hours. does that sound about right for a 10 gallon run?

drunk2much · Post by **drunk2much** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:10 pm

are you runing a reflux still? I hope you have some nodos or speed if you cal are right and thats what you acutally spend watching your still.

Enlikil · Post by **Enlikil** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:31 pm

its a fractionating compound reflux still.. or a fractionatiing still

TRANSPLANTED HILLBILLY · Wed Jul 26, 2006 3:32 pm

Why are you wanting to run so slow. You should equalize in around 45min, or until temp stablizes. After equalization you could pull the foreshots off at around 35mL/ min. and then speed up slightly.

You may want to (because of lack of experience) open your take off all the way just to see what kind of flow your rig will produce. That way you will know in the future what % of reflux you are inducing. If unhappy with your product,at the end, or after the full flow trial, shut it down and pour it all, minus the foreshots, back in and have another go at it. Itll heat back up PDQ. Wont hurt your product a bit.

I used a fractionating rig first few times and changed to a pot still. better for learnin IMHO. I'll try the frac head again but for now I really like the pot head. No pun intended.

Why do you think you will get 11% more abv when all youve changed is more yeast, 1/2 lb less sugar,and more water, and another week? When its done its done. No sooner. Did you have good amount of O2 in the first batch? In other words, was your water fresh or did you boil it to dissolve the sugar?

You only need to take 150mL of foreshot /5 gal of wash.

Your lookin at a full day but nowhere near 16 hours.

Hope this helps. Keep at it. It gets easier.

Enlikil · Post by **Enlikil** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 7:56 pm

Well in my first batch, I had 5 grams of yeast and i forgot to start the yeast (put it in water at 105 degree's like the package said) and one of them the lid didn't go on well. I let it go 2 weeks ( in buckets). these other 2 i got the yeast started (used twice as much) they have slowed way down ( i'm guessing at 11%). although i don't think i gave them enough time, I figued 2 weeks would be sufficiant.. the new washes are going on 3 weeks and they fermented better.. but still nothing like the new turbos i have going.

I want a 10% drip rate off my max flow right? (is that the bestway to judge the speed of the still? I know with my 1% wash i could only get 90% ABV at 100 ml's an hour. then 86% at 350, and 80% at 450 or so..
I thought i didn't have enough packing but Now i'm thinking that the low ABV of my wash was holding me back...

I guess i won't run the new washes through until they stop fermenting all together. i have some turbo washes going and OH MY GOD... they bubble in the fermenters like boiling water, NONE of my sugars have done that.

I hope thats a good good sign. perhaps they will be done and i will do them instead..

I run 10 gallons of wash through, I should expect to pull 250 ml's in foreshots, and 500 in heads roughly.. i think.

duds2u · Post by **duds2u** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:53 pm

12 lb sugar and 10 gallons of water will give you a potential 6.4% wash

Enlikil · Post by **Enlikil** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:46 am

My bad, i used
12 lbs sugar
5 gallons of water.

My combined lot is 24 lbs sugar, and 10 gallons of water.

TRANSPLANTED HILLBILLY · Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:36 pm

Enlikil wrote: I guess i won't run the new washes through until they stop fermenting all together. i have some turbo washes going and OH MY GOD... they bubble in the fermenters like boiling water, NONE of my sugars have done that.

There's no sugar in your turbos?

how do they make alcohol? I sure you just miscomposed, and Im just razzin ya.

As far as the take off rate you can do what you want. Its your booze. For vodka the higher the abv the cleaner. Is there a yawn icon on here?

All I'm trying to say is have fun with it. Play around SAFELY and you'll learn more faster than all the calculations in the world can teach you.

Dont get me wrong calculations are good, just try not to bog yourself down with them.

Enlikil · Post by **Enlikil** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 3:00 pm

heheh yea. thats funny.
YOu were correct i typed that out all wrong.

markx · Post by **markx** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 12:36 am

Hehe. My first run:

20l of homemade apple wine
Ran it through a fractionating column in 2 batches
The column was a meter of 1" copper tube packed with copper pot scourers.
Produced 'bout 1.5l of the good stuff at 95% with a faint aroma of apples (guess I didn't cut the heads correctly). My friends still claim that this stuff was the best calvados they ever tasted