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They say discard the first 50ml for a 20L wash. My urn is only 15L capacity.

Hence I will run a 10L wash. For 10L do I discard the first 25ml, or does it not work like this?

Paul

The ammount to discard is based on several factors.

Among them are: what is bein' fermented? (washes/mashes with a high pectin level should have more foreshots discarded) And what type of still are ya usin'?

Also even a very clean wash run through a high efficiency still should have more than 50 ml per 5 gallons taken out as foreshots.

Here are a few examples: A 5 gallon clean sugar wash run through a reflux column should have 100 ml removed as foreshots to give the best flavor to the distillate. With the same still and an apple wash maybe 150 or even 200 ml of foreshots. With a pot still don't make cuts till yer second run, but I usually take out around 250 ml as foreshots. I'm real familiar with runnin' a pot still so I do it all more by smell and experience than measurin', but I probably remove 250 ml as foreshots per 5 gallon batch.


It all boils down to stingyness in yer cuts will make for a crappyer distillate. If that's what yer after just go to a bottle shop and buy a bottle. If, on the other hand, yer after a fine hand-crafted bottle of hooch, make wide cuts which will mean less, but far superior booze.






I wish ya luck.

Holy is right on the mark and I think thats the hardest point to get across to people who come to this forum. The reason the founders of the yahoo groups and the mother site of this forum started this whole thing was to get the proper information out on the internet showing folks they can make much better product than the most expensive bottle you can purchase in the stores.

Companies trying to turn a proffit are going to make much wider cuts in order to have more product to sell. Thats why all the big name companies that are mass producing stuff taste and smell like turpentine to me. They have to keep stockholders happy, pay for advertisement, labor wages, shipping, packaging, etc.

By not being as greedy with your cuts you will get a FAR better drink.

In regards to stopping collection before the tails start coming through. Is stopping it prior to the temp just hitting 82c ok?

You won't get a bad product by doing that. What type of still are you talking about?

Many folks have better luck makin' cuts based on abv% than a temp readin'.

Do as you please, but I suggest ya get yerself a hydrometer set as a "spirit hydrometer" so it's set to read high proof/percentage. Also get a glass graduated cylinder to use as a test jar.

If yer runnin' a pot still do a strippin' run first: run yer still collectin' everythin' 'till the abv% hits 20% or below.

Gather together similar stripped runs till ya have enough to charge yer still and then do a second, slow run, where ya make yer cuts.

Draw off 150 ml/5 gallon original wash/mash as "foreshots".

If yer makin' a grain whiskey draw off and seperate as "heads" the early sweet smellin' distillate. If makin' rum or fruit brandys collect heads or not based on what ya want the final product to be like.

Collect the body as yer "product" untill gettin' to the 100-90 proof range (some will say as low as 80 proof for whiskeys).

From 100-90 proof and below collect quickly till little alcohol is left as "tails".




Simple, eh?

Questions?

Nixon Stone Head.
41 inch column (2 inch), packed with SS scrubbers.
Boiler - 15L urn, low med high. High=2400w

My spirits have what seems to be a faint smell of caramel. Im assuming I took to much methanol and tails.

I only discard 50ml from the 25L wash as foreshots, Im going to increase this to 100ml.

Previously, for the tails, as the temp rose, Ive been backing of the collection to lower the head temp. Basically once I cant maintain the temp under 82c with I stop collection all together. Is this a good practice, or is it not? Am I better just keeping collection steady and once the temp goes over 82c just stop.

Caramel sounds like burned scorched residual sugar to me. Are you sure the wash fermented out completely? Is there a thermostat on your urn that alows you to have the high, medium, and low that you mention in the post?

If the head temperature begins to rise and you are able to lower it by lowering the power or reducing the take off rate, then you are getting into the tails and the column is no longer equalized.

You need to be aware of how much alcohol is available in the wash before you start the run. This will allow you to be aware of when you are aproaching the middle to end of the hearts and let you begin backing off on the take off rate.

Yep, wash fermented completly. I took hydrometer readings 24 hours apart and both were the same.

The urn has a control dial to control the heat level.

Your last point sounds like whats happening to me.
As I see my head temp start to rise, I back off my collection and the temp drops soon after. I then open it a fraction more to start collection, head temp will rise again slowly.

Im thinking Im collection tails.

Im using a 25L wash so Im expecting to pull off about 3L. I do 2 batches of about 12 - 12.5 L so would expect to collection about 1.5L per batch.

Would it be better to reduce the collection once Ive have collection 1.3L , and once the head starts to rise in temp to cease collecting.