Question RE: Turbo Air still and cuts

[unifx26]

Sorry for another question haha, so I have the Turbo air still and 2x 25lt sugar washes (birdwatchers)

and I've read on the turbo air still instructions put 3lt of wash in, turn on for 2-2.5 hrs and collect 750-800ml and water down to 40% and run through the carbon filter.
but no where does it state to cut out heads/tails

but then it states if you do the first run and get the 750-800mls and do this 2-3 times then put that washx3 back in the still and do another run then it says to do a heads cut

does this sound correct? for 3lt of wash you get rougly 750mls of ethanol(40%)

I Guess what im really asking is if i only do 1 run will this taste like crap or should i do the runx3 and put that back in and do the cuts ( i want to try remove the heads, i've heard you can reduce a hang over, - dont know if this is true or not)

[MuleKicker]

You deffinately need to do the cuts. Run/ re-run. I have never ran an air still, but I would think the more times you run it through, the better.
Air still Here is some more info on air stills. Hope this helps.

[Usge]

The reason they suggest doing it that way...is because they use the filtering to try and clean up what you should be cutting out to start with. The filtering also removes flavors. The amount of alc you get back from a still is determined by how much alc you start with in the pot. Think of it like cooking down a sauce....you start with a lot of water...and after that evaporates..it leaves less, thicker sauce. The still doesn't "make" alc. It just takes what alc is there and concentrates it to different levels of purity by separating it from the water solution as vapor...and then condensing it back to a liquid in a more concetrated form. So, you'll always get back less than you start with.

My avg yield on one of those was about 300-400ml after cuts. (about a glass full). If you keep "everything" that comes out..you might squeeze a bottle out of it...but yes..it will be nasty ..keeping everything. You could keep running it and filtering it till it had little taste..then mix it with something. But, ...well...you get the idea, it's not an optimal situation.

[unifx26]

thanks for the reply, so you think i should run it around 3 times, put the 750mlx3 i have back in, run it again and get something like 750mls of 80% (and do the heads/tail cuts) then cut it down to 40% with water and run it through the Z carbon filter?

(yes im guessing 80% but it should be around that)

[Husker]

Doing it that way is one way to do it. It will not be 80%, but your numbers are not 'too' far off. You do not want to put anything higher than 40% in the boiler. Yes, the easy still is one of the safer stills out there. It is sort of a self contained, semi insulated (to the outside) hotplate. There is 'little' chance of fire (but not a ZERO chance). Thus, even though it is on the safer end of a still, it still should not be loaded with any ABV over 40%.

But in the end, you will get about a liter of semi center cut, by combining the low wines from 3 distills, and re-running it.

I can not speak on the zfilter. It sounds like some plastic carbon filter, and if that is what it is, you are better off NOT using that. It is pretty easy to pull some of the off smells out of a pot still run (that is all you will end up with, since the easy still is just a pot still). You can do that by simply putting a couple hand fulls of washed carbon granules in the bottom of a large enough bottle to hold what you have, shake it a couple times a day, then let it sit a while, and filter it off (possibly letting it settle out fully a second time).

I am not a big carbon fan at all. Too much work, too messy, and does not 'change' the character of the drink much. You are MUCH better off, trying to do proper heads/tails cutting. However, with a 4L still, it is pretty darn hard. They are simply too small to get very good cuts. Once you start to produce the 'good stuff', the drink you can get pretty well loaded up on on Friday, and wake up bright and cheery on Saturday (i.e. close to hang over free), then that is the type of drink you will strive for. Ppl on this site have a bad habit of getting really spoilt on good drink and many (like myself), have a really hard time, being forced to go to the bar, and drink commercial swill (I had to do that tonight, yuk).

H.

[unifx26]

Thanks for the quick reply, every one is so helpful here haha, my first run tonight, Smells like apples (that burns your eyes when you smell them) haha all it was sugar water tomato paste

[rad14701]

Just remember, as has been stated many times in other topics, an air still is a simple pot still... Therefore on a single or even doing stripping runs and then a spirits run of low wines you will not have true neutral spirits... The best way to get closer to neutral spirits would be to dilute the results of your spirit run with water and rerun because water is the best and cheapest filter available... If it sounds like a lot of work, well, it is... But that's what it takes to get neutral spirits out of a pot still...

[unifx26]

Thanks, Im doing single runs to get through the 25lt of wash and just put it into bottles, (only had time to do 3 runs last night)
then I will dilute what i have 50/50 with water and re run.

If i do this should i like i said dilute to 50/50 or to another ammount? and once i do this i should collect like 50-100ml of the heads sorry i know i should have read more but the still instructions state no heads/tails required so im not to sure on the ammount of heads i will need to collect if i start with 3lt of wash in the still.

(it has a 4lt capacity but it states only use 3lt)