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Hi all

I've been brewing up a nice drop for about 18 months now, using both a reflux and pot still, with some great results.

Something's changed in the last 3 months though for everything I put through the pot still. I've done 4 batches of 50 litre washes (2x 25 l), 2 UJSM and 2 rum, and in all cases, the spirit has gone cloudy once diluted to 40%

I've seen this topic come up a number of times on the forum, and the answer normally seems to come down to either oils or tails in the spirit. I've gone though all the previous advice but still got cloudy spirit. Even the early cuts of the spirit run cloud when diluted, so I'd presumed it wasn't tails causing it.

Are oils or tails the only things that cause cloudyness?

The results from the reflux still are still great, including re-distilling the output from the pot still. Any thoughts?

I'm not experienced but maybe it is something you can't see in what you're adding to it. How pure and clean is the stuff you're diluting it with?

Could be the collecting jars. That's also been known to be a problem.

Do you have a dishwasher? My crapped out and this problem popped up on me with some jars.

In the past 3 months, have you changed anything your doing, big or small?. I would have said it's the water your using like allister said, but your not getting it with your reflux stuff?. So, it's got to be something your doing with your pot runs, tails can still come over if there's puking or running to hard. +1 on the jars to. You need to eliminate things you think you might have changed, sugars, mollasses, yeasts, heat sorce, still ect. Good luck.

I have a pot still with a recirculating submersible pump. During runs I periodically let the water tube pump into sink and refill cooling bucket with cold water. The other day when I was draining the bucket I forgot I was doing this and stepped away for a minute and ran the pump dry. The still overheated and started dripping cloudy spirit, as well as puking. So maybe check your heat. Or maybe its time to take a pressure washer to your boiler.

Hardliquor
What has been your cleaning routine? (bard oil in still)
Have you changed your heat, especially up? (scorching mash)
Are you getting the same proof yield and qty on each run? (mash stuck)
What kind of water are you using to ferment with? (iron or other minerals in water)

Each of these can affect the whiskey and make it cloudy.

Thanks for the replies

I'm pretty sure it's not a cleanliness issue (I clean every thing really well) or with what I'm diluting it with (I use bottled water, and have tried multiple types), but two of your replies have sparked an some interesting thoughts.

a) I have recently changed the water filter I use for the fermentation water. I'd never thought that the fermentation water could be an issue as I do a stripping run & a spirit run, but worth looking into, b) there's also a possibility that somewhere in the process I'm getting overheating causing tails to come off earlier????

Will need to do some experimenting. Thanks

Bottled water can be extremely high in dissolved minerals which will precipitate out of solution when the water and alcohol are mixed together. Filtering through a coffee filter may or may not help depending on the size of the precipitate ( if of course that is the issue)

Distilled or RO water should be used for dilution to drinking proof.

As well, when mixing/ diluting, put the water in the container first, then add the alcohol to the water slowly to avoid the resulting exothermic reaction from becoming too harsh. When you add the alcohol, you will be able to see the "wrinkles" forming in the mix. This is the visual cue that the exothermic reaction is taking place.