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Hi Folks
I'm New to all this, 2nd time done a run (first time not bad).
Am using Essencia Still, and did a run but forgot to discard first 60-80mls (ooops), then I retrieved 4 litres from still (temp never went above 84C so I kept collecting)
1st, how much of head should I discard ?
2nd, should I just stop at 3.5l as suggested in instructions ?

I'm assuming this is why it tatsed like crap ?
I'm using dextrose for wash & fermenting for 7 days then using whisky essence, till I get the hang of my new hobby.
First run of whisky with essence was quite smooth..
Thanks
Tim

The bad tasting stuff is at the start (heads) and end (tails) of the run. The good stuff is in the middle (hearts). So, yes, the bad taste is probably because you didn't remove the heads and/or tails properly.

How much heads and tails you should discard depends on several factors. The best way is to learn to use taste and smell to tell when the heads stop and the hearts begin, and when the hearts stop and the tails begin. Collect half a teaspoon of product from the still output every few minutes and dilute it with an equal amount of water. Carefully taste and smell it. Collect the output in small jars and label them 1, 2, 3, 4,... etc.

Just put all the product from that run back into the still, top it up with water, and run it again, this time pay close attention to the taste and smell.

What I have is at 40% approx 7-8 litres. If I top up with water to 25L, would this be OK ?

Many thanks Hookline
Tim.

You can try carbon filtering, or, given that you're product is at 40% currently, diluting and re-distilling might be a better approach.

But simply adding water to lower the percentage is only going to dilute that bad taste... ie. its still going to be there, just weakened, along with the alcohol content.

I had a.. NASTY tasting product from my second turbo wash, I took it all, diluted it back down to 25 litres, and re-ran it. didn't end up with as much product, but it was definitely nice and clean.

I think the dilution was purely for redistillation, incidentally, that's the route I would take. All you need to ensure is that the elements are still covered at the end of the run.

You don't need to fill it right up. You want enough to make sure that your heating element is still covered with liquid at the end of the run.

The easiest way to make sure you have enough is to add water to the boiler first until the element is a couple of inches under water. Then add the distillate.

Snap, Coops.

Let two Aussies on a forum and they start playing the only card game they know pretty fast

only thangs gonna take backin taste away is chargein it back up.

1 pint of backin can mess up 7 gal of likker for thems that taste

so im tole

Thats why I always throw out the first pint.Just run it again,and throw out the forshots,and collect in small containers.If you drink it like it is,its going to give you a headache,and all the carbon in the world wont make it much better.

belialNZ wrote:Let two Aussies on a forum and they start playing the only card game they know pretty fast

If you let one kiwi on a forum he ends up feeling sheepish...