Batch Run Results

[Zer0]

Hi,

I thought that I would post the results of my runs here for all to see. Feel free to post comments or questions. I'm very new to this and thought that there could be a lot of people out there in the same situation.

I am running an Essencia 25L, recirculating the water with a 220L storage tank and Essencia water pump which works well. Mash is currently made with 8kg sugar, water made up to 25L and 1 sachet Turbo yeast. Tried this two times so far and works well. Ferment time is one week.

Ambient temperature: 28c
Temperature in bung prior to start: 28c
Switch on water flow: 45c, 55 minutes from start
Heads begin: 71c, 59 minutes from start
Hearts begin: 78c, 1h07 minutes from start
Temperature stabalises: 79c, 1h10 minutes from start
Temperature rises: 82c, 2h40 minutes from start
Tails begin: 85c, 2h50 minutes from start
Switch off and stop collecting: 85c, 3h00 minutes from start

Graph for this batch:


Result: 4.7L at 85% (adjusted for ambient temperature) crystal clear with vanilla aroma, quite nice, watered down to 45% which then turned cloudy. Then run though Fuselex with active carbon, now clear again and treated with flavourings of varying types according to my needs - one of which are bourbon flakes, which will be interesting to taste in a couple of weeks time.

Peace...

[HookLine]

Congrats. Nice graph.

Interesting that the main run (from about time 1:10 to 2:30) is not completely linear.

[Zer0]

Congrats. Nice graph.

Interesting that the main run (from about time 1:10 to 2:30) is not completely linear.

Yeah, not sure why the temperature fluctuated like that. The rate of production was constant so it may have something to do with the time of day that I was running the batch; 1:30PM start at 28c ambient, and then around 32c ambient by the time I'd finished. I tickled the water flow rate a couple of times when reaching the tails, just to make sure but otherwise it was all left to its own devices.

I plan on taking these reading each time I make a run and then posting the results to share with everyone.

Peace...

[Husker]

If you do, then please continue to post them to this thead, vs creating new threads each time.

H.

[Zer0]

If you do, then please continue to post them to this thead, vs creating new threads each time.

H.

Roger that.

One question; I would be interested in knowing if my conclusion of when I'm getting heads, hearts and tails is accurate? - and if I should still continue producing tails past 85c so that next time I run a batch, that I should introduce these into the the mash and re-distill them?

Peace...

[Froggy]

4.7L of 85% seems to be a lot to me. This could be a reason you got the cloudy effect.

[Froggy]

Or is that 4.7L including the heads and tails?

Collect your tails up to about 90c and keep the heads and tails from a few runs until you have enough to run them on their own.

[Zer0]

Or is that 4.7L including the heads and tails?

Collect your tails up to about 90c and keep the heads and tails from a few runs until you have enough to run them on their own.

4.7L including hearts and tails. I mixed it all together and the ABV was 85%, which was crystal clear. As long as I remove the heads (I've been removing the first 175mls), at least that's what I think is the main message here (and use it for window cleaner, etc.)?

I've been stopping collection at 85-85c, so how much more product constitute the tails? 500mls?

It only went cloudy when I added the water, but it's all clear now that I did the carbon filtration.

Peace...

[Froggy]

For neutral spirit you don't want to be keeping the tails. And the reason the spirit went cloudy when you diluted it is because of those tails.
Carbon filtering just did a half arsed job of removing the off tastes and smells.

Read the following thread. Good info on how to make cuts there.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6530

[Flash Clampet]

that certainly is the most scientific way of tracking it all that i have seen so far

i thought i was looking at stock report there for a minute

[Zer0]

For neutral spirit you don't want to be keeping the tails. And the reason the spirit went cloudy when you diluted it is because of those tails.
Carbon filtering just did a half arsed job of removing the off tastes and smells.

Read the following thread. Good info on how to make cuts there.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6530

Thanks for the reply. This is my second batch and much like the first (4.6L@85% vs 4.7L@85%) that I ran about a week ago; although I didn't get the cloudiness in the first batch.

I believe that the tails start at 85c, and I stopped collecting at that temperature am fairly certain that there would only be very little tails in both runs, if at all. On my next run I will continue to collect from 85c into a different vessel and perform some testing to determine if there is any difference (smell, taste, ABV, colour, etc).

BTW, the bourbon chips are already imparting their colour and smell into the spirit already - smells great!

[Zer0]

Hey all,

I made a double run a couple of weeks ago. Result was good, although I didn't get the vanilla aroma that was in the last batch. However, 4.6 litres at 85% made around 20 litres of ~40%; so it's all in a glass storage bottle with bourbon chips with the plan of Christmas presents for a few people. The test bottle of bourbon chips I made from the previous run were absolutely spot-on, so I'm hoping to replicate that and have some nice presents to give out.

I've captured a lot more information on these last two runs and included the graphs in this post. I'll be posting commentary soon. I will also make available the spreadsheet I developed to enable all this analysis - it shows how much product is produced per hour, and the associated ABV%.

Vertical axis is degrees centigrade; horizontal is time in hours:minutes, and it's interesting to note how much sooner batch 4 came up to speed than batch 3 - could be the ambient temperature when I made the runs. Either way, both of these batches look different to the one I posted last time - probably due to my newbie status and just getting used to the temperature fluctuations in the column and letting them ride and settle down themselves, rather than twiddle with the water flow every time the teperature goes up or down a degree.

Batch 3


Batch 4


Peace...