Did a 7 hr soak in 50/50 water/vinegar, then did a vinegar/water run. Then I made a cheap 5 gal sugar wash and used a turbo yeast, cheaper then buying wine here in Canada! I ran the sugar wash and is smelled like wine when I put it in the still. The problem is now my kettle, column, and condenser now stink!
Here's what I did:
I decided to run the full batch as if I was doing a stripping run for practice. And to give my chance to smell and touch the distillate coming out, no time like the present to learn I say! First drops were slow and had a sweet smell like I have read described here. Kind of neat to finally see!
I keep the still going to see what proof I started with on a striping run, as it is a pot still. So I used my parrot, because i wanted to see what proof was coming out. I decided to run it to the end for timing to plan for my first real run. Ran all the way to 10% in 3hrs. I ran fast and hard for the most part to test my condenser as well.
Once I shut it down I ended up with about 1.5 gal of 100 proof, don't worry I'm not saving it to drink! It's safely labeled for any future cleaning runs.
I did some simple tidying up as I waited for the Kettle and Still to cool a little bit, maybe 30 min? Then I took the column off and drained the still. The backset smell sweet and gross at the same time! I rinsed the column with hot water and the condenser to flush out any thing. Then I rinsed the still, it still smelled so I did a couple of drops of dish soap in water and washed it and rinsed it again. Then I put everything back together, as I was planning on running my first real striping run today, but life stopped that. I went to put the unit away until next weekend and that's when I noticed the smell. It still smells like backset and tails.
Is this normal? I washed everything again, but 3 hrs later it still smells. I'm confused, I'm hoping that this is normal and it will not make my next run smell. I am assuming that my fores will clean out the smell, or am i dreaming?
Any information would be greatly appreciated.