My next batch: vote on how i do it.

[Alchemist75]

So my last ferment used a little twist on my old grape nuts recipe. I used my usual proportions of grape nuts but then I added an equal quantity of flaked maize. I did my usual extraction technique and at this point she's more than halfway finished. My plan with this stuff is to age it at 70% (because I want to get a good extraction of the vanilla. See below) with oak staves for about 3 months and then swap out the oak with a vanilla bean and let it stand about a year. I reckon we'll get a real tasty faux that my father in law will be happy to receive from me as a gift. I pass him bottles of my better product upon occasion and he loves it.
Now, I need a vote on how I should best distill this one, I wanna make it real good.

So, option one: I double distill it, once through the pot and a second time through the column. My column pulls about 93% on a spirit run due to it's shorter hight. It definitely doesn't make neutrals but it does make a very sweet, light flavored product that's as smooth as a babies butt. Fit to drink neat and unaged.

Option two: double run it in pot still mode. My pot still makes heavier flavors of course, It does employ a forced reflux, scrubby packed purifier but it's only about 3" of packing and exists solely to sharpen up cuts just a little and up the proof of my low wines slightly. Basically it's a pot still with a little attitude. Makes good product, just heavier. Also fit to drink neat though I've historically flavored it with botanicals. 

Which option do y'all think I should go with? Number of votes will dictate how I go about this. I'm on the fence. Come vote and maybe give an opinion as to why!

[fizzix]

From my limited experience, I'd shoot for 2x pot still to spirit the most flavor retention.
I base this upon my own cereal (but no corn) 2x pot run of Odin's Cornflake Whiskey, aged a year in a #3 charred barrel, and blowing the socks off whoever tastes it.
"Cornflakes?! How the hell did you make this from cornflakes?!"

[NZChris]

If you want flavor and age, 2x pot still, stripping to your favoured low wines abv, (below 30%, hopefully), then, cut wide or narrow depending on how soon you want to drink it.

[Alchemist75]

Yeah, if I double it on a pot it'll get cut back a bit after the stripping run, normally it comes off at about 60% but if I'm not using the column there's no call for anything above 40%.

[Alchemist75]

2 votes for the pot, there's still time yet, I probably have at least 4 days until the ferment is done.....

[NZChris]

Yeah, if I double it on a pot it'll get cut back a bit after the stripping run, normally it comes off at about 60% but if I'm not using the column there's no call for anything above 40%.

I have no idea what you meant when you quoted those percentages, they have little to do with pot stilling as I know it.

[Alchemist75]

Oh, my pot produces 60% +/- low wines when stripping because of that purifier. I'd be cutting it back though if I double run it in pot mode however. When I first made the pot configuration it wasn't supposed to get any reflux but I had a little section from my first column in the scrap pile that had a pair of through condensers so I figured what the hey. Why not. It can only make the cuts a little sharper on a pot spirit run. It's an odd design but it's not going to significantly strip flavor out.

[corene1]

I would do both. Strip out 75% of the wash in the pot still down to 20% then add the low wines to the last 25% of the wash and run through the column. That should give you good flavor and the bigger hearts cut typical of a column. The lower ABV of the boiler charge in the column should let you bring the spirit off consistently at a little bit lower ABV so you will have to temper it less to get to barrel strength so again , more flavor. Just thinking out loud.

[Alchemist75]

Here's a photo of the pot set up Chris.

download/file.php?id=57009&mode=view

Not a great pic but you can see the little dephlegmator on it. The section immediately below it is packed with scrubby.

[Alchemist75]

I would do both. Strip out 75% of the wash in the pot still down to 20% then add the low wines to the last 25% of the wash and run through the column. That should give you good flavor and the bigger hearts cut typical of a column. The lower ABV of the boiler charge in the column should let you bring the spirit off consistently at a little bit lower ABV so you will have to temper it less to get to barrel strength so again , more flavor. Just thinking out loud.

That's a novel approach, I could dial back the reflux ratio so as to encourage a little smearing as well.

[NZChris]

I hunt flavor and think diluting with water is counter-productive to that, so to strip to my desired 27% with your setup, I'd take the scrubbie out of the riser and put it in the boiler, leave the water off the deflag, take a foreshot then run it as fast as the condenser will knock it down. By providing myself with 27% low wines, the spirit run in the same setup I just described would give me a heart cut that didn't need dilution before aging.

I don't recall ever diluting low wines with water. If I ever do intend to dilute low wines, I hold back some some of the wash to dilute with.

[Alchemist75]

So a pure pot still is what you're getting at here? God you should see some of the design sketches in my notes, there's nothing pure about them, in any regard....anyway, still designs are only as good as the person operating them and I'm sure my modified pot will do fine with proper cuts and aging. It's not terribly different than a basic pot. That little dephlegmator only affects things so much which was kinda the idea. Maybe a refining lentil or Scottish pot still with a cooled neck or an inclined lyne arm would be comparable. My comment about diluting was a nod of respect to HD safety values. my pot makes 60% on a stripping run and it's generally accepted that running anything higher than 40% is taking a risk. If I choose to take that risk it's my choice, I'm not endorsing that anyone else should do it, ever. I am going to follow your advice regarding stripping in at least one regard Chris, no tail cut and no recycling (still making a fores cut) I'll run her down into the 20's and re run that. It should be pretty flavor heavy, more heavy than what the column makes by far.

[NZChris]

For capturing flavor, smearing the stripping run is a good thing so I don't see an advantage to interfering and ending up with 60% low wines that need diluting before the spirit run, plus stripping would be quicker and more energy efficient without the reflux.

What do you think is the advantage to pushing the low wines up to 60%? Why not push them slightly higher and barrel it without a spirit run?

[Alchemist75]

There is no distinct advantage when doing stripping runs beyond maybe helping the PC do it's job slightly better, it certainly doesn't affect smearing on stripping runs that I can tell. I just don't bother to unhook everything because it's designed to connect up to the PC, they use the same water supply. No, I included it for spirit runs specifically which of course I run much slower. It sharpens up cuts SOMEWHAT but not profoundly, nothing like a column does. It's only about 3" of packed and the dephlegmator is deliberately under powered, partial reflux at best.

[Alchemist75]

Basically it's effect is a little bit lightening and smoothing but not so much as to strip all the goodness out, not even close. My column doesn't even remove all flavor because of it's hight and it's much taller.