Foreshots when Triple Distilling.

[Newcastle1996]

I’m making a potato wash which seems to be fermenting away pretty nicely at the moment. In the end I’m hoping to make gin with the neautral from it. After some advice from a recent post when doing the spirit run the juniper comes of the still first this is why my gin didn’t have a strong juniper smell. So my process this time for the potato wash:

1. Run through pot still and remove first 150ml
2. Run through Refluc still and remove first 100ml
2. Spirit run in pot still removing only 10ml

Now I guess my question is will all of the methanol then be gone when I come to doing my spirit run due to the fact I’ve made the cuts on the first two runs?

[OtisT]

I’m making a potato wash which seems to be fermenting away pretty nicely at the moment. In the end I’m hoping to make gin with the neautral from it. After some advice from a recent post when doing the spirit run the juniper comes of the still first this is why my gin didn’t have a strong juniper smell. So my process this time for the potato wash:

1. Run through pot still and remove first 150ml
2. Run through Refluc still and remove first 100ml
2. Spirit run in pot still removing only 10ml

Now I guess my question is will all of the methanol then be gone when I come to doing my spirit run due to the fact I’ve made the cuts on the first two runs?

Hi Newcastle. Yes, 10 ml is likely enough foreshots to remove on that third run, though you possibly need to remove a bit more. It depends on how well you are at fractioning. To be safe, make the first few collection jars very small, maybe 10 ml ea. When it comes time to make cuts, dip your finger in and taste your way from jar 4 to jar 1. You should go from a super juniper heavy good taste to a juniper heavy taste along with a bad chemical bite/taste when you detect Foreshots. Jar 1 will have them for sure.

FYI. It’s not methanol you are isolating in foreshots. It is primarily Acitone. There is typically not much methanol in most washes, with more being present in fruit washes or heaven forbid something with lots of woody material. If you are already cutting foreshots (acetone), most of heads (mostly ethal acetate) and most of tails (mostly 2-proponal), you don’t have any methanol to worry about.

Otis

[NZChris]

2. Run through Refluc still and remove first 100ml

I suggest you make this heads cut by taste and smell, not by volume. Make sure you get rid of the nail varnish smell.

If you use Odin's Easy Gin method, a 10ml foreshot is enough. If your finished product is lacking in juniper, put it back in. Making other gins and flavoured products, I sometimes have a smell of that 10mls and return it to the collection jug.