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OK I get the idea about airing out your cuts before recombining them - thats logical. But can you do some of this after the stripping run and in bulk. Perhaps even forcing the issue withan air pump?
Would it give you cleaner cuts if you air it earlier? And this may be a stupid question, but do you store your cuts whilst they are airing out in the room with your still, or do you move them somewhere else. Some folks seem to air for upto a week. I know its different for us, but on the distillary tours they stress that the cellar becomes impregated with alcohol and is a fire hazard. Has anyone set their product on fire by mistake when airing it?

I haven't been airing after a strip run, could help some possibly. When airing my cuts after a spirit run, I usually don't have anything to run in the still. Usually air in the shop for a couple of days, then take in the house and air for another couple of days.

I store all my low wines open to atmostphere, mainly becuase I don't have any corks, only rubber bungs!

I cant see how it it would hurt, other than the mirco % you are going to lose to the angels.
If anything I might help drive off any low boiling point volities, meaning less on your final run...hence a cleaner run

This might be a hazard, if you had several gallons open to atmosphere in an enclosed space, as the ethanol vapour could build up. But a few gallons isn't going to make too much difference at all.

ZAXBYC wrote: This might be a hazard, if you had several gallons open to atmosphere in an enclosed space, as the ethanol vapour could build up. But a few gallons isn't going to make too much difference at all.

it wont be any more of a hazard then the normal spirits airing. there is the same ammount of total alcohol involved.

my guess is it could help a bit but wouldnt be nearly as effective as airing the final product since it is so much more condensed and more likely to evaporate. could be wrong tho :shrug:

I personally don't air out my strip runs. I do however keep my feints (heads and tails left from spirit runs) in a glass fermenter that is only capped with a coffee filter. These get aired out for months until I have enough to do my all feints run.

Yes RumBull I am with you on that one. I put all my feints in 1 gallon demijohns and put them on a shelf in the top of the barn. They stay there pluged with cotton wool for as long as it takes to get enough for a pure feints run. I was just wondering if there is any way of stripping out the unwanted volatiles earlier in the process. I have never tried one of those air stills, but was curious about what effect a forced air stream would have after a stripping run. It should push off the unwanted stuff but how much product would you also loose in the process!!

myles wrote:OK I get the idea about airing out your cuts before recombining them - thats logical. But can you do some of this after the stripping run and in bulk. Perhaps even forcing the issue withan air pump?
...I know its different for us, but on the distillary tours they stress that the cellar becomes impregated with alcohol and is a fire hazard. Has anyone set their product on fire by mistake when airing it?

I know this thread has gone cold but I have done this before. I collected my low wines in 6 gallon carboys and set up an air pump with a brass air stone. I also added baking soda to the low wines. I ran the bubbles for 4 weeks then distilled. The finial spirit was very clean but as this was a sour mash bourbon run it was far to clean in my opinion. After all the work I had put into mashing the corn, rye and barley I felt a little stupid about the lack of flavor the raw spirit had left. The baking soda may have been the culprit. If I had aired without the baking soda it might have turned out a more flavorful end product.

I didn't burn down my shop but I didn't air in the same space as I distill.