Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

My neighbour (unna) and I did a double distil TPW run yesterday. Here are our findings.

75 Litres TPW
Strip run through a pot still (5 Star 2" on 50L keg) 150ml foreshots each run
Used 20L at 50%, mixed with 5L of water for the spirit run (to make 40%). There was 3L of low abv leftover which we threw in to a keg to use with a future feints run
Spirit run through a Pure Distilling reflux still
400ml foreshot (I am overcautious)
2900m head
3600ml hearts before hitting tails

We have kept the heads and leftover low abv strip run for a future feints run.

Notes:
* The spirit run came off at 98% - *Not temp corrected*
* We cut some down to 40% and drank as a vodka there and then - wow. Both of us have never tasted a neutral vodka like that before.
* This was our first double distil TPW so we were unsure as to where the cuts would be. Our cuts were made by taste and smell only.
* We actually ran a parot and found that the ABV was pretty much 100% the whole run. Once it started to drop (and the temperature started to rise), we found we were in tails. Heads and hearts were at the same temperature and same abv.
* For those that are interested the temperature was 78.7 for the heads/hearts run. Once the temperature started to rise, it rose really quickly.
* The spirit run took quite a while. 1 hour to heat up, 4.5 hours to collect foreshots, heads and hearts. We didnt collect all the tails as it was late and we already had 6L of feints collected, so we just shut it down.

Sounds like you had a decent run :handgestures-thumbupleft:

You should've waited until tonight to make your cuts, though, you probably would've increased your hearts cut significantly ;)

Your spirit can't come off at 98%, you need to temp correct the reading. 95.6% ABV is as good as it gets :handgestures-thumbupleft:

While I believe that you are telling me the truth that it can't be higher than 95.6%, I am only noting what I saw on my alcometer (both at the parot and a seperate reading after collection).

Admittedly, these results are when the neutral is warm. I will do another reading tonight when I get home and see if its dropped.

Most alcometers are calibrated at 20°c :handgestures-thumbupleft: Warm spirit will give you a higher reading.

Zak Griffin wrote:Warm spirit will give you a higher reading.

Yeh, I thought of that (after I read your previous post).

I can't edit the post to make note that the ABV readings were with warm spirit.

valkorum wrote:

Zak Griffin wrote:Warm spirit will give you a higher reading.

Yeh, I thought of that (after I read your previous post).

I can't edit the post to make note that the ABV readings were with warm spirit.

no need to edit you said it elswhere

Would be nicer to have all the information in 1 post. Had planned to update the ABV at room temperature as well.

Sorted :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Zak Griffin wrote:Sorted :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks. I just did a test and it is 94%

valkorum wrote:

Zak Griffin wrote:Sorted :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks. I just did a test and it is 94%

Might have lost a bit to the angels by now too so might have been higher coming out ;-)

valkorum wrote:

Zak Griffin wrote:Sorted :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks. I just did a test and it is 94%

Sounds like ya had a very productive run ,you impressed yourself,94-95% who cares.with a Personal Best taste ,and that's the true goal not hitting 95.6% .cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

hillzabilly wrote:

valkorum wrote:

Zak Griffin wrote:Sorted :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks. I just did a test and it is 94%

Sounds like ya had a very productive run ,you impressed yourself,94-95% who cares.with a Personal Best taste ,and that's the true goal not hitting 95.6% .cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The only problem now is having to wait for it to be ready to drink

:text-+1: for this technique. It's only my third run and I decided to take my previous two runs of TPW and combine them after reading this thread and sweet baby Jesus I hate drinking vodka straight cause it's foul, try this heart of hearts and it is Ab Fab worthy. :obscene-drinkingdrunk:

Got a bigger cut of useable hearts proportionally and it's so friggin smooth! Will be doing it this way from now onwards. I'm skipping a lot of rookie errors and getting straight to the good stuff off this forum :handgestures-thumbupleft:


I seemed to lose an awful lot to the angels this time round... My 1L centre hearts jar down to bout 870 mls or so. Is that normal or is it just my own fault for leaving to air for 48 hrs instead of 24???

Hawkeye wrote:

I seemed to lose an awful lot to the angels this time round... My 1L centre hearts jar down to bout 870 mls or so. Is that normal or is it just my own fault for leaving to air for 48 hrs instead of 24???

Ide also like to know this answer.
:think:

if you put in 1l to distill you wont get 1L out, maybe 900 or 950. Distilling wont remove 100% alc.

i air for 48 hours and you will loose more especially if it is hot. On a 5.5L @ 92% collection i would loose 400ml to airing for 48h in summer (average from all the jars including heads and tails)

a little bit ot but I collect and cut using stubbies. (330-375ml) When airing should I be using wide mouth jars for greater exposure to air?

icewind wrote:a little bit ot but I collect and cut using stubbies. (330-375ml) When airing should I be using wide mouth jars for greater exposure to air?

I air out in bottles as well, it will be fine. It's just a process to let some of the harsher volatiles evaporate out.

I am a bit confused about double distilled through reflux. If tpw comes out as azeotrope doesn't that means that's as pure as can be had by distillation? How can you possibly get more pure, more neutral than the purest possible spirit "azeotrope"??

bluc wrote:I am a bit confused about double distilled through reflux. If tpw comes out as azeotrope doesn't that means that's as pure as can be had by distillation? How can you possibly get more pure, more neutral than the purest possible spirit "azeotrope"??

Azeotrope just means it has the absolute minimum amount of water in it. Theres lots of different alcohols (and esters) apart from ethanol that can still be in the azeotrope mixture. I have read of people pulling azeotrope when running fast and getting smearing and a different quality to azeotrope at a slower pace without smearing.

Also, I take people pulling azeotrope straight from still with a grain of salt. Unless you temperature correct the reading you might be pulling a couple of percent lower than what the alcometer shows. Just 4 degrees difference on a 20 degree celcius hydrometer means the difference between a 95% and a 94% strength

Isn't azeotrope the purist form of alcohol? Any higher and the ethanol would be gas? I don't understand how flavours can still be present..