Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi Everyone

So Im running a Pure distilling reflux still and had a few questions after running my first TPW.

So after reading the forum and directions on how to run a T500 properly (i figure they are same/same) I started the water flow as soon as I switched on the boiler. It took a while to heat up and start dripping the forsehots, with the first drips at 79Degs. (According to the T500 thread they collected first drips at 40-45 Degs) https://aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopi ... 57&t=10483

After collecting the fores i turned the tap to the fast position and started to collect the heads.
I left it like this for 6 hours till the temp spiked 2 more degrees and I turned it to the slow position where the temp didn't stabilise again so I turned the boiler off.

Doing cuts as I went I only ended up with 2.75 litres in Alcohol in total @93%

My questions are this:-
What went wrong?
In my previous runs Ive collected nearly 5 Litres using turbo washes and the still operated as described, here it didn't spike a second time and I only gathered 2.75 litres...

Im thinking I wont turn on the water next time till the still reaches temp as described in the original instructions and see how that was goes.

Any tips feed back would be great!

Cheers Coastie

A tpw will produce less volume of alcohol but a much better quality than a turbo.
if you started with 25L of tpw id say 2.75L @93% is spot on.
Taking your sg and fg of the wash will help you know what to expect off the still. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Also don't use the t500 info, your still is arguably better, it's a slant plate boka, look at replacing the output valve with an adjustable stainless one and read up on running a boka

Thanks guys
What’s sg and fg?

I didn’t realize it would produce less volume but hey now I know!
So after doing cuts I could expect to keep 1.75-2litres of 93% neutral?

Less than that even, currently I'm keeping less than 1/2 as hearts
You really need to read the stickies in the newbie section and have a really good (re?)read of kiwistillers guide to cuts before doing anything further to your collected product

Edit. Starting and Final Gravity of the wash as measured with a hydrometer

Thanks RC AL I’ll have another re read

Yep lots to learn and take in and lots of re reading.

1 last dumb question.
So from reading my wash with my hydrometer I can then calculate how much neutral I can expect ?

Thanks again guys

Yup, at the top of the newbie section is a calculator link, lotsa useful stuff that you will need One way or another for most runs or mixing drinks

I just did my first TPW run today. Very happy with it. 9x 300ml bots (about 2.7l as well) letting them air overnight. So far not alot of difference at all from 1 to 5 to 9.

Not sure about your 6hrs Coastie, mine was a 40min boil, and was done and dusted and stopped dripping in 2h20m. But your still is obviously alot better quality than my T500.

Cant wait to put it on domino's and let it sit for a while.

Not bad for a $7.30 investment.

300ml is probably a bit big with that output volume, you will be wasting a bit of product and making it harder to do the cuts.
If you really can't pick a difference in smells between all the jars (heads smell sweet to me) then you have most likely run the still too quickly, smearing the fores, heads, hearts and tails together.
Maybe consider that one a practice run, water it back down to 40% and run it back through a bit slower and in smaller collection amounts.
On my small setup, with a familiar wash, I drop mine to 100mls for 2 jars either side of where I think the main transition points are, with a wash I'm unfamiliar with, I'll go 100-125 all the way through.

1.2L/Hr isn't exactly fast though.
I'd still run it at a similar speed but with smaller cuts.

I’m only a noob myself, I’ve just done my 13th TPW in my T500, but I’m pushing it out to about 5 hours for a run (only slightly more than a drip when I’m around the changeover from heads to hearts)
I take 100ml cuts around the changeover and it is very easy to taste the transition after a day of airing and diluted with a bit of water.
By preparing and fermenting each batch in an IDENTICAL way each time, and keeping good records, I find I can predict the heads to hearts transition within 100 ml and the hearts to tails within about 300 ml. This means I can take much bigger cuts away from these transitions which saves a lot of effort.