Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I'm starting to build a stockpile of low wines from tpw and googs to run as a pure spirit run (ie. <40% diluted low wines rather than 10%ish wash) - my glass demijohns and jars are almost out of space so I'm thinking to start storing in one of my spare homebrew kegs which are old rheem ss supply.

My question is - should I purge oxygen using co2 or not worry about it? Is oxygen really an issue with spirit storage? Especially if I keep them at high percentage taken straight off the still as heads and tails (~92%)?

Oxygen is not an issue in the same way it is for beer.
Having said that it wouldn’t hurt to purge but I wouldn’t wast the C02

I store my low wines in a 50L keg and leave it open to breath, I never had any problems :handgestures-thumbupleft:

and then i age everything in my SS fire extinguishers.

Thanks guys, sounds like decanting them into the keg and leaving with oxygen and a good seal will be sufficient.

As a newbie I'd love the second confirmation that my understanding of running the low/high wines though cut to just under 40% is correct.

jomo wrote:Thanks guys, sounds like decanting them into the keg and leaving with oxygen and a good seal will be sufficient.

As a newbie I'd love the second confirmation that my understanding of running the low/high wines though cut to just under 40% is correct.

Correct, water it down to 40% and then run it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Be careful where you store as it is a fire risk and if you have a fire may be hard to explain.

jomo wrote:Especially if I keep them at high percentage taken straight off the still as heads and tails (~92%)?

I'd keep your low wines at a lower ABV for safety. You need to lower the ABV to 40% or less for your spirit run anyway. Having said that, I'm not sure how you're ending up with low wines at 92% - mine always end up at around 45%. What ABV are you cutting your stripping runs off at?

Professor Green wrote: I'm not sure how you're ending up with low wines at 92% - mine always end up at around 45%. What ABV are you cutting your stripping runs off at?

I've only done a couple of runs since I got my still but my basic practice has been to hold full reflux for an hour before backing off the water to the RC and starting very slow collection. Basic day is about 8hours start to finish for a 50L wash which I'll get about 2L after cuts at around 91%

I haven't really been bothered to collect tails on the neutral runs so usually when I cut off is just at the start of the tails smell and it's still up usually around that same figure. I'd say I collect around 2.5L of neutral heads/tails which I keep on as my low wines and will eventually do a run that's just low wines in the future.

Is my method flawed? Happy to take on any advice. I'm not really after quantity - im in it for the quality and hobby value. Generally I haven't gone far into collecting tails as everyday I've run the still it's been raining and about 3degrees so just get to the point where I want to go back inside :))

I don't think you're doing anything wrong as such, it sounds like you're doing a double spirit run rather than a stripping run and a spirit run. It's not a particularly economical strategy but as long you're ending up with the results you want that's fine and if you're running a T500 then you're limited to running this way anyway. If you get yourself a pot still at some stage, you'll be able to speed your process up a bit and probably collect a bit more usable ethanol in your spirit run by quickly stripping a couple of TPW washes into low wines with the pot first then slowly running the combined low wines through the column.