Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Morning all.
I'm about 12 batches along with my slightly modded t500 and having occasional issues with cloudy neutrals.
I use tpw exactly to recipe from here. I have narrowed the cause down but need some help. The product is crystal clear before dilution.
Here is what isn't the problem.
Dilution water. I have diluted 2 batches at the same time. One clear one cloudy.
Tails. The bottle which included the last jar was clearer than the bottle from middle of the hearts. Both were cloudy.
So from my no nothing brain I'm thinking it could be.....
Running the still too fast sometimes. Instead of drip drip dribble I do get drip drip pour dribble pour. This drops the output from 96% to 94%.
The time the wash is in the fermenter. Sometimes it is in for a week and sometimes two weeks. I didn't take notes on this. Naughty boy.
Still cleanliness. I rinse every run and clean with vinegar and citric every third run. It seems improbable that any residue citric or vinegar would cloud an entire batch.
Can someone steer me in the right direction please? I promise to make more detailed notes from now on

Sounds like a louche you are going to far into tails .
Are you doing cuts?

bluc wrote:Sounds like a louche you are going to far into tails .
Are you doing cuts?

It's not tails. The bottle from jar 5 and 6 was cloudier than one that was from jars 11 and 14. 14 being the last jar from the run.

Maybe a puke

next question what water did you use for diluting and we hope it wasn't mains water......

The Stig wrote:Maybe a puke

Could be. I have run at the max level the last few times.
I'm currently running at 2 or 3 litres below and going nice and slow.
Hopefully it will be nice and clear

RuddyCrazy wrote:next question what water did you use for diluting and we hope it wasn't mains water......

Umm..... yeah tap water.
I did dilute two runs at the same time and one was clear while the other was cloudy

AdamW wrote:

RuddyCrazy wrote:next question what water did you use for diluting and we hope it wasn't mains water......

Umm..... yeah tap water.
I did dilute two runs at the same time and one was clear while the other was cloudy

I just use rainwater but I do live in the country so no dirty stuff to leach into my tanks from the city but DON'T use tap water to dilute spirits, go and make yourself some distilled water and use that or just buy some bottled water.

Cheers Bryan

Or buy a decent under sink filter like I did

RuddyCrazy wrote:

AdamW wrote:

RuddyCrazy wrote:next question what water did you use for diluting and we hope it wasn't mains water......

Umm..... yeah tap water.
I did dilute two runs at the same time and one was clear while the other was cloudy

I just use rainwater but I do live in the country so no dirty stuff to leach into my tanks from the city but DON'T use tap water to dilute spirits, go and make yourself some distilled water and use that or just buy some bottled water.

Cheers Bryan

Hi Bryan,

Having never distilled water (and only having access to mains apart from my cooling system), what steps would you take to distill water? Would you run it through the still and would the still behave differently?
Cheers
HG

hgwells wrote:

RuddyCrazy wrote:

AdamW wrote:

RuddyCrazy wrote:next question what water did you use for diluting and we hope it wasn't mains water......

Umm..... yeah tap water.
I did dilute two runs at the same time and one was clear while the other was cloudy

I just use rainwater but I do live in the country so no dirty stuff to leach into my tanks from the city but DON'T use tap water to dilute spirits, go and make yourself some distilled water and use that or just buy some bottled water.

Cheers Bryan

Hi Bryan,

Having never distilled water (and only having access to mains apart from my cooling system), what steps would you take to distill water? Would you run it through the still and would the still behave differently?
Cheers
HG

Just make sure your sitting down HG :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: now put some water in your boiler start your PC and heatup the water and distill it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I’m not sure that we can distill water. That would be LEGAL wouldn’t it??? :)) :)) :)) :))

Just owning a still is illegal

HGwells Bryan left out an important step.

He forgot to mention the cuts :laughing-rolling:

Wellsy wrote:HGwells Bryan left out an important step.

He forgot to mention the cuts :laughing-rolling:

yea the first 200ml or so as the steam will give the still a good clean :handgestures-thumbupleft:

as far as cuts go me thinks Wellsy's got cuts on the brain after so much distilling :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

RuddyCrazy wrote:

Wellsy wrote:HGwells Bryan left out an important step.

He forgot to mention the cuts :laughing-rolling:

yea the first 200ml or so as the steam will give the still a good clean :handgestures-thumbupleft:

as far as cuts go me thinks Wellsy's got cuts on the brain after so much distilling :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

I may have found the culprit.
When I ran the still the other day the wife was watering the garden. Every 10 min or so she was turning on and off hoses and the still temp was fluctuating.
I didn't have headphones on for once and the still was making a gurgling sound when the temperature was fluctuating.
I might have to get myself a reticulating cooling system.

I am not sure if you have a rain tank mate but I use a submersible pump out of the rain water tank.
The spent warm water I run onto the lawn or garden as in the hot weather the tank water gets too hot. I then drop a garden hose into the water tank and refill it with cooler town water. This stops any fluctuations as well

Wellsy wrote:I am not sure if you have a rain tank mate but I use a submersible pump out of the rain water tank.
The spent warm water I run onto the lawn or garden as in the hot weather the tank water gets too hot. I then drop a garden hose into the water tank and refill it with cooler town water. This stops any fluctuations as well

Sounds like a good plan. The wife can water the garden from the still output!

RuddyCrazy wrote:next question what water did you use for diluting and we hope it wasn't mains water......

I diluted some all grain wheat vodka with spring water and it went cloudy once I proofed it back to 40%. :think: I used to have a water dispenser that would filter the water and chill it. Never had a problem until i used some room temp spring water. Water temp wouldn't play a part in this?..........would it :think: :think: