Double distilling with an airstill

[Barjacjohn]

I have done a few stripping runs of a sugar wash in an airstill and now want to do a spirit run to get the cleanest possible spirit.
My current stock of low wines averages 55%. I am trying to get my head around whether it is better to reduce this to, say, 30% or 15%. Does distilling from a lower abv "dilute" the bad flavours more or does it make no difference. Further, I have read that you cannot do cuts with an airstill, and should keep 600ml from 4 litres of 14.5% after disarding the first 100ml. Does that mean that if I run the spirit run on 30% , i should keep 1200 ml and discard 200%?
Any advice or clarification would be greatly appreciated.
John

[Rumblepants]

Hi Barjacjohn,

I usually dilute my reflux runs (double distilled kale based sugarwash) down to 30%.

I would still do cuts on the airstill just make them small like 50 or 100mls. Then follow the protocol of smelling the jars and proofing down to taste them.

The Airstill is a tiny potstill so any advice you read on making neutral with a potstill should apply just in smaller amounts.

I use a power controller on the heater part of the airstill to slow down the takeoff rate when I'm making Gin. I would try that to slow it right down to a drip p/second. Don't forget to plug the fan directly into the power though. You don't want the fan to run any slower.

Best of luck!
Rumble

[Barjacjohn]

Thanks Rumble
Any comment on the airstill cut process and the idea of "smearing" which I am still yrying to gget my head around?
Cheers
Bj

[Barjacjohn]

Whoops! Hit submit too fast!
Pl could you say more about the effect of slowing the drip rate?
Cheers
Bj

[renedox]

When I did cuts on my airstill, I did ~50mL cuts moving up to ~100mL for hearts then back down to ~50mL. That was after a doing enough stripping runs to fill the boiler - normally about four. If you are chasing neutral, I find that most of the flavour disappears after the third run so something to keep in mind.

Also found that running distillate through a carbon filter helps but it isn't necessary and is quite time consuming

[Rumblepants]

Check out this post it helped me out heaps when starting on the airstill

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=9066