Over Airing Spirit, bad cuts and just problems in general.

[MacStill]

I like cork. Its very forgiving.
Some guys don't like it, no skin off my nose. I've had clamps so loose I wondered why it wasn't leaking, but the cork holds on. It can have a need to re torque after first use, but usually fine after that.
And for uneven flanges its the best imo.

:text-imwithstupid: I love cork, my clamps are no were near tight and it seals great!.

Is that because of the glue in it that sticks once heated ?

I'm anti cork :teasing-neener:

[Hill]

Yeah it could have been only thing was the 1st jar of hearts b4 the leak smelt funny but to be honest I was focusing on fixing and cleaning the thing. It certainly make sense.

Iv'e got another wash down so will try again on the weekend.

[Hill]

What do u guys water down with, I watered down with tap water, would this make a difference

[Brendan]

I find it makes a massive difference. Due to the taste of our tap water, I've gone to diluting with bottled spring water. Figure I can fork out a few bucks to ensure the product doesn't get any extra off flavours. We also have a filter which is what I use for all water in the wash :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[MtnMoonshiner]

...You guys just need some "moonshiner's putty" for those small leaks:-)

(Flour and water paste, mixed up and whacked in the leak.)

I don't imagine flour paste would work on a sight glass and flange. I'd shut down with any leak, thats just me I'm a safety freak.

Yeah, we call it paste over here. I lay a couple bricks on the cap of my still, and seal it off between the cap and cooker with paste. As well as sealing the cap arm entry into the thump keg, and the worm exit coming from the thump keg. It works on pretty much everything...I've even sealed off small ruptures on soldered joints. I add just a tad of oatmeal, or wheat bran to the mixture though. In any case, it seals up hard as a rock. Sometimes painfully hard when I'm trying to clean it off :D


But googe, I will concede it's probably a better idea to shut down. Especially if you're cooking on an open flame, and not an electric coil. I think anyone who's seen an alcohol leak suddenly turn into terrifying blue flames :scared-eek: would agree. Time is money, but no money is worth having your skin cooked off.

[Linny]

I always try to water down with filtered water ,,, you know those things that have carbon canisters and you stick in the fridge

[Hill]

Just wondering if you can get an infection or off flavor while aging on the chips? I had a smell of my boiler yesterday before running my still and it had the same off smell as the spirit.

[BackyardBrewer]

Are you sure that's not tails? I associate that smell that lingers in the boiler as tails...

[Hill]

Na was a different smell, i had it next to the tails from another run and this is way worse than tails.

[googe]

Is it like a off milk/cheese type smell hill?.

[emptyglass]

Generally, when you shut down, your into the tails. Thats whats left in the boiler, mixed with dunder. Thats why it stinks.
I give the boiler a quick rinse then boil up a litre of water (more for electric) and let it steam up the still for a few minutes.
But I only worry about doing that if I'm not planning another run soon. If you leave stuff in there too long, it will go bad and stink up.

[bt1]

Now there's a timely reminder for the colder months.

Make sure you warm your still, boiler after washing out and put a way dry~ish.

I've grown some real experiments with still put away wet in winter.

bt1

[Hill]

So I made my fourth rum and again it's stuffed :angry-banghead: So I did my was all no worries 1160 start 1020 finish charged the boiler and ran the still, discarded the first 800ml then took my hearts, I ended up blending only the first 1.5 L so I know 100% there weren't any tails in there, I aired for 2 days then put on the lids and kept for a few day until i had time to finish, before i blended i smelt it all and it was all smelling great, mixed the 4 jars together and topped up with filtered water from my brewery and smelt and no good :angry-banghead: so so frustrating.......

[blond.chap]

Hey Hill, can you describe the smell? I find that my rum smells pretty awful to begin with (especially as I use feed molasses), but after aging for 3-6 months it is heavenly.

[Hill]

It's really hard to explain, I actually might be over thinking it but who knows, maybe I should be waiting longer :think: I just couldn't remember the last rum I did changing this much just by adding water.

Ill leave it sit and will report back after a month or so.

[MacStill]

Hey Hill, can you describe the smell? I find that my rum smells pretty awful to begin with (especially as I use feed molasses), but after aging for 3-6 months it is heavenly.

:text-imwithstupid:

Rum straight from the still & even after airing can be pretty rank, that smell is what I call "raw rum"

That funky raw smell and flavour changes drastically with a few months on oak, it's just another thing on that long list you can't rush in this hobby ;-)

[Hill]

Don't get me wrong guys I'm not impatient I was just concerned that it changed so much when water was added.

Ill sit on it for a while and will see how it goes.

[Hill]

So after a few words with someone far wiser than I the problem I am having seems to be with how I am running my still and I have been getting tails in my heads, the spirit started out ok starting to air and the tails have only really come through once watered down, i'v also been cutting the spirit with my brew water which has different brewing salts in which may not be helping so I will be stopping that. It really is an art to run these bubblers!!!!!! I'm going to tip all my current spirit back into my next run and strip it down again.
It's funny as much as you read everything on here and take your time it is still hard to get these things right and being there are so many things to monitor it is easy to concentrate on something that isn't causing the problem. Thanks to everyone who has helped out.

[Hill]

I put everything back into my still with 20L of new rum yesterday, did everything as i should and I got it :happy-partydance: 4L at 91% the product smells amazing and it feels really good to have finally gotten the hang of running this beast.

[Brendan]

I put everything back into my still with 20L of new rum yesterday, did everything as i should and I got it :happy-partydance: 4L at 91% the product smells amazing and it feels really good to have finally gotten the hang of running this beast.

So Hilly, could you elaborate for the rest of us on what you were doing wrong, in terms of running your still?