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

by **Hill** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 9:47 am

So i'm onto my 4th wash now and have had some success but mostly failures. The first McStill rum I made I was really happy with, the second no good at all. So I ran my third batch of rum on the weekend and possibly stupidly aired it for 2 days before looking at it, and while i think i have made some bad cuts again i blended the first 2 400ml jars into a bottle for some white rum and i'm not really happy with that either. Now also you should know when i ran my still i loaded all the plates and was starting to take of product got all my heads and 1 jar of hearts and iv had to shut down and change my top 2 T's which i lost a lot of my good spirit.I wasn't 100% sure if this has stuffed the run as well.
So what im hoping to find out
1. have i stuffed my run completely by having to stop and change over my plated sections.
2. can you over air your spirit.

by **baldoss** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 10:08 am

Depending on what ABV your spirit was at when you aired it, I think as long as it's at a high enough proof you won't get any infections or anything in it but you will have a lot (or at least some) of it evaporate (the higher ABV your spirit the faster it will evaporate). From everything I've read it doesn't sound like 2 days would be a problem. Sounds spot on actually from the recommendations I've seen. Just as long as it's covered with something to keep bugs and shit out but still allow it to breathe.

I know shit all about bubblers though so will let someone else answer that. Sounds like something else in your process is giving you the bad results though. When you say you blended the first 400mL jars - I hope you don't mean the first two you got off the still? Those would presumably be all heads so I don't think anyone would be happy with that!

Check out kiwi's guide to cuts, it's a cracker. And maybe try doing your cuts in smaller jars, like 250mL? You might get some better advice if you post your exact wash ingredients/quantities too :handgestures-thumbupleft: Good luck!

by **SBB** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 10:10 am

2 days airing sounds perfect to me.

by **blond.chap** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 10:12 am

Hey mate,

Can you give a bit more detail about the run:
- What ingredients and yeast
- Did the run puke
- What's the problem with the flavour?
- Why did you need to shut down?

by **googe** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 10:59 am

That sounds pretty much like the run I did the other day mate, had started collecting and had to shut it down for 5 mins due to another issue with the neighbour :roll: . I loaded all the plates again but it never run good after that and got smearing everywhere. Keen to hear what others say also.

by **ticknaylor** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 11:51 am

i had to shut down last week due to a leaky sight glass i fired it back up and had no issues although i did allow another 15 mins of reflux to re establish a gradient of fractions

by **unsub** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:56 pm

I've had to do the same with my bubbler. I shut it down and came back the next day, the first jar was dodgy but the rest were fine.

by **bt1** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:42 pm

+1 unsub,

weekend run gasket between column and RC lost it seal god knows why. Shut down, re seated, restarted at full reflux taking off slowly again. First 2 cut glasses where a bit avg rest of run, 2/3 continued without issue.

I air up to several weeks for some brews...it depends on what i reckon it needs. Nothing about quality it's just personal prefs for a dead smooth starting spirit especially for the Irish. ok you lose a couple of points but hell got 300+lt in storage who cares.

bt1

by **BackyardBrewer** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 2:47 pm

Unless the leak is critical do you really need to shut down?

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

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

by **googe** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 3:21 pm

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.

by **Hill** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 4:02 pm

Sorry guys was out all morning

So the run went like this.
Filled up with 40L of McStill rum wash plus 4 L of 60% spirit from the previous batch that i think had bad cuts.
Fired up all ok with 4 plates, went into full reflux for about 20 mins, slowly stared taking product, took the first 900ml for fores and heads then went to take hearts, as the first jar was filling up i noticed a few leaks where my plate seals where so i tightened, kept tightening but the leak got worse to the point where alcohol was pissing out the side so i shut the thing down for safety, once i inspected i found i had put too much pressure on the Ferrule and had cracked the solder joint, So i let it cool slightly and took the top 2 sections apart poured what spirit was left in the new section tightened it up cleaned it thoroughly outside and started it up again. ran it in reflux for 10 mins and started taking product again. From there the spirit started at 90% and within 5 jars (2L)had dropped to 70% Which given the amount of wash i had was low), i kept the first 1.5L and ditched the rest. So what i am getting is nothing like i had previously, it doesn't have that nice sweet molasses smell, which it seamed to on the first day. All of the run was fine no puking or anything like that just an easy run as all so far have been so I was wondering if on restarting and heating you get a second lot of fores or if the 60% that didn't work has ruined this batch as well (cause it is a similar smell)

by **baldoss** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 4:07 pm

Guessing that mixing your wash with 60% low wines could be the issue? :think: Happy to defer to the wiser blokes though. I would have run that wash by itself and then mixed the low wines from it with that 60% stuff you'd saved. Then run just that batch of low wines (diluting down to 40% or lower before putting into the boiler of course).

by **BackyardBrewer** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 4:13 pm

googe wrote: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 a sight glass leak isnt good. I'm just being cheeky, but in a pinch you could go old school and cake it up with flour paste.

by **googe** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 5:07 pm

I cant imagine the low wines doing it, I do that alot with rum. I'm confused hill, did you put two complette new sections in to replace the cracked one or fix the cracked one?. So you were still running four plates?.

by **Hill** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 5:50 pm

I have 5 sections total so i took the 2nd top section out (i lost all that spirit down the side) and replaced it, so i kept running 4 sections.

by **bt1** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 8:50 pm

sry,

but If I got hot ethanol leaking from a still I sure ain't going to dive inside and mix a flour paste. It leaks it get's fixed or shutdown asap!

btw just as a side line these EDPM triclamp ridged gaskets seem to me to get harder with use and age... I'm thinking of replacing all when I change over to the non heated wash winter yeast routine.

bt1

by **emptyglass** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 9:10 pm

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.

by **googe** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 9:29 pm

WineGlass wrote: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!.

by **Sam.** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 9:34 pm

Is it possible you lost the majority of the rest of your hearts from the leak?

Was it slowly leaking the whole run and you lost a lot more than you thought :think:

When you got it going again you may have just got the last of the hearts then were going into the tails.

by **SBB** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 10:21 pm

sam_and_liv wrote:Is it possible you lost the majority of the rest of your hearts from the leak?

I was thinking along the same lines Sam