Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi Folks

After completing my first run according to the manufactures instructions, I thought I’d start following some of the advice that keeps on coming up on the forum. Decided to play with my second and final turbo yeast run. (Straight into TPW’s now after what I’ve read) Took a couple of 250mm head cuts before dumping the rest into a demijohn. This was followed by the tails run that is built into the design of the Pure Distilling reflux. Left the neutral to air for about 5 hours before smelling and tasting what I’d produced. Wanted to start simple and build from that. OK, you guys are right. The next run will be cuts all the way. After smelling the two heads containers, a mild headache started soon after. The first jar was quite overpowering. The second jar wasn’t quite as sharpe but that strong acetone type of smell still lingered. The hearts demijohn was quite placid. Nothing much there at all. But in saying that, I reckon a little more heads could have been removed. The tails run (which is much slower on my still) did not have any smell at all. When I tasted the tails it was better than I’d hoped. It was reasonably good in the sense that it only had the slightest cardboard taste. To think that I was drinking that horrid stuff after my first attempt....... The learning curve has started in earnest. Can’t wait to try some of the good stuff. Thanks to everyone who contributes and comments on the forum. It would be hard work and a lot of headaches if you had to do it on your own.

Cheers

Les

Good stuff mate, cuts are the best thing you can do to improve :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Lesgold wrote:OK, you guys are right.

Who would have guessed :laughing-rolling:

Lesgold wrote:250mm head cuts before dumping the rest into a demijohn.

Jar 1 would have been fore shots and jar 2 would have been some of the heads, the rest went in with the rest that you collected.
The next run of TPW with all cuts will be so much better.
Your on the right path :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Lesgold wrote:the tails run that is built into the design of the Pure Distilling reflux

Sorry but I dont understand this comment, all stills will produce tails but have you been told something magical about the PD ?

Thanks for that guys. Hi Stig, should have mentioned that 150ml was taken off as a Fore shots and the last comment about tails may not be correct. The ball valve on the output has two settings. One setting is for the main spirit run and the other setting reduces the output considerably towards the end of the run. This causes a lot more refluxing of the last of the ethanol. I assumed that would be the tails but from your comment I am probably wrong.

Cheers

Les

That's crazy. When your in tails you want to run flat out to collect as fast as possible

Sounds like My interpretation of what’s happening is off the mark. Just trying to follow manufactures instructions and correlate it to what you guys are saying. Maybe I’m not down to tails. Not sure of what I should be doing. When distilling most of the neutral, the temp is at 78 degrees. When it goes up by a couple of degrees, output flow is then restricted. Temp drops back to 78 and collection continues (at a much slower rate). When temp jumps up to 80, the boiler is turned off. Would be happy to learn more about what’s going on or if there is a better process to follow.

Cheers

Les

I'd be changing the valve to one that has total control as a start.
Edit to add: you should be running the spirit slow and ripping the tails fast

As the alc boils off, more water (which the tails are contained in) is coming through, dropping the output in a boka induces more reflux which will reduce the amount of water and flavors coming out as the alc level is bumped back up. The store bought way relies on the carbon treatment $$$ vs just turfing the unwanted product, so they tell you to keep the abv of the output high to minimize the crap to be polished out whilst returning more high proof product, this is the quantity vs quality approach.

As we recommend cuts over just carbon polishing there is no need to recover deeply into the tails at all when making neutral (quality vs quantity), some like to squeeze out every last bit and re-run heads n tails in the next run to help compound some of the undesirable elements and make the cuts easier to discern, but you can only go so far with that before diminishing returns kick in

OK, starting to get some idea of what’s going on. So a needle valve on the output would give more control in this area. I will start looking at that. Thanks Stig. RC Al, you explained it well as far as why my reflux is set up as it is. Might be time to throw out the instruction manual and do a bit more reading here. Thanks again guys.

Cheers

Les

Needle valve on the output sounds dangerous, I don’t know the pure distilling stills but if you accidentally shut of the valve you may have built a pressure bomb if there is no other way for the vapour to escape

Wow. So much STILL to learn. (Pardon the pun) Will keep annoying you guys trying to get my head around this enjoyable hobby. Thanks again for the input. Will need to start asking more questions in relation to getting the best out of my Pure Distilling reflux. I am sure that there are quite a few members who run the same setup. Would be interested to hear from anyone who runs this still and how they operate it.

Cheers

Les