by ENTITY77 » Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:37 pm
G'day Roger! Welcome! Canberra eh, nice place. I lived in Gordon for a couple of years myself.
TPW is a good wash, Weetbix wash is also good for neutral.
Re wash temp, that comes down to what the type of yeast your using prefers. Lower than 22 and I personally find the ferment takes to long and practically stalls with Lowans in a TPW. Canberra would be mighty chilly this time of year so insulate your fermenter with a microfibre blanket or something. Another good option for heating a wash is an aquarium heater. There thermostat controlled so you won't cook your wash.
As for the T500, you'll initially start getting product at around 45 deg and I like to run the foreshots off at that temp. However it is a good idea to let column sit in full reflux for a bit a little below this temp to get the fractions built up and dispersed in the column properly. After that I run at low 50's. Low and slow with good cuts is the go.
Use your sniffer to weed out the heads. I have a spare clean jar that i use to put a few drops of distilate in every 100ml or so to give a sniff and see where things are at, and if in doubt switch to a new cut jar. Remember to rinse out your sniffer jar :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Don't forget to number your jars or thing could get frustrating lol.
When your deciding which of your jars to keep for drink and what to turf into feints, watering a sample down to approx drinking strength will help separate the good from the bad. I take a teaspoon from a jar and mix that with a teaspoon of water in a shot glass, give it a good sniff and a taste to detect heads or tails. Trace amounts of heads or tails can be undetectable in high abv distillate and only become apparent once watered down.
Anyway welcome to the forums again.