Improving yield

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Improving yield

Postby Rolls912 » Wed Jan 09, 2019 11:59 pm

Soooo, just finished processing 100litres of TPW and ended up with 4 litres of clean neutral. Doesn’t seem like a good yield to me considering the heap of time (20hrs) it takes to process it :handgestures-thumbdown:
Q. Is there a way to make a good neutral from Turbo’s? Everyone one seems pretty unimpressed. Has anyone experimented with variations to the recipe?
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Re: Improving yield

Postby hillzabilly » Thu Jan 10, 2019 2:07 am

A few more basic details would go a long way ta help ,sounds low for sure 4lt@95% alc or 40%,checking wash with a hydrometer to confirm fermentation is complete I hope,I see you running a modded T500,any neutral still were packing or refluxing is not spot will give shit results regardless of how tall it is ,20hrs sounds fast to process that amount,again a few more details .cheers hillzabilly ;-)
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Re: Improving yield

Postby southern45 » Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:50 am

Even at 8% wash for 100L that is theoretically 8L of pure in there, so that does seem very low (I usually aim to get my sugar washes around 10% abv finished).

Was the ferment complete?
Did it stall?
Did you check starting and final gravity?
What sort of cuts did you make?
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Re: Improving yield

Postby Professor Green » Thu Jan 10, 2019 9:43 am

One thing to consider on top of what has already been said.

If your wash was 10% (a guess) then you only have 10 litre of ethanol maximum. Given you cannot collect 100% of the ethanol that reduces the overall amount. Taking heads and tails into account, 4 litres at 95% would be a reasonable yield if you were harsh on your cuts. I usually end up taking around 45 to a 50 percent of the collected volume as hearts. The rest goes into feints for rerun at a later stage.
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Re: Improving yield

Postby coffe addict » Thu Jan 10, 2019 5:28 pm

I'm with professor green. I usually take about 50%.
If you want a higher yield in shorter time bigger boiler and bigger still is the only way without sacrificing quality.
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Re: Improving yield

Postby Wobblyboot » Thu Jan 10, 2019 7:37 pm

Rolls912 wrote:Q. Is there a way to make a good neutral from Turbo’s? Everyone one seems pretty unimpressed. Has anyone experimented with variations to the recipe?

I doubt there is a way to make anything good outa turbos :naughty: I don’t blame them, they must have good tastes :handgestures-thumbupleft: I thought tpw used bakers yeast :think: there would be an improvement for u....
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Re: Improving yield

Postby orcy » Thu Jan 10, 2019 7:39 pm

We usually get about 10L of 94 out of 200L of tpw after fairly tight cuts. It's enough for 2 batches of gin returning about 8 or 9 litres of drinking strength product per batch.
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Re: Improving yield

Postby Rolls912 » Fri Jan 11, 2019 10:15 pm

Ok thanks.

I was hard with my cuts so that yield sounds about right then :think: A lot of work for such a small amount of pure. Hence my turbo question. The 2inch is just too slow!

I do have another 4 litres of spirit that smells really good. Not pure enough for gin though. Don’t know whether I should fients run it or something? Seems too good to reprocess....

I did measure wash but I’m not near my notes. Will check and repost. (This was the wash where I used 1 x full dextrose and 1 x half dextrose/half plain sugar. I believe both were fully spent before I filtered and distilled. Only real difference is that the full dextrose finished quicker + had slightly lower ABV.)
Last edited by Rolls912 on Fri Jan 11, 2019 10:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Improving yield

Postby scythe » Sat Jan 12, 2019 5:44 am

Maybe you could try one of the cerial washes next and make a whiskey instead of a vodka?
You can still make gin from a cerial based wash, will have a different mouthfeel but it will actually be enjoyable to drink the stuff not destined to be gin.
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Re: Improving yield

Postby Professor Green » Sat Jan 12, 2019 9:43 am

If it smells and tastes OK, use the other 4 litres for vodka. 4l @95% is around 13 bottles at correct drinking strength.
Or, re-run it with feints from your next batch.
Or try doing 2 batches of gin, one with the hearts cut, one with the other 4 litres and see what the difference is. Other than the cost of the botanicals, you've not really got much to lose.
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