TPW on a hot night
Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 7:16 pmWell I decided to fire up the new bubbler last night...and by new I meant with a 5th plate and packed section.
I had mixed success. Wash fermented from 1.84 to <1.0 in about 8 days in this hot weather.
Filled the boiler with 40L of ~ 10-11% TPW.
Cooling water was a nice 30 degrees after being in the shed the last few days roasting but still doable.
The still is so tall now that it sprung a leak half way through the run due to it leaning a little I THINK...I'm not 100% sure but I tightened the tri clamps a bit and propped the column up a bit and the leak stopped gradually.
Anyway, onto the run. After sorting the kinks out, it pulled 97% which at 30C is about 95% if I read the alcometer packaging right. So that was good...unfortunately last night, and my sense of smell and taste this morning confirmed, I pulled 300ml of fore/heads, 1.2L of hearts and 6L of Tails down to 30% (Worth mentioning when I hit tails I fire up the second element and turn off RC so my ABV drops considerably after that...sat on 60% for about 4L).
The first big jar of tails smelled normal (I collect tails in 750ml jars) but every jar after that had a distinct burnt rubber smell to it that I'd never had before...I was unsure where it came from....everything else smelled completely as you'd expect.
Anyone come across this smell before?
I had mixed success. Wash fermented from 1.84 to <1.0 in about 8 days in this hot weather.
Filled the boiler with 40L of ~ 10-11% TPW.
Cooling water was a nice 30 degrees after being in the shed the last few days roasting but still doable.
The still is so tall now that it sprung a leak half way through the run due to it leaning a little I THINK...I'm not 100% sure but I tightened the tri clamps a bit and propped the column up a bit and the leak stopped gradually.
Anyway, onto the run. After sorting the kinks out, it pulled 97% which at 30C is about 95% if I read the alcometer packaging right. So that was good...unfortunately last night, and my sense of smell and taste this morning confirmed, I pulled 300ml of fore/heads, 1.2L of hearts and 6L of Tails down to 30% (Worth mentioning when I hit tails I fire up the second element and turn off RC so my ABV drops considerably after that...sat on 60% for about 4L).
The first big jar of tails smelled normal (I collect tails in 750ml jars) but every jar after that had a distinct burnt rubber smell to it that I'd never had before...I was unsure where it came from....everything else smelled completely as you'd expect.
Anyone come across this smell before?