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I started with an 8kg turbo yeast sugar wash which i ran through my beer stripper ,2 batches, i took the resulting 4 1/2 gallons of 50% product and added 2 gals. of water into my reflux still. i held back the first 500ml and stopped before the temp. started to rise above 78. all finished product tests out at 95%. seems i did everything right, but have this 'flowery smell' what didn't i do right.
Thanks,
Steve
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What was your mash made from?
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You must remove much more or foreshots to eliminate most of ester flavors and then filter it in addition through the charcoal filter. As a rule, 30% is foreshots, 40% is main harvest, 30% is tails.
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Steve, a variety of smells and tastes is not uncommon when making your own. Personally, I always try to use some type of non-citrus fruit juice in my mash, at least a gallon or two. the vitamins in the juice 'feed' the yeast producing more alcohol in the long run. A slight fruity taste is present,even at 93%, to those who drink moonshine often. Also I've never heard of a beer stripper. If you are thinking of filtering and want an inexpensive way to try it out, try a water pitcher filter. And finally, I always throw out the first 8-10 ounces and stop collecting at 178F.
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the better your still the lower the % you need to save as head and tails. the thermometer is only a guide. your own taste is the real test. before deciding to collect the main run taste whats coming out.
why did you dilute the distillate before redistilling?
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hi Steve
it is better to redistill undiulted, unless you are going to go below your element. if your column has the equivalent of 10 plates then by redistilling undiluted it has gone through 20 pot distillations, in theory. the volatiles will separate better in a packed column if the wash is a high%. if you run at a very high reflux ratio in a very tall column you can get much more precise cuts and get more than 40% as your drinking cut. to get best results from carboning, dilute it to 40% and then carbon
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hi Steve
it is better to redistill undiulted, unless you are going to go below your element. if your column has the equivalent of 10 plates then by redistilling undiluted it has gone through 20 pot distillations, in theory. the volatiles will separate better in a packed column if the wash is a high%. if you run at a very high reflux ratio in a very tall column you can get much more precise cuts and get more than 40% as your drinking cut. to get best results from carboning, dilute it to 40% and then carbon
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if you still think that diluting is a good thing consider this. 5 batches of 25l 18%.
strip them all to 5l 90% and combine them to give you 25l at 90%. now if you distill this properly to 95% do you think you will have to collect 30% as heads?? thats about 7 litres of heads!
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Peter, Did you ever see Abbott & Costello's math routine? They have nothing on you :-, Your numbers don't reflect actuallity. I started with 2 batches of about 6+ gallons each. Ran both through the stripper keeping almost everything and ended up with 4+ gals. at 50% I loaded this with aprox. 3 gals. of water into my reflux ,total of about 7 gals., I only got about 1/4 cup of real nasty stuff which I threw out, the next 1/2 qt. was coming out at about 78C but I put it aside just to play it safe. The last bottle ,the one with the heavy flowery smell, had about one qt. in it, and is allso put aside for the next time. The percentage of heads relates to the amount in the alc. not the amount of water. One turd floating in your sink, or your swimming pool is still only one turd. That much even I know.
Thanks again for your input,
Steve
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Hi Steve i was using numbers that multiplied easily just to show the advantages of stripping runs. i suggested 90% just to show the effect more. my stripping runs are done in a fractionating column and come out about 70-85% depending on when i stop collecting. water is not the bad guy in distilling a sugar wash. basically i first separate the alcohols from the water, then i separate the good alcohol from the bad alcohols. if i go to the trouble of removing water, i am not going to dilute back down the volatile mix which in effect shortens my reflux column. adding more water is also not energy efficient. if you collect heads from a pot still they are a big mix of water ethanol and nasties there is no great separation. if you eliminate the water you get better separation. if distilling 30l of 70% alcohol do you still think 30% will be heads? when making a heads cut there is a point where you are collecting Xml of good stuff as heads 'just to make sure', if you strip 5 runs you still only have to collect the same Xml, so you in effect make narrower cuts. you'll be quicker scooping 10 turds out of a sink than 10 in a swimming pool! have you visited www.homedistiller.org
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Gosh guys, I really don't see what this has to do with turds OR math. Adding water to something you're trying to distill seems pretty flippin' counterintuitive, doesn't it? What could adding water possibly do to help your situation, regardless of what you start with OR what you choose to retain? I totally understand that 'counterintuitive' does not equate to 'wrong', but neither of you seems to have addressed the objective of doing this.
'10 turds from a sink vs 10 from a swimming pool' seems damn logical to me. Adding water seems like one is trying to convince oneself he ain't got so many turds, which of course isn't true. What am I missing ,smart-ass comments notwithstanding,.
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I HAVE READ THIS AND NOW MY HEAD HURTS MAYBE ITS JUST FUSELS?
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