Well I have now made and stored almost 18 Liters of 38% alcohol. This is after making two batches of mash, single run distilling, with the amazing still. I have nice clear product with a vodka smell... but the taste is a little weird...with an aftertaste. I have not filtered any of the alcohol yet, and keep reading and researching the topic of filtering.
I have not decided if to double distill my hooch to attempt to get it up to 50+% before the filtering effort.

this leads to a couple of continuing questions that I keep struggling with, so now I am finally breaking down and asking you folks with all the experience.

1. Is it necessary to have a full 1.5 meter tube for the filtering ? Or can you run the alcohol thru the 1/2 meter tube 3 times and accomplish the same thing ??

I am asking this after wondering why Rick sells the filter kit with only one section of tube as a complete kit including the carbon.

2. If the carbon is good for several liters, then how do you determine 'when' you must either replace your carbon, or boil and bake it out per the instructions ??

3. If you seal off the discharge/exit end of the filter and keep it full of alcohol after running a batch thru the filter, and seal the input end and keep the entire tube full,
Could the filter be used again a week later for a new batch without going thru the cleaning process ?? or replacing the carbon.

4. Could someone with experience please tell me if it is worth the time to do the second distilling using the amazing still to get the marginally stronger spirit. It is a time consuming process for only another 10-12% increase... or is it simply better to just drink a larger portion of the 38% ??

Thanks for any responses that is offered to this series of questions. I am sure the responses will greatly help any other Amazing Still users out there.

NCbrewmaker
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O.K. my friend, today is your lucky day. I too was new to all this 6 months ago. I have learned a lot and I will keep things simple. First off, wait until you heat up your used carbon and smell what you took off. That will explain your aftertaste, oilly and aromatic right? Let's keep this very simple. I assume you read all about carbon at homedistiller.org, right? Let's try to remember all that, but let's call this filtering for dummies. All you need to really know is that you can only run just about a gallon of 90% at one time, and never through more than once. The carbon has laying. One layer will have lots of bad stuff, one not so bad, and so on, as you get farther down the tube. O.K., here we keep things simple.
Get pvc tube suitable for drinking water,no aftertaste, 5-6 feet, 1 1/2 inch,no bigger, no smaller,don't ask why, just do it.
buy carbon must suitable for alcohol,buy it here,
carbon must be wet to get all air out, either spoon it in wet, or put it in dry, run water through it and get a coat hanger to get the bubbles out.
you will lose carbon everytime you use it, but I find that my tube only has about four feet of carbon and the end product is great, so don't get too involved with websites being overlly fussy.
Before you shovel the carbon in, if it's new, you must boil it, up to ten times until no black residue comes off anymore
Take two coffee filters and tape them to one end of the tube really tightly
put your carbon in, make sure it's wet and has no trapped air

cutting the booze- in order for carbon to properly work, you need to cut down the booze to max 60%.
cut it no more than 55% why?? read and find out
ok, secure the tube to a wall somewhere and get a bottle with a funnel underneath to catch the end product, start dumping your booze through

o.k., now your carbon is saturated with water, so when you put the booze in, guess what's coming out first, that's right, it's water. Just put your finger under it and keep tasting,feels oilly,until it tastes like vodka. Now start collecting, not before. once you run out of product, your tube is now saturated with alcohol
Once the last drip comes through, get distilled water and dump it in the tube until it tastes watery. Stop, take an alcoholmeter, and measure the first bottle, and the last bottle. Not 60% anymore is it, that's why you keep it as close to the max value. My first few tries, I cut to 50% and after water chasing it was under 40%. Keep it just below 60% and you won't have any problems. Now to restore the carbon. boil it three to four times, then place it on a pizza pan covered with foil,no foil and you rust the pan, bake it at 325 degrees F for three to four hours. Done, ready for next time. I hope I cleared up all that unnecessary science for you.

You need to cut it bacause at higher percentages, the fusel fuels are heavily dissolved and won't break away as easily and attach to the carbon, as well as the alcohol being so strong that it can actually take components from the carbon, not the other way around. That's the unscientific explanation. I have a solution for a guy like you with low grade alcohol, probably the bucket method, huh. You really should open your wallet and buy the #2 from here. I love it. Anyways, since you will capture too much water and make it even worse. I have found that if you get a brita water jug for the fridge, pull out the filter, tape two coffeee filters to the bottom. Fill the tube and 1 inch of the bottom with alcohol grade carbon, wet it down. Pour 1 quart through slowly, taste for water. then put it back in the water jug, don't chase the end, forget your losses, that's it. For even less loss, just fill the tube, not the bottom. Now as for why only so much alcohol, simple. Every piece of carbon gets saturated with bad fusel fuels. Once they have taken in too much, they no longer have the ability to trap more. Please filter, you won't like what you are drinking once you smell it off gassing in the oven.