I prepared my first batch and a half of 8kg turbo mash. I put in a little too much sugar. ,40lbs instead of 27, I was thinking double batch, However I kept the temp down around 75f and it fermented for about 15 days. I used gelitin to clear. The mash wasnt crystal clear when I transfered but the lees were not transfered. First distillation had a very bad rotten egg smell. I cleaned the keg and distilled again dilluting with water. It is much beter than the first, 93% but still has a slight odor. are there things that I am missing? Or is the answer to my carbon filtering question: yes, you must filter with carbon if you are to have tasteless odorless product. I don't think it is my equipment. I am very proud of the machine we built. , 1 donated tubing, 1 welded etc..,we are a sportsmans club in Chicago that enjoys flavored shots! Sambuca is our curent favorite, GERT NEEDS TO GET A CINNAMON ESSEN! Goldshlager ,. It looks just like a lab master only a little bigger. 3ft colum, 300mm condenser screwing into a beer keg. All stainless, all stainless welds. Pot scrubers then 1LT rashig rings. Should I expect to have an odor. Or am I traveling along the learning curve soon to perfect my product?

The 'rotten egg' smell is sometimes associated with all-stainless steel setups. Copper is a known catalyst that will react with the sulphides present, and remove them. This is one of the reasons why most of the old commercial stills ,particularly whisky, were made of copper. You may try to put some copper in the vapour path, either by using copper scouring pads for packing, or just adding a couple of copper strips in with the packing. If starting to build a still from new, I'd recommend that the column be made from copper, despite its extra cost. For more information about copper, see http://homedistiller.org/materials.htm#copper Note though - many people with all stainless steel stills have no problems with the rotten-egg smell. Seems like its sometimes just the luck of the draw. Maybe in that case its the yeast being used - some will put out more sulphides than others, particularly if stress ,Eg high temperatures, or high sugar or alcohol concentrations,

Jimbull.... no I don't use a clearing agent in my wash , I let gravity and time do the work. The only reflux I do is in the column... as you know, the Nixon Stone Head has a valve to return the spirit back to the column for further refluxing and thus returning a higher abv%. I tried the valve on one occasion and altho the end result was a higher abv% on the last of the run, the time added was deamed 'not worth it' For whatever reason I seamed to hit on a 'sweet setup' when I built my still and am more than satisfied with its results from the very beginning. as a side note.... I mentioned to the site admin about a page to post a pic of our rigs on.... good idea huh ?

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