StillSmart Forum » Distillation

Pre-warming the wash?

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  1. swill
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    Hi All

    I'm Swill, from Australia, new to the forum, and ready to start! I'm a homebrew fan, so this is another aspect for me.

    I recently bought an air still and I was wondering a couple of things...

    Instead of putting the wash in cold and waiting an hour for the still to warm up can I just microwave the wash to hot and then pour it in the still to save heating time? (I'm going to use a 25L wash with 6KG sucrose so I'll have to do a few runs.)

    Next, when I distil the wash, how do I test for abv? Is it the same as for beer ie: use a hydrometer and subtract FG from IG and divide by 7.46? (I wish to double distil and then make faux cognac and whiskey.)

    Thanks in advance

    Posted 1 month ago #

  2. freelancement
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    may wish to change sucrose to dextrose, it will ferment differently with the triple distilled yeast which im assuming you will be using with the air still as it comes off at 60%. make sure you use the highest quality wash ingredients when using lower % stills.

    microwaving i would steer clear from, if you do .... becareful.
    you must remember that they redesigned the new Still Spirits Air Still to have a lower wattage (mmm 340W? from 750W), to be slower, so you dont distill to quickly resulting in a poor quality product, increase the temp will reduce the %. they also reduced this as a result of burning the wash.

    did you get an alco hydrometer with your kit? they act differently from the beer hydrometer (useful for finding when fermenting is complete and thats about it) the alco one will read the % of alco and water blend

    Excuse any spelling or poor expression in my posts ;)
    new T500, get on it ... http://tiny.cc/2hm4l
    Posted 1 month ago #

  3. Andy
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    Welcome swill.
    I started with an air still a while ago and looked into what you are wanting to do.
    I was told NOT to pre-warm the wash as it will give some off tastes IF you over heat it.
    I say (as above) use good stuff to make the wash IE: Triple Dis Yeast or Vodka Star NOT the Turbo Classic.
    Be patient and you will be rewarded, try and push things and you will be disappointed.
    Oh, dont be afraid to ask questions.
    Everybody is here to help you along your journey.
    Cheers
    Andy

    Posted 1 month ago #

  4. swill
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    Thanks for the replies Andy and Freelancement. Good advice, I'll stay away from the microwave idea!

    The yeast (I'll give the Triple Dis a go next time) I bought is a UK one called Samuel Willard's original temp tolerant yeast. The LHBS said it was the one they used themselves, and they had all the SS ones there too.

    I didn't get a kit as such, just the 'air-pot', so next time I swing by the LHBS I'll grab an alco-hydrometer too.

    Cheers

    Posted 1 month ago #

  5. freelancement
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    Samuel Willard's original temp tolerant is on par with the still spirits classic to memory. yeah, you will have a few issues with the high metho and filtering it and may notice a strange background taste, wont notice it if you mix it with liqueurs. but the triple distill has 1/10 of the impurities of the next grade down (classic), thus better when using 60% yield still, that said i use it with my T500 which is 95% not that it makes a huge difference to the quality when using the triple distilled

    Excuse any spelling or poor expression in my posts ;)
    new T500, get on it ... http://tiny.cc/2hm4l
    Posted 1 month ago #

  6. swill
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    OK, so what would be the minimum reasonable temp to ferment this SW yeast at to avoid stalled ferments. I'm happy to let it go for say 2 weeks before distilling. And I'll get that triple distil next week and get it in the other fermenter (when the double draught is done!).

    Posted 1 month ago #

  7. Phantom
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    Well here's a little thought......

    There should be no problem with pre-heating the wash, but I'd suggest that you do it in a large pan on a cooker - use a thermometer though as if you go too high then you'll lose some of the alcohol.

    I'd suggest that you start warming the wash to something like 50 or 60 degrees C, no more and at the same time, if you then just warmed the boiler section with some boiling water (so there's no loss in temp when the wash is poured in), then in theory, it should be quicker to get up to distilling temperature.

    As for testing for %ABV of distillate, I'd suggest that you get a "spirits hydrometer" and a sample test jar (you can spend thousands on very technical test kit, but a standard spirits hydrometer is accurate enough for most of us.....)

    What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away. Tom Waits.
    Posted 1 month ago #

  8. optic
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    I have in the past pre-heated the wash using an electric kettle to the temps that Phantom suggests and it does knock a fair bit of time off the warm up before the run starts,but as someone on here pointed out it works out cheaper to use the still from cold rather than the couple of minutes in the kettle,these days I run the still on a timer set for 2 1/4 hours to do the stripping run,I have had no problems doing it this way and you can get on with other things,and then I am with the still all the time doing the real fun bit-the spirit run.

    Optic

    I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me....Winston Churchill
    Posted 1 month ago #

  9. swill
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    Hi All

    So I got myself an alcoholometer the other day (ta Phantom). The wash has been on 4 days and it's finished fermenting already! Couldn't believe my eyes when it checked it. (My beers often take around 2 weeks). Anyway I'll leave it to clear for a week or so before I distil it.

    Say Optic, how much of your 4L wash does the 2 1/4 hour 'stripping run' yield? I was also thinking of double distilling if it means I get a better product. I guess you just take the heads cut out when you do your final spirit run.. right?

    Posted 1 month ago #

  10. Jimmy
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    That's what I do Swill - take about a litre in a stripping run. I collect each batch and put them into two glass demijohns - once the first runs are done, I top each up to 4 litres with water and run them again, this time taking off heads. This has two advantages - one, it's simple and improves quality, and two it allows me to use the spirit alcometer before the second runs to work out pretty accurately what I'm putting in and therefore what I can expect to take out. You can do this by measuring the specific gravity before you ferment, then measuring again after it's done and doing the calculations but I'm lazy so I skip that part as I know I'm doing the stripping runs.

    A 'traditional' stripping run would take a lot more than this, basically collecting as long as there is any ABV remaining. It's horses for courses - I waste more like this, but it gives me good quality results and it suits me.

    http://www.stillsmart.co.uk/
    Posted 1 month ago #

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