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Fores calculation

Hi Everyone.. Is there a rule of thumb better than "the first 100-200ml" for collecting fores? Is it a % of wash volume somehow taking into account ABV?

Answers

  • ....or are the fores so small like 10-20ml in ~50l that collecting 100-200 is sure to grab all the horrors plus a bit..?

  • Not really, Nasty.
    Fores have a really strong smell, to my nose it's 'hot'.
    I used to save the first coffee cup full for insect killer, bunson burner fuel or cleaner - it works great to remove soap scum. But it builds up over time so I just discard it now.

    The longer you stabilize your column, the more compressed the heads will be. A half hour of stabilization and probably 1/2 a coffee cup would be plenty to toss.

  • Fores kill fire ants in a way I never thought of (they are really bad here in Texas)... "season" the offending mound (they are all offensive), wait 15 secs, and then, drop a match (Hint: Take the fores jar inside before lighting any flammables)

    I was under the impression that the fore's amounts varied a tad based upon wash size - 5 gals - 150ml, 10 Gals, x 2 and so on...But I go by smell too, as mentioned above. It's really obvious at least on SF washes. Column temps shift a degree on my column too as a secondary notice...I literally "creep up" into the temp which etoh starts.. That is to say, I have the blichmann up high till she is within about 20 degrees, and then down to low and let the column temp rise slowly into the forecasted etoh temp for that day. Takes longer as mentioned above but worth it. Besides, with that PSIIhc, I'm gonna be three hours minimum for a 5 gal to run because I run it so low and slow (Pot mode - spirit run).

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  • I did a 6 gallon panela wash and let it go to 10% ABV (which took two days...this mamma really took off). I was going for a clean ferment to produce a nice neutral.

    I really wanted to compress my hearts, so I let the system stay for almost an hour after the temp stabilized (75˚C below the dephleg). Dephleg running on full force with fresh cold water.

    During that time, less than 100 ml or so came out. It had the typical sweet yet spicy fores odor. After that, there was maybe 200 ml of heads, and then it jumped right to the good hearts. Even the heads smell fairly clean actually.

    My question is, is it normal to have such a small volume of fores? I normally get the typical 100+ ml for a 6 gallon wash.

  • My understanding is that the cleaner your fermentation the less heads (and that includes fores) you will get. The big distilleries go to great lengths to get the fermentations right, and that is where we should be concentrating. If you get small amounts you are doing just fine.

    Try doing a turbo wash really stressing the yeast to produce junkahol for a cleaning run, and you can massively increase the volume of nasties.

  • edited April 2015

    I know this is an older thread.

    Can I really work on, when the sweet pear drop smell has stopped that's the end of the fores?

  • Depends on the wash and how stressed the ferment was. The line between fores and heads isn't a clear one in every case. You can get the pear odor straight through to late heads in some cases.

    In addition, your fores cut sizes will differ if you are running a pot vs a column (and stacking heads), because its relatively easy for the early alcohols and esters to carry straight through, especially if you run hard and fast.

    But really, I don't think much people care much about the fores cut point, because the next fraction is heads, which gets pitched anyway. First jar, first couple ml. Unless you are recycling heads, you are just pitching them anyway. If you are recycling heads, or trying for a fores cut on stripping, just take a really wide cut.

  • edited April 2015

    It will be with a 4" dash with 4 x pro bubble plates.

    The refluxing for 30 mins or so will help condense the fores and heads.

    With my T500 I was throwing about 400ml for 160 litres, maybe that wasn't enough.

  • edited April 2015

    Cuts don't work that way. You need to make a heads cut so fores don't really count for much in the scheme of things. I don't really cut them at all. I take all on a stripping run and i ditch a full litre on a spirit run as it's concentrated nasty heads. Then i make a wide heads cut where the distillate no longer tastes sweet and has that heads bite and recycle all the heads back into the strip jar.

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