After Filtering it drops to 10% ABV

After throwing 40% alcohol through filter all I get is 10% alcohol and a watery taste. Can I just not filter it will it be safe? I use a kettle boiler and the TPW wash.

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  • Was the filter full of water at the start... and if so what volumes are you filtering...?

  • @FullySilenced said: Was the filter full of water at the start... and if so what volumes are you filtering...?

    I started with water in the carbon first and let it go through for a bit a long time so the spirit to go through the carbon. Only had 10% alcohol. So I found a new cartridge and still 10%. 1.25L at 40%

  • I have never filtered that small of a quantity... I am think the H20 in the filter is your dilution issue... but I defer to the expert's

  • edited May 2016

    I never filter any of my spirits, unless you call making good cuts filtering.

    FWIW learning how to make good heads cuts was the most difficult part of learning how to distill for me. I live in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, on the far side of BFE. There are no other distillers nearby to mentor me. I learned how to distill by reading forums on the internet and experimenting on my own. Making good tails cuts is easy. They smell like someone vomited on dirty socks.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • if you are trying to filter 1.25L in a 1L filter housing, you will have such problems...

    I would build your still so you do not need a filter (more plates/packed section), or for that small amount, just use loose carbon shaken in a mason jar and settled...

  • Kapea, you and I have very similar experiences and opinions. The only stiller friends I had for decades were the ones I'd taught, and that gets a little incestuous,

    As for filtering, it seems to have been a major part of the original New Zealand homestiller movement. Make awful-tasting shit as fast as you can using turbos, and then filter it so you can stand to drink it. I don't hear any of that silliness from Kiwis these days, and once again we need to learn from them.

    I'm making mostly allgrain bourbon these days, and for whatever reason, I can go way into what used to be tails before I get anything disagreeable. Weak and dull, yes, but disagreeable comes way late these days. Not sure why.

    Zymurgy Bob, a simple potstiller

    my book, Making Fine Spirits

  • @cotherman & @fullysilenced are correct. You have water in your housings.

    Filters do not dilute and are generally particulate removal mechanisms especially when one uses polypropylene or similar as the filtering medium.

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