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Stripping Tails after Spirit Run -> Flat Out or Not (+ Video)

edited February 2014 in Usage

Hi all,

I just had a thought while finishing my last run (could be fumes so don't laugh).

When we get to the stage of running out tails I assume everyone goes hard and just collects for a future feints run?

Would it make any sense to just shut everything down and just use everything thats left in the boiler to add to previously collected heads/tails from prior runs?

I ask cause after a long (interrupted) run I also run hard and fast but only down to 40% or perhaps 30% depending on what else I need to do.

Got a video of my tails running out after doing stripped TPW for neutral with 5 plates + packed section.
Chucking 7200W at it with no dephlem water, output is warm as the 2" long shotgun struggles with 38C cooling water running though it.
2 x old style long slot caps on the bottom, 3 x new style short slots on top.
Bottom 2 don't bubble during strip out but work well otherwise.

http://youtu.be/K_CzAKLH7ec

I had to shut down as the funkin flies shitting me so much I hit them with fly spray and kid you not - a drop or two hit the top clamp style sight glass _crack_ glass broke, funkin flies - pissed off now...

Better get a proper SGK or matching T from @punkin, reckon I've broke 4 or these already. Yea only finger tight...

Fadge

Comments

  • A SD lens failed you four times?
    I've used the same (rejected and edge chipped) lens on my boiler top port for SO many runs and didn't replace it til I replaced the entire boiler.
    I've spilled oodles of stuff on it. Opened and closed it so often it ain't funny because it was my fill port. Vented half a run to the atmosphere once by forgetting to place the O-ring. But I used the same lens the whole time - it never failed me.

    Can't YouTube right now (great firewall of China) so I can't get the whole picture.

    @fadge you are a great contributor and I have also seen plate anomalies that seldom can be reproduced.
    I tend to not collect tails because it makes my equipment stink. Once I get into tails I usually shut down.

    Would it make any sense to just shut everything down and just use everything thats left in the boiler to add to previously collected heads/tails from prior runs ?

    Ian Smiley advocates that in his book but my experience is that you are just recycling trash. Lots of good recyclable booze in heads but the tails are not so much, especially with plated columns that condense the fractions - the tails mostly just stink up the place. Keep some backset if you want or need but tails are mostly trash.

    Interesting that no-one has yet to come forward and prove that stripping out the tails from the backset improves it or not for "slopping back" into the next fermentation.

    As for the rest, "Bottom 2 don't bubble during strip out but work well otherwise", that seems normal. The bottom plates stop to work properly when the ethanol is depleted. The top plates also can act a bit strange on a many multi-plate column when the highest plates are floating at azeotrope.
    The cold reflux from the dephlegmator is partially to blame and I suspect the topmost plate is not the best indicator as it has to absorb and buffer the cold reflux. I'd be looking at the second and third plates from the top as the true indicators of how the column is operating. Saying this about a 6 to 8 or more plate column though.

    If I could, I'd just run a wash through 50 plates and be done with it but that is not practicable for the vast majority of us.

    Remember the XXX on the old time moonshine jugs? Each X represented a trip through the still that the spirit made. 1X was OK, 2X was better, 3X was quality and 4X was "perfection". I suggest the same applies here with plated stills.
    1M is a stripping run using 4 plates minimum. 2M has been further refined until finally 4M represents 50+ plates of distillation.

  • When doing neutral I never bother running the tails at all. I take my hearts cut and discard the rest. If you have neutral coming over as product, what is left in the boiler is just not cost effective to recover.

    Better to just do another fermentation.

    Pot still mode is different off course - I typically collect down to a vapour temperature of 98 deg C, and then switch off. I leave the condenser running to collect a little bit more on residual heat in the boiler.

  • edited February 2014

    thanks for replies just to clarify, l normally strip in a pot still collect down to 20 or 25 %. l do keep some backset from Whiskey wash only the TPW l chuck out. This run was stripped TPW, and l totally agree about tails stinking everything. Perhaps l should try a fast bubble plate strip following up with a slow neutral run. l assume just chuck fores from the strip. May be slightly more time consuming perhaps for a better product.

    fadge

  • I run flat out when i am past hearts all 8000 watts ... just to get it done down to 20 abv...

  • edited April 2015

    I'm with @Myles, I don't collect tails on a neutral spirit run. I don't want that stinky stuff going thru my pipe work so as soon as I notice tails I switch everything off and dump it.

  • @fadge said: thanks for replies just to clarify, l normally strip in a pot still collect down to 20 or 25 %. l do keep some backset from Whiskey wash only the TPW l chuck out. This run was stripped TPW, and l totally agree about tails stinking everything. Perhaps l should try a fast bubble plate strip following up with a slow neutral run. l assume just chuck fores from the strip. May be slightly more time consuming perhaps for a better product.

    This is how I plan to run my next TPW, through the plates with the RC turned off. Then a nice spirit run with the packed section added and the RC dialed in. I would think that it would save a lot of breaking down of columns/CDs. Just remove or add the packed section depending on what is in your boiler.

  • Well I'm with @Heef71 and @Myles , no tails thru my stills in the last 2 years. Is why I enjoy my plated columns so much, no more strip/spirit.....single pass and bye bye tails, they stank too much :-B

  • @captainshooch I haven't actually tried your method yet. I still have a bit of a pot-stiller's attitude, so tended to use a pot still before running on the column. All my gear is in storage but when I get back into operation I may give it a go.

    In the past my neutral runs were from pot still spirit run feints, so they had already been through the pot still twice.

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