Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi all
Still getting bitter tastes come though even after I do harsh cuts, any advise or tips to prevent this is it possibly something in ferment side of things?

Reflux Still? Is your packing and column clean from your last run?

What wash did you use?

Sorry guys
Yeh reflux still
Always pull packing out clean after every run
Using tpw wash

Any sediment making it into boiler possibly burning?

Nah shouldn't be
I leave to settle for good week or 2 and don't collect down close enough to yeast bed.
What things usually contribute to getting bitterness through yo final product when doing a tpw wash?

Not sure what causes bitterness, but we had that happen after doing a corn mash and boiling it with quite a bit of sediment in the boiler... this then burnt onto the element and went throughout the still... we ended up pulling the whole thing apart and washing it twice with dishwashing liquid (actually boiling the smaller bits'n'pieces) and then washing it with hot water 2 or 3 times... we scrubbed the boiler and larger pipes...
Once we had that all done, we assembled the lot and did a caustic soda wash, broke it down cleaned it, reassembled it did oust a water run, then a vinegar run and a sac run... the bitterness now is almost gone .. not 100% sure it was caused by the corn mash, but things have not been the same since.

So blucs' suggestion of sediment is a strong possibility... from my perspective.

Never had any bitterness from any wash beforehand.

Or maybe a lacto infection :-B I have had two and gives spirit a sour/bitter taste. It fades with time on oak. But neutral is quite often unaged..may explain the" twang" in the other blokes thread also.

Hi @rossgillespie ,

Are you doing striping runs first before final spirit run?
What % abv are you getting from spirit run.

Have you tasted the wash before the strip run to make sure it has no sweetness. It should taste like dry cider.

No I just do a single reflux run
Comes out @ 92%

Yeh wash is always quite dry when finished

Just noticed these little white dots?
They are above the wash line but infection???

The dots do look like the start of a lacto infection.
This photo is similar to what mine looked like but was a pretty major infection.


Looking at yours I dont think it would have a major impact but not sure since your doing neutral maybe its more noticeable. I havnt done neutral yet. The presence of lactic acid does give it a sour/bitter taste. And I much prefer my whiskey without it... :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Best way to remove lacto infection from all equipment?
Phosphoric acid 10% sanitised do the trick?

Sodium percarbonate will do it give everything a good soak also lot safer than messing round with acids. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

hmmm, this makes me think this could be my problem too (sediment making it into the still). I usually use the tap and then turn it off when it gets close to the bottom. Whats the best way to transfer the contents from a fermenter to a still? Do people use a pump? Gravity siphoning?

I use a magnetic pump :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Suck suck suck suck :puke-huge:

Rolls912 wrote:hmmm, this makes me think this could be my problem too (sediment making it into the still). I usually use the tap and then turn it off when it gets close to the bottom. Whats the best way to transfer the contents from a fermenter to a still? Do people use a pump? Gravity siphoning?

Hi mate.

I use a pump but then I have a 250 litre fermenter and a 100 litre boiler.

Since you're using a T500 I imagine you've got a 30 litre fermenter in either a bucket style or a barrel style from the HBS. If so, the sediment should settle out just below the tap however unless you're using one of the sediment reducing attachments on the tap, you will get some sediment settling in the tap too. You can just run the tap into a bucket for a little bit to allow any sediment in and around the tap to come out before you start transferring to the boiler. The little bit of wash you lose doing this is not going to make much of a dent in your yield. Siphoning will work well too provided you keep the end of the hose well away from the sediment otherwise it'll vacuum it up.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

RC Al wrote:Suck suck suck suck :puke-huge:

Especially at 6.30am on sunday after a night on piss :puke-huge:

bluc wrote:

RC Al wrote:Suck suck suck suck :puke-huge:

Especially at 6.30am on sunday after a night on piss :puke-huge:

Been there, done that many times.:laughing-rolling:
I used my old beer siphon for ages, it was very technically advanced, I zip tied a wooden dowel 2 inches past the end of my silicon tube. That way when the dowel touched the bottom of the fermenter the silicon tube was still in clear wash. That way I never got much slurry into my boiler.