Tails

[B-Man]

Hey guys,

Haven't run my still for about a year and now having an issue.

I ran some wine through my 46L 4" unpacked bubble
I have done a few runs like this before with the same wine and not had an issue.

Basically I had my collection jars set from the other runs after tasting rather than collecting into stubbies for all the runs
This gave me plenty of wiggle room for the hearts and tails.

330ml fores + heads
2000ml hearts
2000ml hearts
900ml hearts/ tails
900ml hearts/ tails
2000ml tails

Run the fores and heads out slow
Collect at about 3L/hr @88% for hearts and let it slowly drop speed in the 900ml jars and turn off the rc to collect tails

Basically doing the same thing for this run and I feel I can taste tails in the first 2000ml jar.
Definately taste it in the second 2000ml jar. Collected 500ml in the next jar and it was terrible then pumped out the tails into a 2000ml with no rc and it taste way better than the others but still has a hint of tails.

Why am I getting tails so early?
Why does the non RC portion of the still run taste way better?

Based on the 13.5% abv of the wine I've collected 4.77L of pure alcohol out of the nearly 6L (80%collection) and most taste like tails. Where I normally get about 5.5L (90%) of the available alcohol with a 50/50 split of hearts and tails

[bluc]

Incomplete fermentation perhaps?

[B-Man]

It's the same batch of wine. The bubbler brings on tails so much earlier than the pot still.
Gave the whole bubbler a good clean but still doing it.

No visible signs of tails on the plates, still nice and fluffy bubbles and no condensation on the glass column.
No signs of oils going into the collection jar. But that does come about 2L later. With some slight condensation on the bubble plate glass and less bubbles.

[B-Man]

Trying a few different things to try and fix it....

after I cleaned the still and no difference.

I ran 20L through it and it wasn't as bad... still not great. I got nearly the same amount of hearts as a 46L run before the tails ruined it.

only thing I changed was not putting some olive oil in to stop it puking.

Decided to do a 40L run with no oil and hope it didn't puke. it didn't and I did get more hearts before tails but not double the 20L....

I'm running it the same way I used to and checking all my old documentation on how I ran it and never really got tails. now im getting tails mid way through what I feel should be my hearts its only slight to start with but it still ruins what I feel should be my hearts for nearly another L before tails should even be appearing.

I guess one question does the olive oil (I have used this in heaps of runs before) go off or in some way affect the wash causing tails?

What does everyone else use to stop the wash puking?
Any other ideas on why tails is coming on quicker that normal..

[B-Man]

another update.
Ran a 40L stripping run at 6000w with no oil.
couldn't taste any nasty tails the whole run..... collected down to 10% abv and ended up at 85% efficiency of the total pure alcohol put in vs collected.
is it just compressing the tails so much that it taste really bad? just cant understand why it comes in so early.