Doubleuj wrote:Are you doing cuts? And what abv are you smelling it at?
Tesla101 wrote:Sounds like you're smearing fores/heads through the run.
Are you doing a stripping run and then a spirit run, or just a single pass?
Although running by cooling outlet temp is not a measure of how well it's running, out of curiosity what is the running temp?
Tesla101 wrote:Hmm. Do you know if the previous owner did any DIY repairs on it? Like trying to fix a leak with liquid nails or something not food grade? Some pics of the plastic at the top might help.
The only other things that comes to mind are - did you replace the take off hose with copper? Are you using any plastic collection jars? Have you packed the column with SS scrubbers too tight? What are you fermenting in - is it food grade?
Otherwise I'd probably recommend trying a fresh stripping run, then diluting it to ~30% (about 10L in the boiler) and then a slow spirit run. I find that if I do my spirit run with the needle valve fully open I start getting drips at about 36 degrees and then a drip, drip, dribble at around 42 and by the time I'm into tails it's around 46 degrees. The lower and slower you go, the better your neutral will be.
Tesla101 wrote:It sounds like everything you're doing is right. I can't think of anything else, apart from doing the strip/spirit run next time. I strip mine with the allembic pot head and usually pull about 6L in around 2 hours, but you should be able to do a stripping run with the reflux column in about the same time by just running it a bit faster. I wouldn't take it over about 65 degrees though. I'd also leave the packing in, it will help keep it running a bit cooler.
For the spirit run, it's good if you can keep the still in full reflux for about half an hour before taking off any spirit. (Something I can't do with mine for some reason, maybe your needle valve is a bit bigger than mine) This will help separate the more volatile (like methanol, propanols and acetate) alcohols from the less ones (ethanol), which you can then each of them off slowly. It will mean that your spirit run will take longer, but should be easier to make cuts and hopefully end up with a better product. I ran mine as slow as I could for an experiment once and it took 11.5 hours from switch on to off, but I did end up with a lot more hearts and a lot less heads/tails (but more concentrated) as a result.
As for the packing, mine has the copper saddles and the little spiky stainless steel saddles it came with and it's fine. I don't think replacing the scrubbers with copper mesh would help too much.
The TPW should taste like weak tomato paste mixed with weak alcohol when it's finished fermenting. As for smell, I lost my sense of smell, but I just asked my daughter to smell mine as they have almost finished fermenting. She described it as a bit like cooked tomato combined with a Sharpie - Sharpie being the alcohol smell. I have aquarium heaters set to about 28 degrees in my fermenters.
Also, just wanted to double check - you said your following the T&P TPW recipe. Does that mean you're using baker's yeast and not turbo yeast? I hope you're not using turbo.
The Stig wrote:Run water faster, in a T500 try keeping the outgoing water temp at around 40 deg.
This will hold full reflux and stack the column.
Then after 20 mins or so you can slow the water down a little and slowly pull off the Foreshots and heads
The Stig wrote:I ran a T500 for a good 7 years and it took me a while to get it all down pat .
I did get to the point where the product I was producing was more that acceptable .
Sure it’s not bubbler good but there a nothing wrong with the T500 once you learn its limitations and work around them.
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