Muschiana

On 11/4/2017 at 11:25 AM, bluestar said:

DON'T USE A COPPER CONDENSER WITH FRUIT SPIRITS that can produce acid vapors. You likely have a fair amount of acetic acid (maybe malic acid) in the distillate, and it is creating copper acetate (maybe copper malate) which gives the bluish hue. It is toxic.

Thank you for the input!

We are aware of the result of using a copper condenser with both fruit washes and gin, however the condenser cannot be changed at the moment. We ended up "salting" out the acid via addition of calcium carbonate which in turn removed much of the already present copper salts. Given that changing our current set-up is more invasive than altering pH, my question still remains unanswered in that we need to adjust pH at some point to reduce acidity and thus production of copper salts and the pass through of volatile acids but are unsure if this should happen before our initial stripping run or after .

I was recently reading a different post from a few years back and hoped to get some info on this.

A large batch of pear cider sorta feel into our lap recently (Aprx. 2,000 gal). We planned to take a similar approach to most of our apple brandy runs we have done in the past and do a two run/ strip and finish distillation. The initial pH of the cider when we received it was measured around 3.5. Our stripping runs are tasting great with a decent yield but we have noticed a definite acidity to the distillate itself (pH aprx. 2.9-3) as well as noting a general blueish hue (we have a copper condenser so no surprise there). But due to the high acidity after the stripping runs even, we are thinking of adjusting the pH of the distillate prior to our second/ finishing distillation.

Should pH adjustment be happening prior to stripping runs?

2 hours ago, Silk City Distillers said:

Split column that isn't returning reflux from the final column to the top of the preceding column will have lower distillation efficiency than an equivalent single column.

 

It makes sense. The bottom of the second column returns to the kettle currently.. Please correct me if im wrong but it sounds like the general consensus is that we need to add surface area (packing) in order to off set both our column height to diameter ratio, as well as our having a split column with no reflux return from the second to the first.

1 hour ago, bluefish_dist said:

If you have a 20 foot 18" in diameter column it's not 20x the diameter in height. You would have to add another 10 ft to achieve 20x.   18x20/12=30 ft.   I would think with an 18" column plates would be a better idea.  How many plates do you have ?

Correct. we have 18 plates, no bubble caps. The column is split with 7 plates on the first and 11 on the second. The dephs on each are pretty sizable too.

On 7/9/2016 at 11:40 AM, DistillaMI said:

Hey guys,

Any advice on getting < 190 on a 15 plate reflux still? It's been such a pain for me, but I would like any tips on making it a bit easier to achieve.

I normally add about 315-330 gallons at around 125-135 proof, heat ups are about 2.5-3 hours, all plates active and bubbling, easy to pull 188, that last few points though are a pain, any advice?

 

Having the exact same issue. 126 gal kettle,  20ft 18in reflux column with 2 dephs charged at 40-50%. We've tried just about everything. 

On 2/15/2017 at 4:49 PM, bluefish_dist said:

I am a firm believer in the 20x diameter for packed to get a reliable neutral at a decent take off rate or 20 ish plates.   I struggled when I first started since I was less than that.   Added more height and more efficient packing which fixed the problem.   

I think that home distillers can get a claimed 190 for two reasons, using uncalibrated Hydrometers and with a 2" column it's a lot easier to get to 20 X the diameter as its only 40".  6" is a full 10 ft for starters.   The only way to do it with a tall still is to move the column next to the still.   I have seen a few setups with the column not in line but never run one. 

This intrigues me though. Based on what you are saying, our column is way too tall for the given diameter. Is our only option left to start trying packing??