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Wine distillate smells like tear gas !!!


leftturndistilling

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Hello ALL!!... Been a day since ive been on here !... Miss you all !!.. I am distilling about 2000 gallons of Gewurtztraminer wine that the customer wants to recover the alcohol for fortification and for sanitizer. Using a 200 gallon copper pot and as the spirit is coming out it smell like Tear Gas !!.. The taste is a little acidic but the smell is horrible .. Any ideas????... Thanxxx in advance !!.. Brian

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Definitely sulfur. Winery probably put a ton of SO2 to it in an effort to preserve it. Redistilling doesn't quite get rid of it. Your best bet is to dilute it, aerate the heck out of it, and redisitill it through a still with plenty of copper. Hope this helps. Cheers! Adam

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Its likely so2 in the wine but it might also be acrolein, which is truly like tear gas (will make your eyes water, cause coughing etc). Its not really detectable in the wine, its formed in the still. If its acrolein your best bet is to dump the wine, but the aroma will dissipate a bit after several years of aging. There is a good feature on it by Gary Spedding in Artisan Spirit magazine. Its an awful experience. 

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On 2/25/2021 at 12:44 PM, Stumpy's said:

Definitely sulfur. Winery probably put a ton of SO2 to it in an effort to preserve it. Redistilling doesn't quite get rid of it. Your best bet is to dilute it, aerate the heck out of it, and redisitill it through a still with plenty of copper. Hope this helps. Cheers! Adam

Ive said it before ill say it again

 

Do exactly what Stumpy says!

 

Cheers

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We are currently running a batch of rye with the same issues.  Pulled a sample of late heads as I approached what should be hearts, proofed down, gave the glass a smell and started choking. Back of throat burning and eyes watering. The only variable in this batch is we used a saison esque yeast at a fairly high temp. I'm guessing this caused it to produce a ton of sulfur and now potentially acrolein. Thoughts?

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