OFD142014 Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 Hello All, 1st time, long time... but I'll get straight to the point.: My rum heads are emerging as a clear yellow distillate. The yellow does eventually clear up but, in my opinion, way too far into what I want to include in my "hearts" cut. What can I do to prevent this? - It only happens when rectifying low wines. If I distill molasses wash in single pass, I don't get this color at all. - I don't notice this in any other washes (grain, fruit, sugar or otherwise) that I have done to date - I am using a 6-plate column with site glasses and have noticed no "puking." - I have tried diluting with water and rerunning the spirit to cut it away, but same old story... color carries too far into "heart" - I have also tried charcoal filtering it through a pilot charcoal filter. Yellow doesn't filter out. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebstauffer Posted September 19, 2015 Share Posted September 19, 2015 Tell us a bit more about your product condenser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OFD142014 Posted September 20, 2015 Author Share Posted September 20, 2015 I appreciate your interest. It is a copper shotgun condenser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebstauffer Posted September 21, 2015 Share Posted September 21, 2015 First Id ensure there no puking up the column but with six trays I cant beleive you wouldnt notice. Second, I'd back flush your condenser & column if you have the fittings for that. Admittedly I have fouled four trays but never up through the deph into the PC. May want to hedge you best with some Patcote 376 or something similiar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OFD142014 Posted September 22, 2015 Author Share Posted September 22, 2015 After my 3rd strip, I disassembled the condenser yesterday and noticed A LOT of crud had built up. Soaked in very mild caustic, then mild acid and then rinsed with water. This seemed to chew up a lot of what had accumulated in there. My guess is that the accumulation of fatty/ oily stuff comes with the later part of the hard fast stripping runs and only really has the opportunity to dissolve into solution again with the high proof spirit that comes over in the rectification run? I will be doing a spirit run today and look forward to the results. Thank you for your help! I Will share my findings in the next post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skaalvenn Posted September 22, 2015 Share Posted September 22, 2015 I get a yellowish tint to my early heads but it goes completely clear well before the hearts cut. When I saw it for the first time I panicked thinking that something had gone wrong, but after speaking to a few other distillers it appears to be a normal occurrence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OFD142014 Posted September 23, 2015 Author Share Posted September 23, 2015 Awesome, thank you. Even after a thorough cleaning of the condenser, the yellow still appeared yesterday in the first part of the spirit run. I will stop worrying about it if this is normal. Thank you both for your imput, I really do appreciate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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