Vodka yield

[Lasocietesecrete]

Hello fellows distillers,

we would like to have advice about vodka yields.

We ferment 2400 liters of grain mash and get about 10% abv.

We distill our low wines, no cuts, and get about 400 liters at around 40% abv.

We proof down our low wines to 30% and make the spirit run in our 600 liters still.

We yield about 150 liters of alcool at +/- 95% abv, wich seems low to us.

Any thoughts? advice?

 

Thanks all,

[Jedd Haas]

According to your numbers:

2400 liters of wash at 10% is 240 liters of absolute alcohol.

400 liters of low wines at 40% is 160 liters of absolute alcohol.

150 liters of neutral spirit at 95% is 142.5 liters of absolute alcohol.

The obvious source of loss is your low wines run, as you are only recovering 2/3 of the stated amount of alcohol in the wash.

Either a) your wash is less than 10% or b) you are cutting off the low wines run way too early.

If you run the wash down until the output is under 10%, you should be recovering around 98% of the alcohol, which would be around 588 liters at 40%.

You didn't say how much of the yield for the spirit run was heads and tails, but that could easily be the remainder from the low wines.

[Hudson bay distillers]

how are you testing your mash to come up with 10 percent abv 

[Lasocietesecrete]

Hello Hudson bay distillers.

Wash was at 20 plato before fermentation and 0 plato after.