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Acetaldehyde has a very low boiling point, barely above the ambient air temperature. So, it “effervesces” off even as your boiler is heating up. You’ll smell it early on. The fruit flies come swarming when they smell it too and they’ll try to go swimming in your jars if you’ve collected any yet.
As you no doubt know, acetaldehyde is a fermentation product from rapid ferments and is a precursor to ethanol. It typically is reduced in the fermenter when attenuating, so letting your ferments settle naturally will help reduce this constituent.
Ethyl acetate and acetone likewise have a fruity/solvent-like (fingernail polish remover) smell but are not as volatile, ie - a higher boiling point. They will come over in the heads and depending on how you run (hot and fast or slow and low), it can smear into the early hearts, or get compressed predominantly into the foreshots and heads. Many hobbyists confuse ethyl acetate and acetone (or any of the other ketones) with acetaldehyde, but the latter typically is very minimal in a run, especially low wines. And it is usually gone by the time you air out the collection jars because of its volatility.
With a CCVM, I’d recommend approaching production slowly with the reflux coil down deep, producing the higher reflux ratios. Then, slowly lifting the coil slightly until it starts to drip out of the product condenser. Once you’ve collected foreshots, then you can bring up the heat a little to increase the reflux ratio. You’ll notice the proof at the spout rise a few points too.
Typically, I’ll notice the product %ABV dip during the foreshots because the density of some of the early heads is slightly higher than alcohol. As a result, the measured “proof” dips a point or 3 (as the Proof &Traille hydrometer floats higher), but then returns to 96%ABV as the run progresses. I have a conventional VM and it’ll produce 96%ABV product all the way to the end, when it just stops producing.
Also, insulating the column will increase efficiency of the packing for reflux. It keeps the heat in the column so that rising hot vapors interact with falling cool condensate transferring heat and initiating the reboiling. This helps separation of volatile compounds.
Insulating the boiler will help you boil quicker because you’re not losing heat to the surroundings as much. It’ll save time and energy.
If you’re still not satisfied with the “taste” of your product after a strip and a reflux distillation, you could always dilute your (combined) collection and run it again. Yes, triple distillation will further help to eliminate flavors. And I always prefer triple distillations for high purity products rather than charcoal filtering. Activated charcoal is just too messy to work with, so I avoid it.
ssAttention new distillers: Cranky's spoon feed info
My LM/VM & Potstill: My build thread
My Cadco hotplate modification thread: Hotplate Build
My stock pot gin still: stock pot potstill
My 5-grain Bourbon recipe: Special K |
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Post time 2022-12-1 05:27:34
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