BEGINNERS GUIDE DISTILLING PART 1
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So we've gone through this “Beginner's Guide”, and we're at the point now, where we're going to take all that information. We're going to kind of cram it together and do one thing only, we're going to distill.
Today we're going to run our three-gallon mighty meeting. And I'm going to describe a few things as we're going through this because again, this is the beginner's guide, and we want to make sure that we fully understand what we're doing. It's not rocket science.
The first thing that we're going to need, first of all, we're gonna need to still we're gonna need to mash and then we're going to need some, a method to cool and a method to heat.
It is just my technique of stopping before I get the tails. So I normally stop at 100 proof. And so and that's my two data points I use. And the reason I use those two is that above 204 degrees Fahrenheit, you're getting such a robust energy input, that it has a tendency to mix those fucile or soils and more of that water with that vapor. And you'll start to produce tails early on also at 100 proof, below 100 proof, you have a tendency to kind of overdo it with the temperature.
So when I hit those two together, I can hit 110 proof and be at 204. And I'll keep running until I get to 100 proof. Or I could be at 100 proof and it's only 200 degrees. I'll keep running until I get to 204. If I dropped below that 100 I'm still going to stop.
The condenser on that requires only two things cold water in, water out, water in water out. That's all there is all it requires and no metering of it. So we anticipate drawing somewhere between 131 35, maybe one maybe 150. And proof at the very beginning and then precipitously that will drop off until we stop.
And so again, the water is Water out, we have a couple of options. If you got some really cold well water or your city waters really cold, you can run that through your condenser. But then just run it in, run out and go on away it, you know, sort of like a waste of water. And you're going to run this for probably about three hours.
Now, how cool does that water have to be? Well, it has to be cooler than the vapor, that's number one. But if you can drop that vapor temperature and the beginning we're looking at somewhere around 170 180 degrees. And you can drop that temperature flash, cool it down below 70 degrees, you get a really good condensing, which actually happens all at once.
If your water is above 100 degrees, or somewhere near that, you tend to have some vapors that escaped past your liquid. So you kind of start and guess what the most volatile substance stays vaporized.
Ethanol, so you start losing a little bit. So if you can get a cool down below 70 degrees, you're good. Ice and water are extremely good. And you'll notice that your condenser will sweat.
You have water dripping off of it , don't worry about that. That's perfectly okay.