Distilling workshop
Practical notes for the still, the column and the aging shelf.
Wash
| Control | What to record | Practical action |
|---|---|---|
| Pitching yeast | Yeast amount, water and wash temperature at pitching | Stay under 16% ABV for standard yeast tolerance, or plan a second batch instead of a stronger one. |
| Fermentation temperature | Temperature at the start and once a day after | Keep it around 24-30°C; cool it down if it climbs — most off-flavours come from too much heat, not too little. |
| Mash or wash pH | pH before pitching and partway through fermentation | Keep it around 4.0-4.5; grain and fruit washes drift higher than sugar washes without a check. |
| Gravity reading | Starting gravity and current gravity | Fermentation is usually done when gravity holds steady for two days running, not just when bubbling slows. |
Stripping run
| Control | What to record | Practical action |
|---|---|---|
| Charge volume | Wash volume loaded into the cube | Fill the cube to no more than three quarters full — the rest is headspace for foam and boil-over. |
| Cut-off point | Cube temperature or estimated spirit strength near the end | Stop "to water" once the stream is too weak to be worth collecting; keep the last, weak runnings as the next charge's water. |
| Stillage (barda) | Volume left in the cube and how it was disposed of | Drain the cube while it is still warm — stillage sets hard once it cools. |
Distillation program · Wash column · Continuous wash column (NBK)
Spirit run
| Control | What to record | Practical action |
|---|---|---|
| Foreshots | Volume discarded before the first collected fraction | Discard about 2.5 mL per litre of charge before collecting anything else — never taste it, this is the most concentrated methanol cut. |
| Heads cut | Volume and % of absolute alcohol collected as heads | Expect heads around 8-11% of the charge's absolute alcohol; cut by smell (solvent, acetone) as much as by volume. |
| Hearts cut | Stream strength (ABV) at the moment you switch to tails | Move to tails around 55-65% ABV in the stream — sooner for a fruit brandy, later for a neutral base. |
| Tails | Volume and what happens to it next | Keep tails to redistill in the next charge rather than discard them. |
Column run
Flooding power
Every packed column has a power ceiling before liquid backs up instead of draining down. Find it once with a slow, controlled power increase and record it — run at a safe margin below it, not at it.
Reflux ratio
A column returns most of the condensate through the dephlegmator and only takes off a fraction as product. More reflux gives a purer but slower cut; the program sets it per phase.
Pre-flood hold
The pre-flood program holds the column automatically just under its flooding point instead of a fixed power — useful once the packing or the charge changes and an old power setting stops working.
Automatic cutting
The rectification program can switch from heads to hearts to tails by time, temperature or volume — the same fractions as a manual spirit run, just executed by the controller.
Rectification cut program · Pre-flood hold · Program calculator
Dilution and rest
| Control | What to record | Practical action |
|---|---|---|
| Direction of mixing | Which way you poured — water into spirit or spirit into water | Add water into spirit, not the other way round — pouring spirit into water avoids a local pocket of near-pure alcohol that can cloud the batch. |
| Haze | Whether the diluted spirit clouds and at what strength | Aromatic spirits (fruit, some grain congeners) can haze below about 46% ABV — chill and filter it, or stop dilution a little higher. |
| Contraction | Volume before and after adding water | Water and alcohol shrink slightly when mixed — expect a bit less final volume than a simple ratio predicts. |
| Rest period | Date diluted | Let a diluted spirit rest 1-2 weeks before tasting it — the sharp edge fades with time alone. |
Aging
| Control | What to record | Practical action |
|---|---|---|
| Vessel | Glass, oak chips or barrel | Pick one vessel type per batch in the journal — the schedule of follow-up sample reminders depends on it. |
| Oak chip dose and time | Grams per litre and days on chips | Cap chips at 10 g/L and 28 days; past that you are pulling out tannin, not adding flavour. |
| Barrel fill strength | ABV at the moment of filling | Fill a barrel at 55-62% ABV — weaker and the wood gives up too little, stronger and the char can turn bitter fast. |
| Angels' share | Volume at fill and at each sample | Track the level drop at each sample; a small barrel can lose several percent a year, faster in a warm, dry room. |
Defects and safety
| Symptom | Next action |
|---|---|
| Fusel — heavy, oily, hot solvent note that lingers | Cut hearts earlier next run and take tails sooner; fusel oils concentrate late in the hearts and in the tails. |
| Acetone — sharp, nail-polish smell | Widen the heads cut; this is an early-run defect that resting will not fix. |
| Sulfur — rotten egg or burnt match smell | Usually stressed or old yeast; splash the spirit to let it breathe, and pitch a fresher pack next batch. |
| Oak bitterness — dry, tannic, plinth-like bite | Take it off the chips or out of the barrel now; oak character does not soften back down once it goes over. |
| Haze after dilution | Below about 46% ABV, essential oils in fruit and grain spirits can drop out of solution; chill, filter, or dilute a little less. |
| Heads in the nose — solvent smell in an otherwise finished spirit | The hearts cut started too early; move the cut point later next run. |
| Tails in the taste — oily, vegetal aftertaste | The hearts cut ran too long; move the cut point earlier next run. |
| Steam near the column or the take-off point | Never open a hot column or a sealed cube; let pressure and temperature drop first. |
| Open flame or a sparking heater near vapour | Keep any open flame away from the still and ventilate the room — alcohol vapour is heavier than air and pools low. |
| Fruit wash, first millilitres of any run | Fruit mashes carry more methanol than sugar or grain washes; always discard the foreshots — never taste or drink them. |
Emergency button and additional sensors · System messages
This guide helps organise observations; it does not replace basic distilling safety training.