Hi there, here's a run procedure for the iStill One. Required reading for iStill One owners or will-be iStill One owners. It's for the iStill One doing a one run finishing approach, to take a mash of 7 to 12% and turn it into a nice brandy, rum in whiskey in one go. For beer distillation, so without (many) solids in the liquid you are going to distill.
One distillation approach on a clear wash:
- Add all cleaning sections as well as the catalyst with clean copper packing to the iStill One;
- Dial the cut points into the computer;
- The first cut point (for Fores and for reduced power input) is always 78.3 degrees C at the output temperature measuring rod, others (for Tails, may vary);
- Fill to boiler with a maximum of 1,250 liters of wash;
- Set the agitator at 5 revs per minute;
- Open up the water cooling;
- Fire up the heaters at full power;
- The boiler content will heat up in two hours;
- The column will be heated in the next hour, stacking Fores and Heads increadibly well;
- You will see drips of Fores coming off as soon as 30 degrees C Output Temperature - collect them in the Fores & Heads container;
- Keep on throwing 100% power at her until the 78.3 degrees C alarm goes off;
- Now, shut down the three outer burner rings, thus limiting power input to around 55%;
- The product will come out at a faster rate, but as long as it is no steady stream, it is still Heads, so collect in the Fores & Heads container;
- When there is a big and steady stream, you entered hearts - collect in the Hearts container;
- Hearts to tails transition can be defined by taste, by ABV, or by seeing that big, steady >30 liter per hour stream of product coming out starting to colapse;
- After a first try-out run, this (taste, ABV, stream) will teach you how to dial in the computer for the Tails cut on consecutive runs - you enter this end cut temperature in the computer under "Temperature In" - that's far enough away from the top of the column to prevent Tails smearing into your Hearts;
- When Tails are evident, remove the Hearts container, add the Tails container instead;
- Now stop the program on the computer;
- Then shut off the gas burners;
- Keep the cooling water flowing for at least another half hour, while the iStill One collects Tails automatically, even with the burners off.
This shut-down procedure, after Hearts are taken, is very important, because if you do not follow procedure, gasses that still rise up will not be cooled down to a liquid state, thus potentially causing pressure issues. So I will repeat it.
Shut-down procedure:
- Press "Stop" on the computer in order to stop the agitator;
- Turn off the gas burners completely (preferably by killing the main leaver);
- Keep the cooling water flowing for at least half an hour after shut-down, while the iStill One is collecting Tails.
Since Fores and Heads are very well compacted, we advice you toss them. The same goes for Tails, even though on making a heavy whiskey, one may add them to a next mash for additional grain or peat taste to come over in the next run.
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