Stripping Run Distillation Tutorial

[@Jake_B74]

Great video for new distillers, Jessie. I feel like this is exactly the kind of content this channel and the hobby in general needs. I'd like to add 2 small tidbits, I hope you don't mind. When looking for vapor leaks, the back of a cool tablespoon is the perfect tool. Just move it around all sides of your triclamps, vapor leaks will fog it quicly. The other tip I'd like to add is even more time can be saved on stripping runs. I do mine 4 in a row. It makes for a long day, but the reason I do it is it saves time overall. As my distilite gets down to around 20%, I start putting my next batch of wash in a stock pot. I have a 10 gallon setup, and 8 5 gallon buckets of wash ready to go, and a 2 gallon stock pot. I just fill the stock pot from a bucket, get it steaming, tip it back into the bucket and do another stockpot full over and over until I am ready for my 2nd - 4th run. By the time I am ready for my next strip, the wash is just shy of steaming so I get drips a lot faster than the 1st run. I have thought of hooking up a mash cooler to my condenser output to use the waste heat energy from the still for this. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure it will work.

[@festerallday]

It does work. I either use my condenser water to start a new wort/brew or I flow the next run through the condenser to preheat it. Thank you so much for the cold spoon idea. No more candles for me

[@AustinMaddox]

I'm happy to see you're back to doing these types of videos.

[@TheMopangbend]

Always up for learning any tidbit to make me a better distiller….. 10 years in.

[@hlwehlwe7106]

A tip I picked up from Beaver is to heat your mash slowly without a lid (still head). Only put your still head on when the temperature gets to about 40-50C, and increase the energy when the first drip starts. Since I started following his advice, I've never had a puke!

[@swanduchesteve]

Jesse! Amazing! Thanks. A great video for beginners. I’ve been at it for 15 years and still pick up some ideas from you. Keep it up

[@tomblankendaal3228]

Hey Jesse, great to see you do these beginner videos! On the topic of foaming: There are proteins in the wash. (Similar like egg white) At the start of the boiling process it will create bubbles & foaming. It has to do with the temperature at which proteins turn solid, witch is kinda close to when a liquid that contains alcohol starts boiling... So, if you keep it boiling slow at the start of the run you give the proteins the time to turn solid. This is actually quite similar to how chef's learn to clear/clean a stock when it goes hazy. Anyhow, if you just give it like 5 minutes at a slow boil most of the proteins will have turned solid. Then you can dial-up the temp. Ps. Love the amstel bier kratje. It still keeps showing up after all these years. (The Amstel being a stream in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 and Amstel bier being a typical beer from Amsterdam)

[@CmdrFlemming]

This kind of educational videoes from you is what got me hooked on your channel in the beginning a few years ago

[@OVRCOME]

LOVE These videos! Love that you are doing them for all things around distilling! Thank you Jessie!

[@stuartpowell449]

Very nice equitment and excellent step by step ! Great video Jesse. 👍

[@wacco1234]

Excellent video! thank you for this summary. I'm looking forward to the spirit run tutorial.

[@bobbyneff8505]

Awesome tutorial, Jesse. Great for the beginners and not so beginners. Looking forward to more videos. Thanks!

[@Garygulf1991]

So glad you are doing these videos it’s a great refresher for things I missed a few years ago. Love your videos keep up the great work.

[@Miata822]

Good stuff, Jesse. I've seen a lot of new faces around here and it's too easy to take some of this stuff for granted. Especially the safety stuff is no joke. Hot 80%ABV spirit spilled on one's kitchen stove is every bit as much of an emergency as if it were gasoline, but the flames may be invisible. No shortcuts, guys. Be careful.

[@GaryBoyd-fs2zj]

Great tutorial, think you covered everything. Safety, process, and storage until ready for spirit run.

[@VSUKWizard]

I have been distilling as a hobby for about ten years and got some good tips from this, so thank you.

[@stefanleijon9637]

Great video mate! None of this is new to me at this point but I still love it and find it very informative :) Looking forward for the rest of the videos in this series!

[@PalCabral]

I am really looking forward to your Spirit Run Tutorial where you are giving away your best advise for how to run a spirit run on a reflux CM still with a dephlegmator. I’ve looked and I cant find any vids on youtube where the combo column still with packing and dephleg is being used to produce neutral spirits. And btw, thank you so much for your great vidoes of insights, innovation and humour. ❤

[@cjcout99]

Good video. Very thorough and informative. One point you could help is the final ABV of the low wines. I run my stripping run until the boiler reaches 212 degrees/100 C. This generally puts the low wines at 38-40% ABV. Now I know what I'm at for the spirit run. I generally dilute down to 35% for the spirit run. I have found that this produces excellent flavors for my spirit run. If my low wines are too high, I don't get the flavor. If I try to pull out more low wines, I can get louching when diluting the spirits. Also, depends on the grain bill. Just thought I would mention my perspective.

[@ariyapuggala]

Standard practice is to run until 98*C, for anyone scrolling comments

[@WlfLLC]

Awesome when this how to video series is over I will have some ideas how to do this. Thank you for doing these.

[@berkaberk]

LOVE the revisits to the 101s. 30L batches are a perfect way to scale for newbies also!

[@calebhunyadi2814]

Wow, GREAT!!!! this is so helpful as I'm doing a large run in about 3 weeks! Thank you!

[@almightybeerman]

Great video. Im doing my first run this weekend so this couldnt have been published at a better time for me. Thanks

[@lordcyclone2011]

love the advice on firing up / heating the still up and knowing when water is needed, and when its about to start producing. thats how i run my pot still.... i just simply feel the pipes and where the heat is.... and the still tells me whats about to happen. my rig, is an old school 20 gal "popcorn sutton" style still, the 20 gal pot, a currently only 1 gal glass thumper...(about to add another thumper or 2.... but they work like a sight glass for puking purposes as well as a thumper.... and then runs into a 5gal bucket with in and out water lines.... but finding i can run the entire rig now without thermometers.... even tho i have a few thru out the still.

[@misinformationwithrandy]

This was a great refresher!

[@arghh121]

I really like the new basics series!

[@StickyDankFingers]

Hello Jessie, Thank you for all you do and your content. You have become my KZbin distilling library. Anyway, quick QUESTION: I know you have been doing rolling cuts but I see so many people advocate “airing” out the spirit 12 - 24 hours before tasting or closing the lid, using a coffee filter on top of jars. Seems like a waste of good alcohol. But I don’t know that’s why I’m asking you. Thanks Brett

[@suprstu]

Looking forward to this series. Love to know what you do for the seals on the fliptop jars you use

[@davidcendeza2026]

This is great bro, learning a lot from you

[@helpas345]

I love that sign behind you at 2:00 It put me in a little trance just watching it lol

[@bluecraney1]

hope when you do this you put it all in a playlist so someone could use it as full length guide!

[@nigelwhite1483]

Brilliant thanks for that need to get back into it, and I'm not looking forward to cleaning everything though (it's been about 18 months) perhaps that's a video you could do as well would go very well with what you are doing at the moment 👍👍👍👍

[@Nodde398]

Thx man needed this just getting in ordered a 5 gallon vevo still waiting on my wash to finish this was perfect timeing

[@Colsos]

Awesome. Also your hair looks funky under your hat and I love the new sign with the rotating lights. And FML you don’t ship to Scandinavia countries 😢

[@mickgibson370]

I made Rum about 35 years ago. USA We had about 50 gallon still. It had 13 distillations! I would take 45 gallons of wine and set the temperature 205 degrees and just waited. The first pint of alcohol was 195 proof, I save it for myself. It went down to 30 proof and I clean the system and started a new batch! We had 30 vintners that "bad" wine that etch one had 50 gallon to 450 gallons of bad wine! One of my friends was a wino and he could not drink it! We use 1 gallon glass jars. Some only 1 jar and others had 5 jars at 95%

[@lilinguhongo2621]

thx, another reminder to improve my (recirculating) cooling system... with different versions of my column/lyne arm/cooler connection I found any restriction/smaller diameter reduces take-off speed, increases overall time for the run and temperature in my cooling system.

[@nickkitchener6155]

You can also soften the end of a hose with a cup of boiling water.

[@HawkeyeBrewing]

Great stuff as always Jesse, thanks

[@DamoBaxer]

excellent video jessie this will help me out when I start and i also i had an idea for a challenge where you try to make a spirit using a completely improvised setup (or some sort of hillbilly still) I think that would be interesting to watch

[@gmotagi3165]

Brilliant cant wait for the next!

[@Spiralem]

Maybe using a reusable Temperature Strip on the piping would allow you to monitor the rough temperature w/o having to touch and feel the temperature.

[@KelvinMcVinnie]

Hi Jessie, yet another fantastic video, thanks! Question: How does an over-cooled off-take create a sharp spicy spirit? I don't understand what evil chemistry can be going on between OK at 20C and over-cooled at ground-water temp, just 5-10C lower.

[@grosscore]

From my experience, during a stripping run, you can run your still as hard as long all the vapor is fully condensed. You don’t need to cool the condensate to a very low temperature. It doesn’t really matter if your condensed spirit comes out at 20°C or 60°C. The higher temps of condensation could be even beneficial, as the higher alcohols would evaporate a little bit after the condensation.

[@jarlove]

Could you make a video on general cleaning, and also how you "break in" and prepair a still for the first time (Firth ever initial "clean" before you start destiliing)??

[@stevenbowerman1154]

good to see as I am about to do my first run good see what may happen

[@lmy5pence481]

Thank you, Jessy. Good refresher, just wat I needed to know. OK you did say that when you made the mash, that you would give us the outcome/results?

[@paulsanders2001]

Still a noob so a great video leart alot from you Jesse keep up the good work

[@frankdwyer7051]

Thanks for the video, very useful. Is the only issue with puking in a stripping run the cleaning issue?

[@teddiver-gf6dj]

I LOVE distilling.

[@danielgodfrey4415]

My pot came with 2 2" adapters on the top. Im going to try a twin column setup. Then, flow into a single homemade air cooled condenser with a 50' (15.24 meters) copper tubing.

[@RobertJohnson-ud3bn]

I think I have more of a "deflagger"? It's a tube. A column with the cooling on just the top and with packing filled entire tube, maybe I should get a different condenser, a shot gun type?

[@hawkspiritweaver6664]

This is VERY helpful..

[@ventman2au]

Great. Look forward to the spirit run information. Also Jessie I have a plated modular still but want to try and run it as a pot for bourbon. The 500mm extension i have is packed with copper for neutral runs, would i leave the copper in or remove it for a stripping run?

[@basicems24]

Have you ever experimented with the lyne arm angle with the condenser when you have the adjustable double 90 as in this setup?

[@ARCSTREAMS]

how does having an over cooled condenser create changes in flavor profile if the shine? i know if its running too hot you loosing alcohol to steam instead of it being condensed but they also say the shine taste worst there too but i fail to understand for both conditions?

[@gavwa08]

Hey mate, I'm definitely no expert but what I've seen is an overcooled condenser would create surging and puffing through the condenser. Snap condensing at the extry to the condenser floods the top of the condenser and vapours build up and purge through the condensed vapor pooling at the entry. It is very obvious on your outlet when you do it, the stream bounces back and forth heaps and you can even get surges blowing through of product still as a vapor as it builds up and finally blows through the condenser really quickly.

[@ARCSTREAMS]

@@gavwa08 sorry i am having trouble understanding most of that perhaps from terms you use like "surge" 'puffing" "snap" "extry" etc can you explain it in more laymens terms and details?

[@pegoossens]

the puking reaction is due to proteins rising to the top. Once your liquid has boiled (like in beer) they no longer have the "strength" to do that trick again. If you have actually lagered your beer to clarify most of these proteins even get left behind before bottling

[@Dan-t6h2s]

Thanks for making these videos! So what is the name of the stainless steel piece at the very end of the condenser? The rounded piece with the barb, and the air port. The one I have has an opening slightly too small. I can probably find it on Amazon etc, if I knew what to call it. Thanks….

[@CollegeHustler]

Great video! Thank you! Can you do a video on making a mangosteen spirit?

[@bosherba]

tnx Jessie for all details...now, question for you. How long we can keep low wines before spirit run? Does time of keeping it as a low wine hurts final product? I have two infos about which are on the opposite side, one said that flavors will be preserved if you do it right away and delaying it hurts final product, other is that you can keep it as long as you need and as long as you close it tight without loosing anything in the final product. So, can you clarify please? tnx

[@theoptimisticmetalhead7787]

So something I've always wondered about the condenser is do you need ice water? Or does room/tap/ground temp water do more than enough, so long as it's getting a chance to circulate out of the condenser?

[@theoptimisticmetalhead7787]

Aaaaaand 15 seconds later into the video you basically answered the question for me, with the overcooling diatribe, lol

[@roberthousedorfii1743]

I've watched MANY of your vids, and this was a bit slow for me. THAT being said, you ALSO cleared up pretty much EVERY question I had. I've been playing with this stuff for 10 years now, just FYI.

[@juliancannizzaro2906]

Can you make a run with Milo. im in australia and my wife sugested it. doesnt seem like thee is much out there of people using in but it is a barley and cocoa based powder. Dont see y it wouldnt work

[@timtiki3745]

I just saw the a video from a year ago about aging with the American white oak sticks. If you took 2 smaller chucks but of two different toasted levels would you get both flavor profiles or what toast level would take over?

[@aliciamae85]

What there a hot plate you would recommend (or anyone else) for a new low end vevor still? I would like to do it in my garage and I am not comfortable with distilling to want to mess with an open flame.

[@kevin_ninja_jones2363]

I haven't watched in a couple months Jesse. I've had a lot going on my oldest son and my oldest step daughter both got engaged in the last couple months. As always love the videos and the channel

[@festerallday]

Good thing it's KZbin and his old vids are in his library. Meme spirits whenever you want meme

[@ronford1086]

I run pot to worm on a stripping run.. I do that twice collecting all the low wines down to 20 proof.. I don't cut anything.. then I take the low wines of 2 runs and add those to the pot after emptying it and adding more fresh mash to to top it up and then do my spirit run. For my spirit I run pot to thumper to worm It's smoother and gets more flavor because of the fresh mash

[@robinmartin4464]

Thanks!

[@koligula2000]

Could you help me with low wines to spirit runs question? When I produce my first distillate of one and a half gallons (5.6 liters) at 140 proof, do I add it back into the 10 gallon (37.8 liters) still then add water to fill it? What is the proper ABV for the second run of distillation. Should I then do a third run?

[@SimuLord]

I must confess that before this video, I was a bit fuzzy about the very basic details of things like stripping runs that are kind of taken for granted in more advanced distilling videos. It kinda felt a bit like sitting in a college literature class without having learned how to read.

[@AgryptNos]

Do you know if it is common to use activated charcoal in the wash to absorb the nasty chemicals that typically come out in the heads?

[@roberthousedorfii1743]

I'll just say I've tried things made with other (licensed) folks, and put the final product through a Brita filter. Damn near no difference. I've also put lab grade activated charcoal in gallon glass jugs at a rate of 1 teaspoon / gallon, and It doesn't seem to do anything. This is after sitting for 2 years in a cool basement. Do a small glass container, go HEAVY, then run it through a coffee filter, and see if that improves things for you. That is my next try, if I get the chance again. For some of the Jack Daniels vids I've watched, it looks like they drip the distillate through 5 or 10 FEET of maple charcoal, so there is your guidance.

[@dram_mondays]

@StillIt what percentage of total spirit would you expect to extract through your stripping run? For example, if you have a 25L mash at 8% ABV, then you should have 2L of ethanol in that mash. Would you expect to get close to that out of your stripping run? Could you end with 5L of stripping at 40% ABV to get the full 2L out?

[@roberthousedorfii1743]

if you watch the entire vid, he goes over that.

[@FeliXGamR-Jp]

You know what i keep noticing that keeps getting missed is Equipment & How exactly to run water through condenser, especially with Deflaglemator, when you say pushing down all the reflux, how are you doing it exactly, how much flow is going through GPH/LPH, how are you managing water temp, i seen some videos just using cooler with water in it, some using some plates thing. Could you make video on that. PS I am actually a New Distiller, just spent around $3200 buying 50L Pot Still 3” and just ordered the rest for my 3 Bubble Plates column for Reflux with Deflag

[@ayseedthebuilder2135]

Great vid man. Are you feeling well? Face seems flushed.

[@RobertJohnson-ud3bn]

Now I'm second-guessing. I have all the appropriate equipment to try to distill, I just have a RoboBrew/ Brewzilla Gen. 2 and the Alcoengine dual purpose pot or reflux copper still from Kegland. Is that going to be enough?

[@roberthousedorfii1743]

For a stripping run, sure, get a sight glass. For a product run, depends how crazy you want to get. Look at the little 1 gallon Vevor electric Distilled water stills.

[@mattf9096]

Did you separate the methanol and just not mention it, or did you collect that as well? I've watched other distillers' videos where they take it out during the stripping run so they dont have to worry about it later.

[@jakubswitalski7989]

No he captures everything because it means you don't have to make cuts twice

[@mattf9096]

@@jakubswitalski7989 I knew he didn't make "cuts", but I wouldn't consider just tossing the foreshots a cut really. Once they're gone they're gone and you don't need to worry about them for future distillations. If anything, I feel it would make for less work and waste overall.

[@roberthousedorfii1743]

@@mattf9096 I'll just jump in here and say it's your choice. Less to store if you dump it now. However, maybe some flavor lost from the top, that you might capture later with a less-power product run? Once you cut that board, you can't make it longer again...

[@mattf9096]

@@roberthousedorfii1743 Foreshots are just the toxic shit lol They need to get tossed regardless so why not just take them out on the first run and be done with it? If anything, it would let you cut closer to the start of the run on future distillations without the worry of introducing more methanol into the batch. It's like cutting off the knotty or punky end of the board so you dont include it into your measurements for future cuts.

[@roberthousedorfii1743]

@@mattf9096 As I said. In a later, lower power run, perhaps you'll be able to get extra flavor off the top. I ALSO said, if you don't want it, cut it. The point is, they may NOT need to be cut at the start. Certainly, you spent money making and collecting them. Tossing them is dumb. Use them for cleaning, dump them in some fuel, whatever. If you already knew what answer you wanted, why'd you ask?

[@richardhenderson9127]

I noticed you don't carry just the column and condenser parts separately. Do you plan on doing that?

[@roberthousedorfii1743]

Amazon carries a phenomenal collection these days for the US. just fyi.

[@xiethor]

Would it be bad to use a shotgun condenser for a column for active reflux?

[@kentaltobelli1840]

That would essentially be a dephlegmator, can be hard to balance flow vs unit power for proper column loading. He has other videos mentioning it

[@davidbogan3573]

My still is all stainless do I need to run the copper packing when I do a stripping run?

[@gabrielpalma9418]

After the stripping run and u go to do the spirit run do you need to add a certain amount of water in the still with the spirit run

[@redstone1999]

I noticed that you did not pull off the foreshot. One would think that it would be a great time to do so, and have that factor out of way in the low wines.

[@davidmc2861]

If using a reflux still will strip the flavor from an apple mash, for example, but using the reflux should provide a higher quality spirit. Why waste the time to make an apple mash? What is the mash commonly used in a reflux and then reintroduce the flavor such as, apple, blueberry, peach etc. and how do you do that?

[@ronford1086]

And #4 to smooth out the alcohol with less bite

[@cardinalverigo]

What if i only wanna do 1 run to retain the flavours of the wash ? Where would i cut the head and tail ?

[@kjdevault]

2 runs concentrates the flavor and cleans things up best. 1 run doesn’t concentrate well and leaves shit.

[@cardinalverigo]

@kjdevault not according to Jesse it don't, it strips the flavour and not, 'leave shit' ... pardon my French...

[@josephjara3681]

F#$kin awesome mate🤘😠

[@matthewsinger9412]

Can u do a root beer I feel like it would be fantastic.

[@karlknight948]

Hi guys, a complete novice here. Am thinking of buying a turbo 500 still, can anyone tell me what the overall height and outside dimensions are, space is at a premium here... Cheers Karl K...

[@theadmiral5425]

Question: If you boil the wash.....doesn't water end up in the big ass pot or is only the alcohol boiling and not the water. I thought the whole point of distilling is to remove the alcohol and leave the water and impurities behind. Go easy comment police I'm a newbie at this.

[@Colsos]

Eventually you will hit tails, a low abv % (look up “making cuts”) if you keep boiling eventually yes condensed “water” will come out.

[@jimcrawford9767]

👍

[@DawiFromAnotherHold]

Guys help. Buying this stuff to make it is way too tempting :')

[@BillMooney-r5c]

Better explanation, Jesse, when you boil pasta, you put it all the way up, but when it starts boiling and foaming, turn it down and it will continue to boil but stop foaming. Kinda off topic, but does anyone know what happened with George? He started posting videos, again, after a few years, posted a few videos, and then nothing. I love Jesse, but George was the first one I started watching and I'm sentimental.

[@TerrellJoel]

lets make ave gas !

[@KD0AFK33]

A stripping run? Is that why my hooch always taste like paint stripper? Lol

[@fexdammit]

my stripping still runs on wood, cheap, lots of power and everywhere!

[@ericbeeman8717]

Using copper would be better for ya in a sense that copper unlike other metals with the acception of other precious metals is antimicrobial and doesnt harbor any bacteria of anykind which is why they used it in homes forever kept people from getting sick from bacteria the pipes held from standing water now days peoplw dont use copper anylonger they forgot just how it kept them and athier family from getting sick so much