[Jill The Alembics Lab]

Hi Kylie – yes, the colors can be attractive – some nice dirty pinks. Silk in particular – if you added some eucalyptus leaves and boiled it up, you may get extra effects! Maybe another course one day 🙂
The columns do create reflux, but the necks are a different size to the column still, so you can’t just add it to a traditional. The traditional stills are also known as pot stills and are used when the flavour stays in – such as fruit brandies and rum. The more reflux the more the flavours and aromas are stripped out.

[Jill The Alembics Lab]

Hi Lisa
Thank you for your lovely comments. Great you enjoyed the course and got something from it. I hope you will revisit it to pick up layers of information.
I suggest you try packing your column and getting 1kg in it. Don’t be afraid to push it in. Leaving a third of the stems on will create enough texture and space for the steam to work through. You will get higher yields.
Another tip – have the water in the pot at a vigorous boil and even have the entire still hot before you pack the column – taking care you don’t burn yourself. This will get the steam pushing through the cool plant mass faster, decreasing the amount of reflux (when the steam hits the cool plant material and condenses back into liquid). Reflux reduces the yield.

I’m all for trying new ideas and ways of doing things, so try a combo distillation. Your nose and the experience of distilling will tell you a lot. You can also get it tested if you want to know what it comprises. The main thing here is to be quite clear in your notes and labelling what you have done, so you can pass that on to customers if you are selling any of your products.

Your timing sounds about right. The bulk of your EO will come out in the first 500ml, maybe another couple of MLS after that. You may want to get the 1000ml separator if you don’t already have one.

Lavender likes a warm condenser bucket. Let it get as warm as 35-40C. Excellent lecture on the importance of temperature of the condenser bucket on Ann Harmans site by Marco Valussi – https://www.learn.botannicals.com/catalog/

[Jill The Alembics Lab]

I have replied to Bronnie via email, but as it’s an interesting query so will follow it up in the forum. Your resulting yield of 300ml at 55% is what we would expect, however – not the time taken :). Because it’s such a small still and the amount being distilled is small, you can leave it on high, which on our 18cm hotplate is 11-12. This will give you a steady drip but not quite as fast as Nolan suggests. If you were using a 30L still and a 20L wine/wash, you would likely get a rat’s tail or 3-5 drips per second.
As we start with cold wine, it heats up slowly. This allows you to take the first 30ml as a headshot. It’s important to note that on a small distillation such as this which is really to introduce you to the process, the different components of alcohol will bleed into each other as the temperature increases. On a large distillation, it’s easier to make cleaner cuts because the volume is greater. This is why we recommend a second distillation.

We are looking forward to filming a course on making a neutral spirit, the foundation course on alcohol is a good introduction to this next step. We will be using a sugar wash and a larger still.

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