Failed Spirits (taste nothing like you expected in a bad way)

[cayars]

I choose to put this in "What Not to Use/Do" but any mod feel free to move it. Nothing here is unsafe, just taste/flavors I didn't like.

So we all talk about the "fine spirits" we make as if we never have failures or batches that turn out bad. Part of distilling is not only our successes but our failures as well. So I thought I'd start a thread on things that turned out bad or completely different than what was expected (not in a good way).

I'll start. Before Christmas I got adventurous and tried making a lot of new things to gift to family members. While most turned out as expected I had a few surprises that I'll call "bad" or almost disgusting (personal).

#1 on my list was trying to make coconut rum. I started with rum I liked that was white, I also tried a batch of amber rum that had been on JD chips for a bit and already was really good as well. So I checked out a few recipes and youtube videos of people making malibu or coconut rum and decided to try purchasing a couple bags of sweetened shredded coconut from the grocery store. In 2 liter canning jars I emptied the bag of coconut into it and topped off the jar with each of the two types of rum. Let macerate for close to a month and strained/filtered the rum. It was VERY coconut flavored but in a bad way. I'm not a coconut fan so I tried to not pass judgement but all family members told me it was bad. My daughter gave me that bottle back with "sucks balls" written on the label. Guess I know how she really feels about it. LOL

My daughter still wants me to make her coconut rum as she love it, so I'll probably find a couple more ways not to make it. LOL. Next shot will be using a coconut essence, coconut oil or similar as just a flavoring without maceration. Doubt it could be worse!

#2 for me would be making a dark rum using some dunder mixed back in with the spirit as one of the tried and true recipes specifies (won't say which one here but I think you guys know which one I'm talking about), done per instructions. I know a lot of people really like this but for me and my family it was a waste of otherwise good rum. So not a personal fan.

#3 is taking a good gin recipe and trying to add just one additional botanical to the ever growing list of used botanicals and finding out you don't like that botanical in your gin, even if you like them when cooking or in your food. Of course experimenting is the only way to figure this out. For me I've now found two of them I know I don't like in my home maid gin which are ginger and cumin. Luckily I did these in 1 liter test batches ala Odin's Easy Gin style of distilling so not too much waste.

I've got more (lots actually), but will open the floor to others, as I'd love to read of some of your failure on what you thought would be a promising spirit.

Don't include failed ferments or process failures, but things that worked as expected but didn't taste good or anything like you would have expected.

Carlo

[Slow42]

Nice to see even the experts can have a bad day once in a while and share their experiences! Ya know I saw a video by a you-tuber named, George, and he make coconut rum. Maybe he has some insight on what went wrong.

[cayars]

That's funny!
I am going to probably try it the way George does it in one video. Packing a gin basket with coconut is on my list of ways to try. I'm going to try some coconut flavoring first however.

[Single Malt Yinzer]

I've been using Orange Creole corn for some bourbons. The corn has an infection and it just tastes horrible. The worst part is that just as the foreshots end and the heads start there's an incredibly wonderful aromatic that comes across for a few short seconds. Then it dies. The flavor is horrible.

[NZChris]

I was given some EDV 493, a rum yeast I often see mentioned here. The most expensive yeast I've ever used in a rum. Fortunately, I only put down enough for one stripping run to make fresh dunder and create a yeast bed for a new rum series. The shed smelled like a long drop shithouse when I stripped it. The dunder went into the compost heap and the low wines are still here somewhere. I immediately put down an identical wash using bakers yeast and that was beautiful as usual.

The coconut essence I can get here gives me such good results that I wouldn't bother trying any of the numerous methods that I've seen suggested. Hansells, 36ml/l.