Home Distiller

Actually, what I was trying to point out was that AC is accused of leaving a harsh taste/mouthfeel and also of helping producing the "worlds purest drink". These two things contradict. These may not necessarily be conflicting. "Pure by chemistry standards" may not necessarily yi...

Out of curiosity I ran some of it through an AC filter (thinking, this will only make it taste better!), and it actually made it taste worse, more harsh on the pallet. That reminds me of something I read here a long time ago, "Good flavors cover up bad flavors". It also makes me think of ...

Bagasso, I do agree my comment on smoothness does seem nebulous. But I don't think you're hypothesis is the case. Last year I had a batch that came out really good, very clean tasting and smooth. Out of curiosity I ran some of it through an AC filter (thinking, this will only make it taste better!),...

I've run a quick neutral strip through my 5 foot AC column.Two passes might have made it better but it's definitely drinkable. Good enough as a mixer, wouldn't drink it straight though. The AC does strip away the "off" flavors, but it also removes the smoothness that a good tight re-distil...

Misneac, Don't be bothered by the fanatics here. I use a AC filter column to polish and clean up some bad runs, or sometimes just the beginning and ends of really good runs. It's a tool. It is possible to try and still the best you can, refine your craft and get good to a point that you don't need t...

Not to be a pessimist but did any of you read the actual literature? It stated that 10% concentration is the best value to extract the contaminates and that at higher concentrations it much harder to get them out. What are you going to do, dilute your distillate to 10%, run the O3 and CO2 through it...

Ok after 1.5 weeks in the barrel this is what I have. It's 65% abv. Should I let it age at this proof or dilute to drinking strength then age?

Thanks Humbledore. I was under the impression that having temperature control was important, that running a potstill on lower power made it easier to make the cuts, just took longer. I've done tons of neutrals and just starting out with rum. Next time I guess I'll detune and run as you said. Thanks.

90C too high a temp to be mixing tails? From the smell and taste at them time it was kind of sweet. When it started to go above 90C it seems to get kinda nasty smelling/tasting. Please keep in mind i'm doing this from a 4 foot reflux column because the only temperature control I have is unplugging 1...

Shady. Maybe I was unclear. Not an AIR pump. An aquarium circulation pump. The pump is used to keep the water circulating. NOT to add air.

I just received a 5 liter Oak Barrel from my cousin-in-law last week.Cleaned it, and loaded it up with 65% ABV distillate. I'm gonna let that sit a while and see what happens.

That sounds like the Nixon/Stone method from the "Making Gin and Vodka" book I bought so many years ago. I never could get it to work (Under pitching, I think), and ended up using a mini-mash of two-row barley and lots of sugar... (Always liked a slightly malty flavor to my vodka) You are...

OMG...!!! An air pump running in an actively fermenting wash...??? Have you actually researched how yeast work and what they do and don't need...??? I'm assuming you are referring to 20 pounds of yeast in 10 gallons of water with 1 pound of yeast... That isn't a recipe, that's a horror story... It'...

Also, I'd recommend for a fast sugar ferment, just use 1lb of bakers yeast (cake) a tiny aquarium pump and an aquarium heater in your vessel. You can ferment 20lb of sugar in about 24 hours with it. My experience is the results are a bit better than the turbos. Just my 2 cents.

Little bit of carbon filtering will very easily remove that "sweet" taste your talking about. I built a carbon filter to remove the sweet aroma from my sugar wash vodak.Mine didn't have a sweet taste, I only had a slight aroma. BTW the smells and taste will come out MORE as you dilute clos...

Yes, with two aquarium heaters turned all the way up.

How ever many gallons it took to get a 10% potential. I used a hydrometer.

Tried some near last night. Much better than on the rock for whatever reason. The coldness seems to somehow drown out the rum flavor/aroma. Will continue to let sit.

Cool. Thanks Firewater. I'll let it sit a while. I'll also look into some sticks instead of chips.

I used 20 lbs of white sugar, a tiny aquarium pump and 2 aquarium heaters turned all the way up. Did it in a rectangular tupperware container with the lid ajar. started at about 10% and finished dry in i day. Use warm water around 90F when pitching the yeast. Crumble 1lb of moist cake yeast on surfa...

I did about 1/4 cup of chips to 750ml of 40% ABV rum. Like I said, I nuked it once or twice to get the desired color and taste. First two days it tasted great, now it's not nearly as smooth and the Rum flavor seems to have dissipated. Also has a bit of an astringent feel to it.

Ok so here I am a few days later and my rum now tastes different. Slightly astringent, less rummyness. Is it possible that storing in large mouth mason jars affects flavor? The taste is very alcoholly. Almost like badly flavored vodka. Any ideas?

Read through the Pugirum post. A lot of stuff there. What specifically do think a reflux still would do different than a pot still? I don't have a way of controlling the heat input so I can't really detune and run it like a pot still.

Why would I need yeast nutrient when pitching 1lb of yeast? Keeping aerated allows it to multiply and there are so many yeast, the wash gets fermented well before the yeast would require additional nutrient. I make wine, beer and cider and always use nutrient then, as the yeast counts are tiny compa...

All fermented out. 1lb of bakers yeast, circ pump and aquarium heater keeps or warm and aerated. Thing flies. Hydrometer reading says all dry in 24 hours.

I recently finished my 2nd rum batch. Thought I would toss this out for information/commenting. I fermented 2.5 gallons of Feed Molasses with Red Star Bakers Yeast. Then ran it through my reflux. Threw the heads out, kept the hearts and collected tails up to 90C. Mixed hearts and tails. Dilluted to ...

Holy Crap. I thought because via experimentation I had gotten my answer this thread would have died. I guess not. To be clear, my intention was to build a proof of concept carbon filter and use it to remove the slight sugar aroma I was getting from my sugar wash vodka. That is all. Not to correct ba...

As mentioned. Proof of concept. Stainless filter under construction.

The results are in. I have 5 different batches: 1) Beer stripped, reflux run 2) Beer stripped, reflux fun then carbon filtered 3) Beer stripped, carbon filtered 4) Beer stripped, carbon filtered, reflux run 5) Beer stripped, carbon filtered, reflux run, carbon filtered Number 4 was by far the best w...

Ok, so I ran my low wines (Smelled like Chelac!) through the Carbon filter and threw them back in for reflux distillation this weekend. We'll see how it comes out. With that being said, just running my still with no reflux and carbon filtering actually yielded a pretty drinkable vodka, no off aroma ...