My agave spirit

[8Ball]

Got the spirit run done on my 2nd wash of 21M dark nectar with no terpenes added. The only terpenes that were in it were whatever residual terpenes carried over from the feints of the last spirit run.

Start Sg was 1.034, finished at 0.996 of an 8G ferment with SafTec Blue & FermPro 921 initially, followed by 4g of bakers on day 4. Final ph was 4.3. 6 day ferment. Temps ranged 85F-91F.

The spirit charge was:(1Gwash@4.2%+1.75GLW@16.8%+0.5GF@23%)= 3.25G@14.6%

Heated up the copper pot very slowly. Tossed 4 oz fores. Collected everything else until the parrot said it was floating 54% corrected. Yield was 54 oz @ 60.5% abv and another 0.5G feints at 25%.

Gonna air it out a day then leave it clear for a month before I start playing with it. Definitely gonna cold smoke some of it.

Some notes from the spirit: started off very floral and could smell the terpenes that carried over from the feints. The heads to hearts transition happened very quick with a very rich, buttery agave flavor. Halfway through the hearts, it went from rich buttery agave to earthy in a good way. Right before the hearts to early tails, it went from earthy to a nice sweet taste and a popcorn smell. When it got bitter and smelled funky I switched to feints and stripped it out.

[MtRainier]

I did my spirit run into jars today. I had about 10 gallons at 20%. I put 50ml of terpenes in it to see what would come out because I liked the taste of the terpenes that I tried a bit of.

Um, it is flavorful! Honestly I may run it again diluted back to 20% or so.

I have it in jars with coffee filters on it to air a bit, but this was way different from any wash I've done. I felt like the heads were nice. They were fruity and flowery. After the heads a bunch of jars tasted and smelled like tails from a sugar wash. It was like very intense cheap tequila, heh. Then as I got into the tails it got flowery again and pleasant again.

After a day or so I'll dilute and taste some jars to see what I've got. I'd hit up the liquor store to buy a small range of decent tequilas to get kind of a flavor template of what it should taste like since I mostly drink bourbon. The flavors are in there, just about 20 times more intense, heh.

Those terpenes are a nice flavor, but something (possibly unpleasant) from them comes over in the distillate very intensely. Maybe they would be more pleasant in a beer?

If it doesn't come out well I'll order another jug of the syrup and give it another try. It has been a fun experiment at least and I learned a little bit about fermenting this stuff.

[MtRainier]

I ran it again with some scrubbies and a smidge of reflux to see if it would clean up and get nicer in flavor. The reflux condenser water was coming out hot at 72F with a really slight trickle of water through it, so there was some, but not much.

I think it's pretty great right now. It's a different flavor from the blackstrap molasses runs I've done which is probably the closest ferment to this agave one. I diluted down to 40 after discarding the solventy heads and floral, but bitter tails.

I put a drop of terpenes in a glass of the product after dilution down to 40 and I think I like that too. It's a cheat, but it's nice.

[8Ball]

So almost a month later, this 21 Missions agave nectar spirit without terpenes is right on. I put 21 oz of 61% in a quart jar. Used my smoke infuser to fill the jar with smoke. I used bourbon soaked oak wood specially ground for the infuser. Shook it up real good and the smoke was incorporated quickly. Then I repeated the smoke infusion a second time. Knocked it down to 50% with a good quality spring water. Just enough to fill a 750 ml bottle. It’s taken on a little rosey color - but is still clear, and the initial taste is very good, a young joven mescal with a light smoky finish. I’ll let it rest another month and then it should be good to go.

[MtRainier]

Nice. Sounds awesome.

[pope]

Catching up on this thread, still haven't touched the kettles in ages (except to move them around the garage)... life can get in the way (in the best of ways, luckily).

Glad to see everyone else finding the same experience with agave, seems like you can throw malt in water and it basically turns into alcohol even if you try and muck it up whereas an agave ferment will go sideways if you even look at it wrong. FWIW when I got the fresh agave and fermented on the agave fibers it was a much easier ferment.

Not sure I can add much else to the dialogue at the moment, keep up the good work fellas!

[MtRainier]

Got mine in a barrel that is on its fourth use to mellow. I think it's pretty great after 45 days already. Harsh flavors seem to have gone away pretty quickly. Next time I may keep more of the heads and tails if I'm intending to put it in the barrel.

[Uncle Jesse]

Someone has offered me four mature Maguey plants, each with a large piña. I'm wondering if anyone has gone this route? Do I need to smoke these things or can I just cut them up and mash them or ferment them? Looking for any clue here as I've only worked with agave extract but this offer is very tempting to me.

[8Ball]

viewtopic.php?t=31790

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

[8Ball]

Someone has offered me four mature Maguey plants, each with a large piña. I'm wondering if anyone has gone this route? Do I need to smoke these things or can I just cut them up and mash them or ferment them? Looking for any clue here as I've only worked with agave extract but this offer is very tempting to me.

viewtopic.php?t=31790

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

[zach]

I recently harvested a single agave americana or century plant that had grown to maturity as shown.

It was difficult as the only tools I had were an ax and a shovel. If you have to harvest, get a coa de jima to do the work.

I tied to cook the pina in a rock lined pit as you see in mexico. I ended up burning the pina. If I tried again I would chop and place in my smoker at 225 F for 36 hours.

[Uncle Jesse]

Someone has offered me four mature Maguey plants, each with a large piña. I'm wondering if anyone has gone this route? Do I need to smoke these things or can I just cut them up and mash them or ferment them? Looking for any clue here as I've only worked with agave extract but this offer is very tempting to me.

viewtopic.php?t=31790

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Nice!

[Yummyrum]

I tied to cook the pina in a rock lined pit as you see in mexico. I ended up burning the pina.

Bugger ,sounds like you really put the effort into it too

[Saltbush Bill]

UJ I'm not a fan of Youtube when it comes to distilling practice, but in recent times on various forums , cant remember exactly where atm, there have been some links to interesting clips posted up concerning the the making of Tequila and Mescal.......might be worth a look.
There seemed to be a fair bit in some on how they do the cooking, crushing ect.

[Yummyrum]

Might have been this one Salty .
viewtopic.php?t=88505&sid=86bb5d3261e0d ... 1f9537a8eb

[Tōtōchtin]

Cooking piñas is like cooking pig in a pit. We throw banana leaving over a deep bed of coals,lay the arm/leaves of the agave over the piñas, wet woven mats over that,plastic sheet,then earth. Then run the distillate down thru the some agave leaves rolled up. That picks up the sweetness of the carmelized sugars and gives it that smoky flavor.
T

[Saltbush Bill]

Was this one Yummy.

Whole series of short clips about the process , worth watching them all.

[NZChris]

Cooking piñas is like cooking pig in a pit. We throw banana leaving over a deep bed of coals,lay the arm/leaves of the agave over the piñas, wet woven mats over that,plastic sheet,then earth. Then run the distillate down thru the some agave leaves rolled up. That picks up the sweetness of the carmelized sugars and gives it that smoky flavor.
T

I suggest that you revert to what used to be done before you had plastic sheet available.

[Tōtōchtin]

I agree but it's their customs here,that would be like me telling you how to play rugby.
Tōtō

[Oatmeal]

This thread, jonnys_spirit blue agave thread, and 8 ball's Gringo slide have all been really useful!

I'm just not as sophisticated in my fermentations, but thought I'd mention I put down a fermentation using leafy greens as nutrients and some oyster shells.

It's been about a week and continues to fizz along, so far it's been dead easy. (1g agave, 9g water, 1 blender stuffed with greens and blended, five oyster shells, 35mls terpenes, healthy sprinkle bread yeast)

I'll likely run out of time this season but sorely tempted to run a sugar wash with terpenes to see how much flavor could be cheated out without the agave.

[NZChris]

Cooking piñas is like cooking pig in a pit. We throw banana leaving over a deep bed of coals,lay the arm/leaves of the agave over the piñas, wet woven mats over that,plastic sheet,then earth. Then run the distillate down thru the some agave leaves rolled up. That picks up the sweetness of the carmelized sugars and gives it that smoky flavor.
T

I'm more than a bit confused, as what you say is different to anything I've come across in any culture.

Do you not heat stones in the fire to hold the heat to cook the pinas?

Why use banana leaves when you could use the waste from previous crushings to add mescal flavored moisture and smoke?

When do you run the distillate through the rolled leaves? Is it run into the cooking pit, or is this while distilling?

[Tōtōchtin]

Hola NZC,

The distillate runs thru the cooked leaves imparting a flavor needs to be tasted. So much crap leaves my state and the People pay thru the nose for shit. Our land is heavy on the clay so it holds heat well. Besides we're all lazy fucks down here who don't care to carry a bunch of boulder's when not needed. Banana leaves are abundant here free/cheap lay flat easy to work worth. We heat the still up with scraps( mainly to clean up) along with pine and some oak.
I know you think you don't like agave products but if you want to pay for the postage I'll bet a 20 peso silver coin it will change your mind.
Stay well,
Tōtō

[jonnys_spirit]

@Tōtō - The photo is using a "cooked/wrapped" agave leaf for product output? Pardon my french but.. - sorta like a coon pecker might be used?

Cheers,
j

[Wildcats]

Looks very traditional for down there. As a pot still with thumper and worm would look in the hills of Kentucky. I do like the use of the leaves. I wonder if it was originally used as convenience for collecting. Then maybe they realized it added flavors and tastes so it was then added to the process......

[NZChris]

I know you think you don't like agave products but if you want to pay for the postage I'll bet a 20 peso silver coin it will change your mind.
Stay well,
Tōtō

I've never said that I don't like it, so I don’t know where you got that idea from.

I make my own versions of Mezcal and Mezcal de Pechuga using locally grown Agave Americana.

[Tōtōchtin]

I thought I read the you didn't like it, though I don't know how I could confuse you with someone else. My offer still stands. For me it's something I don't understand, people try to make something like tequila or mezcal from agave syrup. To me it would be like thinking I can make a good bourbon from corn syrup. It makes ethenol, but lacks flavor. Though I do like like hope and joy of experimentation.
Tōtō