First Tasting of your Spirits

[thatguy1]

Did anyone get extremely anxious when tasting your first spirits that you made? I tend to always think the worst and had a bit of anxiety when having my first shot of neat 50% drink. I naturally have anxiety over new things because of things that happened in my life when i was younger. For instance, in my 20s I started getting really bad heart palpitations from smoking cigarettes. They were happening every 1 minute for hours and I thought I was having a heart attack... yeah not fun. I was told later by my doctor that the papitations are a sign that the tar is effecting my heart, so I stopped smoking cold turkey. Ever since that, I've had anxiety over things I put in my body. Store bought beer, whiskey, etc never caused any anxiety because I know it's safe so that's why I thought it was weird that I'd get anxiety over the spirits I made. Yeah I know, I'm weird right?

Anyways, just wondering if anyone else gets anxious when trying new, self produced spirits as well?

tg

[BentJar]

I remember being a bit like that, then after the first drink of my crappy licker, I determined to make something better.

I still look forward to a taste of a new batch though.

[thatguy1]

LOL.. true.

Well I decided to give my spirits a good taste today. Drank a bit out of Jar 4, about 1.5L in my collection of my distillate and was the best smelling jar. Watered it down to a good whiskey % around 30-40 and drank it neat. Got pretty toasty, however after I got a bit of rotgut. Got really hungry sort of like when you come down from smoking herb.. it's an odd feeling to get that from drinking ;p.. felt really good for a while tho

Would double distilling cut down on the rotgut? Or how about carbon filtering? I did like the taste of it.. like a mix between a vodka and a whiskey. Totally could drink this

[Gaztops]

By making good cuts you shouldn't get rotgut even after a single run, unless you are drinking too much.

[thatguy1]

By making good cuts you shouldn't get rotgut even after a single run, unless you are drinking too much.

The headache this morning is crazy too. I feel hung over. I only drank only about two of three shots, watered down to 30-40 of course.

Let it be know, I'm a big whiskey drinker and I can drink 500ml of whiskey in a night and not have any hang over the next day. Last time I think I've got a hang over is 15+ years ago. I can also drink over 10-15 beers during a party and not feel hung over.

What did I do wrong? :/

[Gaztops]

It's no wonder your guts are feeling sore. That's an incredible amount of alcohol to consume in one session.

You'd be good at morse code with the shakes.

[drinkingdog]

Sounds like there was some heads in there. You might want to share a little more information like your equipment, recipe, collection jar size ect so someone with more experience give you more incite.

[thatguy1]

Sounds like there was some heads in there. You might want to share a little more information like your equipment, recipe, collection jar size ect so someone with more experience give you more incite.

I created my still. The still has a 24", two-inch diameter copper column that rises out of a 18L stainless steel cooking pot. I then attached a 24" Liebig condenser to the column coming down on a 45 degree angle. The Liebig is created from 3/4" copper for the outer water sleeve, and 1/2" copper for the inner sleeve where the vapor travels. There are no leaks and it seems to work very well.

I ran a sacrificial run of about 7 liters of turbo yeast sugar wash through the still to clean it. I think cleaned it with soapy water, then took it in the garage and ran 4 liters of a 50/50 vinegar/water mix through it with the water to the condenser off. This blew steam through the entire still for about 1 hour to clean it more.

I then ran 10 liters of turbo yeast sugar wash through the still, took about 100ml of fores, set it aside. Collected about 2.5 liters or overall product after the heads. I used 500ml jars and filled each about half way, except for the first few jars which jars 2 and 3 were about 1/3 full (about 250ml each) My fourth jar which would be about 750ml to 1L in to the product after the fores smelled good and looked clear. I took directly from that jar and poured a drink and mixed water with equal amounts for my drink.

The turbo yeast read 0.994 SG when I decided to run it. It was just a sugar and water mix with the turbo yeast.. nothing else.

I really can't think of anything I did wrong. I believe I followed most, if not all the safety steps and I understand the theory.

I have two batches of Birdwatchers recipe finishing today so I'll try to run those. I'm a little gun-shy now though :p Do you think the hangover is caused by larger than normal amounts of acetaldehyde? Would a carbon filter clean that up?

[blind drunk]

Probably your cuts -

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 63&t=13261

and maybe the turbo nasties too.

[DezerteD]

Yeah, probably had some heads smeared in there. Try a taste a little deaper in your hearts and see if you have the same problems. You could also let your collection jars air out for a day with coffee filter on top.

[rad14701]

Your biggest problem is that you ran a turbo wash through your pot still... Turbo washes are intended to be run through a reflux column, not a pot still... Blend your "keeper" spirits, dilute to 40% or under, and rerun... Make all cuts again... That will clean things up substantially... And then head over to the Tried and True Recipe forum and pick out a better recipe than turbos... I may be partial but I'd suggest All Bran or Gerber as stepping stones for moving away from turbos...

[thatguy1]

Thanks Rad, yes I should add that I did not have any packing in my 2" column for this run. It was a pot stripping run, mainly a test run of the turbo. I will try your suggestions as well!

I already stopping making turbo washes and my next washes are birdwatcher's. Should I run these with packing in my column? I figured I'd do a stripping run first, then a fractional distill.

Rad - two questions:

1. When adding about 24" of SS scrubber packing in my 24", 2 inch column, should cuts be made by smell/taste, or mainly temperature?
2. Are heads cut down significantly when using a fractional column run in reflux mode?

I searched for these answers but came up short.

Thanks,

tg

[thatguy1]

Okay well I tried some of my birdwatcher's spirits today that were first stripped distilled, then I took 4L and distilled it a second time using packing in my 24" column. I collected 9 jars, and tasted/smelled jars 4-5-6-7 and they all seemed very good. I mixed them together and diluted down to 40% and enjoyed about two drinks worth. All seemed well until about 6 hours later. I have a screaming headache again. I don't get this with beer/store purchased whiskey.

What am I doing wrong here?

[rad14701]

Are you letting anything air out before blending...??? I'd use at least 50% more jars and calculate cuts from more jars rather than trying during the run... It's simpler, quicker, and in the long run it wastes less good alcohol to the feints jar...

As for the headache/hangover, I've never had one from my own spirits even after overindulging so I'm left wondering what might be causing the reaction... Tomato paste...??? Yeast...??? Bad cuts...???

[thatguy1]

Rad:

Thanks for the reply.

No I was not letting it air out other than a few hours.

The headaches were from both the turbo wash and now birdwatchers so there is no tomato paste in the turbo. What I've noticed though is floating things in the distillate jars. They are more concentrated at the beginning and ending of the distilling process (heads and tails.) There maybe is one or two per jar in the hearts but up to 4 in the heads, etc. They sort of look like transparent snowflakes, but not as structured as a snowflake. Could be an oil cluster or something but it definitely looks organic. I filtered them off using a coffee filter anyways.

The thing is, the drink tastes great... sort of like a cross between a vodka and a whiskey. It gets me pretty ripped too just with a few sips at around the 40%-50% mark. If I could just figure out what is causing these hangovers that would be great.

I guess I'll just throw it all back in the pot and try to make better cuts.

Thanks,

tg

[CuWhistle]

Are you for real? Pretty ripped after a few sips. How old are you and have you ever had anything stronger than a hard cider or alcoholic ginger beer? Don't sniff the fumes man you might want to start wearing a kilt. Okk aayy.

You've probably got a headache because you've been thinking too hard.

Are you sure you and Gunman aren't the same person with MPD???

edit: sorry I've drunk about a pint-o-shine and I don't yet have a headache. UJSSM, and I've just run 35 litres of strip at 65% down to 30% with no floaties or unexpected results.

edit edit: forgot to mention that that was after 8 mid strength beers. Oh dear. It's now night time over here but I'll be up till early morning.

edit edit edit:- I have long been a self suffering advocate of the novice and I am a self confessed novice. I have chastised the higher order for their intolerance of the beginners ridiculous questions and tried to go back to basics for beginners as is the nature of my profession and calling in life. I beg forgiveness for I have seen the error in my ways. This last week has shown 2 perfect examples of people who should be considered dangerous.

Lord of Blackwood.

[thatguy1]

Thanks for all the comments guys.

Yesterday I redistilled all my spirits again, split the heads and tails properly this time because I really could smell the differences when using smaller amounts. I had my wife help in the process as well. Mixed the hearts up, watered it down and had a few drinks.

I would like to add that the tails smelled more like "smelly feet" to my wife and son than the normal "wet dog" it's been described as. However with the smaller jars and by a controlled temperature of 78c to 82c with 1-2 drips a second and a packed 24", 2-inch wide column with SS scrubbers, the points between heads/tails/hearts were easily distinguishable.

I'm happy to report no hangover this morning!

Thanks guys.. now to reap the benefits of this hobby

PS - CuWhistle, don't worry bud we had our moment on another thread, I'll ignore this post of yours and chalk it up as part of that moment. Let's pretend this shit didn't happen and move on.

[CuWhistle]

Only trying to help you mate. Water under the bridge as they say. I get a bit grumpy when I haven't had my snickers bar.

[thatguy1]

Only trying to help you mate. Water under the bridge as they say. I get a bit grumpy when I haven't had my snickers bar.

LOL we're all good no problem. Thanks for the help and glad you're around helping us make sense of shit around here.