Hi Otis.
Yes by injecting I meant shooting my thumper.
All this experimenting was done using UJSSM with corn as the grain. I also sour mash for 7 generations before starting over with fresh grains, but I do replace spent grains along the way and I use roughly 12 ounces of backset in each new ferment. I strip with a pot still and I do pull a pint or two of hearts from my stripping runs for my personal use. The rest is saved for a spirit run. I do 6 gallon ferments, and charge the boiler with 5 gallons of stripped product cut to roughly 30% for spirit runs. Thumper is always used on the spirit run and of course for the following experimentations. My fients from spirit runs get saved for one last run. The hearts from that last run is what I use for macerations, candy, fruit and so on. The fients from that final run are never put back in my boiler. Its evident that they are highly concentrated heads and tails, so I see no need to continue running them. They make it to the fire pit, lawnmower, carb cleaner, and anything else I see fit.
That said, lets get to it.
Regarding the candy....
Aside from butterscotch, I've used several others, peppermint, various jolly rancher candies, any type of hard candy that was individually wrapped. I used the same process regardless of flavor. Here are my notes:
4 pints 90 proof clean hearts.
Each pint get 6 pieces of candy, let dissolve, shake/stir at random. I usually let sit a week or so, no real reason, that's just how it happens to work out.
I charge my thumper with those 4 pints and 4 pints or water at the beginning of the run. I like to start with a gallon in my thumper. Gets me about 3 inches up on my spear and leaves plenty of room for fill. Run as usual.
Results:
Cuts are easier after a day of airing 24 hours, at least for me. Strong smell of candy, fills the nose quite nicely. Some heads/tails will reveal themselves few days later so I don't actually do any blending for about a week.
Flavor is subtle, sweet but not over powering, and lingers in the mouth a bit. After I've blended, I dilute some to 80 proof and some to 40 proof. Both will loose the subtle taste over time, the nose will slowly weaken as well but over a longer period of time. Longest I've kept a jar on the shelf is 5 weeks. While its easy to tell what flavor it is with a sniff, I felt I really had to search to taste it on the pallet.
This applies to any "candy" I have tried. Peppermint and cinnamon hang around longer and seem a bit stronger up front.
I haven't played much with adding more or less candy. I typically make these when I know it will be drank quick.
Macerating fruit ala panty dropper style yielded slightly better results IMO, bit stronger, never kept any past three weeks but was hanging on well at that point.
What I'm doing with extracts and my notes thus far:
I've currently only used 3 flavors. Peach, lemon, and blueberry. My extracts are from a company called olive nation and list alcohol,water, and natural fruit extract as the only ingredients.
Adding them to spirits, seems to give an off aroma and taste. Almost chemical like. I don't care for that method, though I'll play with that again in the future. My only guess is the alcohol in the ingredients. Heres why I say that....
Fores and heads!
When I add the extracts to the thumper at the beginning of the run, my fores are more pungent so to say, as are my heads. However the whole process smells heavenly while distilling.
Not saying I get "more" fores/heads, just more foresy/headsy.
For this I add 1 ounce of extract to a pint of the same 90 proof spirit I use for maceration, I charge with 4 pints spirit extract mix and 4 pints of water.
Same process for cuts apply from using candies. Bit harder to cut right off still, for me, but easier after airing. Again, heads and tails seem to show up after a few days in the first and last jars of what I kept as hearts initially. With the extracts, I find myself keeping a bit deeper into tails as theres some good flavor there. Its more on the nose aroma then on the pallet flavor, but it does linger on the tongue a bit.
Still some playing to do with this regarding amount, airing, blending. But it seems promising.
I've shot extracts mixed with spirit(1 ounce extract in 1 pint spirit) into the thumper as I was coming to the end of my heads. Thumper charged with 30% low wines at beginning of run. Havent shot straight extract yet.
I may be tainted with the chemical taste from my trials adding extracts to final product, but I can detect the chemical almost instantly after I've shot it, though it disappears quickly, and more so with some airing. So far this seems to yield a slightly stronger flavor, both on the pallet and nose. But also seems to be showing the same rate of disappearance over time. I've only done 4 runs using the shooting method to date, so more to do on this.
Something worth mentioning that seemed interesting.
My fients jugs from these runs. Heads/tails combined. I've made all fients runs with straight water in my thumper. Keeping flavors separate, and candy, extracts, and fruit juice separate. The extracts seemed completely undetectable after a fients run charging the thumper with water. Even though the jug had aroma and taste before dumping it in the boiler. The candy and fruit, while obviously weaker after thumping through water, still carried a bit of aroma after the fients runs. Minimal taste on the pallet. Not too surprised as I've cleaned up some really nasty stuff with my thumper charged with water. Just found it odd that it removed the extract, but candy and fruit still tag along to the jar.
As with everything on here, your mileage may vary. I'd be interested in hear how your trials go with any of this.
Feel free to ask any questions, I'll do my best to answer promptly and completely.
PS. I haven't run any of this using the dimroth setup. All this was done with my liebig. If it matters.
Forgot to mention. My goal is to keep everything white. I don't oak or age on/in anything other then clear glass jugs.