First year stilling

Many like to post about a first successful ferment (or first all grain mash), or first still built/bought or first good run of the still. Tell us about all of these great times here.
Pics are VERY welcome, we drool over pretty copper 8)

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NormandieStill
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First year stilling

Post by NormandieStill »

So it's been a year (since the first blend, not since the first drops fell from the spout). Which I guess is a good time to take stock.

My first attempts were a sloe brandy and an apple brandy. The apple brandy sat on oak for a few months, and I took the oak out intending to replace it with a piece of oak that had soaked in neutral to get the new-ness out of it. But time constraints meant that my first batch of neutral took longer to produce than I'd hoped and being pot-stilled was not enormous and in the end I forgot. A couple of weeks ago I charred a small piece of med toasted oak and dropped it in as a tasting showed that it definitely needs more time and oak to have a chance of coming good.

I made some neutral (pot stilled birdwatchers) and then some gin and liqueur. I expanded my still collection by making a lid for a 5 litre saucepan with a 2" tri-clamp. I started a project to make neutral from wheat (using enzymes) and finished up turning it into a whisky. I made a gumbalhead on that wheat whisky and got a fairly drinkable white dog, and my first of experience of flavour change over time (without oak). I started, stopped and restarted a project to make a batch of HBB, which I finished at last some nine months after I first started it. I succumbed to my curiosity about rum and started a batch of Buccanneer Bob's although I wonder if they didn't put potassium sorbate in the molasses because the damn thing is taking an age to ferment.

I built a column and made a new batch of neutral which I ended up running twice (too fast the first time). I made a new sugar wash... more gin, creme de mures.

I've slowly acquired equipement and bits. Alcometers, mini-alcometers, pH meter, refractometer, fermenting buckets, a second keg for mashing in.

In all this time I've not stopped learning. Either from the threads or by personal experience. I've learnt whose advice I value and whose I choose to ignore. I've learnt vocabulary which has made searching easier... so I learned more. I learned about stuff that doesn't even really interest me, because there was a hint of something that might be relevant to an idea I'd had. I've learnt that I need more time. My spirit run has gone from 3 hours to 6 hours and my cuts have got better.

When I started I wanted to make brandies. And I still do, but while I'm waiting for better weather and a decent fruit harvest, I shall continue to explore whiskys. SOCD's Chocolate Sundae Bourbon is on my list, because it's similar to a gumbalhead I made on spent grains from an oatmeal stout which is pretty tasty. And I'm currently toying with the idea of a series of small batch single grain runs. My whisky experience is largely limited to scotch and I'd love to start cobbling together a recipe which reflects my tastes. The idea will be to make mini spirit runs (maximum 5L of low wines) of 100% rye, corn, wheat, oat and barley (possibly a couple of different base malts, like Munich or a Marris Otter pale ale) to see exactly what each is bringing to the table. I want to try and ferment all of them off-grain so there'll be rice hulls involved and probably no small amount of swearing.

And I need to find the time during all of this to build a still-shed so that my large pile of stuff can move out of the house and I can finally breathe again in my office.

And as I write this, I'm sipping from a glass of my first one-year old spirit. 2020 was a good year for fruits here in France and I had an unbelieveable haul of sloes. I made a simple sloe wine using as little sugar as possible (sadly without the more meticulous note-keeping I have today so hard to know what the exact recipe was) and double distilled it and bottled it white. I know now from the experience I've gained in the last year that my spirit run would have been too fast. I deliberately cut a little wide at both ends hoping that it would age out. I also now know that I should have run wide at the heads, but perhaps less so at the tails. All that being said... it's not bad. There's a slight mustiness that I would have liked to not include, but a year down the line the fruit has come forward and the first impression is definitely plum. It's not clean. There's definitely both heads and tails present and I don't think it would suffer being left for another year. I'm loathe to oak it, I feel most fruit brandies should be white, but I will put the bottle back to the back of the cupboard and see what happens. In the worst case it'll remain a benchmark.

So thanks to everyone for the knowledge and shared experience. Thanks for being a bizarre corner of the internet that has remained civil (despite the potentially high blood-alcohol level of the posters). Thanks for being a community that welcomes new blood.

Slàinte mhath. Here's to the next year.
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo

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Sporacle
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Re: First year stilling

Post by Sporacle »

Congratulations Normandie on your first year and hopefully many successful years to follow, happy and safe distilling mate :clap: :thumbup:
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Saltbush Bill
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Re: First year stilling

Post by Saltbush Bill »

Thank you for your contributions to the forum Normandie
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Twisted Brick
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Re: First year stilling

Post by Twisted Brick »

Excellent reflection on your journey of learning and first-hand experiences. I applaud your plan to distill exploratory single grain batches, an exercise whose initial results have for me proved valuable. The collection of shared experiences here certainly minimizes and tempers the less-than spectacular outcomes we encounter along the way, but all outcomes are valuable experience nonetheless. Keep up the good work.
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Deplorable
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Re: First year stilling

Post by Deplorable »

Well done sir :clap:
The first year experiences are great to reflect back on while enjoying a glass of something that's got a little time in it.
I've got a couple jugs that have aged very well in the year or so since I made them, and one or two that need more time, or need to be blended into better tasting products .
Each has a story to tell about my journey into this hobby.
I just sent a few samples to a fellow distiller on here to sample and provide some feedback from someone who's not just hoping to get a free jar of "moonshine".
Like you, I long for more space, and more time to dedicate to this hobby.
Here's to hoping you get many more years, and many more fine craft spirits under your belt. :thumbup:
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subbrew
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Re: First year stilling

Post by subbrew »

Excellent reflection Normandie. We both started on this forum around the same time and I have enjoyed reading your posts. You have certainly been more active on your still than I have been. After building a new still over the summer I am going for volume this winter as opposed to many different things. I want enough to age, so have been doing 35 to 40 gallon ferments to build up some stock.

Thank you for all the contributions to my education.
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Rrmuf
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Re: First year stilling

Post by Rrmuf »

Awesome! Congrats Normandie!
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Scott Tracy
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Re: First year stilling

Post by Scott Tracy »

Great post, I think it likely resonates with many of us at a similar stage of the journey. I was ticking off your points - my own cupboard has a few 'benchmarks' kept there to remind me of my errors, some spirit that I deep down know has been cut too widely and that I hope (somewhat doubtfully) will improve with time, and I also have a long list of things to try. Best of luck on the rest of the journey.
NormandieStill
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Re: First year stilling

Post by NormandieStill »

Thanks everyone for the comments.
subbrew wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:26 am You have certainly been more active on your still than I have been. After building a new still over the summer I am going for volume this winter as opposed to many different things.
I'm guilty of wanting to try everything at once. If my Yellow Label wheat neutral experiment is a success I'm hoping to be continuously fermenting at least one charge at all times to build up a reliable stock of neutral and to have a recipe that is repeatable. I'm certain that if I were to remake the HBB right now the outcome would be fairly different which is a problem (or interesting depending on your point of view).
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo

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