Bierschnaps

[ydoih8u]

Well, I'm an avid homebrewer and have between 30 and 40 5 gallon kegs. I age beers pretty often. I had a few I was about to dump and figured I would run them through my pot still. I knew all the stories of the hop oils junking up the still, the awful smells, and the bitter product produced... I decided to push through anyways.

First stripping run was about 12 gallons of beer consisting of oaked Strong Scotch Ale, Strong Scotch ale, and American IPA. It really did stink badly while it was running. Like cheesy old hops. Filled the entire building with this smell.

Next day, I had more beer to dump... Figured maybe the bad smell was due to the IPA... Ran ~13 gallons of some oaked English Barleywine & oaked Strong Scotch Ale. Still really stinky... Actually pretty much the same smell as the previous run. While this was running, I found 3 more kegs... Did another stripping run with those right after the first was finished... This time an oaked Old Ale, English Barleywine, and oaked Strong Scotch Ale.... Same results.

I'm planning to run all these low wines again sometime next week. The aroma is just foul, but the flavor honestly isn't terrible... I think some oaking could really help as well. I'm mostly just posting this as a log for myself... As I typed up all this I realized every beer mixture I ran had bourbon barrel aged beers in it... Again, I have read lots of threads on running finished beers so I don't need "Don't do it!" posts or anything like that... I'm doing it. It's an experiment. Oh, I also didn't find that cleaning the still in between runs to be any messier than cleaning it after any other type of run (rum, sugar, malt, bourbon.) YMMV.

[Big Stogie]

So the low wines smell bad or the smell while distilling? I would be really curious how that tastes,, I would be tempted to make some sort though of gin infusion with juniper, your botanicals of choice and maybe some hops? Navy Gin with a touch of hops and oak ?

[ydoih8u]

So the low wines smell bad or the smell while distilling? I would be really curious how that tastes,, I would be tempted to make some sort though of gin infusion with juniper, your botanicals of choice and maybe some hops? Navy Gin with a touch of hops and oak ?

Both. The low wines smell bad and they stank up the place while it was running. If you've ever aged hops where they start to get cheesy that's the best I can describe the smell.... Only much more intense lol.

I'm planning to run it 3 times through my pot still... We'll see if the hop smell gets better or worse after the 2nd run. I considered making it some sort of gin as well. I'm just going to play it by ear. I have about 10 gallons of probably 50% abv low wines (haven't put it all together.)

It's going to have to wait until next week or maybe after Thanksgiving though.

[fizzix]

I wish you better success than I had. The smell is the way mine tasted.
To be fair, it was shitty beer going in and that's why I distilled it.

[still_stirrin]

ydoih8u,
I’ve run beers many times before. Recently, I ran an American IPA that was waaaaay over hopped. It was even dry hopped with some high alpha hops (not stale, cheesy hops tho).

After one pass through the potstill it tasted (and smelled) like a very grassy tea. Even after the 2nd pass through the potstill, it still tasted (and smelled) grassy, although not quite as bad.

After the 2nd pass, I decided to put it on wood, so I got some heavily charred oak chunks and put it into a glass jar. I used 3 or 4 times as much wood as I normally would, but I wanted the charcoal to help clean up the spirits. After a short period of this over oaking, I checked the results. It improved a lot. So I pulled some of the wood (back to a more normal level) And left it a while longer.

After a couple of months, the “salvage beer” whiskey was drinkable...not “top shelf”, but better than “kick the can over” whiskey. The over charred chunks acted as a filter bed and helped clean the hop oils out of the spirit.

My lesson learned here is that it can be difficult to deal with salvaging the goodness from a crappy start, but if you work at it, you can at least get something acceptable from something you would otherwise dump down the drain.
ss

[thecroweater]

IPA might have been better kept separate but it should turn out just fine. The hops flavour will dissipate to a point where it adds something pleasant. If you are worried the IPA is going to add to much maybe do an intentical mash without hops to add to the spirit diluting the hop flavour. In spirits a little bit of hops goes a long way.

[ydoih8u]

I wish you better success than I had. The smell is the way mine tasted.
To be fair, it was shitty beer going in and that's why I distilled it.

Haha, yeah these were all good beers... At one point. Some of them not long in the tooth, a few over oaked.

ydoih8u,
I’ve run beers many times before. Recently, I ran an American IPA that was waaaaay over hopped. It was even dry hopped with some high alpha hops (not stale, cheesy hops tho).

After one pass through the potstill it tasted (and smelled) like a very grassy tea. Even after the 2nd pass through the potstill, it still tasted (and smelled) grassy, although not quite as bad.

After the 2nd pass, I decided to put it on wood, so I got some heavily charred oak chunks and put it into a glass jar. I used 3 or 4 times as much wood as I normally would, but I wanted the charcoal to help clean up the spirits. After a short period of this over oaking, I checked the results. It improved a lot. So I pulled some of the wood (back to a more normal level) And left it a while longer.

After a couple of months, the “salvage beer” whiskey was drinkable...not “top shelf”, but better than “kick the can over” whiskey. The over charred chunks acted as a filter bed and helped clean the hop oils out of the spirit.

My lesson learned here is that it can be difficult to deal with salvaging the goodness from a crappy start, but if you work at it, you can at least get something acceptable from something you would otherwise dump down the drain.
ss

This gives me hope then that a triple distilled product should be heading in the right direction. I'm def going to age it for quite some time on oak as well. Looking at the low wines there is quite a bit of oils I can see on the top... I'm debating pouring it through some cotton or cloth to try and reduce the oil (maybe freeze it and skim.)

IPA might have been better kept separate but it should turn out just fine. The hops flavour will dissipate to a point where it adds something pleasant. If you are worried the IPA is going to add to much maybe do an intentical mash without hops to add to the spirit diluting the hop flavour. In spirits a little bit of hops goes a long way.

Honestly, I couldn't discern much of a difference in the low wines for the run with the IPA in it vs either of the other two runs. Most the beers were pretty highly hopped though. Even a barleywine still has a significant amount of hops to balance all that sweetness. These runs were specifically a 'drain save'. I got the still originally to do this with beers (but later heard about the mess and unpleasant taste and never did it. Not sure what made the other day 'the day' but I just said F it and did it. I think i'm glad I did... Maybe after the other runs I'll disagree though lol.

[thecroweater]

The mess is a cock and bull story, I'd imagine dreamed up by guys that never tried it. How hoppy your end result is will be determined by how hoppy the beer was and bierschnaps is supposed to have a hop flavour so great. How much hops is the perfect amount is very subjective to your personal tastes but there is a post that comes to mind ( I think by Jimbo) of very over hopped beer being ran and the result at first was not marvellous but after some aging the poster found the hop flavour changed or dissipated into something very pleasant. I have not ran anything overly hoppy so can't comment but what I have ran was really interesting and enjoyable to drink. That said no doubt the adage crap in crap out will ring true, hops or no hops
Ya know what I have some medium hopped pale ale here that has sat to long for kegging so if it hasn't gone to malt vinegar perhaps I'll run me some more bierschnapps and see how much hops carries over, I doubt it will be an overload.

[ydoih8u]

The only thing I can think of with the mess bit would be if people have it puke on them or something. I just degassed beforehand.

[ydoih8u]

Did my second run. Much better aroma and flavor. I can actually see potential in it now.

[ydoih8u]

Finishing up the spirit run on this now. It smells and tastes pretty good. I think it's going to be pretty spiffy once it gets some oak and age on it.