First UJSSM, new still from mash to oak aging, with lots of photos attached

[Mr Merlin]

So, I have now completed my spirit run on my first UJSSM. I started by getting the T500 lid to fit my usual electric boiler and purchased an adapter and still components from Ali Express. My setup is below:

I started running through UJ gen 1 (pre-sour) with a 25l mash (including grains so around 15L of fermented wash you can extract each time). I used flaked maize and bakers yeast with a fridge for temperature control. Gen 1 was sacrificed for the stripping post acid run from the cleaning process. I therefore only kept gens 2 and up (once actually soured). A few teething runs with the boiler lid noted on that run which a little PTFE tape and bungee cord sorted completely since.

Runs beyond this I added a variety of extra little ingredients when removing some spent grain for the top up:

Run 2 - oats added

Run 3 - flaked barley added

Run 4 - corn top up

Run 5 - cara rye and cara gold added (lovely sweet and spicy flavour added here)

Run 6 - corn top up

I started to get inpatient so purchased a 60L barrel and used a high grade 300W aquarium thermometer for temp control - needed as the temperature was dropping to a persistent 0 degrees at this time.

Run 7 - corn, oats and Cara wheat and made to 60L


I collected low wines down to ~15%, my condensor was running very cold though so it may well have been higher than that.

In total, I made around 21-22L low wines, I diluted to 25L with filtered water for a low wine ABV of around 33-35%

Spirit run I collected into 27 jars after discarding 500ml foreshots. After a 40 minute warmup, I stopped collecting after some 4 1/2 hours which in retrospect was probably running it a little quick (some 5-6hours total runtime).

After some pretty brutal cuts, I had around 3.6L of 73% hearts I was fairly happy with:

I cut split some wood into dominoes. I had Sugar Maple, French Oak and American White Oak as well as some barrel staves from a 30 year old whiskey. I toasted in 3 batches for 2 hours at various temperatures for a light, medium and heavy toast:

I then split the product and looked to place a small sample with each wood chunk, aging at 55%. I also added a sample to the still spirits classic bourbon essence (the ones in the box/sachet not the mini bottles) ad I heard good reviews and was impatent for something drinkable sooner. I purchased some bourbon barrel chips (tenessee) which I would add to this one as I gather the essence alone lacks enough oak/wood for most peoples taste.

Lastly I gave each piece of wood a medium char - after all bourbon does need a char right? Finally I now have a full complement of labelled UJSSM (slightly varied) to age:

My main goal has been to:

Learn about my still and how it works
Put theory into practice
learn about cuts
Learn about the impact of toast level to my own taste preferences.

Now it's not going to win awards, why would it - its my first ever run!! Still, the product which I added the essence to and have now age's some 6 days on toasted barrel chips is actually not bad - perhaps not yet a sipper but with coke is really quite decent (I have had worse at parties!). Clearly the other products are all far too young to consider sampling yet but the white dog was OK, as mentioned I probably ran a little fast (you can see a picture of the spirit run stream above for reference) so it has a hint of heads despite the aggressive cuts.

I now want to try and all grain - I have 20Kg of heavily peated malt to get started with (50ppm).

Would anyone sour their AG wash or try to keep it sterile/cleanish as you would a beer ferment? I kept some backset of the UJ but not sure if I should add this to an AG mash.

My condensor is also very cold which which as gather can "shock" the vapours, is that right or have I read that wrong. Should I turn down the flow a little?

Any other comments, suggestions or advice is always welcome. I'm still very green to this.

[Mr Merlin]

Any comments/suggestions/recommendations?

[OtisT]

Looks like you are having fun. I’m looking forward to hearing how this turns out for you.

What temps were your three levels of toast done at?

I don’t know about “shocking” the vapor, but if your PC output water is cold you are likely wasting water. Possibly consider reducing coolant flow to the Pc until the output water temp is warm to hot, making sure you are not letting any vapor escape. You should be able to reduce your cooling flow to the PC until you feel a gradient of heat on the shell of your shotgun, cold on the bottom, warm on top. When fractioning, that PC flow rate will be quite low while your RC flow rate will be greater (related to your reflux ratio).

Otis

[WithOrWithoutU2]

Looks like you are having fun. I’m looking forward to hearing how this turns out for you.

+1

[Mr Merlin]

Thanks for the feedback. I toasted the woods at the following:

light - 120c (248F)
medium - 180c (356F)
heavy - 320c (428F)

What I find interesting is that the bourbon essence actually made my product harsher compares to the ones bring ages on plain wood. Must be something in that sachet that gives a bite. It's been 7 days on toasted bourbon chips now and that had done a great deal in terms of adding some depth and rounding out some rougher edges. Still could use a little more but I'm tasting that one daily as I gather chips tend to add flavour rapidly. Don't think I'd bother adding essence again unless for a liquer.

The maple is odd - such a light wood un-toasted and yet adding colour by far the fastest. I can see what people mean by smokey/bacon like flavour. Not entirely pleasant yet but interesting notes. Actually I'm quite liking the faint touch of French oak but perhaps that just because it is adding flavour faster than the American oak.

I'll certainly look to reduce condensor flow. Currently it's fully open and with water temperature barely 1 degrees C, the hole thing is ice to touch. Product comes out at 5 degrees so it's hard to know the ABV since my alcometer is way off it's calibration.

I'll update tasking notes when the product age's enough. Now I have a vague feel for the system, I'm going to run some AGs through it until it gets warm enough to try my hand at a rum.