Im getting there!

[sir.richard]

Hey all,

Well I have made perhaps 10 or so 25L batches of wash, using various yeasts and dextrose, and whilst (after distilling in a super reflux) I was churning out gallons of 80-90% alcohol, it smelled toxic and had a pretty strong taste, and you didnt feel so good the next day after say 3 or more drinks. You could tell it was giving your liver a mighty workout - not good.

I am trying to replicate my favourite drink so I can not have to buy alcohol again - its a 95% pure Polish spirit. Pretty much just pure alcohol. My fav drink is 30mls of that with a tall glass of diet lemonade and some fresh lime juice.

I initially thought it must be the way Im making my wash (maybe ending up with sugar left in it or something), so tried different yeasts, testing properly before determining it was finished etc but still the same issue.

I could mix the result up into something and it would be OK as it hid the taste (like cappucino essence with a cream base), but by itself with not strong tasking mixers it was just overpowering in taste and smell.

I was chucking out the heads of about 100mls (actually use it as window cleaner) and saving the rest in a big glass bottle until the % got down to around 80% or the temp got over 92 degrees C, whichever came first.

So I would end up with a nice big bottle of alcohol (3L-6.5L depending on which yeast...Triple Distilled, express or Power). But it just smelled and tasted terrible.

So I thought more careful measuring of temp and strength as the batch was processed would help me identify when things were going sour. I was assuming that other than the heads, the rest of the batch was all good until your temp went up too high or the strength dropped. I also assumed that the spirit immediately after the heads would be the best - it just seemed logical as perhaps the alcohol was boiling off best at that time but later there would be more impurities boiling off as well.

After a while I was doing this leeeeeengthy process, trying to get something more drinkable - my logic being that filtering and more distilling simply must remove the crap I didnt like.

First run: save all but first 100mls.
- Water down to 40%
- Run it through a 1m long charcoal filter (takes ages!)
- Second Run: Save all but around first 75mls
- Third Run: Save all but around first 75mls.

it would take me weeks...a week for the wash, then a still run on each of the next 3 weekends.

So I was getting less and less alcohol, but it still tasted, smelled, and your organs felt like, it just wasnt right.

So after reviewing this site and discovering the concept of neutral spirit and getting an insight into how the output varies as you do a run, tonight I tried this with some twice distilled alcohol I had (which as normal tasted and smelled terrible...and would have continued to after I distilled it again as normal):

- Saved first 1L (to redistill later).
- Tasted and smelled the next 1L by letting some drop on my finger every 15 mins and it had that familiar bad smell and taste
- Et voila, suddenly it smelled of just about nothing, and tasted of just about nothing as well!
- So I saved the next 2L, until I noticed the smell and taste returning. I put that bottle aside.
- Then I kept a bit more until it hit about 80%, and I will add this to the initial litre and redistill it all at some later stage.

So I am in the middle of my first drink made with that golden 2L, and lo and behold it may just have even less taste than the commercial Polish stuff! I just cant taste it when I mix it with lime juice and lemonade. And thats all of 15 mins after I distilled it - I havent let it sit and mellow at all yet.

Im blown away. Fingers crossed I wont notice any side effects tomorrow....and if I dont, then FINALLY I have cracked it!

In another day or two I will have a 25L bacth of triple distilled wash Im in the middle of making that will be ready to process, and will put that through the still and see if I......damn I hope I can..... can get a good result for some of the batch by using the same method and potentially NOT filtering or redistilling. Single distill with no filter. I didnt dare think it was possible until I read about it here.

If I can get say 1 litre of the good stuff (out of the 3.1L of 80%+ they say the wash should make) then it will work out almost half the price of the commercial drink I buy. Add on top of that I would also end up with ~2L of strong stuff I can redistill with my next batch, to gain even more benefit.

Any more tips people have would be great!

Thanks to all those who wrote all the tips on tasting etc. I was way too dependent on measuring the temp and strength. I now understand that other than being used as warning signs (temp too low or high, strength too low) they are not relevant to me at all. Simple taste and smell testing is all I need to know to make an awesome spirit, and despite my experience of all my bacthes smelling crap, in reality there is a golden window somewhere in the middle where the output is awesome.

[Hawke]

Yes, it sounds like you have finally figured out cuts.
1) Foreshots - methanol and acetone
2) Heads - more acetone and methyl acitates
3) Hearts (the good stuff)
4) Tails - ethyl acitates and fusil oils

[minime]

Not to discourage your progress but the still you are using is just not up to the task of producing a high quality neutral. You will expend far more effort than is required to get what you are looking for. A good VM or LM still will easily produce 95+ on a charge of 40% low wines and do it in a lot less time.

Good luck on your quest

[punkin]

To add to mini's comments.

1) use a plain sugar wash around 10-14%

2) strip it in a pot still or your little cooling management still without the packing or the cooling lines hooked up

3) stick it in a vm still and run it out at 95+



Then you're tasting with the big boys









You'reNearlyHalfwayTherePunkin

[clogsso44]

Hi,
Just try out some quality carbon through a filter setup or tip it into a large bottle, shake it several times a day and test.
Quality carbon is already washed and Ph neutral. The end result wil amaze you.
Regards,
Jan.

[Husker]

The end result wil amaze you.

Probably not. However, the end results of properly stripping several clean low ABV washes, combining them, and running them slowly in a GOOD proper still, WILL amaze you, or anyone else.

H.

[Glock19Fan]

I agree that a strait sugar wash would help, not only in cost (since its pretty much the cheapest source), but also, becuase there are very little products in refined sugar to screw around with the taste.

However, I was just wondering what materials your still is built from? Do you add salt to increase the density of the water?

The reason I ask is becuase when I first started, I was using plastic water hose, and found that the combined high strength alcohol and high temperatures would cuase the alcohol to slowly dissolve some of the plastics, sometimes making a cloudy spirit, and giving it an off, to aweful taste.

Also, if you are adding salt, and you have any stainless parts in your still, then the salt will react with the stainless, and will not only ruin the whole batch with a terrible flavor, but will also ruin the still. I did this once, and ended up having to replace the still, becuase no matter how many times I washed the thing, it still put out that bad flavor. I even tried running it a few more times with no success.

Anyway, good luck on your adventure. It can be frustrating sometimes, but you learn a lot, and only increase your experience.