Botanicals and flavoured spirits

[myles]

I am thinking about building a stove top still with a basket, specifically for loading with neutral to produce flavoured spirits.

Other than gin, does anyone have a list of recipies, or descriptions of drinks that can be made in this way?

Which drinks are made by vapour infusion, and which are made by putting the flavouring agent in the pot and redistilling.

Any links to other posts or sites would be appreciated.

Thanks
Myles

[EuroStiller]

Myles

You are heading into liqueur territory. May I suggest fine copper screen-type mesh. Also, you will want to keep you "basket" above your boiling neutral so that the vapors can pass through the matter in the basket easily. Start out with something simple like a large bunch of fresh mint leaves, to give you a true mint liqueur. You can also try some spices like cinnamon. Don't use Ceylon cinnamon, it is too sweet and the flavor is lost in the process you describe, use Cassia cinnamon. You can dilute your distilate with a sugar syrup and have a very nice cinnamon liqueur. You can also do a so-so Absinthe in the kind of still you want to build. Just make sure you try to keep as few dregs from macerating in the basket so they do not burn on the bottom of your still. I have a version of Absinthe that I make in a similar fashion.

As for set recipes, I cannot give you any. All I can give is advice. Take an herb you like, say mint or rosemary, or mint with a couple leaves of rosemary, and see if you like what you get. Work in small batches, keep a recipe notebook, and don't be afraid to use your imagination. If you get stuck, there are alot of macerated liqueur recipes that you can distill after the maceration step for a really nice product. Before long, you will find exactly what you like, be it spices, herbs, berries, edible flowers.....
Welcome to liqueur territory

EuroStiller- The Doctor

[myles]

Thought I might as well use this post for the build also. I decided to go for it when I found a nice copper pot to use as the basis for the still. Am not in any hurry as I want to make this one nice. I found a 3 gallon pot that I thought was going to be a reproduction and either spun or pressed copper. Its in the background behind my in progress steam kettle!!





Well I took the two handles off and cleaned it up and it turns out to be a proper pot, welsh seams and all.







The pot itself is quite thick - 12 gauge and possibly a bit more - so I decided to use 14 gauge for most of the build. Going for this design with a botanical column about 5" in diameter and a water seal system.



Am using slightly thinner 19 gauge for the water seal. That 14 gauge is thicker than anything I have used before and is hard going, but I managed to get the frustum riveted together.





Will solder it up with 4% silver tin solder. I fluxed it with a paste flux before riveting it together with 3/16" rivets. Am intending to shape the dovetails and rivet them to the outside of the pot before soldering it all up to make it vapour tight.

[myles]

I wanted to keep this build fairly basic so have built a double worm condenser.







I wanted to use it with a parot hence the legs to lift the bucket - a 15 litre stock pot. 2 of the legs are used as the water feed and overflow lines for the coolant. Here are the worms - both the same length of 3/8" tube - 5 meters each.









The central overflow works fine. The water level is about an inch below the rim of the stock pot and about 1 coil of the inner worm is out of the water. The double feeds to the parot worked out just fine too.

[EuroStiller]

Myles

Excellent work there!! Great design! My 300 Liter alembic has a double worm condenser, but that is the way it was built almost 300 years ago! That is what they did back then to improve efficiency. With that said, I need to get my @ss in gear and head over to my still. Wine does not distill itself into acquavita/ raw brandy by itself and I have to get the coals going under the still or else it's really gonna be a long day. Keep up the great work on you project!

ES- The Doctor

[HookLine]

Nice work, Myles.

[myles]

I have been a bit preocupied with other problems but I have managed to complete the cap. Its not the traditional way, but I have always had a bit of an issue with raising up the edge of a disk and smoothing out the pleats.



I joined the column to the cap with a reducing coupling, sliced through the thick part and opened it up like petals on a flower. Put this through the hole from the inside and riveted it together.



I added on a section cut off a slip coupling with a slight flare to reinforce the solder joint to the cap.

The inner wall of the water seal was made in a simmilar way.





This part has not been soldered yet



It still needs an outer wall on the water seal, but it will look something like this

[kiwistiller]

Myles, you're an artist. looks beautiful.

[blanikdog]

Great job, myles.

blanik

[beelah]

Most impressive

I would be interseted in the overall end cost of your creation.

[myles]

Most impressive

I would be interseted in the overall end cost of your creation.

The materials cost me less than £200.00 or about $350. I doubt you could buy it at that price.

The build itself was fantastic value for money, Looking forwards to a break now!!!