New to distillation, or simply new to the HD forums.
** Your first post MUST go here. Introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your interest in distilling. Any posts asking distilling questions will be deleted. **
I'm actually interested in home wine making and I don't have any distillation equipment. But alcohol in general is a point of interest of mine and I like to read about it. I guess distillation is more complicated than fermentation and requires serious set-up which might be illegal in my country.
Welcome to HD.
Like a good book. Lots of info. A couple of thrillers and a clif hanger at the end of
the chapter. You'll never find us on the New York Times Best Seller list, but with
almost 20 thousand posts, should keep you in reading material and if or when the
time comes. You may want to do something other than wine.
ArkyJ
Yes, this place seems like a lovely book there are a lot to learn. And yes, it's very difficult to make good wine(I couldn't get any to my taste yet, still trying). However I didn't know that fermentation produces methanol until I've read some posts here. Basically, sugar brakes down to CO2 and ethanol by the yeast, so who makes the bloody methanol? Honestly, now I feel less confident drinking my carefully fermented(badly tasting) fruit wine. I strictly follow sanitation requirements for fermentation and I always use airlocks filled with sterilizer(Potassium metabisulfite) solution during fermentation to avoid contamination. Pectin is an unavoidable ingredient if you're fermenting any plant. So whenever we consume wine we get some amount of methanol right? Scary...
I was planning buy an airstill to ease my curiosity on distilling(and it's quite small, which is a key property for someone like me living in an apartment) but I guess it's not a good idea to start this hobby before learning a good deal of it.
A nice healthy glass of orange juice has methenol too.
Most of us push our ferments hard enough that the forthcomming alcohol content really doesn't permit for infections.
Also,, a couple few of the recipes here will ferment to completion in less than a week.
Welcome to the forum, I will be visiting Istanbul next fall for the first time. My wife's cousin married a woman from Istanbul so we are going over for a visit
Bushman wrote:Welcome to the forum, I will be visiting Istanbul next fall for the first time. My wife's cousin married a woman from Istanbul so we are going over for a visit
There are many things to do and to see in Istanbul. But you MUST have fish & Raki(we say raki-balik in Turkish) by the Bosphorus either in Anatolian side or in European side in a restaurant like this or like this. In fall, you'll have many fish in its great taste but try Bluefish, in fall it's in its best shape and better than anywhere in the world due to the specific water temperature.
This must be added to "100 things to do before you die" lists
Bushman wrote:Welcome to the forum, I will be visiting Istanbul next fall for the first time. My wife's cousin married a woman from Istanbul so we are going over for a visit
There are many things to do and to see in Istanbul. But you MUST have fish & Raki(we say raki-balik in Turkish) by the Bosphorus either in Anatolian side or in European side in a restaurant like this or like this. In fall, you'll have many fish in its great taste but try Bluefish, in fall it's in its best shape and better than anywhere in the world due to the specific water temperature.
This must be added to "100 things to do before you die" lists
Thanks, when we get to Turky our guide is a woman named Ayse Erbulak if the name is familiar her father was an actor and her son is now an actor I believe. I will send on your suggestions to her they sound wonderful and I am truly a seafood lover
Welcome! and don't worry about the wine, it's probably physically impossible to drink enough so that methanol and other nasties would be a worry, alcohol poisoning and/or massive retching would be the major concern. The antidote for methanol is ethanol, so it comes with it's own cure too, but that doesn't solve the hangover if over consumed! Like a lot of things, a little bit of what we like, usually does very little harm, and if it's been "purified" by distillation, well sometimes we can enjoy just a little bit more of what we like, without paying too high a price! Look through all the info, and you're bound to find lots of interesting things to try, and very likely something of special interest.
Raki is the best! I've had my share in various parts of Greece, where it's sometimes called Tsikoudia. The homemade stuff is always a joy to come across in a village cafe. Is it made the same way in Turkey - out of the left-over grape bits after they've been pressed for wine? Similar to grappa. There are very simple ways to do this...
