Anonymous
(Unregistered)
06/25/02 03:35 AM
subject: Booze tastes bad!
I and my friends built a nice reflux type "distillery" a while back. We were able to make 90% strong booze, but it tastes&smells like s**t.
I'd be grateful if you could tell me what went wrong.
We're using 2.2 kW heater, which is quite powerful compared to other cases I've run into when surfing the web. Could it be that the taste is a result of a too high temperature in the boiler? The temperature in the top of the column is OK. Column height is 150cm (100cm packing) and diameter is 6cm.
Our mash was a bit sweet (the fermentation wasn't quite finished 'cause we were anxious to get distilling it
) and it had a lot of yeast. I've read a lot of documents that say that the mash should be absolutely clear before using it. But is it just the yeast that causes the bad taste, or does the sugar also ruin the goods?One thing's for sure, though; next time we'll be patient. It's damn sure I ain't gonna use half-finished mash again. Next time it WILL be crystal clear!
Dirk
(stranger)
06/25/02 07:47 AM
Re: Booze tastes bad! [re: Anonymous]
With what I learned from this site, it is most probable that different components ( yeast, sugars etc.) in your wash burned onto your "powerful" heating element, thus creating a certain amount of very much undesidered "flavouring" elements. These could have easily made it into your distillate product since you "only" obtained 90% purity.
1) You could probably get most, if not all, of the bad taste out by treating the distillate with activated carbon. So experiment.
2) Most probably, redistilling your endproduct will also help, but here I talk fully in theory. Maybe others can help here ???