Sweetwater

[8Ball]

So I usually find that I have to knock down the high ABV distillate to aging strength. In the past I used Figi water with good results and no cloudiness either. I’ve read here somewhere that you shouldn’t do that as you lose flavor, instead you should make your hearts collection average out to what you want to age at. My small pot set up won’t get me there unless I go farther into the tails than I want to.

So I’ve done this:

At the end of your strip run, keep going until you are at 212F and 0%, collect as much of the pot water, aka “sweet-water” as you need. For me it is about a quart. Let it sit awhile and skim off any oils. Run it through a coffee filter 2 or 3 times. Add about 1/2 a teaspoon of calcium carbonate, stir well, and let it sit overnight. The calcium reduces acidity which possibly has a negative effect on the aging cycle I’ve read.

Check your pH, it should be 7.0 or close to it. Run it through a coffee filter one more time, and now for the last part:

pour your sweet water through a Brita filter and there you have it, some nice clear, non-acidic flavored water to temper your product with to aging strength.

8B

[still_stirrin]

I use reverse osmosis (RO) water because I have an RO filter in my home. It's there and produces great tasting water. And it's a lot less complicated than what you do.
ss

[kiwi Bruce]

8Ball...What where you making?

[shadylane]

8ball I've always gone deep into the tails for sweet water
But I've never cleaned it up like you have.
I'll have to give it a try

[Fiddleford]

the calcium carbinate should also drop out some esters from solution, I would ge it near freezing maybe to get rid of any off flavors other then the "sweet water"

[8Ball]

8Ball...What where you making?

Kiwi Bruce — some of my Irish style all grain.
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=72912

[OtisT]

What was the PH of the SW before treating, and what is the PH of the cut? I’m curious how big the delta was.

+1 on wanting to know what your makin. I’ve only used sweet water twice for proofing down to barrel strength and at only 8 months in the barrel so far, the jury is still out on how it will turn out. My collection was a bit different. I wanted to collect down to 0 ABV, but my element was close to being uncovered so I shut down collecting 2% ABV off the PC. I also did not treat my SW. The stuff had a lot of peat/smoke smell to it but it tasted fresh like water, with no bitterness.

In the future I’ll be checking PH of my cut and the SW. This sweetwater PH subject came up in a previous thread and I’m curious now. I currently have a batch of panela rum fermenting and I am planning to collect and use sweetwater for proofing. I’ll be sure to go all the way to 0% (212 F) and will be sampling the range of late tails jars to find the good stuff.

Otis

[8Ball]

8ball I've always gone deep into the tails for sweet water
But I've never cleaned it up like you have.
I'll have to give it a try

Shady- I’m almost there when I’m done stripping so I figured why not? Filtering the calcium solids thru the coffee filters and the Brita only took about 15 mins tops. This way I can use the pot water to dilute and not lose as much flavor and not worry about what the acidity does to the aging.

8B

[8Ball]

the calcium carbinate should also drop out some esters from solution, I would ge it near freezing maybe to get rid of any off flavors other then the "sweet water"

Fiddleford, I keep it in the frig next to my beer @ 38F for a day or two until I’m done airing out. Is that close enuf?

8B

[Fiddleford]

I may have been talking out of my ass, I re-read what you wrote.

[8Ball]

What was the PH of the SW before treating, and what is the PH of the cut? I’m curious how big the delta was.

+1 on wanting to know what your makin. I’ve only used sweet water twice for proofing down to barrel strength and at only 8 months in the barrel so far, the jury is still out on how it will turn out. My collection was a bit different. I wanted to collect down to 0 ABV, but my element was close to being uncovered so I shut down collecting 2% ABV off the PC. I also did not treat my SW. The stuff had a lot of peat/smoke smell to it but it tasted fresh like water, with no bitterness.

In the future I’ll be checking PH of my cut and the SW. This sweetwater PH subject came up in a previous thread and I’m curious now. I currently have a batch of panela rum fermenting and I am planning to collect and use sweetwater for proofing. I’ll be sure to go all the way to 0% (212 F) and will be sampling the range of late tails jars to find the good stuff.

Otis

Otis, Sorry but I didn’t check the SW pH beforehand. I did taste it though and it was bitter and funky. The pH of the cut is a little more than 6.0, a very slight hint of green on my year old litmus paper.

8B

[8Ball]

I use reverse osmosis (RO) water because I have an RO filter in my home. It's there and produces great tasting water. And it's a lot less complicated than what you do.
ss

The Figi water is great tasting too and works well like I said. RO sounds like the way to go if you want to dilute with plain water and have an RO system ... I don’t. I wanted to use what I had in the pot to get me to aging ABV, trying to stay true to the Irish style.

8B

[atarijedi]

I would not use a Brita water filter to clean up the alcohol or sweet water. Brita water filters, the pitcher, is constructed using styrene acrylonitrile (SAN), and while that's perfectly safe if you are just filtering water. It is not to be used with ethanol (ethyl alcohol) at all.

Thermofisher Chemical Resistance Guide: http://tools.thermofisher.com/content/s ... D20480.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I would just put some activated carbon in between 2 coffee filters in a funnel. Or mix it in with the sweet water in one container, before pouring it through a coffee filter/funnel into a second container.

[Saltbush Bill]

Sorry but I didn’t check the SW pH beforehand. I did taste it though and it was bitter and funky.

Are you sure we are talking about the same stuff here? From my experience its called Sweet water for a reason. Mine is neither bitter or funky....it is pretty much as its name suggests.

[8Ball]

SB, well you have me scratching my head on that one. I’m talking about what I get at the end of my strip run in a 5G pot with no packing at 212F/0%. It is not ‘sweet’ at all and has some of that familiar backset taste going on. After the calcium carbonate and Brita treatment, it is very palatable and complements my cut. How far/long do you have to go when you strip to get to what you say you get?

8B

[8Ball]

I would not use a Brita water filter to clean up the alcohol or sweet water. Brita water filters, the pitcher, is constructed using styrene acrylonitrile (SAN), and while that's perfectly safe if you are just filtering water. It is not to be used with ethanol (ethyl alcohol) at all.

Thermofisher Chemical Resistance Guide: http://tools.thermofisher.com/content/s ... D20480.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I would just put some activated carbon in between 2 coffee filters in a funnel. Or mix it in with the sweet water in one container, before pouring it through a coffee filter/funnel into a second container.

AJ, it is 0%, non-acidic water, as stated earlier. I like the suggestion of layering the activated carbon vs using the Brita. My wife wasn’t too keen on my using her Brita ...

8B

[vqstatesman]

This thread has great timing for me. I have been thinking of this same topic and wondered what others do. Subscribed.

[Saltbush Bill]

what I get at the end of my strip run in a 5G pot with no packing at 212F/0%. It is not ‘sweet’ at all and has some of that familiar backset taste going on.

it is very palatable and complements my cut. How far/long do you have to go when you strip to get to what you say you get?

What I get is probably not sweet , but its most certainly not bitter either. As far as taste its very mild, fairly tasteless. If I want to save any for any reason I usually start tasting below 8-10% abv, Dont need to get down to zero abv to find it from my experience.

[Swedish Pride]

What I get is probably not sweet , but its most certainly not bitter either. As far as taste its very mild, fairly tasteless. If I want to save any for any reason I usually start tasting below 8-10% abv, Dont need to get down to zero abv to find it from my experience.

100%

the few times i've gone in to that region it was at about 20-10% if I recall correctly, this is with a plater, with a pot it'd expect it at lower abv

[Saltbush Bill]

SP when I'm down that far Ive been stripping for ages , the water to the dephlegmator is turned right off and the plates are not loaded, in short there is no reflux to speak of, at that stage I'm just running a big pot still so ABV should be about the same.

[OtisT]

8ball,
I made a peated whiskey in a pot still and used sweetwater from the spirit run to dilute. It used 1 liter of sweetwater with 8 liters of cut spirit to proof it down to 62%. I used sweetwater in the 3% ABV down to 2% ABV range. It tasted “refreshing”, and like water. No bitterness and no funk. I could smell mostly smoke/peat and just a hint of tails smell.

This was my first use of sweetwater and I did not test any of my collection above 3% ABV, and I stopped the run at 2% ABV so I did not taste anything at 0%. Next time I do this I will definitely be tasting some of the earlier jars.

My cut was fairly wide and it has only been in the barrel (toasted, no char) for 8 months. I tasted it yesterday and it’s still got a bit of new make character to it, but not much. That’s what I would expect for the type of cut I made, so I don’t think the sweetwater has negatively impacted what I have made.

Otis

[edit. Just realized I double posted the same info. For some reason, I thought my previous message in a different thread. Sorry.]

[8Ball]

Otis, your experience might be shedding some light on mine. I do a 3-1/2 gal strip in a 5G pot. I collect a gallon total of low wines to get me to ~27% ABV. At this point, I have been at 212F for the last quart, and I assume that I’m at 0% or very close to it. It is at this point, that I’ve collected the “water” (sweet?) that I need to dilute my narrow heart cut to 61%. My thinking is if I collect at low ABV, like say 10-20%, won’t I be collecting deep tails? I am under the impression that you want to avoid tails, thats why I thought collecting 0% water at 212F will give me flavored water suitable to temper with. That is my goal. Not sure now if I succeeded or not. But it still tastes good so maybe I did?

[Saltbush Bill]

One way to find out...taste right through that lower abv part of the run.

[8Ball]

+1 SBB
I think my sweet water probably wound up in my low wines. Will taste through as suggested. The struggle is real and this rabbit hole just got interesting.

8B

[kiwi Bruce]

The struggle is real and this rabbit hole just got interesting.8B

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.

RED PILL! RED PILL! RED PILL! RED PILL!

[8Ball]

The struggle is real and this rabbit hole just got interesting.8B

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.

Red PillBlue Pill.jpg

RED PILL! RED PILL! RED PILL! RED PILL!

Be a good man. Pour me a couple of fingers and hand me that red one.
8B

[psf]

I stripped 55 gallons of a gumball after a 95% corn AG the past few days and noticed that down in the 20%-10% ABV that the water was a real sweet corn flavor. I didn't collect it separate so it's apart of my low wines. Will this sweet water show up on the back end of a spirit run or is it only available from the mash? What is the verdict on collecting and using to dilute final product vice water? Would you only do this if you were planning on aging on oak or would it be good for some white dog?

I will experiment once I have another stripping run, of course.

Thank you.

[8Ball]

I stripped 55 gallons of a gumball after a 95% corn AG the past few days and noticed that down in the 20%-10% ABV that the water was a real sweet corn flavor. I didn't collect it separate so it's apart of my low wines. Will this sweet water show up on the back end of a spirit run or is it only available from the mash? What is the verdict on collecting and using to dilute final product vice water? Would you only do this if you were planning on aging on oak or would it be good for some white dog?

I will experiment once I have another stripping run, of course.

Thank you.

I’ve used sweet-water to lower my aging abv down on my smokey single malt whiskey. Other than that, I just strip everything down until I collect a third or a quarter of the boiler charge as liw wines. That includes sweet-water.