Removing bad flavour with still.

[Bren_74]

I did post this in another forum but it was removed as I "should read the rules" and post my first post in the welcome forum. I might be missing something but this was my second post - my first was posted here in the welcome forum 18 minutes beforehand!!!

So I'm confused tbh but here goes anyway

Hi

I've been looking at getting into stilling for a while - my brother has done it for years but only on a basic level using sugar wash through a pot still and then flavour. So he can only help me so much.

I've now placed an order for my first still- based on my tight budget - it's a 38ltr pot with thumper, condenser and comes with a submersible pump for cooling the condenser. Yes it's an amazon special but is the best i can afford this year.

This year I made 20ltrs of elderflower champagne. It hasn't carbonated but worse than that has a very nasty bitter taste! This may be from me adding the citrus carcass' to the mash or from getting oxygen into the bucket at some stage.

Fact is, it tastes nasty and as a wine it's beyond redemption! I thought that if I run it through a still as such:
1: stripping run - not removing fores,heads etc.
2: spirit run through pot and thumper (water only in thumper)

Would the above leave me with a nice clear, tasteless spirit? Could this remove the nasty bitter taste?

BTW the wine is at 18%abv - not sure what difference that will make as it seems from my reading most use a 10 to 13% wash.

Thanks in advance for any help on this subject.