Has anyone successfully distilled out scorched taste?

[pope]

Yea that's the concern isn't it? Wasting my time and contaminating other batches (i.e. wasting even more time and money). Right now it's 4 gallons in a corny keg, I might let it just take up space for a while. I have two other batches I was going to combine it with to do a reflux flour wash vodka/neutral run, so it could do a lot of damage.

[Scorpster]

I started making cuts when the output dropped to 95%, and did throw most of what came after out, but running slow and starting with a high ABV that was still a high percentage of the total volume. I am waiting for a real vodka drinker to come and give my 3 selections a taste test (FFV, TPW, and this feints run). I think I can taste a little bit of difference, so I thought the best thing to do with this scorched feints run was to create a fire piss. I have eaten cinnamon and honey for breakfast most of the last 30 years, but don't care for fireball too much but made a litre and it came out great, no scorch detected. So if you can achieve good reflux, and your feints aren't really scorched (my scorched was only about 1/3 of the total feints) I'd give it a try.

[pope]

Let my scorched low wines sit a few days, spent some serious time cleaning out my system, and decided that it wasn't worth it. I built a steam injection system instead (works very well, highly recommended) and bought another bag of flour for $6. I did a pot spirits run on 8 gallons of wheat low wines to make an unbelievably small hearts cut which I will blend in to my reflux wheat neutral, so after some thought it seems like a big risk to throw one batch of scorched wheat mash into the mix rather than throw it down the drain.

Flavoring a flawed neutral spirit is a great idea! I have had great success with some birdwatchers that wasn't sufficiently neutral to my liking (probably mucked up the ferment or something), makes a great mixer and also supports gin, absinthe, and other botanicals well.

[Scorpster]

Ya, should definitely mention that I pulled the copper mesh packing out of the column and it was nasty and required a good cleaning. I also scorched a 100% heavy peat run, think I might try and run that through, see if I can keep the peat and get rid of the ash taste. No more experimenting with distilling on grain without a jacketed or steam system.

[pope]

Peat is different that’s some precious stuff! It was a fair bit of work but I built up my steam system this week and I’m so glad I did - basically my old still body became the steam generator and I got the opportunity to rearrange all the port locations on a new still body (keg). That plus a rod of copper with some holes in it and the steam cooks up thick mash nicely.

[J0hnni3]

I'm curious... I don't see the answer. I've just scorched my very first mash in 5 ish years. I had agitation on, so it's only a small amount. I could smell it, but I'm not tasting it at this pre-ferment stage.

Should I give up on it, or move forward? A relatively small amount of scorch for the total grain used. Basically a char around where the burner is, but next to no depth.

[cayars]

Can you smell or taste it in the product produced?

[jog666]

I'm curious... I don't see the answer. I've just scorched my very first mash in 5 ish years. I had agitation on, so it's only a small amount. I could smell it, but I'm not tasting it at this pre-ferment stage.

Should I give up on it, or move forward? A relatively small amount of scorch for the total grain used. Basically a char around where the burner is, but next to no depth.

I had a couple scorched stripping runs a while back. The second scorched was because I missed a small bit of corn after cleaning. I have learned from that mistake. Those strips sat for 2 months or so. They all had a faint yellow tint to them when new. When I got ready to do a spirit run, those jars had settled & all of the "yellow" was on the bottom. I wasted a bit of strippings to keep from getting the yellow in the spirit run. After it was all said & dont, that batch turned out good, no "off flavors" from the strip. I could tell I got a little sloppy & lazy with the washes but it still turned out good.

Let it sit to see if it gets better. Either way, dont waste it.

[Bearpig]

A little late reply but..
I tried redistilling and it did nothing to get rid of the burnt taste, just as cayars predicted. I ran it a few times through activated charcoal and still nothing. Pretty brutal stuff. Seems that once it's burnt, it's burnt..

I was about to pour it down the drain but an acquaintance that is a little too fond of alcohol said he'd gladly take it off my hands.. so at least it didn't completely go to waste. A lesson learned, when running any solids or anything cloudy go easy with the temps.

With regards to the oil: still running plain old sunflower oil and it hasn't gummed up or anything heinous. I've even reused the same oil for the last two years: end of season I just rinse out the oil jacket with some potassium hydroxide solution (careful with this stuff).

[nerdybrewer]

I burned corn meal and barley and wheat in the ferment vessel.
There are posts about just how I went about this amazing feat on this site somewhere.
The burn flavor did go into the final product and transferred to a 5 gallon oak barrel.
I found if I filtered it 7 times through AC it was pretty good.
Of course any nuance flavors get filtered out when you do this.
You get a basic whiskey, not the amazing thing you hoped for.
Not sure if I will ever get that taste and smell out of the barrel.

[samwell]

I just had my first scorch due to greed and impatience and wanted to hijack this thread to see if I only made a small fuck up.

I ran three back-to-back boiler charges of SCD Crow Bourbon Mash on my pot still. On the last boiler charge, I decided to add some of the trub to my charge thinking I wouldn’t scorch and that I’d maximize my yield. I was tired and greedy…

Big mistake. As soon as the distillate started coming off, I noticed a slightly toasty smell. After tossing fores, I collected about 200ml into my carboy (which already had 2.5 gallons of low wines) before realizing something was for sure burning and shutting the still off.

I know it was stupid to add the trub. Lesson learned. I was bound to have a scorch someday! HAHAHAHA

Will that small amount of scorched distillate ruin my entire batch since I added it to my 2.5 gallons of low wines or will it not have a noticeable impact? I'll be running more SCD Crow Bourbon soon (2 times more of what I just ran) and wonder if such a small portion can spoil the whole run.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

A small portion will ruin your whiskey. Don't add any more low wines. Keep the scorched batch separate and run it by itself (add some clean mash to it if needed for volume). If there is anything to be salvaged from the scorched batch, you can always add it to your final blend if you like. You set yourself back a day - don't get to the end and hate the results. That would be straight up discouraging.

[samwell]

A small portion will ruin your whiskey. Don't add any more low wines. Keep the scorched batch separate and run it by itself (add some clean mash to it if needed for volume). If there is anything to be salvaged from the scorched batch, you can always add it to your final blend if you like. You set yourself back a day - don't get to the end and hate the results. That would be straight up discouraging.

Thanks SCD. I appreciate it. Shitty that I fucked up, but on the other hand, this was gonna be my winter project and this was only 1/3 of what I’ve planned to distill.

I’ll make sure to do it right on the rest of my runs. Fingers crossed the now scorched/tainted low wines turn out okay too…

[samwell]

A small portion will ruin your whiskey. Don't add any more low wines. Keep the scorched batch separate and run it by itself (add some clean mash to it if needed for volume). If there is anything to be salvaged from the scorched batch, you can always add it to your final blend if you like. You set yourself back a day - don't get to the end and hate the results. That would be straight up discouraging.

To clarify, do you recommend running that batch (with added mash for volume) as a spirit run to see how it is?

[Fletching]

3 years ago, I was making a Rye-heavy bourbon and had it scorch. I went ahead and diluted the low wines way down with water and re-ran it. I was hoping that much water would help mute the scorched flavor. The only flavor it muted was the grain, the scorch was very much still there. I tossed the spirit in the corner of my garage.

It has now sat for 3 years. I tried it yesterday just for the hell of it and it still tastes like burnt garbage… lol.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

A small portion will ruin your whiskey. Don't add any more low wines. Keep the scorched batch separate and run it by itself (add some clean mash to it if needed for volume). If there is anything to be salvaged from the scorched batch, you can always add it to your final blend if you like. You set yourself back a day - don't get to the end and hate the results. That would be straight up discouraging.

To clarify, do you recommend running that batch (with added mash for volume) as a spirit run to see how it is?

I personally am at the experience that I would toss the scorched batch out. But if you are too close to the mash to do that, I'm just trying to help you mitigate your loss.

[samwell]

A small portion will ruin your whiskey. Don't add any more low wines. Keep the scorched batch separate and run it by itself (add some clean mash to it if needed for volume). If there is anything to be salvaged from the scorched batch, you can always add it to your final blend if you like. You set yourself back a day - don't get to the end and hate the results. That would be straight up discouraging.

To clarify, do you recommend running that batch (with added mash for volume) as a spirit run to see how it is?

I personally am at the experience that I would toss the scorched batch out. But if you are too close to the mash to do that, I'm just trying to help you mitigate your loss.

I dumped it all. Better to be safe than sorry and it’s an important lesson I had to learn.

I won’t do that again LOL

[bilgriss]

Agreed. I once danced the same dance and ended up wasting a 50 pound sack of malt in the process. After much experimentation, I dumped it all.

It's remarkable how much effort it takes to capture some desired flavors into the final product, and at the same time how something like this just won't go away.

[Windy City]

Years ago before I got my jacketed boiler I scorched a bourbon and greed would not let me throw it away.
I filled a new ten gallon barrel with it and figured age would fix it.
After three years it still sucked, right up to the moment I dumped it down the drain.
Lesson learned.

[Swedish Pride]

Been lucky enough never to scorch anything.
Been wondering if activated carbon wouldn't don't it for you, seems right about what it's made for.

Granted, you will loose all and any flavor but will end up with a fair chunk of neutral

[8Ball]

I keep a jar of scorched all malt rye aging on oak as an experiment in futility.

[Steve Broady]

Been wondering if activated carbon wouldn't don't it for you, seems right about what it's made for.

I’ve had two things scorch on me, both relatively minor, and I’ve attempted to save both of them with carbon, oak, time, and dilution. When I say minor, I mean I shut down the moment I first noticed the scorch, cleaned everything, and then started again. Even with that, two years later the flavor is still there.

On one, I treated it repeatedly with hardwood charcoal and a powerful blender in an attempt to get the most surface area possible. That was filtered and blended into a variety of scotch samples which nobody in the house liked and a bunch of whiskey sugarhead feints, and the whole lot was redistilled. After two years in a badmo, it’s still there if you look for it, but the product is just becoming drinkable.

The other was an apple brandy. I treated that with an absurd quantity of activated carbon, filtered (I never could filter out all the finest carbon particles, just had to let them settle over months), and put into a swing top jar with an excess of oak staves. The angels took quite a bit of the alcohol (it got close to 30%) and it was definitely over oaked, but the scorch was still there in the background. I ended up blending what little was left into another badmo full of brandy, which actually made a nice product, though I can still find it if I really go looking.

In both cases, the carbon helped considerably, but it didn’t solve the problem. I’ve decided that scorch is just an indelible flavor. And while you can save a product in some cases, and I have, it’s not worth the work and the results will never be better for it.

[Swedish Pride]

Good post Steve

[samwell]

Thanks for the reassurance everyone. Glad to know I’m not alone in my mistake and that I made the right decision dumping it. Next time I’ll know better. Sucks that I lost a little bit of time and grain in the process :/