Home Distiller

Hey I'm Jacques from South Africa.

I have been looking through this forum for a while now and just thought I should introduce myself. I just want to say that this forum is an AMAZING source of information, and that you must keep up the hard work!!! I'm planning on building my first reflux still soon, and as I live in the wine district of South Africa, I have access to alot of the seeds and skins that are left over from the process of wine making. I have on question regarding useing the skins and seeds: can they be thrown in the boiler and left there for the duration for the run, or must all the seeds and skins be removed?

Welcome to the HD forums, jacdev...

I would think that it would be best to remove any fruit solids before distillation to eliminate foaming or the carry-over of off tastes and smells... Racking would also be preferred so as to remove the yeast, not just the fruit remains...

Good luck...

if I recall correctly (and I'm no expert), grapa is usually distilled on the grape skins in a pot still. you'd need a double boiler for that.

first add as much water to skins as juice came off. add sugar to SG of 1.080 , let ferment (yeast should still be there)
after fermenting,, make a "bed" bottom of still with stems/straw or reeds, slowly dump skins and all in boiler, with slow fire run all off,
run secent time for spirits run making cuts. (no "bed" is needed this time)
(cat tail leaves work good as "bed")

You are correct, kiwistiller... The difference would be whether the skins are left over from fermentation or simply from pressing... I used to make wine both ways, depending on my mood... Heck, I tried so many concoctions it's no wonder I prefer to buy my wine these days... I do still get the urge every now and then, but then I realize that I'd probably just run it through the still anyway...