Home Distiller

Just finished aging a batch of rum (pineapple, cloves, nutmeg, spices, oak, etc). It came out of the still clear, but became cloudy after aging. I've filtered it through wine filters and coffee filters, and it's still cloudy. Can sparkelloid be used on a finished spririt without impacting taste, etc? How long should it take? Is there a better method for clarifying finished product?

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 37&t=18833
Check this post out. Sounds like your getting tails in your hearts. Cheers MK

oils ,protein etc could very well be coming from your spices and fruit.
not much you can do but not use whatever or run after flavoring.
citrus peel are well known for this. sometimes time will help.

I get that sometimes, even with an early tails cut. Never been able to figure it out. But it doesn't seem to affect the taste, especially after ageing. I also noticed that some commercial spirits have it as well, like Glenfiddich whiskey. So all up I figured it wasn't worth worrying about.

Thanks gents - good advice on all counts. I'm sure there were some tails in there, plus I added orange oil to help flavour, plus the fruits and spices I used would have had oils as well. Following some coffee filtering, I filtered the rum through two wine filters, and it ran very fast without clarifying. I added a third wine filter and now it's coming out a drop at a time, but it's clear as a bell. I agree with Hookline that it's not worth worrying about, and unfiltered it has true artisan appeal (but this batch is for Xmas gifts, so it's got to look clean).

Next year I'm going to be smart and buy brown rum bottles.....

I had the same problem with some spiced rum I made and I stuck the bottle in the freezer for a couple of days. The cloudiness settled to the bottom of the jar, looked like lees in the bottom, I siphoned off the top and everything stayed clear after it warmed up. I also used some orange peel in that batch. Maybe the culprit??

Yup it is the fruit.

Mixed company prolly likes things nice and clear but the flavor is dern good with the cloudy too.

It should be noted that some of the lemoncello folks much prefer the cloudy rather than not.

I do like Faststill and pour the clear into bottles for the ladies an such. I keep the cloudy remainder for my personal use as it is just as good.

oh yeah forgot to mention....Don't put no spark_o_loyd in your rum for heavens sake.


Just my opion.

Fastill wrote:I had the same problem with some spiced rum I made and I stuck the bottle in the freezer for a couple of days. The cloudiness settled to the bottom of the jar, looked like lees in the bottom, I siphoned off the top and everything stayed clear after it warmed up. I also used some orange peel in that batch. Maybe the culprit??

I tried freezing it outside in Canada's current minus-9 weather - as you said, lees fell to the bottom and clarified the distillate - not on every bottle, but on some. But as soon as I brought it inside, within 5 mins the lees started rising from the bottom and before long it was cloudy again. I guess the trick is to siphon off the top outside!

something you can try,freeze,,then filter. this sometimes thickens oils. then their easier to filter out.