Home Distiller

Aloha Everyone.

Been lurking here for a few months and thought I'd jump in.

Using this forum I've built a nice small set up and have had 2 successful sugar runs. My pot still pretty ghetto but is all stainless steel and copper, no lead, no plastic. It works.
I'm a scientist by training so I enjoy learning the "small things" that make something work or fail. I'm learning how to taste and feel the cuts that come off..pretty cool stuff. I'm being very conservative and cautious as I learn.

I took my last batch ran in 5x through Brita filter and that *really* improved the flavor. Next up is to try some of these quickie aging techniques...
http://homedistiller.org/aging/aging" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

One sad thing is that I live on the island of Kauai (well, THAT'S not sad, but this next bit is)..and we used to be a major sugar-producing island. However our last sugar mill closed in 2010 - my guess is I could've gotten plenty of cheap feedstock if the mill was still operating.

We do have a rum distillery that operates here, Koloa Rum: http://www.koloarum.com/rum.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
however they use sugar from Maui, and it's not at all clear to me how they "age" the rum. I haven't checked out their operation nor tasted their rum yet. I'll let you know more once I get over there.

My personal favorite liquor is CACHACA and maybe if I can find me some sugar cane juice on-island I'll try making my own. Nothing beats a well-made caipirinha!

My favorite "fact" about cachaca is that supposedly the cheaper grades are made in the same factories as the ethanol for vehicles - and that they make ethanol M-Th and cachaca on Friday. I have no idea if this is really true, but it sounds plausible. I am sure we are just beginning to see cachaca coming into it's own here in the US..

Thanks for everyone for making this a great forum. I already sent in my paypal in appreciation...

Welcome to hd its a great place to learn and get great ideas. Good luck on trying to make cachaca

Welcome, I have been to Kauai and have visited the koloa rum tasting room three times, the most resent visit was in February. They will not allow tours of their distillery at this point. When talking to the people in the tasting room (not the most knowledgeable on the process) it sounded like they did not add nutrients (sugar, molasses and yeast) and that their fermentation takes about a week. So I am guessing they have a type of turbo they are using that has the nutrients built in.

Welcome Wailua...

If you have access to panela (or the like),,,you can at least get your self a little closer to a cachaca substitute..

Welcome. Sounds like a nice place to run a still.

Welcome aboard.

Ok I will be the one. Loose the brita filter. It's not designed for what you are using it for. You may not have any plastics in your still. But you are running a high proof spirit through some after distilling. Leave the brita for water filtration.

Good luck be safe take your time.

Thanks for all the kind words and warm welcome.

So cachaca - hard to make? I'll have to read up on the forum about this. And panela...have never heard of this and..actually wait..now I am googling it and I have had it before in Texas, Mexico and down in Venezuela. Never seen it in Hawaii though. Good stuff!
It's sad to see the old abandoned sugar mills scattered about here on Kauai. Until the 1960s the whole island was basically sugar.

As for the Brita filter, I'm surprised it took so long to mention it too! I know it's heresy here and it's part of a long-running controversy, and I'm not trying to start it up again.

I was a cancer researcher who used 100% EtOH and polypropylene and polystyrene every day to purify DNA; IMHO it should be OK.

I'm sure that there's more carcinogens in both the charred surfaces of aging barrels used to make whiskey or in the charred parts of the BBQ meats I make than there are coming from my Brita. http://chemistry.about.com/b/2012/05/05 ... nogens.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Still, I know the anti-Brita comment is only a friendly suggestion and I value a stranger trying to help protect me and my health. It was more of an easy way to test how well a little "cleaning up" filtering would do. It was so effective that now my plan is to swap out the Brita for a charcoal column for the future.

I took my last batch and am trying to make a hickory-aged whiskey and also Hawaiian koa-aged whiskey. Never heard of that last one being done before..
I started the hickory one already and it's amazing how fast the color comes out.

It on your hands not my. You should also think of those that mite be drinking you product.

But my real question is. Why not just make something that doesn't need to be filtered through carbon?

Prairiepiss wrote:It on your hands not my. You should also think of those that mite be drinking you product.

But my real question is. Why not just make something that doesn't need to be filtered through carbon?

Aloha Uncle PP-
You have over 6000 posts: clearly you are more knowledgeable than me. For a newbie like myself, I can't see the harm if places like Jack Daniels still charcoal filter their product.

While it would be nice to have all the equipment and experience I would need to do things perfectly/make the best cuts possible, etc; in fact I am still learning - so cleaning things up a bit seems sensible. What's wrong with that?

Jack Daniels charcoal filters as part of the Lincoln county process. If your wanting to make a Tennessee whiskey following the Lincoln county process. By all means have at it.

But it is very easy to make something that doesn't required carbon filtering. We are talking two different things here. Carbon filtering is polishing a bad product. Used with neutral. Because it removes flavors. You don't want to remove flavors from a flavor drink like rum or whiskey. Charcoal filtering is like carbon filtering. But it also adds flavor. Now if you use a good recipe and run it good. There should be no need to carbon filter it. If it didn't turn out quite like you wanted it to. Dilute with clean water and run it again. The water will make a better filter. And so will the second distillation.

That's super helpful advice. Thanks!

Although I realize there's a difference between activated carbon and charcoal, I hadn't given it much thought. This clarifies it greatly (little pun there).
Running it a second time is a great suggestion and now I see what you are getting at.

As for the hickory aging, after just 12 hour the hickory started getting really strong, so I removed the charred wood, filtered through a coffee filter, added a very small amount of vanilla extract, and it's not too bad. I saw that leaving it in the hickory makes it taste like BBQ sauce, and I can see that note developing quickly. This stuff now tastes like a campfire, but not in a nasty way...like a chipotle pepper. It's not great by any means, but I learned a couple things.
I'll be curious to see what the koa does.
And might try these Jack Daniels chips..I see people having good luck with them.

Again thanks to everyone here for all their dedication to the craft!

wailua1000 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 10, 2012 12:45 pm

We do have a rum distillery that operates here, Koloa Rum: http://www.koloarum.com/rum.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
however they use sugar from Maui, and it's not at all clear to me how they "age" the rum. I haven't checked out their operation nor tasted their rum yet. I'll let you know more once I get over there.

Stopped by Koloa Rum yesterday and was very impressed with how little they knew about their products.
The only 2 things they knew were that cane sugar was the only sugar used and aging was done in bourbon barrels.
The still on display in the tasting room had so much brass and plastic that I didn't even want to take a picture.

Thanks a lot, HD Forums! Next, you'll probably tell me Santa Claus and Pro-wrestling aren't real.

juana_b wrote: ↑Wed Feb 09, 2022 5:11 pm Stopped by Koloa Rum yesterday and was very impressed with how little they knew about their products.

After looking at their product range Id be wondering how much real rum they make at all, it seems they are more into making flavoured drinks.
They could even be buying in cheap Rum from elsewhere to bottle.
I once wandered into a small boutique distillery here in AU that had a similar product line up.
They had stills on display behind glass..... "4 inch Plated columns made by and American company" what appeared to be large stainless fermenters bubbling away.
Lots of different "favoured Rums and liqueurs for sale in their tasting rooms. The story they told might have passed muster with tourists who knew little about distilling.
All it did for me was make me want to ask a lot of questions.
After I left I did a bit of "research / investigating" and found that all products sold there are bought in, in bulk from other Distilleries far from that location. The flavoured products and liqueurs where mixed and bottled on site from neutral bought in from elsewhere.
In short a tourist trap built to look like a small distillery.