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Greetings fellow "shiners" I am a Vermont based rookie "alcohol fuel producer" Working on batch number 11. I'm looking at some of the recipes for Vodka that involve grains. Especially white wheat. Here is my question, if these grain based recipes are used for the sake of flavor, then why so some of them require "polishing" with the carbon filters. This would seem to strip all the flavor out and be no different that the sugar based mashes that give you ethanol. Why mess with the grains if you are going to use the filters?? Seems like a waste of money and time. your thoughts would be appreciated. Ps. Killington Mtn. is open for business!

Welcome aboard.

You will find that carbon filtering isn't really liked much around here. So you must be reading about that somewhere else. And like a great many other things. Just because it is written. Doesn't make it right. The interwebs is full of BS.

You would be correct to a certain point. Yes making an all grain vodka and filtering it through carbon. Is going to remove some of the flavors that an all grain is used for. Not all but some. The whole thing comes down to personal preference. Some like an old school grainy vodka. Some want it to be so supper clean. They can't tell what it was made from. You have to figure out where you fit. And work accordingly.

Diluting with clean water and distilling it again. Plus making good cuts. Will give you a damn fine drink. Without the need to carbon filter.

Carbon filtering is also sold by many manufactures of crap stills and crap yeast. There products aren't up to the task. So you have to use the carbon filter to get something drinkable. Air stills and turbo yeast for example. So everything they push recipes and such. Will tell you to carbon filter. So they can sell that to you to. When in reality if you have a good still. And make a good recipe. You don't need the carbon filtering. Then you have those that want to wring out every little drop of blood out of that rock. Usually those making a profit. And the new distillers that haven't gotten past the greed factor yet. They think that you can keep more of the heads and tails if you filter through carbon. when really they are spending more time and money. Then it would cost to make another batch. And make good cuts.

Bla Bla Bla. Take a good look around here on HD. You will see many examples of all of this. And they usually come right back around to proper fermentation and distilling techniques. You can't polish a turd. And you can't polish gold with a turd.

excellent reply as always with v good points as i was wondering about charcoal filtering, think i will be buying some potatoes with the moneys instead.