Home Distiller

Hi,

I've been reading on this forum for months now and decided it is finally time to join. My name is Sebastiaan, age36 and I am a person that gets fascinated by all sorts of subjects. At the moment that is distiling my own spirits.
This fascination started about one year ago. Since then I have gathered most of the required equipment (incl. 20L copper pot still), I have read a lot on this forum (followed the must read threads) plus the following books:

- The compleat distiller
- Making pure corn whiskey
- Distillation of alcohol and De-Naturing
- Home Distillation Handbook
- Making Gin & Vodka
- many articles on various subjects
- wikipedia
- google

I have been a whisky enthousiast for many years. I learned that the unique single cask whisky's give me the most satisfaction. This inspired me to wanting to make my own. There you have my goal....

Up to now, I did several plain sugar / turboyeast runs to get the hang of distilling and to learn in practice. Currently I feel confident enough to bring it to a higher level so I bought a 25 kg bag of rye flour and 10 kg of malted barley and managed to deelop my own recipe. This will be fermented/distilled in about 10 batches hoping to learn and adjust as necesarry and finally end up with a decent "jenever" (original Dutch drink, the British later tried to copy and came up with gin). The juniper berries are currently soaking in 80% alcohol from the sugar washes).

I am aware I have still a lot to learn. At the moment I realize that buying flour was perhaps not the most practical choice because I am not sure yet how to filter this. But it is here now so I will just continue with it, I am convinced a solution will come up.

Fermenting is going pretty good. I had a OG of 1.085 and dilluted this to 1.070 prior to pitching the yeast (baker's yeast). It has fermented for 90 hrs now and I just measured an SG of 1.027. I use a refractometer (BRIX) for measuring. Fermenting is still going on.

At this point I am hoping to get some help in making a discissionas I am struggling with the following: In "Making pure corn whiskey" page 62, I read the fermenting should definetly be stopped after 96 hrs because of the formation of esters. However, I have not come across this in ANY other book or on this forum or other sources. What are your opinions?

Tips on filtering are welcome also.

Thnx in advance.

Welcome to HD, sounds like you are well on your way. I would start using recipes from the Tried & True Recipe section.

At this point I am hoping to get some help in making a discissionas I am struggling with the following: In "Making pure corn whiskey" page 62, I read the fermenting should definetly be stopped after 96 hrs because of the formation of esters. However, I have not come across this in ANY other book or on this forum or other sources. What are your opinions?

Ignore this especially if you use one of the recipes suggested above.

Nice intro, Seb. The enthusiast in you certainly shines.
Welcome.
And I also recommend the Tried & True Recipe forum (on main page) where you cannot go wrong with a drink.

Ignore this especially if you use one of the recipes suggested above.

I did not use one of those recipies but rather put together something myself. The main subject of the book that states the remark on the 96 hrs is corn whiskey and I haven't seen it elsewhere. Could this mean it only applies tot corn and is that why you suggest to ignore this?

I've only been doing this a year, so others with more experience may disagree with me.
But I've been forced at times to let corn ferment and sit for up to 7 or 8 days with no discernible off taste compared to 4 day finishers.
I don't think the 96 hour rule is crucial.

Plus, check this out... http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... w=viewpoll

tnx, interesting topic....

Although i've read this forum until my eyes were bleeding, it's just so much that it is impossible to read it all.....

These rules and limits should not be taken too serious. I am doing an series with wheat and a fermenting took only a week some month ago, but on the recent wet and cold period it took two weeks.

Veel plezier hier. Er valt veel te leren.

Thanks for the advise Kareltje. Where do you live in Holland?

Seb_2 wrote:Thanks for the advise Kareltje. Where do you live in Holland?

I am lucky not live in Holland, but in Gelderland. Near the river on a hill.

Welcome! Your approach sounds similar to mine, including the fascination and deep dive into many subjects. The danger is never letting go of the dozens of hobbies I've collected over the years.

You are in the right place to learn. Keep digging, there's a wealth of knowledge here with these folks. Try a recipe from the tried and true section, and use what you learn to connect the dots. It's amazing how fast it all starts making sense when you keep at it - and how slow.

Best of luck, stay safe.

Kareltje wrote: I am lucky not live in Holland, but in Gelderland. Near the river on a hill.

I also live in Gelderland, near the river but across the hill....

Welcome! Take all the advice and learn from it. And keep reading!

Barndog

Seb_2 wrote:

Kareltje wrote: I am lucky not live in Holland, but in Gelderland. Near the river on a hill.

I also live in Gelderland, near the river but across the hill....

Narrows it down quite a bit.
My city was since 1265 supposed to defend the duke against the counts of Holland and the bishops of Utrecht.

Most places I can come up with that fit this discription are actually in Utrecht.

I live in the area that was known as the manneneiland (men-island) during the evacuation of the Betuwe during WW2.

Seb_2 wrote:Most places I can come up with that fit this discription are actually in Utrecht.

I live in the area that was known as the manneneiland (men-island) during the evacuation of the Betuwe during WW2.

Nonono, definitely not in Utrecht, but at the border of Utrecht. To defend the duke of Gelre against the bishop of Utrecht.

From this town and more specifically from this hill the Germans defended their ground against fire from the south in 1944/1945. It is said that near my house there was a very great canon that could reach Nijmegen. I doubt if that is true, but apart from that, there were a lot of trenches in this grounds.

I admit I looked up you clue.

The hotel where it all finished, no it was not finished, it was decided, in 1945 is now called El Mundo. I pass it almost every day.

Interesting, I have lived for 10 years in that city and I have actually once by mistake triggered the fire alarms of the capitulation-hotel you mention while working on the wooden floors.

We live at walking distance from each other. If you take the ferry on the east side of your town, the first village you encounter is my present home. You could actually look into my backyard with the binocular in the garden of the other hotel (on top of the mountain).

That indeed is close!!
Tomorrow I have a dog staying with me for a few days and when I walk it in the woods between my house and the hotel I will wave at you!

great! Don't forget to walk by the Juniper tree in the Arboretum and pick the berries that I left for others.....

If it would ever be required/desired, maybe we could exchange equipment or experiences some day.

Should have, but did not know there was a juniper in the Arboretum. Is juniper in the Netherlands not an endangered species?

Clearly possible, living only a wavelength apart.
I know some other distiller, quite experienced because he is doing it at least since 1975. He likes to play with wood too.

well, I'm not sure if it is endangered but it certainly is not abundant. I do know it needs very specific conditions to grow.
There is a cluster of them in National Park De Hoge Veluwe (here: https://goo.gl/maps/NSNiDE6ggkq" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow ) but the entire park is recently fenced off so you need to buy entrance tickets. I know there are a lot on a military shooting area near Nunspeet but this is obviously off limits.

But the Arboretum is intended to offer as much varieties as possible and in this case they succeeded. The Juniper is very close to the hotel in fact. Unfortunatly the berries are small so I picked some just for the romantics of it. The exact location can be looked up on the website if you want to see it.

We have moved beyond the intended welcome if people want to continue the conversation please start a new thread in off topic.