When I watch Odin's Live Making Gin Video at 1:13 he explains that under room temperature, marrying alcohol with water usually happens in 5 weeks but the duration of this process could go shorter by heating and agitating the gin. Today I did wanted to try it by using my magnetic heater stirrer, I started with 500 ml of tails to find out at which level I would achieve 50 degrees, I find it but then in 4-5 hours I lost 100 ml but I did it completely with open lid, so are there anyone worked with this process, I think it should be sealed and opened 2-3 times a day but then again I do not really know maybe a coffee filter could do ? what do you think ?
I use a lab still setup for reflux when I want to do things like this. I say things like this, because I've never done it for gin. But I have held some whiskey under reflux for going on about 2 months now, but I'm going for a totally different goal there.
You could probably use a sealed container but I wouldn't feel comfy using glass. I suspect Odin is talking to a commercial crowd that would be using stainless vessels with pressure / vac valves and probably known pressure ratings. What scale are you dealing with? I'd trust a keg if you vented it until reaching temp and had a vac breaker on it.
I can understand why it would work in a wood aged product but what about a product that does not benefit from wood like Gin? Tonight I watched a video where oil and water were emulsified with an ultrasonic probe. So when we set aside our Gin for 4 to 6 weeks for it to smooth out what are we actually doing, are we not improving the emulsification of all the components?
Before I get my Ultrasonic Cleaner out and waste precious hours of effort, has anyone done this and it it worth rigging up?
I doubt if my reloading ultrasonic cleaner had sufficient amplitude to be aggressive enough.
Edit: I see they call mine a Sonic Cleaner rather than Ultrasonic Cleaner so perhaps it's a non starter.
One too many wasted sunsets, one too many for the road.
Andrew_90 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 17, 2022 11:09 am
So when we set aside our Gin for 4 to 6 weeks for it to smooth out what are we actually doing, are we not improving the emulsification of all the components?
So this isn't perfectly established knowledge by any means. But I picture it having to do with the "crystal" structure of the water/ethanol. Basically because of the differing polarity, ethanol and water molecules are just bouncing around randomly, but tend to organize in a pattern. Flavor molecules will fit in this pattern in different ways, some will disperse through, some will surround themselves in little water bubbles, and some will surround themselves with little ethanol bubbles. The waiting and smoothing and improving is everything finding it's place. So not necessarily like what I think of as a typical emulsion which would be everything evenly mixed, but more like building a fractal puzzle.
Would ultrasonic help? Probably? As long as it wasn't strong enough / tuned to the frequency of knocking stuff out of alignment rather than jiggling it into alignment.
In clear gin, everything is in solution so the various components can happily bump into each other all day long. Anything you do that promotes movement will help to speed that up.
Heating a %45 ABV diluted spirit to 40 or 50 degrees Celsius does not look like safe for home distillers I guess, while heating you are constantly evaporating the mix and alcohol vapors rise up in the room the smell in the room and the amount lost is indicative of it, lets say I seal the mix in a container, in that case pressure will build up. do not know how they do it in the industrial gear but what I experience does not look safe what do you think is there anyway yo heat the dilutes spirit to lets say 50 degrees celcius, in a safe way ?
Heating a %45 ABV diluted spirit to 40 or 50 degrees Celsius does not look like safe for home distillers I guess, while heating you are constantly evaporating the mix and alcohol vapors rise up in the room the smell in the room and the amount lost is indicative of it, lets say I seal the mix in a container, in that case pressure will build up. do not know how they do it in the industrial gear but what I experience does not look safe what do you think is there anyway yo heat the dilutes spirit to lets say 50 degrees celcius, in a safe way ?
The pressure build-up at 50C is not going to be significant. I use swing-top jars for ageing, the same type used for canning. The traditional sterilisation process involves putting the sealed jars in a water bath and heating to near boiling for a long enough to heat the contents of the jars. At no point do the jars explode.
Odin did some experimenting with ultrasound and gin a while back, but I don't remember if his posts were here or on the iStill blog. From memory he claimed that a relatively short ultrasound protocol provided the equivalent (by taste) of 2 weeks of ageing but that past a certain level you were onto diminishing returns.
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo
Heating a %45 ABV diluted spirit to 40 or 50 degrees Celsius does not look like safe for home distillers I guess, while heating you are constantly evaporating the mix and alcohol vapors rise up in the room the smell in the room and the amount lost is indicative of it, lets say I seal the mix in a container, in that case pressure will build up. do not know how they do it in the industrial gear but what I experience does not look safe what do you think is there anyway yo heat the dilutes spirit to lets say 50 degrees celcius, in a safe way ?
The pressure build-up at 50C is not going to be significant. I use swing-top jars for ageing, the same type used for canning. The traditional sterilisation process involves putting the sealed jars in a water bath and heating to near boiling for a long enough to heat the contents of the jars. At no point do the jars explode.
Odin did some experimenting with ultrasound and gin a while back, but I don't remember if his posts were here or on the iStill blog. From memory he claimed that a relatively short ultrasound protocol provided the equivalent (by taste) of 2 weeks of ageing but that past a certain level you were onto diminishing returns.
Hi Can you explain me how you heat the diluted spirit, at what degrees and for. how many days, lets say if I heat it up to 50 degrees Celsius in an sealed erlenmeyer with a glass top can I safely do this procedure, I am afraid that it could build up pressure ?
I have something like this it an socket erlenmeyer with a glass top so I can seal it up what do you think ? how do you do it ?
Hi,
I know it's a bit of an old thread, but I recently made a gin on the advice of an old brewer and distiller friend, oxygenate with very low flow for 3 to 6 hours a gin and it really speeds up the process by a few weeks. use pure oxygen and diffuser stone.
the sharp notes had decreased and more roundness. At the moment I don't need to repeat it.
He does and he has done a lot of research. It was based on articles on absinthe, grain distillates and and consultations with experts in commercial distillations.
but I did it completely with open lid, so are there anyone worked with this process, I think it should be sealed and opened 2-3 times a day but then again I do not really know maybe a coffee filter could do ? what do you think ?
