First Wash Virgin. Bubbling for the first time. XXX

[mozr]

500ml 'Hearts' have been collected at 68% ABV.

I will dilute to 40%, then put it through the carbon that I have.

It still has that smell. The more I think about it, the more I think it is a bit 'wet cardboardy'.

I will see what happens.

I am collecting the tails now as you showed me, but will not mix them with the 'hearts'.

I just want to see whether I can get a bottle of decent spirit out of this batch.

Cheers,

Mozr.

[mozr]

Tails have been collected 100ml at a time. I collected until the last 100ml came out at 30% ABV.

I have added the 600ml collected to my cleared wash.

I have left the 500ml 'hearts' to air for 24hours. I will dilute and carbon filter tomorrow.

I have also bottled the 250ml heads, and will keep them for now.

I will strip the rest of the wash, and see what happens.

[Jimmy]

I've found that pretty much everything I've done with the airstill has SOME odour, however slight no matter how careful you are or how you filter. I see that as just the character of the spirit, and obviously the less the better. However, that's the main reason I stopped using turbos - because with the airstill I found that the slight odour/taste was unpleasant and chemically, whereas with a tomato paste wash it was a sort of sweeter, nicer smell and taste. I'm not saying you should be content, but on the other hand don't beat yourself up if you have some smell left as it's not unusual. Decent filtering will help, and if you haven't rinsed the carbon through yet don't forget to do that or you'll end up with black spirit that is a devil to get clean again. Don't ask me how I know this.

[mozr]

Thanks Jimmy.

I have run my 500ml 'hearts' and 350ml water, to bring down the abv to 39% through the carbon filter.

The results are good. I have placed 50ml of the spirit in a martini glass, and placed the same mount of vladivar vodka in another.

I asked my wife to do a smell test (a la pepsi challenge), and she said the vladivar was the better. >:(

But for me, the difference is slight, but apparent.

I know that the essencia would make that difference, and I am very close to pulling the trigger.

I am running other half of my wash through, and am going to follow the same protocol that got me here.

That will leave me 1800ml of 40% ABV alcohol hopefully. So I managed to get two and a half bottles out of it.

Not a disaster I suppose, but way off the 10 70cl bottles I was lead to believe. AH well.

My other wash finishes soon, so I will get to work on that and compare and contrast.

I will also put my third wash on using my newly bought Electrim75. I am sure a steady temperature will help my situation.

Thanks for getting me this far,

Mozr.

[i dont drink]

keep at it moz mate... i was shitting bricks the first time i put a wash on and tried to distill it but it does get easier!..

thing is you will never completely get rid of the smell with turbo's and an airstill or everyone would still be using turbos and they don't......iv had my airstill for over a year now and iv always used turbo's and basically "put up with the smell/taste" until i started to filter it to death and that takes most (but not all) of the nasties out.

even lashing out 400 large on a t500 didn't improve it by much cos I'm still using a turbo wash.... its only now that iv put my first non-turbo on and i can't wait to see the outcome of that when it finally finishes as they take a good while longer.

believe me mate, iv tried loads of different filters to try and get my spirit fast/odorless and i have managed to get it pretty good but not as perfect as id like but thats down to the stuff i start with.

keep at it cos theres nothing better than trial and error.

al.

[mozr]

Thanks al.

I have made up a butterscotch cream liqueur with my spoils to thank my wife for allowing me to turn the kitchen into a laboratory for the past three weeks.

It tastes very nice. It has a sharp kick finish after the initial sweetness, but there are no obvious off tastes in it.

Should keep her in a good mood for a bit.

I can see the limitations of turbo and the air still already.

I must admit to be annoyed though. I bought something that was meant to make neutral alcohol with one pass through the still.

I will try a a vodka star for my next experiment.

Cheers,

Mozr.

[mozr]

I am just running the last of my stripped wash through, and was rereading all of your advice.

I was reading Aidan's guidance on how to cut the 2nd run, and have realised I made a booboo.

I only kept the 500ml hearts. I separated and bottled the 250ml of heads fr future use, and chucked everything that came after the 500ml heads back into my wash.

This was a mistake. What Aidan meant was isolate the 500ml hearts, then collect the rest in 100ml batches until you hit the tails (wet cardboard smell).

Then collect the tails down to 30% and harvest them, chuck them in the next wash etc.

After this you would add the good quality 100ml batches to the hearts, dilute to 40% and filter. Giving you a lot more volume.

I screwed up, but am doing it this way now.

Then onto my next wash...

[mozr]

Thanks Al.

This is my 2nd still run.

Foreshots - 50ml - Discarded

Heads - 250ml - 76% - Harvested in my 'Heads' jar.

Hearts - 500ml - 75%

Tails - 100ml 71%
- 100ml 68%
- 100ml 65%
- 100ml 64%
- 100ml 62%

I smell tested the 500ml of tails collected, and added them to my hearts. The total ABV ended up at 70%. I watered down to 40%, left to air, and sat them on my rubbish carbon this morning.

I also collected some more tails.

- 100ml 57%
- 100ml 55%
- 100ml 48%
- 100ml 45%
- 100ml 35%

and added them to my tails jar.

I then collected

- 100ml 28%

and chucked it in the sink, chucked the rest of the water away from the still, cleaned and sterilised.

I think I have got 1700ml of 40% ABV sat on that carbon. I will taste test and compare it to my much more conservative 2nd run tonight.

Onwards and upwards.

Mozr.

[Jimmy]

Good stuff, sounds like you're doing things right, making notes and trying different things. One last bit of advice though - with the essences and flavourings, they usually benefit from being left a while to blend together, although have to confess not tried any liqueur types. I found that after they'd just been mixed there was definitely a bit of 'flavouring plus booze' to the taste, whereas after a while it melded together.

[mozr]

Oops!

Results amended to include 500ml Hearts at 75%.

I had a peek at my next wash last night, six days in (same Triple distilled batch with a brand name sugar - I bought Morrisson's own brand the first time.)

It did not smell as pungent as my first wash (possible wishful thinking). The hydrometer read just over 1.000 so not great again (I will use my electrim75 next time to hopefully help the ferment).

I will take another reading tonight. If its the same, I will clear,and strip it over the next few days.

I am going to get a vodka star (without turbo carbon apparently), and the ingredients for the non turbo wash too and start the experimentation.

I'm off to Ikea tonight to buy wardrobe doors, but will have a look round for some booze making equipment.

Cheers,

Mozr.

[Jimmy]

I do that every time I'm in Ikea! Good items are the big swingtop jars (for aging with woodchips, fruit, etc) and the 1 litre swingtop bottles. I won't spoil any of the rest of it for you though!

If it is any consolation for you, I've had a wash going for four or five weeks now and it isn't finished, it's still bubbling but just not fast enough even with my Electrim (which I think needs adjusting) - patience is a virtue as they say...

[mozr]

Girls and boys I give you Slom!



2 litres, £2.69. Jobs a good un.

I had to rush around. There was a false alarm at work, so I had to dash back.

Still. At least I've got a 'heads' and 'tails' jar.

[mozr]

Hey guys.

Got myself a funnel, and some coffee filters, and ordered some alcotec carbon granules.

Jimmy, how much carbon do you use in your funnel?

[Jimmy]

I just fill up the coffee filter basically, don't forget to run it through with water until clear first!

[mozr]

Is hot water better or not needed?