Taste

[swine]

Hi.
My vodka has a distinct off taste compared to shop bought. Is it reasonable to duplicate shop bought, or how can I improve my own.
Any advise??.
Regards.

[Anavrin]

Hi swine

What have you made your Vodka from? What wash have you fermented and how did you distil it?

This is the sort of info we would need to offer and advice, commercial Vodka is produced on a massive scale and is heavily carbon filtered, we would need to know more about your process, do you first strip your wash before a spirit run? Do you filter etc.

[swine]

Hi.
Wash made with 6KG Sugar Turbo Carbon Alchotec 48hour superjast. And
put through a pot still. I put 4ltr a time through to strip and then combine for a spirit run.

[Anavrin]

Hi swine

I take it your using an airstil then, they are a useful bit of kit but I'm afraid that no matter how well you refine your process, you will struggle to make neutral spirit as clean as shop bought with it.

A commercial distillery will have 10's if not 100's of thousands of pounds invested in there stills, and a £150 cost of the airstil tells the story.

You can make good spirit with it and many people do.

You can of course improve your spirit massively by changing a few simple steps, first, 6kg of sugar is too high for a 25lt wash, try and keep the sugar to around 5kg and if you can avoid using the turbo yeasts, there are much cleaner fermenting washes that you can make much cheaper using bakers yeast, see the lentil wash thread in the recipes section, its also really important to fully clear the wash before running, especially with the airstil.

Then the next part is once you've stripped, make cuts during your spirit run, collect in small jars, say 100ml each and let them air for a day or two.

Then the most important part is to test the cuts you've made by smelling and tasting them, you will be able to smell heads in the first few (sweet like pear drops) there will also be a few jars after what you cant smell that will also contain heads but you will need to water them down to drinking strength 40% and taste them to decide, do this with all cuts before tasting, the clean alcohol in the hearts will be much easier to determine, it will have a nice clean(ish) heat to it in the mouth, the last few that contain the tails are easier to spot, they will taste dry like damp cardboard, the hardest cut to find is between the heads and the hearts.

Once you have all the jars your happy with, combine them all together, I would suggest a carbon filter is necessary for neutral spirit produced on the airstil to get the best results.

I wont say never use a turbo yeast again, you can get half decent results if you use only half the pack, keep the sugar down to 5kg and don't let it get too hot during fermentation, its most important as a beginner to learn how to make clean cuts.

[chill]

I absolutely agree: a clean tasting ferment AND carbon filtering are required to make vodka from an AirStill. The Essencia carbon filter is said to be the best choice. If you get those two right, you can make a decent vodka. It will probably still have a slight sweetish edge to it, like a very light white rum. That is the nature of the AirStill.

Chuck

[Mash]

The airstill is a cracking piece of kit - and don't be put off.

There is an air still guide on here somewhere, and it is well worth the read. – probably two or three times.

I am not sure if it is in the guide, but something I found that made a massive difference to off flavours was putting clean copper in the bottom of your still.

A search will find a good discussion on that subject also. In my opinion you want a mixture of copper pipe bands 15mm pipe cut into 15mm length and some old copper coinage (which is not magnetic !!) Quantity: half the tumbler

I do not carbon filter. A good clean non-Turbo wash will make a massive difference to your final product.

[swine]

Hi.
Can you recommend a none turbo yeast for the wash?
Regards.

[Mash]

Sure can.

Allinsons bread yeast is the easiest to get.

http://www.bakersandlarners.co.uk/allin ... d5895.html


I prefer Fermipan (better and cheaper @£2/500g- but a pig to find)

http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/baking_in ... ?pid=47489

..and finally IMO the cleanest wash recipe.

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3542&p=26259#p26259