Minimum fill level?

[wormwood]

Is there a minimum fill level for a 4l Air still?

For example, if I have 2 liters of gin ingredients macerating at about 35 ABV, can I just dump it in as-is and redistill it? Or is it best to do a full 4l at a time?

[wormwood]

Thanks.

I couldn't think of any reason why running it half full might be a problem, but seeing as I don't even know what I don't know...

Much appreciated.

[Jimmy]

Yeah, don't think there's a major problem running it lower BUT if I was doing it I'd dilute to 4l with clean water. The reason for that is it widens the separation between the good stuff and the bad, when you start your run you're getting the strong stuff and then over the batch it weakens gradually. The less liquid you have in total, the quicker this is going to happen and the more 'smudgy' it will probably be.

I never really have a problem with adding pure water to the still because we're not trying to get rid of that, it's the other bits we're distilling to discard.

Oh and PS - I'm told if you make gin in your still it will taste of it for a long time afterwards... never tried it myself though, I just infuse neutral with gin botanicals then filter and drink.

[wormwood]

Thanks guys.

I did consider topping it up with clean water before running it, but as I was planning on redistilling with the botanicals in, I wasn't sure if the lower ABV would affect how the flavors would carry over.

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and use up some of my precious stash of neutral and do a bigger maceration. It's just that it takes a while to get a good supply of decent quality neutral using an airstill.

I've also read of gin making stinking up your still, but mine is probably due for a good clean out anyway, so I figure that will be the next job if I go ahead with this. I'll report back with stories of my success or otherwise!

[Normski]

Hi
Im a new Distiller, So if im reading this wrong I appologie.
Jimmy has said that he - I just infuse neutral with gin botanicals then filter and drink.
Is that correct. Filtering after adding flavours. does that not remove the flavour?
Also wormwood Says - I was planning on redistilling with the botanicals in,
Again redisstiling with the flavours already added, would this not also remove the flavours.
Im not trying to pick faults here im just trying to learn when flavour is removed and when it is added.

[Normski]

Ta Aidan

[Jimmy]

Yeah that's it - I infuse spirit with botanicals then run it through a coffee filter just to catch the particles, it's still got the flavour. Here's a good site to get started, I'm working on adapting the recipes to fit my tastes but each to their own so if you get a good one let us know!

http://www.badmamagenny.com/2011/07/13/ ... this-time/

PS - plastic water filter = bad. She only needs it because her store bought hooch is inferior to ours, keep away from plastic though and just filter as I said above instead.

[Normski]

Hi Jimmy
Thanks I'll have a look at that link.
Norm

[wormwood]

Update - I decided to go with a 3l maceration. When it was poured into the airstill, solids and all, it was quite close the the fill line anyway.

I collected 1.5 liters from it, then diluted that back to 42 ABV, giving me three bottles of very nice, clear, not overly floral gin. I think I could probably have run 2l without any problems, but I don't really regret having that extra bottle!

The still does smell a little gin-ish now, but I don't think that's likely to last past the next round of stripping.

Thanks for all your input.

[Jimmy]

I do wish I still had my SmartStill, I had to sell it to get my T500 but it would have been great for trying out things like this - good work wormwood!

[wormwood]

Thanks Jimmy.

Before investing in my airstill, I did a lot of reading up on the subject online. Most of the comments on the various forums focused on what the airstill did badly, but a few mentioned what it did well. A couple of experienced distillers talked about using their airstill for small batches of gin, absinthe and the like. There's a lot to be said for being able to do a small pot distillation to test a recipe and several people mentioned how the airstills are much less likely to scorch your herbs if you are redistilling on the botanicals. Of course, a T500 would make production of good neutral a lot easier, but that's not really an option for me at this point.

By the way, since making the gin I've done one stripping run and a gallon of distilled water. There's just the very slightest smell of gin lingering on the airstill and the lightly perfumed distilled water is actually quite pleasant!

[mozr]

Gin perfume, for those who want to smell like a lush twenty four seven.

It's a million dollar idea.

[wormwood]

A somewhat late follow-up.

I ran a batch of faux Trappistine the other day. It stunk up the still much more than the gin did. Maybe I should do some more gin to try to clean it out.

Anyway, pertinent to the title of this thread, the maceration for the Trappistine was one liter and I redistilled it with the botanicals and a couple of copper scrubbers after adding another liter of water. It ran fine, the only problem being that I now have to figure out how to get all those bits of herbs and spices out of my copper scrubbers!

[chill]

Are you willing to share your recipe for the Trappistine?

On the subject of filtering macerations, cotton balls wadded up in the neck of a large funnel work far, far, better (and slower!) than coffee filters. Ever see a clear cup of coffee?


Chuck

[wormwood]

Funny you should mention clear coffee. Remember Crystal Pepsi? Back around that time, my better half was working for the company that owned (amongst many other things) one of the US's best selling coffee brands and came up with how to remove all the color from coffee, without changing its flavor. Given how Crystal Pepsi and Tab Clear were not the biggest marketing sucess stories in history, maybe it's just as well that this idea didn't go any further than the drawing board.

Anyway, to make myself a little more clear, I didn't filter the maceration. After letting it brew for 48 hours, it was diluted and the whole lot dumped in to the airstill and redistilled. I threw the copper scrubbers in there from force of habit. I usually include them in the still as a boil enhancer, although it really wasn't necessary for this run.

The recipe I used for the Trappistine was a scaled down version of this one from Brannt and Wahl's "The Techno-Chemical Receipt Book":

http://tinyurl.com/82cv6qd

For my small batch I used:

10g wormwood
10g cardamom
10g angelica root
20g mint leaves
7.5g lemon balm
5g myrrh
5g calamus root
2g cloves
1g cinnamon
1g nutmeg (figured it was close enough to mace)

The herbs and the roots were all home grown and I just happened to have all the spices in the kitchen.

This was macerated for 48 hours in 1l of the best neutral I could produce - slightly lower than the 85% specifed in the original recipe. This all got dumped into the still and I collected one liter at about 76%. Colored it with saffron (I skimped a little, because it's so darned expensive, but it still colored it well), then added about 750ml water and 450ml sugar syrup to bring it down to about 35% and enough to give me three 750ml bottles. I think it needs to age a little, but the little taste I took was very promising indeed. I was concerned that the cardamom might be a little past its best, but it is definitely making its presence known!

I couldn't find any of the real thing for sale online, so I don't know how much money I saved with my imitation.