Tequila - first stab

[Jimmy]

Hi all,
Just thought I'd let everyone know that I've had a stab at making Tequila on a small scale, and figured I'd share my experiences in case anyone else wants to have a go.
What I did was made a cheapo 5 litre fermenter out of a supermarket mineral water bottle and an airlock. Next, I added in two bottles of dark agave nectar which I found in the local supermarket. This wasn't really enough, but it was all I could afford at the time! I therefore bunged in some brown and white sugar as well.
Incompetent as always, I did not measure how much of each I put in but had a rough guess. Likewise, I had lost my hydrometer so I couldn't measure SG. Yes, I am an idiot.
Anyhow, I topped up with warm water and chucked in some Alcotec 48 which I had (I saved a little as I also put on a standard 25 litre sugar wash at the same time). I stuck them both by the radiator in my spare room and left them for a couple of weeks.
Once they both looked finished, I siphoned off the 'tequila' one and took about 4.7 litres of brown liquid that looks remarkably like bitter. It didn't taste sweet or anything, but a quick measure on my (re-discovered) hydrometer showed it was not massively strong alcohol wise like the turbo wash so I'm guessing 10% or so.
I then ran it through the still and took off heads, then took about 600ml before stopping. Results? Well, it tasted quite like tequila, but not perfect - of course, it had half the ingredients from other drinks so it was hardly likely to be the same anyway. I thought at the time that I had taken too much and perhaps next time I would make bigger cuts - the benefits of using the calculator and knowing your starting ABV kids!
Anyhow, I ran it through some carbon and that stripped off the nasty edge but also some of the flavour - it's not bad, but not right - I will try it again in future with more agave nectar.
Also, from some digging about today I have found that a lot of tequila is double distilled - the first you carry on taking all the way down to 20% or so and get a rough spirit, then the second you take at about 50% and dilute. Secondly, all tequila is aged at least 14-21 days before it can be called that, so maybe mine will improve. Third, it is often carbon filtered before bottling so that wasn't a mistake as such.
There is a lot more information about tequila out there if you want to try it, about how each batch is made and what the different ages are called. Definitely worth another experiment in my opinion!
Hope this helps someone, if so post back with any tips!

[quietman]

Jimmy,

I posted about this in another thread but doesn't the still strip all the flavour out?
Regards, Q

[Jimmy]

Depends on the cuts you make - the more you let come out (i.e. the lower you let the alcohol percentage drop) the more taste you will get in - the key part is what that taste is! I'm no expert on this, which is why I'm having a go - I've got the hang of making things with virtually no taste, now I want to see about things with a bit of flavour. A lot comes from the aging process anyway.

[quietman]

Interesting stuff