StillSmart

Hi All

So I've been following the instructions on here from the Air Still Distillation pdf to the letter, And I'm now at the stage where I'm running everything through the carbon filter system provided by the homebrew shop, But the smell of the finished spirit is on the ruff side to say the least it reminds me of yeasty cider. Is there anything i can do to recover and get a nice 40% spirit or should i throw away and start again?

Many Thanks

Steve

Keep it. 99% of things are recoverable or reusable.

Now... what steps did you do and what happened. What readings are you getting?

I followed the pdf to the letter, left for 2 weeks brewing away ( lovely yeasty smell at first then that seemed to lessen, and had a final reading of 90 before I Cleared using the horrible black stuff. Ran through the still after 24 hours and came out clear as a button but very cidery not sure if thats a word . So i just carried on hoping that the crappy carbon filter would make things all sweet and angelic but sadly I'm left with clear 40% cider/Rocket fuel liquid

Would it be worth running it all through the still again ??

many thanks


steve

Have you done a second distillation?

Bang on.
Is this the fist time through the still (stripping run) or the second time (spirit run)

no not first time ive taken heads tails etc

Is it definitely 40pc? Ie have you watered it down?

Yes watered down from about 75% from my hearts run to 40%. I didnt even bother with the tails bit as i was not sure when i was going to be in the tails.I stopped collecting the hearts when the abv dropped to 65-68 ish , and i did notice a smell change so just stopped

Then watered it all down to 40% and started to run it through the carbon filter

Hmm that's me out of ideas. Certainly my wash was ciderish, the low wines retained some element of it, but the spirit was fine. Hopefully someone else will have an idea. Have you let the spirit breathe for a day or so in an open vessel?

In desperation, I would dilute it to sub 30% and run it again.
Having taken cuts once, I might just discard the first 100ml.
Then leave it to air (i.e. unlidded) for a few days.
What Carbon filter are you using?
The Tea-bag type are not worth the effort.

Robert.

Did you have copper in the still?

Could this smell be vinegary /pickled onion smell?

What yeast was it.

How do I link to another topic?

If it was the dreaded alcotec 48 turbo yeast, it will have the funky smell of the very cheap strong white cider.

Personally, I ended up dumping my first attempt as even after a third distill it wasn't as good as my 2nd and 3rd attempts with bread yeast and tomato paste and lentils respectively.

I do actually like Mash and Curmudgeon.
I do not always agree with their posts.
@ Duffer, you might discover quicker than me tonight, I have had a drink or three.

Robert.