StillSmart

Hi Fellas.
I'm trying my different flavours. Trying to get people to rate them.
Atm I've got: Absinth 50%, Jaegermeister 40%, Coconut Rum (Malibu) 40%, Irish Cream 40%.
Has anyone tried Top Shelf Vodka? mine tasted really bad, not sure if it was the Alcohol or the Essence. What's the best Vodka essence you've tried?
Also, I've been following the instructions on the bottles and generally it says 40% alcohol, can I use say 25% alcohol for things like Midori, Irish Cream etc? Do I need to adjust anything on the recipe? or just water it down and follow instructions as per usual? It would give a better taste to the original because all those are less alcohol %.

have made a few vodkas with 5ml glycerine,1 tspn spirit finisher,1 tspn normal sugar,to a 1L bottle.Smooth as.Takes a bit to dissolve so shake for 5 minutes or so.

Just got some essencia essences.

Dry gin - £4.75 makes 5L

Walkers Whisky - £4.75 makes 2.5L

Navy Rum - £4.75 Makes 2.5L
Will report back on success or otherwise

Hey Deutscher,
I started off using SS Vodka. Not overly impressed then I realised the spirit was smelly and moved to Vodka Star and better filtering.
Spirit is now great on it\'s own so haven\'t used the SS Vodka since

Marc83 - What is Spirit Finisher? I've added some Glycerine. Just having a search on my local brew store website. They sell Spirit Finisher, Turbo Pure & Turbo Ultra. How are these different to Glycerine?
Lyonacre - I firstly used Top Shelf Vodka and now I've tried SS Vodka, both aren't great. I use a All-Bran recipe (All-Bran Cereal, Yeast, Sugar, Water mix). The all-bran has been really good. But maybe it's the AirStill that's the problem, I think it's the heads/tails mixing in because you can't do good cuts with the AirStill. My Vodka just doesn't smell like vodka.. it just smells like alcohol... kind of like what my French Brandy & Bourbon smell like. Maybe I don't add enough Essence. With the Top Shelf Vodka its supposed to make 2.25L so I only used 1/2 bottle, same as the Brandy.

Probably not so much different,when i bought all my gear,got it all second hand,the guy who sold it to me gave me that recipe to make a decent voddy,done it a few times and went down well with whoever drank it.But by all means,experiment.The cleaner your finished spirit is the better your vodka will be.The air still makes it a bit trickier,have you tried running it through the still again for your vodka?

If it\'s just plain vodka youre looking for then why bother flavouring ? The ATF definition of vodka is \"neutral flavorless spirit\" which is what comes out of the still. Otherwise you need to find out the base starch of the brand you like and make you wash with that.
Flavoured vodkas are different of course, but for spmething like a VAT, just straight distillate with the tonic, ice and lemon.....

Hey,

Just sampled the Essencia dry gin. IMO Don\'t bother!
Looked like it was going to be terrific value - 4.5L for £4.75 - but very, very disappointing.
Carefully measured the right amount of concentrate, having given the bottle a good shake, and added it to 1L of clean spirit.
It didn\'t have the slightest hint of a gin smell about it - but the instructions said \"it would age and improve over 7 days\" so we left it for the required time.
It still doesn\'t smell anything like gin. It doesn\'t taste anything like gin. It spoils a perfectly good glass of tonic!
Don\'t bother!
IMHO the best gins are all Prestige
Also made up some \"Walker whisky\" from the same company last night. Does have a slight smell of whisky about it but the taste is suspect. BUT same instruction about 7 days so I will give it a chance to be fair.
Essencia dry gin 0/10 - rubbish (added to bottom of list to make it easy to copy)
Spirits Unlimited - Raspberry - Quite Nice - 7/10

AAABrewing Party Pack - Chocoholic - Sounds awful but yummy 7/10

AAABrewing Party Pack - Turkish Delite - Very Yummy 8/10

Edwards Essences - Southern Indulgence - Drinkable, but just 4/10

SS Classic - Tenessee Bourbon - 8/10 Smooth Bourbon like JD

SS Classic - Dark Navy Rum - 9/10 Highly recommended, 8/10

SS Classic - Single Malt Whisky - 7/10 OK but not wonderful

SS Classic - VSOP Cognac - 6/10 A bit iffy this one, tastes more like a cheap whiskey

SS - Amaretto - 9/10 Very nice indeed, 8.5/10 by Hangover.

SS - Southern Haze (Comfort) - 8/10 A good copy, 8/10 again.

SS - Tequilla - 9/10 Excellent

Top Shelf - Irish Whiskey - 5/10 too sweet

Still Spirits - Citrus Vodka[/b] - Horrible !! Nasty!

Still Spirits - English Gin - pretty good, better with clean smelling spirit 7/10

Prestige Bombay Gin - We liked this one, reminiscent of Bombay Sapphire 8/10, 9/10

Still Spirits Smokey Malt Whiskey - 8/10, 9/10

Prestige Dark Jamaican Rum - was really good, we enjoyed! 8/10

SS Top Shelf Scotch Whiskey - very nice, Johnnie Walkerish - 8/10

SS Top Shelf Bourbon - My favourite so far, close to JD - 8/10

SS Top Shelf Kentucky Bourbon - Bit too sweet/fruity for me, JB like - 7/10, 7/10

SS Top Shelf Ouzo - great for shots, nice aniseed flavour - 8/10

SS Herbal Liquer - so good, jagermeister, yum - 9/10

SS Tequila - not to my liking - 5/10

Essencia Blue Saphire - 10/10 Apparently it\'s as good as the real thing

Top Shelf Aussie Gold Rum - 9/10 x 2

Coconut Rum - 10/10 - Very very very close to the real thing

Cherry Brandy - 9/10 Very nice, tastes just like the real thing

Top Shelf Blackbery Schnapps. A winner with the Ladies, a really nice fruity tipple. 9/10.

Opus

Edwards Essences \'Wee Dram\'. Mixed it in with the prescribed amt of sugar (no glucose base required - so too easy) and now have a reasonable approximation of the real thing. Mouth feel is excellent and taste is close but not quite there. Overall it\'s very drinkable and I\'m giving it 8/10.

SS Italiano - Very Close to Vanilla Galliano - 8/10

SS Melon - Very Close to Midori - 8/10

Essencia dry gin, rubbish - 0/10

Wow thats the first bad remark i have heard about that essencia gin.that is the blue packet one right?i havent tried it as yet,I thought those essence bottles flavoured 2.25L of spirit??not 4.5....oh well.someone else must know.

Some of my favourites;

Essencia \"Walkers Whisky\"

Essencia \"Blue Saphire Gin\"

Essencia \"Bourbon\"

Essencia \"Dark Jamaican Rum\"

Essencia \"Tequila Gold\"

SS Classic \"VSOP Brandy\"
All 8/10 as nothing can be perfect.
Opus 27

my bad was confused with the essencia blue saphire and the dry gin.

I\'m trying to make the best JD I can.

Has anyone used the Gold Medal Bodines Bourbon? any of the Gold Medal? I think the Gold Medal rang is the most expensive one around the brew stores near me.

I\'ve just used the SS Originals Bourbon and let sit for ~2weeks (would 2weeks be alright? I\'m not a bourbon drinker so I\'ll get someone else to test) .. I think I might try getting some Chips and soaking next.

I am fairly new to this. I have some Prestige essences in 280ml quantities. The Dark Jamaica Rum essence instructions say add 20ml essence to 750ml spirit. I have found that adding less than 1ml gives a really strong dark rum flavour. Adding

20ml sounds like total overkill.
I wonder if the forum has any information of the amount of the commercial essences to add and how correct the isntructions are on the packs? I have used SS dark rum essence

and adding 1/3 of the 50ml bottle per 750ml seems fine in that case.

smarthousesys - I haven\'t used the Prestige range before. But I have used Top Shelf & SS Originals. I think different essences will give different strengths. Top Shelf Italiano (Vanilla Galliano) has perfect mix (imo), while Top Shelf French Brandy (1/2 bottle for 1.125L) isn\'t strong enough, very light (imo) (sat for 1-2weeks now)- I might add the other 1/2 into the 1.125L. Top Shelf Absinth (1/2 bottle is pretty strong for 1.125L). SS Original Bourbon as per instructions is pretty weak.
You just have to experiment with difference ratios/essences. I haven\'t done any rum so I can\'t help much.