Made it - Hated it - Distilled it - Supping it

[umpa]

I think I have mentioned this before so hang in there !!
I once made a cellery wine, God only knows why because I dont like celery, but I made it - tasted it - hated it - left it.
So now I have this SmartStill thing, and my AlcoTec wash is still fermenting so I decide to distill the celery wine, out comes this clear oderless liquid. I set fire to the heads for a laugh.....

And made some Gin with the 800Ml rest of it.
Sat here supping it watchin Jack & the BeanSalk
And must say I am impressed by it - its a lot better than I thought, if you take a swag of Gordans London Dry, and then a swag of Umpas Express Dry you can tell the differance, but when you have had one or two............
Regards
Ian...

[umpa]

So the moral of the story is - dont throw bad batches of homebrew - you really can make a silk purse from a sows ear..

[quietman]

I can't believe I haven't tried to set fire to any distillate yet (next time). The taste of the essence flavoured stuff improves when it's had time for the flavours to mingle properly too Umpa. Congratulations, feels good doesn't it? Especially when the stuff you made it from was rubish.
Regards, Q

[pi55ed]

I have 8 litres of homebrew bitter, if i whisk out the gas, will that give good spirit????????????

[Jimmy]

Yes, but you better whisk it GOOD or you'll get burping (of the still, not yourself).
I did wonder about the celery wine, it seemed a deeply bizarre thing to do although I suppose it's better than eating the damn stuff.
If you do any burning, take note of the strength - it burns differently at different percentages, and it's a good skill to be able to see the difference. That concludes Uncle Jimmy's lecture for this evening!

[umpa]

I have also made a whisky from some really bad brew, the story goes like this,
Its my birthday and being a enthusiastic home brewer I could not think of a better way to celebrate than to have a brew day. So I start off doing several batches using spray malt, getting drunk as I go (not a good combination).
Towards the end of the day I am totally hammered, just enough time for 1 more batch, so pissed was I that I forgot to add any hops. The result was a very sour brew, no amount of bottle conditioning was going to mellow it, it was like drinking lemon juice with a horrible twang.
So I poured it in the SmartStll, 4 bottles at a time (2Ltr degassed) and left it for the 800Ml but did not remove the heads, I did this until I had done loads (about 20 pints) took all day.
I ended up with a brownish liquid that smelt horrible but tasted like whisky. So then I ran it through the machine again this time I took 20ml off for heads and ran it till I got 800 ml.
I ended up with a 50% clear liquid that did not smell of anything other than Alcohol, you could even see vapours come off it. I added some whisky essence (maybe next time I will get it right and not need any) and must say its rocket fuel, tastes ok but burns a bit - lol
Not bad for my first couple of goes distilling sh*t and actually making something drinkable.
Jimmy - Thats some good info mine burned with a blue flame, the orange flame is from the match - that I dropped when I burned my fingers - lol

[Phantom]

Don't forget, only part of the initial flavour of a whiskey will actually come from the ingredients, the rest comes from the barrel and the micro-oxidation that occurs in the barrel as a tiny amount of air is ingressed through the wood.
It's fair to say that allow whiskey is basically distilled beer, the term beer is only in the most basic tense. It's not exactly the kind that you'd put in a glass to drink, in the same way that brandy is distilled wine - you'd probably chuck it down the drain if you wanted to drink it as wine.
And yes, I'm "in the same boat" any of my wines/meads etc that don't come up to standard go through the still, but then into a large DJ/Carbouy and mixed with some oak chips/oak sawdust (all toasted though). I'll just let it sit there until I can get round to it.
Historical nerdy bit
The term "proof" is archaic and comes from when they used to put some spirit on gunpowder and try to burn it. At 57.1% ABV (I think I've remembered the numbers correctly), it was said to be "proof" or high enough alcohol for the gunpowder to still burn. Any lower and it wouldn't, any higher and yes it would. It must have been some scientist type character who established the exact numbers but 80% proof converts to 40% ABV and anything over 57.1 % ABV is considered "over proofed".

[umpa]

Hey thanks for the nfo Phantom,
Now theres a thing, next time I have a crack at whisky I will get some oak chips from the HBS, so you put your distillate in a demijohn and add the oak ? bung it up and leave it ?
What ABV should I make it and how long /much oak ?
Sorry to be picking your brain & also if its already on here...
Regards
Ian..

[Jimmy]

Yes, get your spirit diluted to your drinkable ABV (there are various reasons for this which I will go into in a proper article at some point!) and then bung it in a kilner jar or whatever with some chips. You can either buy them from the HBS or you can cheat like I do and get barbeque chips made from barrels (probably from your local garden centre or whatever, I got mine from a BBQ supply place online) - the Jack Daniels ones are particularly good!
Next you decide if you want them toasted or charred or not. Different whiskeys are made with different barrels, some char the insides of them and some do not. If you want them charred, you can use a blowtorch or cook them in the oven or hold them over the gas hob like I do, you don't need them burned to a crisp but just blackened in some places. Then leave them soaking for as long as you can stand, the longer the better! At least a month I would say, years is better but I have never got that far. When you're done you can still burn them on the BBQ too!
If you put a good sized handful of those JD chips into a litre of vodka, chuck in a few raisins and a dried apricot or two if you have them, you will be surprised how close it gets to looking and tasting like JD.

[alan]

jimmy/ian, I use heavy and medium toasted french oak mixed 2-1 i put about 1/2 in. in the bottom of a demi john and fill with 45%spirit leave for a week or two then try it when i get the taste right had 2spoons of glycerin helps to had a little body

[HangOver]

glycerin helps to had a little body

what does it actually do, make it thicker?

isnt glycerin a type of soap?

[alan]

I use glycerine in my wine making to add abit of body and sweet ness to the finished wine it very very sweet so you dont need much