StillSmart

Posted: **Mon May 04, 2015 7:29 am**

It sure is a nice one. And it does change with time.

Robert interesting.... including the base I am sure my maths were 85p / 70cl. I will have another look.

Posted: **Tue May 05, 2015 1:11 am**

Sometimes Mashy, I do struggle to catch your drift,maybe it's just me.
With a Gin essence coming in at around £1.30 to produce a 70cl bottle of produce,and the bought in Juniper berries and a few Coriander seeds costing a few pennies for the same finished volume,the small amount of effort and Leccy to run it through the Smart Still,is a money saver,and bit of fun.
Taste difference?
As Phantom stated,with Tonic,ice and a slice,who can tell?

I currently seem to have a reasonable amount of "Neutral" sitting around,and pleasant as it is,I think that I need to dig out the Juniper berries again.

Anyway,today I did a combined Heads and Tails run.as is my current wont to tidy the place up.
Expecting to find lots of BBQ lighting fluid when I go over the receptacles over the next few days.
Handy that BBQ season is due here soon for a short time.

Robert.

Posted: **Tue May 05, 2015 9:59 am**

Easydrinker wrote: With a Gin essence coming in at around £1.30 to produce a 70cl bottle of produce,and the bought in Juniper berries and a few Coriander seeds costing a few pennies for the same finished volume,the small amount of effort and Leccy to run it through the Smart Still,is a money saver,and bit of fun.
Robert.

I think we are agreeing with each other. When I did the maths I got Odin's gin in at 63p - I was surprised only because I thought your figure was quite high. That's all. The money saving I always find interesting, [and yes, it is a bit nerdy, but I often do a cost spreadsheet for my recipes] but I just really enjoy making.

Easydrinker wrote:
Taste difference?
As Phantom stated,with Tonic,ice and a slice,who can tell?
Robert.

Oh yes you can (Punch & Judy anybody

)

Posted: **Tue May 05, 2015 11:38 am**

(well...not today, strictly speaking, however it was most recent)

.....and long overdue too (IMHO).....
i got my copper potstill and boka, dismantled... and gave them a soak in a citric acid bath, along with the boka condenser, its SPP packing and the 'raschig rings' from the boiler.....then I hand scrubbed and hot water cleaned the lot.
also, I washed my ss kegboiler inside and out with a high pressure hose setup....then ran a vinegar boil with double rinse.

All bits spent the arvo in glorious sunshine, drying.

(and, no, i dont do this often)

Posted: **Tue May 05, 2015 11:41 pm**

Do you know Frank.when I took my still apart yesterday,I really thought it was time that I did the same as you.
Damn,I'm shamed into it now.
I'm sure I'll reap the rewards.
I don't give much thought to a shiny outside,but do believe in a clean inside.

@ Mashy,I don't believe that there are many people nerdier than myself,I cost everything,and keep records.
Ex'ing my labour,I can probably tell you the cost,including electricity of every bottle that I have ever produced.

Robert.

Posted: **Wed May 06, 2015 6:06 am**

Robert. Nice to know it's not just me!

Posted: **Wed May 06, 2015 11:51 am**

I adapted a bottle brush to clean the leibig

Couldn't believe the colour of the crud that came out !

Posted: **Wed May 06, 2015 5:51 pm**

After making a pullthrough out of a bottle brush I discovered what you found too and built a second liebig just for my spirit runs. The crud comes from stripping I think ::)

Pretty gross

AidanMac

Posted: **Sat May 09, 2015 8:35 am**

I've got 2x 25 lts sat ready to strip, now I've read this I'm having a clean down before I run anything.

Posted: **Sat May 09, 2015 12:37 pm**

Does anyone clean the airstill coil ?

Posted: **Sat May 09, 2015 12:45 pm**

Mashy wrote:Does anyone clean the airstill coil ?

Yep! Citric Acid wash, 20g to 1lt water, recirculated through using a low volume 12v solar pump every couple of months and after experiments!

AidanMac

Posted: **Wed May 20, 2015 7:29 pm**

AidanMac wrote:......
Initial plan is to test on three 1litre batches with 5, 8 & 11g respectively and document the development of the spirit over 1 month and take it from there.

Well I did go ahead with the test and these two jars were the best results.

Both jars were charged with 9g of medium toast Oak as above on 24 April.

The jar on the left was nuked and brought to 55oC while the jar on the right was not. The resulting whisky is pretty nice but will require time to mature but on the basis of this test, on 09 May, I put down 19l with 150g of Oak and I'll give it a month before testing although it is opened every other day to allow air in and the spirit to breathe.

AidanMac

Posted: **Wed May 20, 2015 8:01 pm**

Racked off my red wine yesterday. Couple of SS drums.

Posted: **Thu May 21, 2015 11:07 am**

AidanMac wrote:......
Well I did go ahead with the test and these two jars were the best results.

Both jars were charged with 9g of medium toast Oak as above on 24 April.

The jar on the left was nuked and brought to 55oC while the jar on the right was not. The resulting whisky is pretty nice but will require time to mature but on the basis of this test, on 09 May, I put down 19l with 150g of Oak and I'll give it a month before testing although it is opened every other day to allow air in and the spirit to breathe.

Mate, I'd LOVE to know the diff between decent spirit barrelled vs nuked....esp over a reasonable time frame....PLS keep the posts going?

Ok, on topic, I did a 40l Potstill spirit run of my Pale Ale malt (AG) strips + feints and got a very decent return (IMHO, time will tell).

Posted: **Sun May 24, 2015 10:47 am**

Just stripping the last of the 50 litres of sugar wash I'd knocked up (25 with Alcotec dual i.e. 6kg sugar in 2 days for 14%/8kg in 5 days for 20% and the other 25 was with Vodka Star).

I haven't bothered to split it into separate batches once stripped, just dumped it together in a carboy/5 gallon DJ (real gallons not the yankee short measures).

I'll have about 26 litres for distillate runs, though I haven't checked the final strength yet, so if I need to let it back down to 40% I'll have a bit more..........

Just gonna to the usual and take about 1 litre of finished distillate (I get 80 to 85% ABV from double distilling in my smart still - no I still haven't got my finger out to sort the water supply for the T500). I always distill through a "carbon teabag" with the smart still, but then once it's been through twice, I let it down to drinking/mixing strength of 40% ABV, then it goes through my Z filter.

Hey ho!

p.s. Oh and for the rum enthusiasts, I mixed up a litre of Still Spirits Classic range "Calypso" rum for a change (I usually make up the Navy rum one, as I love the hints of vanilla). I recommend it as a nice, dark rum, with slight sweet hints to the taste, but no spiced notes like with the Navy one.

StillSmart

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