StillSmart

Hi, I'm a new member, been lurking for the last couple of weeks. I'm looking at making my own gin and liqueurs (crabapple, damson, plum etc}. I'm only going to be doing small quantities. For Now. I understand that for gin I want a clean neutral, but once steeped in botanicals I believe I should distill again (?) but want to retain flavour (hence a pot distiller). It looks like the air still and an essentia carbon filter would suit my needs (I know the carbon filter removes colour and flavour) - they certainly do in terms of budget and space. I'm also aware I could do all this with shop bought vodka, but where is the fun in that? I've brewed some beer kits with various success, and my lemon wine is a rather acquired taste, but I simply enjoy making stuff, and if I can drink it at the end, so much the better! Any advice is very much appreciated!

Welcome! For what you want to do, your choice of equipment seems appropriate.

First of all welcome to the forum...

You seem to know what you need....are you doing your own mash's??? if so what??.

The more info you give us the better the advice we can give you..

Gin in an AirStill is straightforward - either use Odin's recipe, which involves a couple of weeks maceration, or build Mash's Sputnik out of a colander, and put your botanicals in the vapour path.

Even though I'm contemplating something bigger, I love my AirStill.

Cheers

Hampk

Air still will make great gin.

Kale wash. See recipe.
Double distill (strip and spirit run)
Cut cleanly.
Build a sputnik. Search 'sputnik'
A good few recipes now to choose from.

It will not disappoint.

Thanks everyone for your advice. Yeah, I want to brew from scratch so I'll be doing my own wash's. Not sure what yet. It's actually painful to write this as I'm still monstrously hungover from seeing a couple of mates last night. 8 rounds, no drink the same. Guess I'll never learn... Couple more questions - I've seen the strip and spirit run mentioned a few times but haven't been able to find exactly what they mean. I think the spirit run is where you separate into heads, hearts and tails? The strip run is the initial run where presumably you just discard the initial 100ml (assuming a 4l run)?

We are the same species, trust me, we will never learn.

There is no need to discard anything on a stripping run. The reason to strip is to get rid of most of the water and some of the less desirable tastes. On a more controllable still you would run in hard and fast. The result is a better product and you have to cut fewer runs than if you tried to do it all in the first run.

If you are brewing beer from scratch, then you can also use this still to make your own whisky/whiskey. I am a hack at mashing with poor equipment and worse procedures and I have managed to make a couple of OK ones. Rum is easier.

Only tried beer from kits, so no mash or anything too difficult attempted. Only kit mods. Reckon I'll try a kale wash first. The airstill comes with a triple turbo yeast I think. Heard bad things about turbo yeast. Also, I found a great forum post on the strip and spirit runs, but couldn't find any link to actually building a sputnik (loads of topics that mention it, just not actual construction). Final question (for now) is the collection pot and carbon filter that comes with the air still any good? Thanks Chill for the advice!

Genesis of the Sputnik: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3768&start=15

It the collection pot is glass it is fine, I use mine. The carbon filter it totally useless. Discard it. And discard that Turbo yeast while you are at it. Choose quality over quantity. Though not all things labelled Turbo Yeast are bad.

When you said "from scratch" I assumed that you mean mashing grain.

While you are having a clearout the instructions need to go as well. Follow the air still guide on here.

White rum is second on the list! Looking at a kale wash first for gin (its the mrs favourite and it pays to keep her happy!). I'll have a go at mashing soon, wanted to do it for a while but time has been an enemy. Now i've seen the cool-box mash tuns I think it will be possible. Thanks for the sputnik link, all makes perfect sense. Gonna be a couple of months now to get some things out the way and then I can make my purchase of an airstill. Can't wait to get back into brewing, it's been on hold since I moved house.

You could start the wash before you order the still as it takes a few days and does keep.

No pressure

Well, we do have a dinner party in August and at least 4 guests are gin drinkers.... Might just sway the boss.

Hi there BlindXX and welcome.
Very interesting to see that you are playing a long game here, and not the often asked "can I ferment my bowl of breakfast cereal, and be drinking Whiskey next week" short game.
Read this, viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1216 and this, viewtopic.php?f=3&t=765, experiment a little and have fun.
That is imperative, if you don't find it fun, or at least interesting, then stop doing it!
As the Bishop said to the barmaid....

Robert.

Thanks for the Welcome and the links Easydrinker. If there is one thing brewing has taught me, it's patience. I enjoy the process as much as the result (more so given some of the concoctions I've created) so its all good. I like home produce and I'm enjoying mushroom growing too. Only Oyster at the moment as they're easy. Given that I'm a Londoner, space is limited, but my back garden has been planted in such a way that if I can't eat it or brew it, it has no place!