StillSmart

Hi
Can any one shed some light on this?
Made up 4 bottles of vodka and 4 bottles of Scotch whiskey using Stills essense.
All from the same batch. The whiskey has a sediment on the bottom of every bottle but the vodka i totally clear! Cant make it out. Every bottle was cleaned and sanitised as they should be.Has anyone else come across this?
wifflow

Hi wifflow, could well be something in the essence if the voddy is unaffected.

I have also had sediment problems without using essences though, this can be esters or fatty acids precipitating out of the alcohol, and normally happens when the drink is stored somewhere cool and dark, and can be months down the line. The big boys avoid this by chill filtering close to 0oC through a special sieve, does the drink go slightly cloudy when you add a little water?

This can be avoided by keeping the ABV at 46% or stronger - you often see single malt at this strength stating non-chill filtered on the label.

Hi Capt-Cudellez
I have not tried it with water but I will do. As you say it could be the essense. I only bottled this about 5 days ago and I am a little suprised that its happened. I will syphone it off into some clean bottles and see if it continues. Thanks for your reply
Wifflow

If it's a visible sediment, a coffee filter might be enough to just take it out without affecting the taste (providing the sediment isn't the bit with the flavour of course!) - you don't want to carbon filter obviously as it will strip the flavours.

Thanks for the info. I will try the coffee filter and see if that works. I dont think it could be the calcum in the water because it did not happen to the vodka mix. I spoke to someone today and he suggested I may not have mixed it up enough when I added the essence! I must admmit, I stirred it, and I have been told that I should shake the scotch essence vigiously with the batch. Made some fresh up this afternoon and really did give it a good mix up so, will see how that batch does. Many thanks again
Wifflow

Hi,

I used to, occasionally, get a little sediment using SS essence - as it happens it was a whiskey one - but it pretty much went away when I started using distilled water to cut with - I live in a very hard water area - and I have stayed with that ever since.

As a point of interest I didn't get the same problem using Prestige essences.