off tastes

[woopig]

Hey guys,
I\'m totally new to this thing. I have learned a lot from various forums, but there\'s one simple thing I can\'t figure out. The only thing I want to do is to produce neutral spirits that I can use to make \"Apple Pie\" moonshine with. For those unfamiliar, it\'s basically just apples and cinammon soaked in neutral spirit.
So, I\'m tempted to go with an AirStill since it seems pretty straightforward and all, but everything I read about it says that you get small amounts of harsh-tasting spirit. The small amounts I can deal with, I\'m mainly a homebrewer so beer is my main drink. But, I\'m wondering if these \"harsh tastes\" are so harsh that they would even come through in the apple pie. Or, is this just if you drink it as straight vodka? Would appreciate any thoughts.
Also, were you guys nervous ordering these things online?

[Phantom]

I have \"run\" my spirit past my own professional Vodka drinker (a colleague who happens to be a Polish national). The bottle of spirit I gave him to try as \"vodka\" was about 75% ABV. He and his brother sat down one saturday eveing and \"killed\" the entire bottle.
He said that it was very good.
If you \"follow the instructions\" then it\'s quite hard to go wrong.
Some of the purists over at \"homedistiller\" frown on these small table top model stills, but it does seem that a lot of the chaps over there, have the space, remote location and more importantly, access to larger (than domestic) bore copper tubing and vessels that can be adapted to be used as a boiler etc.
If you\'re in a built up/urban location, then you certainly don\'t want the smell that comes from distilling grain mash etc. It\'s a dead give away to a customs type chappy (depending where you are whether it\'s HMRC/ATF/or similar).
The still is the size of a kitchen food processor so all you need to find room for is a 27 to 30 litre fermenting bucket and something to keep the distillate in when it\'s been \"run\"....
The harsh tastes thing, only, as far as I can think, is a problem if you\'ve fermented it at the upper temperature that the yeast will work at. Otherwise, if anything, when drunk as \"vodka\", it\'s got a slight sweet-ish (very slight) hint to it as it\'s been fermented from sugar, not grain etc....
regards
p