StillSmart

I would recommend 5kg generally. Be generous with the yeast and on the ball with temp control. 25c is your friend.

|Last wash I did was 6kg sugar, tube of tomato puree, juice of 1/2 a lemon and topped up to 26 litres.
I used a turbo yeast that I had lying around (which I know isn't the best!).

Didn't think that bread yeast would be able to cope with the amount of alcohol!

Will look at the Kale recipe.

"To Turbo or not to turbo " - that is the question.... which rolls around here on a regular basis.

In my opinion it's more a matter of efficiency.
You get a quicker turnaround and a better quality from 5 kg on bread yeast, then you do silly numbers on turbos that failed to deliver in 48 hours, (just sayin' IME) and when they do finally finish taste like shite.

There are other people who have tried Kale still prefer vodka star. We can throw in the ideas but only you can find your own way.

PS To answer your original post. I think fermipan would eat 6 kg - it would just take longer unnecessarily.

I can play around with different options and see what works best for me
Thanks for the advise

Sorry for asking a silly question but soon to distill for the first ever time (wash currently bubbling) and I've been reading this forum avidly for tips and advice (Thanks everyone, it's been really informative) and I've come across something I'm not sure about. When I finally get to do the spirit run and infuse my booze people talk in the recipes of "1.5ltrs neutral at 45%", what does that exactly mean? This is just the stuff I have after its been through the stripping run?

Sorry again for the question. I've been searching the forum for an explanation but was unable to find one.

What comes out the stripping run, it's needs combining (if you collected is in separate) and diluting to 45%

It is referred to as 'neutral' because it has zero flavour.

You then need 1.5 litres of that to start the recipe.

Hope that helps..

What comes out the stripping run, it's needs combining (if you collected is in separate) and diluting to 45%

It is referred to as 'neutral' because it has zero flavour.

You then need 1.5 litres of that to start the recipe.

Hope that helps

Thanks for the reply, so to clarify:

Take some booze after its been through the stripping run and dilute it with water to 45⅝. Put 1.5 liters of that in the AS and then add a further liter water to the AS. Stick your Sputnik in, load with bottsnicals and off you go!

On the general subject of recipes, do you guys use the same quantities of botanicals for vapour infusion as you would in a maceration recipe for your AS?


As an aside, I've got a jeweller friend making me a sputnik/basket hybrid. It will attach to the lid, but have the depth and ability to hold large amounts of botanicals similar to your Sputnik design. He's making it out of copper because from what I've read on here the more copper going on the better ( I'll also put some copper in the pot).

"Take some booze after its been through the stripping run and dilute it with water to 45⅝. Put 1.5 liters of that in the AS and then add a further liter water to the AS. Stick your Sputnik in, load with bottsnicals and off you go"

--- yes


"On the general subject of recipes, do you guys use the same quantities of botanicals for vapour infusion as you would in a maceration recipe for your AS?"

--- nope. Different recipes completely.


"..... I'll also put some copper in the pot. "

---that's the important but. Always run it with copper in the bottom.

I always use finished neutral ie spirit run
and just hearts. That way you do not have to
do cuts on the final product.

gaza the instructor wrote:I always use finished neutral ie spirit run
and just hearts. That way you do not have to
do cuts on the final product.

So you are doing a triple distil?

1 x stripping run
1 X spirit run
1 X infusion run

No forshots on the final run?

Thats the way I go. No cuts on the final run,
just stop collecting at 50%.
Enjoy buddie experiment and you will find what
works for you. We are all here and willing to
put our ten penneth of info to you.
Good luck happy sippin.

captainfog wrote:

gaza the instructor wrote:I always use finished neutral ie spirit run
and just hearts. That way you do not have to
do cuts on the final product.

So you are doing a triple distil?

1 x stripping run
1 X spirit run
1 X infusion run

No forshots on the final run?

Yup that's how I do it. The first two get you a neutral (vodka) spirit. The third makes gin from the nuetral.

You can reduce the number of strip runs dramatically if you have enough space in a freezer --<use our search, loads to read.

+1 Gaza and Mash

Unfortunately no chest freezer (nor do I have room in my house for one! And even if I did my wife would fill it with peas! ) which is a shame because when I read about that a couple of days ago I thought it sounded genius.

So I should basically follow this guide: https://imgur.com/1MM0IOo for the first two runs. And just to clarify (because I think I saw something different elsewhere) No need to add water to the output from the stripping run and it can just go straight into the spirit run? Do my cuts, and then move on to what is described at the start of this thread.

You mentioned only using the hearts for the infusion run. What do you do with the heads? Save up 4 litres, do ANOTHER run with them before infusing? So basically a quadruple distil?

Thats the way yes 4ltrs in your AS and stripp down to 30%.
You should end up with a stripp strength of about 50%.
You get 6 stripps from 25ltrs each one will be approx a
litre.
You then want 4ltrs a time at about 30% for spirit run.
So you need to dilute with water.
Then spirit run take off in small jars 100 or 200ml.
Do your cuts.
Fores nasty smell, use for window cleaning or lighting fires.
Heads. save in a jar for a rerun when you have enough.
hearts. the good stuff use to make your gin.
Tails not a nice smell use to fortify another wash.
Now you can use your hearts to make gin.
Try one of the sputnik recipes, my fave is Tea Gin.
Good luck let us all hear your results Captain F.