StillSmart

brewhunter wrote:Thanks for your input guys, the still,alcoholometer,vodka star and ceramic do-dars arrived today but no conditioner yet..
I'm thinking now I will hold back on the wine idea and get the sugar wash started today but just out of interest could red wines be used in the same way?

Thanks in advance

I have put all sorts of shite through mine. And so far I have only found a 3 things to avoid.

1. anything thick & gloopy (failed baileys essensce clones*)
2. anything really sugary (other failed essences) - just ferment first.
3. FINISHED BEER with hops in - re-ferment in the next sugar wash.
a. really not worth the amount you will recover
b. hop oils gum up all over the place and are a utter B to clean up.

*this is the only alcohol I have ever had to throw away.

You might wonder why I distil these things. Alcohol makes a brilliant cleaning product and it is also use it to keep all my vessels, bottles & jars clean and hygienic. A splash in the bottom keeps everything fresh. leave it on the shelf just drain it, and then use it. When was the last time you saw a bottle of gin go off !!
So if it has alcohol in it, I will distil it regardless of what it will taste like because I'm using it in other ways. I keep and distil all my ullage.

I've had a busy afternoon, after making my sugar wash I did my first 4 litre strip run using some not so good homebrew red wine. The result is 1.2 litres of perfectly clear 40% ready to do the spirit run on Thursday. If I do one more stripping run of 4litres will that give me enough once diluted for the spirit run? And does the airstill need to be full each time?

I'm really enjoying this so far and looking forward to sampling the finished product

No, you can run with less than 4L in the pot. Those of us playing with Mash's sputnik are typically running 2L at a time, and I've done Odin's gin before which was only 1L.

You just need to keep an eye on things to make sure you don't boil the thing dry - though it does have a cut-out if you do.

Cheers

Hampk

hampk wrote:
You just need to keep an eye on things to make sure you don't boil the thing dry - though it does have a cut-out if you do.

Cheers

Hampk

Yeah yeah enough already

I've tested my cut-out too, a couple of times. They work. That is how it is meant to work when distilling water, according to the instructions I got with mine.

Thanks again..

So I did another stripping run with the red wine today so I now have 2.4litres at 40%
How much water should I be adding before I do the spirit run?

If you add 0.8 litres of water it will make 3.2 litres at 30%

chill wrote: That is how it is meant to work when distilling water, according to the instructions I got with mine.

Blimey. Just goes to show what happens when you read the instructions.

That having been said, I'd prefer not to rely on the cut-off - I have seen many fail-safe systems fail to protect the device they service by failing first!

Think of it as there for an emergency only. (Sorry Mash, that genuinely wasn't another dig!)

Cheers

Hampk

Well, there is no reason to use it for what we are doing as we do want something left in the still.

Anavrin wrote:If you add 0.8 litres of water it will make 3.2 litres at 30%

Thanks, I'll be doing my first spirit run tomorrow

@HampK. Ouch

chill wrote:Well, there is no reason to use it for what we are doing as we do want something left in the still.

Let me give you all a chuckle.
Long, long ago,when I built my first still, in the days before interwebs and sites like this one,and in theory when I had more brain cells than I do now,I made some stupid mistakes.
I had worked out for myself the point of a strip run,but had no alchometer.
I hadn't worked out leaving something behind,for safety.
I thought pouring all of the spirit from the spirit run back and going again was the same as triple distilled.I didn't dilute for a spirit run.
And as for my knowledge of cuts....
I made some messes,and drank some rough stuff.

I now delight in trying to share some of the wiser stuff that I have learned.

Robert.

However,This is me today

So I managed to get 3 full 4ltr stripping runs from my homebrew red wines and thanks to AMs guide and a fair bit of help from you guys I managed to produce 3 bottles of 40% spirit.
I used prestige essences (dry gin, amaretti and Caribbean rum) now I know some of you will say it needs leaving a bit longer to improve but we've had a tasting session already, for my wife I made up two gin and tonics one with Aldi gin one home made, two rum and cokes - captain Morgan and a home made (she didn't know which was which shop bought/hm)

I was very happy as she chose bothy of mine over the shop bought spirits, the amaretti also went down well.. And still is!

For me the amaretti is very nice but I'll not add so much sugar next time, I do not enjoy gin but I could barely taste the difference when I tried them against each other and the rum is very drinkable although probably not fair to compare against a different style. So overall it's all worked out pretty good.

And if you are wondering how I got on with the cuts I found that making small cuts at the beginning and lining them up and comparing smells it was fairly easy as the heads and tails kind of burn your nostrils!

Can't wait for my sugar wash to finish now so I can crack on with some more flavours

Hi brewhunter

Glad your having fun with the Airstill and essences, I've found that essences go a little further than the little bottles suggest, I've found you can normally mix up to 1 litre, keeping the same amount of sugar and get a perfectly good drink, worth a try :-)