StillSmart

Well the only thing that will stop me catching to tomorrow will be if Hell or the Loch freezes over, and if it does, I will go dumpster diving for bottles instead. There will still be time to get a run from my wee pot as well.

Had a night on the Gins stocked by our local pub, sorry folks, I still prefer Gordon’s. They only had Britvic mixers which didn’t help. I remember with fondness one of my few visits to Englandshire, sitting on the bank of a pond as the sun went down, with a glass of Gordon’s and Schweppes tonic, with a slice of lemon. Harmony.

Pyro wrote:(snip) I still prefer Gordon’s. (/snip)

Well if you can knock out very clean neutral, I can think of about 5 different gin essences worth trying (on the basis that they'll all be slightly different, even if it's just a different brand of the same "style").

Personally I'm trying to find some Genever or Genever essence to try........

Today I risked divorce by buying kale as it was reduced to 49p for 250g in lidl.

I proofed the result of my ginger beer run. Got a gallon of 48% and 600ml of 65% that I'm going to add to some blackberry wine to beef it up to ......well, I'll see what I get....

Having returned from the lidl run mentioned above (sugar is still 45p a kilo), I bottled my hybrid semi-cachaca.

It is half golden syrup and half cheap sugar, with dunder from a previous proper cachaca and yeast is vodka star which includes nutrients and means it took a week to be done and ready for still.

From 2 x 23 litres washes and strip runs, then one spirit run, I kept a litre as heads, got 9 bottles of whatever we're calling it booze at between 40 and 50% abv and then roughly 2 litres of tails.

I think I'd have liked a little more heads separated so it's more cachaca and less hybrid with a vodka kick, but it tastes fine just now and a little experimentation with airing it, adding glycerine, vanilla, honey etc can only improve it or consign it to the re-distill jar.

I run my first UJSM today, not made any proper cuts yet so the heads, hearts and tails in my notes are just preliminary, also the T Coll column is just a calculation of how much alcohol is in each jar based on the ABV and volume, helps me keep track of how much alcohol is left in the Still, it took 6 hours in total and I recon I'll have about 8 litres of feints once I've made my cuts.

Has a nice soft corn smell and the tails smell a little spicy!!

Here's my run notes

UJSM run notes
27/11/2016

40litre charge at 30%
3kw power
2 x pro cap plates
Big baby dephlagmator on full flow throughout

Jar. ABV. Temp. Size Type T Coll
1 88. 80.1. 500ml. Fores 440ml
2 88. 80.1. 1000ml. Heads 880ml
3 88. 80.1. 1000ml. Heads 880ml
4 88. 80.1. 1000ml. Heads 880ml
5 87.5. 80.2. 1000ml. Heads 875ml
6 87.5 80.2. 500ml. Hearts 437ml
7 87.5 80.2. 500ml. Hearts 437ml
8 87.5. 80.2. 500ml. Hearts 437ml
9 87.5. 80.2 500ml. Hearts 437ml
10 87.5. 80.2. 500ml. Hearts 437ml
11 87. 80.3. 500ml. Hearts 435ml
12 87. 80.3. 500ml. Hearts 435ml
13 87. 80.3. 500ml. Hearts 435ml
14 87. 80.3. 500ml. Hearts 435ml
15 87. 80.4. 500ml. Hearts 435ml
16 87. 80.4. 500ml. Hearts 435ml
17 87. 80.5. 500ml. Hearts 435ml
18 86.5. 80.5. 500ml. Tails 432.5ml
19 86.5. 80.7. 500ml. Tails 432.5ml
Increased power to 3500w
20 86. 81.2. 1000ml. Tails
21 84. 82.4. 1000ml. Tails

ABV was way to high throughout for my liking, next time when I make my Bourbon style UJSM I will maybe only use one plate or just pot still it.

Not a bad weekend only landed one fish, while others blanked, and the pub had wine bottles in their bin this morning.

Added Quick Clear to one barrel, made a bottle of Black Raspberry Royale, ordered up some stores. I have decided to give Vodka Star another try, and ordered some essence for a Gin that I haven’t tried. I will be looking around for more Gin essences.

Did a tour of the Cotswolds Distillery this afternoon. Very interesting, met Mary and Janice, the two big pot stills. Their 1 yr old single malt spirit (they can't call it whisky yet) was delicious. Had a taste of their London dry gin, and their absinthe, and decided I'm not a fan of either! Pity I was driving, there was a few more I'd like to have sampled. I'd have needed a second mortgage to buy any tho......the PRICES!! So I came away with just memories.....worth a visit tho...

I really must go and see some of these distilleries soon

Today I shopped in my local Lidl, and sugar is on it's first price hike, up to 49p.

Robert.

Easydrinker wrote:Today I shopped in my local Lidl, and sugar is on it's first price hike, up to 49p.

Robert.

Ouch. It wasn't raised on Sunday in Northern Ireland and I only bought a few >:(

@ Anavrin
Very impressed with your skills and detail mate.
Its something we can all learn from.
Good luck to you.
Cheers

Yesterday was a bit of a disaster, one of the cats altered the timer on the still and I ended up with a 1½ Hr over run. I did manage to take the fruit of some jars that I was infusing. Damson Gin and Plum Brandy both taste fantastic and will be bottled up as Crimbo presents later to day.

Finally managed to program in all my Crimbo labels.

As per usual I got the still on first thing so plenty of time for other projects.

'Tis December, so I made Apple Pie, which I consider to be a seasonal drink.
It takes a lot of testing, if you catch my meaning

Robert.

I had to rotate my brew bins yesterday, I wonted to wait until my order of Vodka Star turned up, but we have trouble with one of the delivery groups, the local driver saves the deliveries up and does them on Saturday night.

Spent yesterday finishing of the Crimbo presents for old people that my wife takes to the day centre, and some of the staff. Picture added.

I have decided that I will not be giving away any of my Plum Brandy, in fact I will be starting 2 more infusions of it later in the day, it really touched the spot. Will also do some work on the Chilli Vodka, I think I may have cracked it.