Stout spirit (LOL it sounds good in theory)

by **bluecap** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 7:25 am

Hi all
Has anybody tried putting anything apart from turbo wash through the smartstill and if so what were the results like?
The reason I ask is I am contemplating buying a 40 pint stout kit, upping the sugar to get about 18 or so % alcohol and using gervin high alcohol yeast and nutrients and putting it through the still, I just have visions of it stripping everything out and a clear white spirit no different to turbo wash spirit coming out and the price of the beer kit and the hassle being a waste.
If anybody has any thoughts on it.
Mick

by **Phantom** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 9:23 pm

Yes, I've done a cider kit, that was "upped" with sugar to about 14% (sugar, a malic/tartaric acid blend and tannin that is).
You have to make sure that the "wash" is cleared as much as possible. Plus when you run the still with "it", make sure that you use rashig rings or some other sort of "boiling stones", and distillers conditioner.
If you run it with a full 4 litre batch, then it can bubble that much that it will lift the lid and "burp" hot wash all over the place.
Have a look through for my posts, there's plenty about what happens when it goes wrong.
Oh, and if you happen to be re-distilling cloudy distillate, then when "it" burps, the hot 85% alcohol looses it's heat very quickly - my scald was only like sunburn, if it's 14% wash or similar then it contains a lot more water which doesn't cool as quickly when it's flying across the kitchen.

by **Jimmy** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 10:39 pm

It won't strip it completely to a vodka - the still isn't efficient enough to do that. As for how much taste will remain - that depends on how you take your cuts. If you don't know much about that, do a lot of reading beforehand as it will help a lot! Also, carbon filtering will take out taste, as will re-distilling.
If you're going to do it, my advice would be to distill with a selection of glass containers, old bottles or whatever. Collect the first 25ml or so and discard it as heads, then take 300ml or so, switch the container, take the next 300, switch again, etc. Then you'll have a selection of strengths/flavours which you can sample (careful with the strong ones), mix together, etc and work out where the cuts should be. The next batch should be easier to work out then, and if you're doing it from a kit then the same will probably work from the next kit.
Let us know how you get on, it could be an interesting flavour! Also bear in mind that some things take a bit of aging to bring out their best, and aging with some wood chips is often even better so if possible, try a few different ways.