Analysis

[spot]

I tentatively emailed a couple of googled quality analysis labs asking whether they'd take single samples of distillate and report the identity of everything exceeding 0.1% and if so for how much. Neither expressed the slightest interest in earning a tenner or whatever it might be.

A Gas Chromatograph would do it, maybe with a Mass Spectrometer. I, obviously, have neither and they cost more than mere curiosity could justify.

If anyone's actually had it done, a link to the lab and a hint of a price would be useful.

0.01% would be nicer but I'm not picky.

A 2nd or 3rd year chemistry undergraduate would be just as good as a lab.

[gaza the instructor]

I think this may be poking your head
out of the trench a little Spot, be
careful.

[Easydrinker]

Have you got any pics of your still spot, or a maybe a link?
It is a new one on me, and Uncle Google doesn't seem to know it.
Cheers.

Robert.

[spot]

Have you got any pics of your still spot, or a maybe a link?
It is a new one on me, and Uncle Google doesn't seem to know it.
Cheers.

Robert.

Identical to this except I have a digital thermometer probe for surprisingly better precision. I was last employed as a research chemist over forty years ago, I'm satisfying a long-standing uninformed interest in yeast.

[inspector gadget]

Have you got any pics of your still spot, or a maybe a link?
It is a new one on me, and Uncle Google doesn't seem to know it.
Cheers.

Robert.

Identical to this except I have a digital thermometer probe for surprisingly better precision. I was last employed as a research chemist over forty years ago, I'm satisfying a long-standing uninformed interest in yeast.

Always fancied one like that but never found a source of cheap glassware. and if anyone does have a gas chromatograph please let me know.

[spot]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162214378318
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152252058251

£70, delivered in good time for Christmas. A 16" Liebig condenser would be another £25 but the supplied one ought to work. Adding a couple of stands with clamps seems unavoidable too. Then you need a heat source - eBay has a plain Chinese model for £60 delivered searching PTHW. It does add up if you start from scratch. I aim to explore flavour and aroma extraction with mine.

[inspector gadget]

Just managed to get the last ones...

hope the postie doesn't drop them.

The heater for the 1000ml flask.. presuming I need this one? x 1000ml..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282070627024

[spot]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282070627017 is what I had in mind at £60.08, I'm not sure what advantage digital offers for the extra money. Other than the control it looks the same machine from the same supplier.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261963656026 is £95 delivered, from England, and includes a magnetic stirrer but their 1000ml is sold out at the eBay shop - you could ask at http://www.mescieng.co.uk whether they actually have stock, he's quite friendly. I'll PM you his direct contact details. That one's 350W, the Chinese ones both say 530W. If you wanted to fractionate at, say, a head temperature over 150°C (I'm guessing) then the different power rating might be significant, but I've never needed to.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301972777328 is an optional extra if you ever want to extract flavouring - it's a bit like a Cona coffee percolator except the solvent keeps going back for more. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/311610094596 is the same thing at £18.38 delivered but half the capacity. Google is packed with Soxhlet how-to guides.

I'd recommend a probe digital thermometer -50°C to 300°C with 0.1°C precision, but not necessarily the ST-10 I use - that has a 10 minute preset auto-off which I can't prevent, which annoys me. How you'd find one with an auto-off you can disable I've no idea or I'd do it. I've seen prices between £3 and £12.

[Capt-Cudellez]

Is your interest in just the different compounds yeast make in a brew? How these compounds influence the flavour?

Scientific curiosity or just concern over what you are ingesting?

[spot]

Is your interest in just the different compounds yeast make in a brew? How these compounds influence the flavour?

Scientific curiosity or just concern over what you are ingesting?

How the content varies with fermenting temperature, nutrients and yeast. I've spent a lifetime seeing newspaper stories of wedding party deaths in Indian villages. I want to see what's in the foreshots and heads they're not discarding if I use dreadful hygiene, infected yeast and suspect carbohydrates - how on earth are they getting it so wrong? For this I can happily ferment one litre per batch and see what's there at the end.

Beyond that I'm interested in learning how to balance flavours to make a palatable product, something I know nothing about, but I'd definitely sterilize for that and probably spit and rinse after tasting.

I don't, to any practical extent, drink. I have a part-used bottle of Captain Morgan Original Spiced Gold which I opened in 2014, and several liqueurs should anyone drop in not that anyone ever does. I open a bottle of wine a month, though I confess there's twenty years' supply laid down. Beer is two pints if I ever find a jazz club, or a small bottle of Peroni when I take anyone to a trattoria.

if anyone does have a gas chromatograph please let me know.

I hesitate to say, but this serendipitous find is perfect for the job.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222291156684

[Easydrinker]

if anyone does have a gas chromatograph please let me know.

I hesitate to say, but this serendipitous find is perfect for the job.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222291156684

Wowser,not something to be bought on a whim!
Unless cash is no object.

Robert.

[inspector gadget]

Is your interest in just the different compounds yeast make in a brew? How these compounds influence the flavour?

Scientific curiosity or just concern over what you are ingesting?

How the content varies with fermenting temperature, nutrients and yeast. I've spent a lifetime seeing newspaper stories of wedding party deaths in Indian villages. I want to see what's in the foreshots and heads they're not discarding if I use dreadful hygiene, infected yeast and suspect carbohydrates - how on earth are they getting it so wrong? For this I can happily ferment one litre per batch and see what's there at the end.

Beyond that I'm interested in learning how to balance flavours to make a palatable product, something I know nothing about, but I'd definitely sterilize for that and probably spit and rinse after tasting.

I don't, to any practical extent, drink. I have a part-used bottle of Captain Morgan Original Spiced Gold which I opened in 2014, and several liqueurs should anyone drop in not that anyone ever does. I open a bottle of wine a month, though I confess there's twenty years' supply laid down. Beer is two pints if I ever find a jazz club, or a small bottle of Peroni when I take anyone to a trattoria.

if anyone does have a gas chromatograph please let me know.

I hesitate to say, but this serendipitous find is perfect for the job.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222291156684

I think I have found Nirvana... or Anavrin as one might say...

[spot]

Wowser,not something to be bought on a whim!
Robert.

People pay more than that to go on holiday and I always hated holidays.

I couldn't resist. I've set aside a corner of the shed, now I need very small regulated cylinders of nitrogen, air and hydrogen which ought to last a lifetime. I've always wanted to explore this topic.

[Curmudgeon]

Credit to you for wanting to research it.

With regard deaths I'm sure cheap gin deliberately made cheaply sold to tourists far outnumbers those at wedding parties.

As we know, it's only semi difficult to make decent booze and really hard to make deadly booze.

If safeish booze (ie non deadly and non blinding even with fruit = methanol)can be made in Ugandan villages https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL3UHF5SlEU with dodgy water and zero sterilisation, it can't be that hard.

[spot]

An article in the New Scientist years back mentioned in passing the idea that the first source of yeast for fermenting alcohol was spit. I don't suppose anyone here has tried that yet?