StillSmart

Hi All, just thought I’d post to introduce myself. I’m capt-cudellez and I’m a complete noob to this distilling game. Been doing a fair bit of reading on here and over at HB.

HB has a great archive of info, but you all seem much friendlier on the forum and bit more novice friendly.
I’m currently doing my first wash of Vodka Star to run through a borrowed reflux still, hoping to get a fairly neutral spirit to add gin essence to. From what I’ve read most of you guys seem to use Turbo yeasts, I’m (at this point) not overly interesting in producing a large qty of spirit at the expense of quality, and want to produce the best gin I can. So after a bit of advice, I have brewed wine on a few occasions before, does anyone think it’s a good idea to brew a strong white wine base, perhaps using champagne yeast to help create a more neutral distillation, or would I be wasting my time and money, and best to stick to the turbos and just filter it after running it through the still?
Is there a lot of flavour of the wash carried over in to the distillate, even when using a reflux pulling a high ABV?
Cheers, Cudellez.

Welcome Cudellez,

The last person I said that to was probably my late Wife.

I\'d stick with sugar wash until you\'ve got your head around the various quirks in home distilling. As for Gin the one that goes down best with all our social circle is the \"Essencia Blue Saphire\" and we\'ve tried them all. If your going for the real thing with herbs and juniper berries then theres a few ideas on this forum.

Once again welcome and enjoy a great hobby.
Opus 27

Thanks for the advice; I’ve already got some of the “blue sapphireâ€

Hi there and welcome. I\'m a newbie too and yes the people here are very friendly and helpful.
At the risk of heresy.... I didn\'t think the essencia blue was quite lemony enough. So after a few experiments I happened upon Star Kay White lemon extract. It\'s a tincture of lemon oil and alcohol. About £4 from Waitrose. About a capful to a litre of the made up gin makes all the difference, but without being at all obvious. To me, makes it taste even closer to the Bombay.
Ciao.

Lejomr,

I\'m going to have to try that, it\'s now on my shoping list.
Opus 27

Let me know what you think Opus.

Welcome! I\'d agree with the above basically - you want to make the cleanest wash you can and distill a nice neutral, then either use essences, an infusion, or re-distill through a basket of botanicals. Might be worth trying a simple tomato paste wash, at the risk of sounding like a broken record - they tend to ferment out cleaner than the turbos and have a (very) slight sweet taste. Keep us all updated on how you get on!

Thanks for all the advice and I\'ll be sure to let you know how I get on, or any problems I run in to.
Cudellez

Hey, welcome.
I found that the carbon filter made a huge difference regardless of how good the spirit from the still was and my family all thing the Prestige Gin essences are the best. We use the Plymouth, Bombay and dry varieties