StillSmart

What is birdwatchers wash

I make it like this.
21 litres of water

5kg sugar

3/4 small tin of tomatoe puree

1/2 tin of allinsons bakers yeast

juice of 1 lemon.
Make up as you would with using turbo (water temp etc)

should make a wash with 11-12 % alchol

not as quick as turbo\'s or as strong but far cheeper

will make a better neutral spirit apparently.
My wash wont be ready for at least another week so cant comment any further, again if you look at the other site you will find plenty of info on it, plus many more recipe\'s

it will also clear by itself although I will be using turbo clear, I\'m far to impatient

Just finished my first real distillation. I had the wash still going, but could\'nt resist. I measured 3,5 Litres of the wash in pot. heated it up, util it started to haze. then in the still, set the wattage to 320 and put one smashed coffee cup on the bottom. And away we go...
I made a thermal meter from computer thermal controller which has a probe on the end of a cable. i taed it directly on the coolant pipe that comes from the distiller (right where the \"vent\" hole is)
When it showed 60c it started drippping. throw away first 50ml. And collected 0,6 liters of 65% spirits.
But the smell, pew. the spirit smells bad, really bad. same like the wash. Just started to filter it. diluted it to 45%, ended up 800 ml of spirits.

if the end result smells bad carbon filter until it smells ok

Did you de-gas the wash?
I degas in the bucket then transfer once clear to demejons then shake the hell out of it.
The last demejon I put in I forgot to degas, the spirit smells a little like eggs, that will be the co2 imparted flavours in the spirit.
If it just smells a little like the wash wich shouldn\'t be that bad, just a fermentation smell, do as hangover suggest\'s, run it throug the carbon, then flavour it and let it stand for a couple of days, you wont be disapointed.

Now distilling the whole batch. wash still is not all clear but has stopped fermenting yesterday. I\'ll be trying the 40ml heads away, 8 dl of hearts, 5 dl of tails to next batch route. After evertyhing has gone through, distill the end product again. no heads that time, just collect it until the alc level drops under 60%.
BTW, when alc level drops to 60% at second distillation, can i collect tails from that too and use the next time I have fermented wash ready to go? and how much tails should i collect from that? same 5 dl?

** wash still is not all clear but has stopped fermenting yesterday.
just curious you know you have to leave it clear after it has fermented before distilling?
** 60% at second distillation, can i collect tails from that too and use the next time I have fermented wash ready to go
you sure can !
**how much tails should i collect

depends on you, no hard rules, for me depends if i can be bothered lol sometimes with a second distil I will stop collecting at about 40% and just dump the rest.

But i suppost a better way would be to stop collecting @ 60% for drinking

maybe anything under 60% to 20% put in with your next batch.

Like I said though, just what work best for you

just curious you know you have to leave it clear after it has fermented before distilling?
yes, i do, but I\'m not patient enough besides, been stilling all day now, no blowups. I used one smashed coffee cup. the bits are rathling in the still, but nothing else has happened.

yes, i do, but I\'m not patient enough besides, been stilling all day now, no blow ups. I used one smashed coffee cup. the bits are rattling in the still, but nothing else has happened.

Well if you\'ve got your first batch distilled then surely you should have another one on the go
It\'s not often that I haven\'t got some ready...... currently it\'s a full batch, cleared and everything but I forgot to run it over the weekend.....
Ah well, there\'s always next weekend.....
p.s. oh and whoever posted that picture of the carbon filter made out of tube, you don\'t need to worry about translation etc, if you google for Gert Strand and then follow the links from his site, he\'s got a free e-book about carbon filtering and that design is basically the same as in his book. Except you get a lot more info from his book about filtering etc.....