StillSmart

Hi guys and help and advice warmly welcome. For the 2nd time now I have a bottle of spirit that has developed an eggy aroma. Nothing overpowering, but noticeable all the same. Last time it was a bottle i'd used with a prestige calvados ( not good 4/10 ) flavouring. Put it through a carbon filter and it was ok. This time however it has appeared in a plain vodka! On both occasion the spirit only had this aroma after filtering,bottling and after 24 hours? Bottles are steralised and rinsed well. ideas?
Ps. did a wash using dextrose in place of sugar and in my opion its not worth the extra cost, once you distill and filter there is very little in it, friends doing a blind test couldnt tell! Castor sugar again in future, though will get round to trying a dark brown sugar as an experiment.

Hi
That’s a new one for me.
Your not using plastic bottles are you by any chance?

If so it could be stripping the solvents out of the plastic.

No bluecap i'm using glass bottles all cleaned and rinsed. I have no idea why it's only been these two odd bottles and then only after filtering and being left for a while. If it had happened again after adding a flavouring, i'd have said the problem lied there, but not with a vodka! very strange!

I've found that a couple of times the odour seems to 'come out' a bit after some time in the bottle. What I tend to do is distill the spirit, then bottle it up and shake the hell out of it a few times and take the top off the bottle each time, allow it to breathe a bit. Alternatively, carbon filtering a couple of times should get rid of it, though obviously that's only for before you put the essence in.

Dont know if this helps any????
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive ... 00092.html

Ok. Thanks for the tips guys, i'll give the shaking the bottle idea a try. Yep I passed the spirit through my carbon gadget twice, but still had the smell? I wonder then if adding pieces of copper to the still DOES have an effect! I keep reading conflicting stories?

Also, with the filtering - what happens is that the carbon will trap some of the nasty parts towards the top, and the more times you use it the lower the bad parts will be. Eventually, all the pores of the carbon will be blocked and it won't be filtering anymore - not only that, but it can actually put more bad stuff back in! So you probably already have, but filter a few times and change your carbon - the less you have in the filter, the more often it needs changing.
You can also put a couple of spoonfuls of carbon into the bottle itself and shake it about then leave it until you're ready to drink, then just decant into a clean bottle and use a coffee filter to cut out the carbon.

I only use my carbon 2 maybe 3 times, and poor boiling water through it or sit it in boiling water after every use,and even that hardly removes the smell of spirit sometimes, so as jimmy says change the carbon as often as you can.... if you can afford it then do it, thats my motto..... dont know if this is a good or bad thing boiling the carbon, but never had a rotten egg smell, i have read articles online regarding copper i dont use it myself.....

The green colour in copper surely cant do much good to the spirit if it accumilates.??????

I have never tried this but apparently you can "clean" carbon by boiling it for 10-20mins or so, leave it to dry thoroughly then roast it in the oven.

BUT......and its a pretty big but
Don't do it in a gas over !

Even in an electric oven leave the door slightly open and a window open too.

Personally I dont think its worth the risk of alcohol fumes and a ignition source coming in contact.

I read on another forun that some guy blew up his oven and nearly burned the kitchen down trying this, just to save a few quid, try explaining that one to the insurace company.
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i did say I dont think its worth the risk

i think youd either have to be real silly or realy know what your doing.

i know i wouldnt do it

I read on another forun that some guy blew up his oven and nearly burned the kitchen down trying this, just to save a few quid, try explaining that one to the insurace company.
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Its the wife I would have problem with - lol Insurance - no problem !!

Nah, not worth it like you say, it's cheap anyway.
When I use the still, I don't bother with the plastic filter anymore - I use a funnel with coffee filter in it, filled with carbon and stuck into my collection vessel. Before using it, I boil the kettle and run some hot water through it to wet the carbon which makes it work better. Once I've finished collecting, I could pour a little more water into it to 'push' the spirit through that is remaining in there, but instead I just collect for a little longer and push the spirit through with... ummm.. spirit.

Its the wife I would have problem with - lol Insurance - no problem !!

can you imagine lmao
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