StillSmart

Hi all.

I am new to this forum although I know some of you may know me from the Harris wine and beer site.

I am buying the Airstill kit ( the pot still) from Lovebrewing and will be asking lots of questions, so be prepared guys

First one: I have about 8 bottles of high strength wine that I made from the Condessa range of high alchohol kits in 2009 they are coconut brandy and hazelnut rum (neither of us likes these) about 20% ABV. Could I put these through the airstill?

Regards Richard G

Hi,Richard, welcome to the board, quite new here myself don't see why you couldn't run them, your current abv is not gonna give you a lot of usable product if memory serves me right.assuming you have 8 wine bottles, its prob .
gonna give you around 3ltrs per run.amounting to very little to actually get any drinkable stuff, might be a good learning curve for you though. If you read through Aidanmac's airstill guide it'll give you an idea what i'm trying to say.
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1216

cheers B_D

Hi,and,welcome Richard.
SmartStill, AirStill and EasyStill forum should answer any Q's that you have,but ask if you don't find the answer.
Robert.

You can run pretty much anything through the still. It just boils it and condenses the steam, there is no magic. A better question is, what will come out and will I like it? My guess is that at least some of the flavour will carry over and that if it is the coconut and hazelnut tastes that you don't like then you will just have a stronger drink that you don't like. I am assuming that those flavours are from essences. I've tried re-distilling some spirits made with them that I did not like and the AirStill does not remove much of the objectionable flavours. That said, you don't like it now and it will be a good way of learning how your still operates. I'd run it just for that.

Chuck

Hi RG

Nice to see you've come over to the dark side, you'll get far more answers to your questions here.

richardagutteridge wrote: I have about 8 bottles of high strength wine that I made from the Condessa range of high alchohol kits in 2009 they are coconut brandy and hazelnut rum (neither of us likes these) about 20% ABV. Could I put these through the airstill?

Regards Richard G

As others have said, Yes, you can Personally, I'd run it in two batches and let the Airstill run until the distillate coming from the spout has dropped to 20%. Combine the distillate from the two runs and dilute to 40% then, and this will be vital, put it through a serious Carbon filter to polish the spirit and remove any remaining flavour.

As said earlier, you won't get a whole lot from it but it will be an experience and you will definitely have drinkable spirit.

And welcome to the Home of Free Distillers
AM

Hi guys and thanks for the welcome.

Just to clear up my original post, it's not the flavour we don't like it's the sweetness due to back sweetening that has put us off.

Oh and VT I now know where you go

Sweetness is not so easy to get rid of. In this case I would recommend that after the first run you should dilute to 20% then filter the product then run it again. This should get rid of any residual sweetness - hopefully

AM

Thanks again guys, have just put my order in for the Airstill.

As I already do AG brewing and wine making I had no room for the T 500 which I would have prefered.

Now, however SWMBO wants to know when she can start saving on her ( our) alcohol bill

Ps to above: what SWMBO really means is when you make it, as it is your " hobby " I won't have to pay anything for my Rums/ etc

richardagutteridge wrote:;D Ps to above: what SWMBO really means is when you make it, as it is your " hobby " I won't have to pay anything for my Rums/ etc

I can see where she is coming from!
I am not sure it is fair,but,hey,make the Lady happy.
Robert.

Fairs fair, the sugar and most of the other stuff is part of her shopping.

fwir, it is possible for the ceramic boil enhancers to pick up a taint from a flavoured run.

Also, cut up a scrap piece of copper pipe, say 6" length into multiple bits or put a 90 degree bend in a handful of copper washers and add them to the boil enhancers. Made a small but noticeable difference to me.

No John as a seasoned brewer/wine maker I buy all brewing stuff myself

Saves a lot of aggro when things go wrong