StillSmart

Right, I'm trying to read as much as I can on this hobby, up to now I've done standard sugar wash's and put them through my airstill. Now I have a couple of questions guys, if I use 4 lts of fruit wine and do a strip run, followed by a spirit run, so that's strip down to 20%, then a standard spirit run of the first 50ml (foreshots throw that), then collect the heads, hearts & tails.

I do a lot of fruit wines, what does the following wines give you..taste wise??

apple.
rhubarb.
strawberry.
blackberry.
and a few more still in the DJ's

Don't know what you will get is the obvious answer.

If you have put the time and effort into a wine and it's nice, keep it. It seems a bit of a gamble to distil a nice wine on the off chance that you will get a nice spirit.

There are plenty of recipes around that will make a wash in a couple of weeks unlike the wines that probably have taken you months.

It's up to you, if you give one of them a go let us know how you get on.

Brian

I see your point about the "time it takes", a wash against the months that you put into a wine.

I do like your idea tho about just giving one wine a go. I have enough rhubarb to spare 4 lts. Just needs to clear a little more.

I guarantee your boiler will be nice and clean after running rhubarb through it.

Blackcurrant is nice. I do a run and a half for most of my fruit fermentations.

Clear your wash and do a strip run on 1/2 of it. Add those low wines to the other 1/2 wash and do a spirit run.

Cheers Myles, If I have time over the weekend I'll give it a shot. I'd like to give it a go and see if it's drinkable.. Will post on it later.

As I type I am running 4ltrs of Lemon and Ginger wine through my airstill on the stripping run this wine was made as an experiment and tasted foul this post prompted me to try a drop of the output and its very nice with the Lemon really coming through, the distillation seems to of cut the Ginger taste right back I am now torn as to carry on to the spirit run or just bottle it, its the first wine I have tried with though so cannot comment on any others earlier in the week though I made 25 ltrs of old speckled hen clone and some of that is going through the still as an experiment.

Good luck.

Lemon and Ginger, sounds like the basic ingredient for a hot toddy, only need the honey. (And a dose of flu for an excuse to drink it)

Most of the posts that I have read where people have distilled hopped beers have not been very complimentary about the outcome. But there again I like Speckled Hen too much to think about putting it through a still.

Let us know how they turn out.

Well done scubadiver, I do intend to have a go with my rhubarb, I also have a white wine that I've bottled but I think I can spare 4/5 bottles out of the 28 that I have.
Like YHB I also love S/hen, and if it's a good brew I would have to think twice before putting a batch through. Like they say nothing ventured nothing gained. I've read also that hopped bear through a still leaves it in a mess.

All the best, let us all know how it works out.

My understanding (not tried it myself) is that the hops flavour is concentrated and sticks to every surface in the still. It is supposed to be very difficult to get it clean again.

There are distilled hop products available, but I suspect the stills are not used for multiple products.

I ended up putting half of the Lemon and Ginger back through the still and the result was almost tasteless the other half at about 30% is being devoured by my wife so RESULT, as for the OSH the most out sanding taste was similar to the taste of stripped sugar wash with a hint of hops this so I ran this muck through again as a spirit run the result was again not pleasant so it went down the sink.
My wife now has 25 litres of Lemon and Ginger on the go with the intention of following Myles advice and hopefully getting an even better result.

I can't ever see me doing a beer through the still, not from what I've read about it. I want to have a go this weekend with a drop of white wine that I have.

I cannot see myself doing it again either it was just a sudden thought as I weighed the malts out for my OSH mash so all I needed to do was increase the grain bill slightly to allow for 23 litres as opposed to my normal 19 but it was worth a play even with the naff result.

The thing is...it's a learning curve for us all...if you don't have a go, you'll never know what may have come out of it.

Any beer you make from grain without adding the hops will make a reasonably good Whisky.

It's the only way I drink beer

AM

aidanmac wrote:Any beer you make from grain without adding the hops will make a reasonably good Whisky.
AM

This is what I mean, it's little nuggets of info like this, that get the old noggin thinking. I've got about 15 kgs of barley still left from this years brews, I think a grain wash is called for here.