Anyone distill spirits?

[David Tyson]

Just have a question, we fermented 6kg of sugar with the correct amount of yeast in about 23l of water - as per instructions.

Today we distilled it and it stinks and tastes of tequila, it has a very strong smell where it shouldn't have any.

Could this because we didn't use the cleaning agent to separate the sediment in the fermenter before we distilled it?

Any other ideas?

[denimglen]

Shouldn't be.

When you say it tastes like tequila - does it taste like cheap tequila/vodka? Like real fumey and 'nail polish remover' like?

If so it could be that you took too much of your last runnings/tails, or run the still too hot. Also when fermenting your wash try and do so at the lowest temperature stated for the yeast.

I'd try redistilling it - dump it all into the still, top up with tap water to about 20ish L, and run the still again, make sure you discard a good 100mL of the first runnings.

I'd also collect into 1L glass spirit bottles, one at a time and keep them all separate, then it's easier to see where your tails are and which ones you should keep for drinking.

[David Tyson]

Thanks for the reply,

Yeah it smells just like cheap tequila, and tastes the same. We put bourbon flavouring in a litre of it and it overpowered that easily.

I think the still might have been too hot, but all three loads we ran thru the still turned out the same. are the runnings or tails like the last run of alcohol out of the wash?

Would having way too much sediment in it cause this, because the wash was like milk. Also when fermenting should it smell like wine?

[denimglen]

The tails are the last to run off the still, they have more of the higher alcohols (fusels) that have that solventy smell. But if you're running the still too hot you'll pick up fusels the whole way through.

When I used to run mine I'd try and keep it as cold as possible, I'd let the column heat up to about 70C and start running water through it, then the temp would pick up a bit and I'd get my heads and discard about 100mL. I'd then let the temp get to about 78.5C and keep it there by controlling the water flow rate - so I was getting pretty pure alcohol coming off albeit a bit slow at times. When the run off was getting painfully slow I'd let the temp rise a little bit by controlling the water flow rate again. I'd keep going up to about 85 - 87C, most of the runnings post 82C will have massive amounts of fusels.

By the end I've have about 6 - 7 bottles of spirit. I'd number them so I remember what order they came out. I'd taste them all, the last two or three bottles would be heavy in fusels so I'd set them aside. The first lot of bottles would be fine so I'd mix them together in a bucket, take an alcohol reading and dilute as necessary. The last few bottles that were'nt drinkable I'd keep aside until I had a few lots and redistill them later as they still have a bit of ethanol in them.

I wouldn't think the sediment would be the problem, usually it just causes foaming inside your still which can foam up into your column if you're not careful. I'm not too sure but the yeast cooking could give a vegemite type smell to your spirit in the worst case scenerio - but I've never heard of that happening.

Ferments can smell like all sorts of stuff, sulphury, farts, cider/wine, fruity, nothing at all sometimes, I wouldn't worry about that too much. I'd just try and keep the ferment sub 30C, around the 25C mark would probably be best, as the warmer the ferment the more nasty alcohols are made. So just chuck it in the coldest part of the house and you should be fine.

Check out homedistiller.org - a wealth of information there.

[David Tyson]

hmm yeah I'm not sure what we did then, because we got the wash to around 80° in the pot and controlled the temp in the column so steam wasn't coming out.
The temps could have been off though because we don't have a proper thermometer set up, we had to open the pot and use a probe into the wash.
We did about 3 litres all up and ended up with the same smell and flavour.

It's just such an overpowering taste, it tastes exactly like cheap tequilas I've tried, and its so strong tasting. The taste of the alcohol can't be masked by anything. I understand it should be mild like vodka.
We had help from my friends dad who's done heaps of stilling before, he did the first two bottles for us.
They are a slight off colour too is another thing i noticed, not completely clear.

We're going to run all the stuff we did through the still again once my friend's dad has made his new one.

I think we'll give it another go, I think maybe the fermentation hadn't completed totally, and we'll use the clearing agent this time and just siphon the wash out from the top instead of pulling it through the yeast at the bottom through the tap on the fermenter.

[denimglen]

They are a slight off colour too is another thing i noticed, not completely clear.

Sounds like fusels are your problem, they're not that soluable in water so when concentrate they can come out of solution and make your spirit a bit cloudy.

If you use the clearing agent you should be able to use the tap, just give it a week or so to let it all settle out and compact down and you should be sweet.

[Larry Kurth]

Hi David, yes it is essential to fine the wash and also to filter it after distillation.
cheers Larry.

[James P]

Just a thought, did you use a Z filter or carbon cartridge? Last time I remember that sort of taste was when the filter was poked.

[Richard Jack]

Gidday, As you can probably tell by my handle, I do a LOT of stilling. Just been lurking in here learning about brewing and where to get malt and such as I'm aiming for a single malt scotch soon. I digress... I strongly recommend taking a gander at homedistiller.org, particularly the forum, the home site is a bit outdated these days.

to give a quick answer to your specific question, I'd say you should really address your recipe if you've getting crap spirits. crap in -> crap out, stay clear of turbo yeasts and all that carry on, a good clean ferment, distilled well, and there's no need for carbon filters or anything like that.

Back I go to learning the voodoo of allgrain :)

Oh, and instead of using clearing agents (adds to costs) I normally just rack the wash off and let clear, then rack again into boiler. takes longer, but I can't keep ahead of my distilling anyway, far too much booze :)
Cheers

[Reviled]

"stay clear of turbo yeasts and all that carry on, a good clean ferment, distilled well, and there's no need for carbon filters or anything like that."

Thats what I thought, the idea of carbon filtering puts me of distilling... And the price of stills, but ill be keen to give it a shot one day, pot stilled single malt only tho, thats all that interests me...

[Richard Jack]

stills are bloody cheep to make mate, don't buy one. 50l beer keg as a boiler, some 50mm copper pipe, some 18mm copper pipe and a couple of fittings, you're good to go.

I wouldn't say only single malt, but you're dead right, the stuff the homebrew shops are hawking RE stilling is absolutely rubbish, and costly too. I guess the same way that AG brewers look at extracts? if extracts were twice the price...

[Reviled]

lol, well said! And its funny, cos extract is probably more than twice the price of AG brewing, minus all the equipment, not that its nessecary...

[Richard Jack]

sounds about right then, when I changed from brew shop systems to doing it properly, I went from about 12/l of product to ~2-3/l :)

Tell you what, I'm moving to Auckland next year, if you brew the beer for it, I'll distill you a scotch :) might have to find some peated malt if you like the Islay, although there are some workarounds for that... I'm looking forward to getting into brewers co-op. Woe is the Cantabrian, without a decent brewshop...