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?

[Reviled]

Mate id be keen as, ive actually been looking for someone to distill a batch for me as I wanted to try some before I went down the road of doing it myself...

I can get some peated malt most likely, ive used it in a beer before.. Hmmm, 50/50 with peated malt and rye, wonder what that would be like???

[Richard Jack]

really good, but you're getting away from scotch then. I'd guess it would be halfway between a Islay malt and Crown Royal. The spicy notes in rye carry over really well in the distillate. My current addiction is a prohibition style moonshine of 40% corn, 30% rye, 30% barley malt. its gooooood :)

[Reviled]

That does sound good.. Im quite keen to try a proper rye whisky, ive tried the jim beam stuff which had notable spicy rye notes, but I know its probably no where near a quality rye whisky...

[Richard Jack]

Yeah Crown Royal is a pretty good example to try. Well tell you what I'll get in contact with you when I move up (Feb) and see if you're still interested.

[Rhyno]

So is that website you suggested still the best place to learn about distilling etc?

I was about to put one down with a friend of mine who has done it before, and he said the first thing I had to do was to go out and buy 25kg of sugar. That just sounds totally wrong to me :)

Would like to make either a scotch or bourbon, totally unsure of the process involved but I know I dont want to just use flavourings and the like from my LHBS.

Cheers

[Richard Jack]

Hey mate, there's a bit of a learning curve, just like brewing all grain I guess, but scotch is an easy one to start with, especially if you're already a brewer and tooled up for allgrain - no additonal brew equipment needed. Bourbon on the other hand can be a real nightmare in the brewhouse - thick, un-lauterable goop that scorches to the bottom of your pots and generally ruins your day. Think brewing with rye but 10x worse.

Yes, your friend is totally wrong if you want to make a good bourbon or scotch. You won't get close with essences etc IMHO. However, you might want to start out with partial grain stuff to get the hang of it - especially making cuts, you'll need to train your palate a bit for that and it hurts less when you screw up sugarhead (name for a grain + sugar wash) due to less work involved.

A good place to get a basic grounding in operation and safety is homedistiller.org. A good place to get away from the dogma, hearsay, and simplifications on homedistiller.org is artisan-distiller.net. the latter is smaller but more advanced and "sciencey" in my mind, and you'll likely get more / better help on all grain distilling there.

Most static sources of info on the net are horribly out of date, but the forums are ok. A book that you might want to look into is this: http://kelleybarts.com/ZBHome.html - I haven't read it myself yet but the author is a top chap, and very knowledgeable. Most other books are either too outdated (i.e. Smiley's Making Pure Corn Whisky) or not focused on pot stilling (i.e. Nixon & McCaw's The Compleat Distiller, Riku's Designing and Building Automatic Stills...)

Do you need to acquire a still? It's getting a lot easier to build now as some specialised parts are beginning to be manufactured. I'd encourage anyone to build rather than buy a overpriced PoS from your LHBS.

HTH

[denimglen]

However, you might want to start out with partial grain stuff to get the hang of it - especially making cuts, you'll need to train your palate a bit for that and it hurts less when you screw up sugarhead (name for a grain + sugar wash) due to less work involved.

 

UJSSM FTW.

[Alice Dee]

Just thought some of you may be interested in this

http://www.nzhomedistiller.org.nz/index.php