Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi all,

I'm in the process of having a 5SD carter head shipped to me :happy-partydance: , so, I'm prepping for it by stripping ridiculous amounts of TPW :))

I've been looking, and while I've found some great recipes here, I've not really found any "go to" Carter head recipes that map out amounts AND methods/strategies to achieve good results...

I'm happy to do the old trial and error thing (and post results), however, if anyone has any ideas or info, it'd be bloody great! :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Assuming that I'll be using a 100 liter boiler, with 40% double distilled (stripped, then ran through 5 plates and a packed section) TPW, or, 100 lt @ 20% for a "half batch", and running the Carter head like a pot still, does anyone have any ideas or info on how to adjust recipes to suit this run style? :think: :-B

For my first run with the CH, I was going to give blond.chap's recipe a go, which can be found here: Great Gin. This recipe is for a 25 liter wash, at what I'm assuming is around the 9 to 10% mark, so ingredient amounts would have to be timed by 16 for 100 ltr @ 40%, or 8 for a half batch (I think, lol) :wtf:

... but how often would I need to change the basket? How much of the botanicals do I put in at a time? :think: I'm just not sure of a lot of things regarding the CH, and any and all help would be greatly appreciated! :text-thankyoublue:

Not sure about a carter head but blonde chaps was pretty good. First couple of liters anyway. Ran mine above the RC.
The first liter of the recipe was really good, citrusy and fresh, then the flavour petered off into dull cinnamon and wood. Stupidly mixed it together but should have kept it separate.

with basket times it all depends on what style of gin you are making ...for a floral london dry or new age gin less than 25 minutes a basket for a dryer more astringent gin you can go more and judge by taste...as for a recipe or formula thgere are so many it really comes down to preference.
Doc

also is the basket after the column or in the column....
Doc

warramungas wrote:Not sure about a carter head but blonde chaps was pretty good. First couple of liters anyway. Ran mine above the RC.
The first liter of the recipe was really good, citrusy and fresh, then the flavour petered off into dull cinnamon and wood. Stupidly mixed it together but should have kept it separate.

Thanks Warra; I'm really looking forward to tasting the flavour difference between the different cuts bottles! Did you not like the flavour once blended, or would you have blended differently?

Hi Doc! :smile:

I'd like to start with a more modern style gin, so the less than 25 mins a basket is a bloody good tip! When I run this way, will I have enough Botanicals to do the whole run, if I just times out blond.chaps recipe amount, or do you think I'll need more? :think:

His recipe made out to my boiler/alcohol content (I think) would look like this:

640-960g dried juniper berries depending on preference for lighter to heavier styles
64 almonds
48-80 strips of orange peel
48-80 strips of lemon peel
32 strips lime peel
12 teaspoons full of angelica root
12 teaspoons full of Orris root
8 star anise
8 teaspoons full of ground coriander
Cassia bark 8 scrolls or 16 teaspoons cinamon powder
12 teaspoons full of ground ginger
48 black pepper corns
4 teaspoon dill tips
48 whole cloves
96 grains of paradise

It seems like a lot, however, that batch would make somewhere in the vicinity of 130 to 140 bottles... even with what I drink and give away to friends, I can't see me doing more than 1 batch a year :))

Does that amount seem right to you Doc?

All very interesting.

How does the placement of the basket in the column affect the final product? (Eg at the top, above/below RC, before/mid plate sections)
Is there anywhere you shouldn’t place the basket in the column?
Does flavour leach from the ingredients and travel down into the wash in the boiler? If it does, would those flavours come out in subsequent runs if reusing backset? (I hope I used the correct term as still coming to grips with the terms of distillation, I keep a tab open permanently of the glossary to help)

Thanks all.

A&O wrote:All very interesting.

How does the placement of the basket in the column affect the final product? (Eg at the top, above/below RC, before/mid plate sections)
Is there anywhere you shouldn’t place the basket in the column?
Does flavour leach from the ingredients and travel down into the wash in the boiler? If it does, would those flavours come out in subsequent runs if reusing backset? (I hope I used the correct term as still coming to grips with the terms of distillation, I keep a tab open permanently of the glossary to help)

Thanks all.

that was my experience...we tried just about every configuration...the final decision was to do a standard offset configuration...since then I have tasted some great gins made with up-flow baskets so the botanicals go into a basket which is in a draw in the column... I don"t know if the dripping oils from the basket affect the boil that much...but I felt the gin we made using a basket in the column was a bit heavier in mouthfeel and had a bit of what we felt was oiliness compared with the offset carter head. Hey gin is the most divisive spirit out there at the moment...it is a fast moving space and who knows where it may be in a few years. I just feel very lucky to be right here right now....cheer.
Doc

Following with interest

I did 2 batches @ 4 liters of 95% (watered down) each. I think my issue was blending too many of the late jars but there only seemed a very few of the first jars were any good. I thought they might blend out ok, and they have improved for sure, but they lost the first couple of jars 'WOW' factor. Not sure how such a large batch will go but doc would do much larger batches than me.

Doc, is this the setup you're talking about?

viewtopic.php?f=62&t=5201

This is the Doctor's setup!

Thanks for having my back Zac ...it was a brutal weekend...we got hammered as they say... nhere is an updated shot of the carter.
Doc

Atreu, you’ll have all sorts of fun. I love my carter head. As well as gins, you should think about flavoured vodkas, ouzo, akvavit, spiced rums, etc. the only limit will be your imagination.

Zak Griffin wrote:http://www.aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=5201

This is the Doctor's setup!

Holy shit. Now THAT is a carter head! I'm pretty sure I can't do something like that :laughing-rolling:

Fishws wrote:Atreu, you’ll have all sorts of fun. I love my carter head. As well as gins, you should think about flavoured vodkas, ouzo, akvavit, spiced rums, etc. the only limit will be your imagination.

Fish, do you have any ouzo recipes for the Carter head that you like? I saw this ouzo recipe that looks really good - but how to run it through a CH? Is it simply a matter of increasing the botanicals to the size I'm running?

the Doctor wrote:

still2.jpg

Thanks for having my back Zac ...it was a brutal weekend...we got hammered as they say... nhere is an updated shot of the carter.
Doc

Very nice Doc. It's a bit hard to tell from the picture; does the thump tube continue down into the second sight glass or are you just using that second one for a larger reservoir?

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Hey Prof Green...mate it is just an extension of the thumper base the tube does not go down into the bottom chamber maybe I'm lazy but it required me to get up from my desk to often to dump it... i start very early in the morning and it can get as low as 16* below over night in winter...my desk has a heater under it... I hope you can understand that deep thumpers trump frozen nuts ...any day.
Doc

Thanks Doc. 16 below is definitely a touch on the cold side.

There's gotta be a joke there in somewhere about a deep thumper and frozen nuts...

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

Atreu wrote:

Zak Griffin wrote:http://www.aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=5201

This is the Doctor's setup!

Holy shit. Now THAT is a carter head! I'm pretty sure I can't do something like that :laughing-rolling:

Fishws wrote:Atreu, you’ll have all sorts of fun. I love my carter head. As well as gins, you should think about flavoured vodkas, ouzo, akvavit, spiced rums, etc. the only limit will be your imagination.

Fish, do you have any ouzo recipes for the Carter head that you like? I saw this ouzo recipe that looks really good - but how to run it through a CH? Is it simply a matter of increasing the botanicals to the size I'm running?

Have a crack at the one you've got and experiment. I didn't write down the bloody recipe as it was at the end of the run, I was experimenting and also a bit "tired and emotional". My advice - have a crack, see how you go. Worst result is you don't like it and re-distill.

Thanks to dogbreath vodka for this. He and I have tried half the recipes in a carter head. We kept the botanicals in the same proportions as the recipe and used them in his carter head.

Number 5 was particularly good.

wiifm wrote:

10 BASIC GIN RECIPES 2.pdf

Thanks to dogbreath vodka for this. He and I have tried half the recipes in a carter head. We kept the botanicals in the same proportions as the recipe and used them in his carter head.

Number 5 was particularly good.

I noticed in the PDF that it states the quantities in g/l measures. Is this per L of 95% neutral used?