Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

this might be a silly question and has porbably been asked several times already. but is there a certain brand of yeast in particular that is recomended

Most of us just use Lowans bread yeast mate. Red tin about the size of a beer can in your local supermarket, with the flour etc.

cheers mate. about to head t the shops now to get supplies

How long do people let their tpw likka breathe/age vefore drinking?

We did our first keeper run on the weekend, when making cuts it was actually the best vodka I'd tasted (granted it's not real neutral but then again commercial stuff even to me tastes like bottled heads).

So we put some cordial in to the spirit, navy rum in one and Tennessee whiskey in the other. I just tried it with the finger and both have a real bitter after taste, quite unpleasant. Is this a mellowing thing that needs time?

My other consideration is i let my mate tip in the essence and told him to put in a bit less than directed on the pack and I'd throw in some dominoes. As usual he knew best and didn't listen and put in more than the packet suggested haha. I'm wondering if this could be the issue and if so is there anything short of adding more water or neutral to get rid of the bitterness?

hmmm, I let it breath for 48hrs after taking cuts on a spirit run, then after selection of cuts, I dilute it to 40% and bottle it... only breathing it gets is waiting to be consumed! :laughing-rolling:

I sometimes find it gets a little bitter, but not very often. And I haven't bothered to look into it too much because we use it for making Daiquiris, Coffee liqueur, and all sorts of other liqueurs ... so the bitterness is never evident 8-}

We also drink it nice and cold so that may also have a bearing on it.

You've done it once, so now play with it. You've seen how easy it is, right?!

Theres also a variant that uses kale instead of the Tomato paste, check it out here and theres heaps of other recipes here.

EziTasting wrote:hmmm, I let it breath for 48hrs after taking cuts on a spirit run, then after selection of cuts, I dilute it to 40% and bottle it... only breathing it gets is waiting to be consumed! :laughing-rolling:

I sometimes find it gets a little bitter, but not very often. And I haven't bothered to look into it too much because we use it for making Daiquiris, Coffee liqueur, and all sorts of other liqueurs ... so the bitterness is never evident 8-}

We also drink it nice and cold so that may also have a bearing on it.

You've done it once, so now play with it. You've seen how easy it is, right?!

Theres also a variant that uses kale instead of the Tomato paste, check it out here and theres heaps of other recipes here.

We did 24 hours, took keen I think. I'll leave the next batch for 48. I might just let the jars air for a night.

I'm taking it as a good incentive to move away from essence!

Sparrow wrote:We did 24 hours, took keen I think. I'll leave the next batch for 48. I might just let the jars air for a night.

Should be OK, comes down to drinking stock on hand and patience/preference really.

Sparrow wrote:I'm taking it as a good incentive to move away from essence!

Everyone needs to grow up sometime, but then adults drink cordial, too! :D :teasing-neener:

You wont get judged for using them, but most will eventually move away from them because you can and will make better stuff without the essences. theres heaps of easy recipes to try that'll make you wonder why you ever used them in the first place; kinda like the Turbo washes....

EziTasting wrote:

Sparrow wrote:We did 24 hours, took keen I think. I'll leave the next batch for 48. I might just let the jars air for a night.

Should be OK, comes down to drinking stock on hand and patience/preference really.

Sparrow wrote:I'm taking it as a good incentive to move away from essence!

Everyone needs to grow up sometime, but then adults drink cordial, too! :D :teasing-neener:

You wont get judged for using them, but most will eventually move away from them because you can and will make better stuff without the essences. theres heaps of easy recipes to try that'll make you wonder why you ever used them in the first place; kinda like the Turbo washes....

Yeah I hear ya Ezi, we've currently got a 40l cfw fermenting away so will see how she comes out.

Probably won't do another neutral until it starts to warm up again. I think it's more of a thing I'll use for making zaks g dropper and apple pie shine.

Thanks mate, you're always a great help :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:laughing-rolling: I do it when ever we run out! I use it to keep the Trouble'n'Strifw on my side!

Plus it's great with Orange&Pash sparkling water!

I take no credit for the G Dropper mate! I just took a couple of pics and started the thread :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The cordials taste fine if you follow the destructions properly mate. They're a good substitute while you're ageing proper stuff :handgestures-thumbupleft: try experimenting with them too, like adding some extra sugar. The Still Spirits "top shelf" taste better imho.

Zak Griffin wrote:I take no credit for the G Dropper mate! I just took a couple of pics and started the thread :handgestures-thumbupleft:

But it's such a good thread! So many good ideas!

Lowie wrote:The Still Spirits "top shelf" taste better imho.

I have heard that as well.

Lowie wrote:The cordials taste fine if you follow the destructions properly mate. They're a good substitute while you're ageing proper stuff :handgestures-thumbupleft: try experimenting with them too, like adding some extra sugar. The Still Spirits "top shelf" taste better imho.

I was considering chucking a shot of maple syrup into the Tennessee one to see if that fixes it up a bit.

I ran my second batch of TPW last night thru my Black maximus LM reflux and used my new parrot that I made yesterday (pics to follow).
The yield was 2ltrs after taking 100mls of foreshots and also about 50-60mls of heads that ran thru the new parrot (it was soaked in vinegar, then citric acid bath for a few hours each).
The first TPW run last week yielded slightly more, maybe around the 250ml to 500ml...
A turbo wash was the very first run thru it and that had a really bad smell to it so I decided that the column needed a vinegar soak and then steam blast with vinegar and water, so then I reran the turbo thru it and the bad smells (almost like acetone and bananas) were gone. The HBS insisted that the column didnt need cleaning and I'd be good to just run it....

here are some of my pics from the last post...


only problem I found with the new parrot is that I need to cool the liquid before entering the parrot as it cracked the alchometer after about 45mins from the heat...

scottyd72 wrote:here are some of my pics from the last post...

IMG_3285.jpg

only problem I found with the new parrot is that I need to cool the liquid before entering the parrot as it cracked the alchometer after about 45mins from the heat...

IMG_3287.jpg

Holy crap :scared-eek: that would have to be hot!
Something's wrong there, that's dangerous to have such a highly flammable product hot enough to crack glass. :handgestures-thumbdown:

Doubleuj wrote:

scottyd72 wrote:here are some of my pics from the last post...

IMG_3285.jpg

only problem I found with the new parrot is that I need to cool the liquid before entering the parrot as it cracked the alchometer after about 45mins from the heat...

IMG_3287.jpg

Holy crap :scared-eek: that would have to be hot!
Something's wrong there, that's dangerous to have such a highly flammable product hot enough to crack glass. :handgestures-thumbdown:

Yes very good point. I'Ve only had the still for a month now and the distillate comes out rather hot.

Ive ordered some copper tube to build a cooling coil for the output.

Sorry all, I drifted off there as I meant to ask is 2 ltrs an average yield?

The condensate should be lukewarm to the touch, or I should say mine is, so I'm surprised you'd would be so hot!

scottyd72 wrote:Sorry all, I drifted off there as I meant to ask is 2 ltrs an average yield?

That's like asking 'how long is a piece of string?' What's your fermented volume? What's the wash (assuming TPW)? What's your collection method? Etc... That'll give us an opportunity to give you better advice. You will never get the same volume from Non-Turbo washes compared to aturbos but the quality is far better and the product is much much cleaner!!

Before I made my pot still I would just run a 25 litre tpw straight through my reflux still and I got an average of 2 litres total, only about 1.2 of that was hearts, the rest was feints.
Now I do 50 litre ferments and I strip run in my pot still then spirit run through my reflux still and I collect 2.4-2.8 litres of hearts. Depends if I added feints from last run.
I tried to work the word schmuts into my reply just for you EZI but I could t make it happen. Oh look, there it is :laughing-rolling: