Distilling beer

Discussions about beer and wine making.

Distilling beer

Postby kiwikeg » Tue Oct 09, 2012 6:54 pm

Okay needed a keg for my pot still build, So went an got one, :handgestures-thumbupleft: HOORAY!!! trouble is its full of shit beer, so I will attempt to drink as much as I can this weekend :puke-huge: :puke-huge:
but I also want to try to distill the rest
so any advice?.....
Hop oils do they come over with the heads or the tails?....
what about degassing?.... (plan on using butter to stop a puke and hopefully absorb some of the hop oils)
any advice or links gratefully considered
Thanks K.k
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby crow » Tue Oct 09, 2012 7:25 pm

no mate its all good yes some of the hops flavour will be in the spirit and its bloody nice to. Now there are folks that will tell ya you will have to scrub the living fuck out of the still if ya do this and others will say don't bother just chuck the still away because the hops oil goes it to the metal (personal Favourite) :laughing-rolling: . Anyway its a load of hot w#nk , rum oil would be 10 times worse and the first 10 drips of ya next fores will clean it off just dandy ;-)
PS must be krud beer if ya don't want to drink it, not that stienlager shit is it :)) :))
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby kiwikeg » Tue Oct 09, 2012 8:00 pm

worse than a steingranade its spieghts mate!
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby kiwikeg » Thu Oct 11, 2012 2:35 pm

okay doing my first stripping run of the beer its a 4% beer so only getting 55% abv out of the pot had no problems at all with foaming so didnt need to use butter or oil and the low wines have amazing aroma and taste.
going to save 10l of the beer to use to diluethe low wines for the spirit run. :-bd
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby crow » Thu Oct 11, 2012 2:49 pm

This is real popular with the old Deutschlanders I reckon beer schnapps is pretty bloody nice :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby kiwikeg » Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:00 pm

Took the hearts and ran on the spirit run. unfortnatly its seems to have lost a bit of that delicious hoppy aroma and the malt is much stronger. Didnt mess around dumped the hearts in a bottle with some oak and slung it in the ageing cupboard.
I can now say 99% of what i have read on distilling forums about distilling beer is BULLSHIT!!! repeated by people who have never done it.
there was no foaming my column was easier to clean up than after a rum wash only thing was the yeild was pretty low.
if i do this again i would do it as a single pot still run.
Found out distilled beer is called Bierbrand in german literally beer brandy.
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby grumpthehermit » Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:04 pm

I've toyed with this idea for some time.

I might finally pull my finger out and put this onto my to do list.

Thanks for having a go and posting results !!!

Cheers
GTH
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby crow » Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:18 pm

yeah kk would have not done cuts till the spirit run those missing flavours were likely in ya tails ;-)
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby Cane Toad » Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:34 pm

I'm offended at your comment about Spieghts KK :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: I quite enjoyed it when I visited UnZud earlier in the year :handgestures-thumbupleft: Although I must admit,it WAS ice cold at the Fairley pub,the pub at Tekapo wasn't any where near as cold,just drinkable,Monteiths would have been better to distill,didn't like that shit :puke-huge: But I did try em all :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
Anyway,sorry for hijacking the thread :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Distilling beer

Postby Lupus » Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:55 pm

Thanks for the write up KK.

Up till your report, everything I have read on the forums have said no due to the hop oil contamination issue. I assume cleaning up the still was no problem, ad no issues with hop oils since there was minimal hops flavor in the product.

I would be interested in tasting reports after aging as well :)
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby Aussiedownunder01 » Sat Oct 13, 2012 11:53 am

Distilling beer at least i have 1/2 liter of cleaning stuff
Picked up a 50 liter keg with about 30 liters in it tasted like sh;'t so decided to distill it connected it all up normally when i distill alcohol comes off at 90 deg boiler temp this took 95 deg just to push it up the column got 1/2 liter still tasted like sh;'t so into the cleaning bottle it went nothing gained nothing lost :roll:
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Distilling beer

Postby Sam. » Sat Oct 13, 2012 10:10 pm

Aussiedownunder01 wrote:Distilling beer at least i have 1/2 liter of cleaning stuff
Picked up a 50 liter keg with about 30 liters in it tasted like sh;'t so decided to distill it connected it all up normally when i distill alcohol comes off at 90 deg boiler temp this took 95 deg just to push it up the column got 1/2 liter still tasted like sh;'t so into the cleaning bottle it went nothing gained nothing lost :roll:

what type of beer was it? Seems like a very low yield if you had 30L of 4.5%....
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby Aussiedownunder01 » Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:14 am

Dont know it was an old keg i got from the tip probley been laying in somewons yard for a while as for yeald it tasted so sh;'t i just stopped and turned it off :oops:
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby kiwikeg » Tue Jan 15, 2013 6:44 pm

kiwikeg wrote:Took the hearts and ran on the spirit run. unfortnatly its seems to have lost a bit of that delicious hoppy aroma and the malt is much stronger. Didnt mess around dumped the hearts in a bottle with some oak and slung it in the ageing cupboard.
I can now say 99% of what i have read on distilling forums about distilling beer is BULLSHIT!!! repeated by people who have never done it.
there was no foaming my column was easier to clean up than after a rum wash only thing was the yeild was pretty low.
if i do this again i would do it as a single pot still run.
Found out distilled beer is called Bierbrand in german literally beer brandy.

Okay cracked the bottle oaked distilled beer its been sitting on HBS oak chunks since October and OH MY GODS this stuff is GOOD!!!! its slightly sweet and just reminiscent of the base beer -Spieghts. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
This is some really special stuff dont believe anyone who says you cant distill hopped beer call them out as bullshitter and direct them to this thread.
if some home brewer you know has a batch go 'off' bang it in the still quick smart.

I think this is the best stuff I have ever made and it would be ideal to pull out if the boys were having a session on Spieghts beer... :music-deathmetal:

The smaller bottle of unoaked stuff i kept for comparion had had a loose lid and had evaporated down to water :handgestures-thumbdown:
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby tasteslikechicken » Tue Jan 15, 2013 9:17 pm

kiwikeg wrote:
kiwikeg wrote:Took the hearts and ran on the spirit run. unfortnatly its seems to have lost a bit of that delicious hoppy aroma and the malt is much stronger. Didnt mess around dumped the hearts in a bottle with some oak and slung it in the ageing cupboard.
I can now say 99% of what i have read on distilling forums about distilling beer is BULLSHIT!!! repeated by people who have never done it.
there was no foaming my column was easier to clean up than after a rum wash only thing was the yeild was pretty low.
if i do this again i would do it as a single pot still run.
Found out distilled beer is called Bierbrand in german literally beer brandy.

Okay cracked the bottle oaked distilled beer its been sitting on HBS oak chunks since October and OH MY GODS this stuff is GOOD!!!! its slightly sweet and just reminiscent of the base beer -Spieghts. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
This is some really special stuff dont believe anyone who says you cant distill hopped beer call them out as bullshitter and direct them to this thread.
if some home brewer you know has a batch go 'off' bang it in the still quick smart.

I think this is the best stuff I have ever made and it would be ideal to pull out if the boys were having a session on Spieghts beer... :music-deathmetal:

The smaller bottle of unoaked stuff i kept for comparion had had a loose lid and had evaporated down to water :handgestures-thumbdown:



A bit more tweaking and you're probably halfway to producing Waikato Draught. ;-)
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby Sam. » Mon Jan 21, 2013 7:59 pm

Might be giving this a go soon, got a 19L keg full of a "blonde", used T-28 or 56? yeast or some shit. It has turned out god damn awful.

I also hopped it so will see how it goes cant be worse than what it is now :puke-huge:
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby crow » Mon Jan 21, 2013 10:10 pm

yeah me too , someone has left a full box of some mid strength puss in the grass opposite my house prolly been there for days in the sun so will be foxy as now but should be good for bier schnapps :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby BayouGoat » Fri Jun 28, 2013 3:44 am

Glad I found this thread. I brewed a batch that went off and was thinking about stilling it down. But was worried about all the BS I've seen thrown around online. Guess I'll make a run this weekend. I've got about 30l at 6%. And I'll be running it through a reflux. Should I pull the packing after or just let the first runnings on the next batch clean it?
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby kiwikeg » Sat Jun 29, 2013 11:00 am

if you can pull the packing from your reflux to detune it and run the beer in with the reflux column in potstill mode this would be best, I am not sure if this can be done with the keggomax as I have not ever used one.
over wise id just flush the column after with hot water let the heads of the the next brew flush out the last traces.
That ''hops oils will impregnate every molecule of your still and blah blah blah" BS is just that total BS.
Good luck :handgestures-thumbupleft: -lets us know how it goes.
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby kiwikeg » Fri Jul 03, 2015 5:17 pm

Pulled out the last of this distilled beer that has been sitting at the back of the celler since late 2012. It has changed remarkably since it was distilled. It has totally lost all hop flavors and is very nearly scotch whiskey like.
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