Distilling beer

Discussions about beer and wine making.

Re: Distilling beer

Postby mattcoffs » Mon Jul 06, 2015 4:03 pm

I ran a batch of a failed attempt at a dry hopped "raspberry" pale ale through my pot which were fairly hopped and had no issues cleaning it afterwards.

The spirit was pretty interesting, mostly due to the raspberry. I guess a hoppy, raspberry-eey whiskey. It's on oak at the moment, has been since December. Leaving it for an extended period as I might've gone a little too far into the tails and will see what happens!

What's the worst that can happen? 8-)
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby the Doctor » Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:21 pm

kiwikeg wrote: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.

That is not so surprising...making beer is the first step of whiskey making.... Hey KK are Wilsons still distilling in Dunedin... I worked for them years ago.
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby Teddysad » Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:42 pm

No Doc In 1997 Seagrams sold it to Fosters who then closed it down and sent the stills to Fiji for rum making
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby kiwikeg » Tue Jul 07, 2015 8:04 pm

Yeah they were sold in 1997 but in 2010 a outfit bought the barrels that were in storage and are drip feeding it to the market.
http://www.thenzwhisky.com/about/

You can buy it here at a price http://www.whiskyshop.co.nz/afawcs01538 ... aland.html
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby Rowey » Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:12 pm

I have some homebrew beer kits left over from last year I might put them down and see how they come through the still. I also have a stout there that I will put through as well.

Interesting thread :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby bluc » Thu Aug 13, 2015 7:12 pm

Interesting read thanks for the post :handgestures-thumbupleft: definately something i will try...
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby crow » Sun Aug 16, 2015 3:17 am

kiwikeg wrote: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.

Yeah I bet it was special by now :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby the Doctor » Mon Aug 17, 2015 9:37 am

I recently had a visit from a guy who is writing a new book on Aussie distilling ( Luke McCarthy)... He had visited most of the whiskey distilleries in Australia... he was very surprised that we make all our whiskey from grain here...he said that most of the distilleries (90%) were outsourcing their washes to breweries...this was unexpected as we have always done our own washes.
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby crow » Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:41 pm

Yeah the nearest whiskey producing distillery to me outsources to a brewery maybe it's a time thing lack of knowledge or brewery out lay. Kind of feels fake to me if you are simply rectifying anothers mash and financially obtuse to pay a third party.
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby Sam. » Mon Aug 17, 2015 5:26 pm

Have you priced a brewer lately :scared-eek:
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby the Doctor » Tue Aug 18, 2015 8:13 am

It is just so easy and economical to do passive mashes... a 500 litre cooler is under $1k and you can adjust a bosch water heater to hit strike temps...why would you not do it your self... are they using peated grain or using smoked grains.....it confounds me.
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby bluc » Wed Aug 26, 2015 1:30 pm

Hmmm got me thinking I wonder what distilled ginger beer would be like...
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby TasSpirits » Sat Nov 21, 2015 10:14 pm

bluc wrote:Hmmm got me thinking I wonder what distilled ginger beer would be like...


After being offered a sample from a Tasmanian Distillery 50% in a plastic bottle :handgestures-thumbdown: I had a sniff and thought this needs to be on the to do list.

I have just distilled some Ginger Beer and after 24h airing its starting to smell quite good, ran it as per normal through 3 plates, cuts as per normal. 1 thing I did notice is between 40% and 20% the distillate is very much like the end of a rum run i.e oils. Ive started the next gen off the lees as an experiment :-B I have watered down to 45% and will let air for a few days before sampling.
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby Heef71 » Wed Dec 23, 2015 10:23 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.


Hey KK,

I'm glad this thread is still kickin around. Got some kegs of beer that a publican didn't want (out of date), and I wanna have a go at distilling it.
I take it you ran it thru twice in a pot?? Do you have any other advice??
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby TasSpirits » Wed Dec 23, 2015 10:41 pm

TasSpirits wrote:
bluc wrote:Hmmm got me thinking I wonder what distilled ginger beer would be like...


After being offered a sample from a Tasmanian Distillery 50% in a plastic bottle :handgestures-thumbdown: I had a sniff and thought this needs to be on the to do list.

I have just distilled some Ginger Beer and after 24h airing its starting to smell quite good, ran it as per normal through 3 plates, cuts as per normal. 1 thing I did notice is between 40% and 20% the distillate is very much like the end of a rum run i.e oils. Ive started the next gen off the lees as an experiment :-B I have watered down to 45% and will let air for a few days before sampling.


Distilled Ginger Beer, after 2 bottles this will become a regular. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby bluc » Fri Dec 25, 2015 9:08 pm

Awesome :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby kiwikeg » Tue Dec 29, 2015 6:04 pm

Heef71 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.


Hey KK,

I'm glad this thread is still kickin around. Got some kegs of beer that a publican didn't want (out of date), and I wanna have a go at distilling it.
I take it you ran it thru twice in a pot?? Do you have any other advice??

Yeah strip and then dilute low wines with the last of thw the beer and do the spirit run.
Give it a little oak and a lot of time.
A slow single run in a pot still might work out better.
But I have a bubbler now so it's a single pass through that now.
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby Heef71 » Thu Dec 31, 2015 1:31 am

kiwikeg wrote:
Heef71 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.


Hey KK,

I'm glad this thread is still kickin around. Got some kegs of beer that a publican didn't want (out of date), and I wanna have a go at distilling it.
I take it you ran it thru twice in a pot?? Do you have any other advice??

Yeah strip and then dilute low wines with the last of thw the beer and do the spirit run.
Give it a little oak and a lot of time.
A slow single run in a pot still might work out better.
But I have a bubbler now so it's a single pass through that now.


I have a 4" bubble cap 5 plater. Originally I was thinking if running it thru 3 or 4 plates
Hows the difference from pot stilling to running thru the bubbler?? Would you still use a pot for this if you could??
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby kiwikeg » Sat Jan 02, 2016 11:07 am

I can easily remove modules to make my bubbler into a pot or else just turn off the RC.
I usually just turn off the RC if I am stripping because I am by nature a lazy person.
Id rather just run it for a single pass through 3-4 plates. Depends on the logistics I only usually have about 20l of beer when a homebrew goes bad but if I recall correctly you have a bit more beer than that to deal with...
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Re: Distilling beer

Postby Heef71 » Sat Jan 02, 2016 3:32 pm

I ran a batch yesterday, not problems with puking or foam. Got no idea what beer it is. It's in CUB kegs (x2) and all it says on the seal is AB beer. It's a dark amber, more malty than hoppy, Bavarian style. the third keg I have atm is Mildura Desert Premium lager.

Running thru pot very slowly in 100ml cuts. Started off at 46% and have collected the first batch down to 27%, could go further but i'm gonna run out of cut jars by the end of todays (second) batch. Gonna collect second batch in 150m cuts and see how it goes.

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