Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Has anyone been able to make their own essences ? not sure how you would ;whats in them but i would love to know ,,,,

i also wonder do micro distilling guys that make spirits to sell add essences ? as i have a boutique distillery near by and maybe they buy in bulk mmmmmm can i get some off them ?

Any sort of drink in particular?

i like whiskey johnnie style

Look up the Doctor's tinctures.

Not so much essences in the sense of the word, but I have crushed juniper berries, corsley strained the left overs and mixed the pulverised liquid in with some 38% neutral - 2 weeks later I had to filter out the berry remains as the flavour was becoming too much - a nice gin was the result.(except for the colour - urine yellow)

I'm sure there are other similar possibles(juices, fruits) but, I wouldn't call them essences as per what one might buy.

I suppose you would need to consider your fav drinks and then try and breakdown the food code as to what the heck they put into the store bought ones...

Si

Or get yourself a pot still? :happy-partydance:

Zak Griffin wrote:Or get yourself a pot still? :happy-partydance:

:text-+1:

davee wrote:i also wonder do micro distilling guys that make spirits to sell add essences ? as i have a boutique distillery near by and maybe they buy in bulk mmmmmm can i get some off them ?

i would really really really hope that the distillery near you doesn't use essences!!

with a pot-still you should be able to make a whiskey you are happy with... though you might need to go a larger size than 5L for cuts. (otherwise you are looking at about 1/3rd of a bottle per run)

you might be able to find somethings like this http://homedistiller.org/flavor/flavour/still around

ok i get ya ,,,, so if i do a stripping run in the 5 litre then i rerun the alcohol through again how much waste will not leave the still to condense,.,, waste like without a stripping run i got 5 bottles ?
with strip ??????????????????? i am still learning i dont drink to excess so if i dont take out congeners and acetone ect will i risk my health ? i do throw out the first 150ml of each 5 litre pot though ?

What? :wtf:

You need to make cuts, mate. Stop thinking of it as waste, think of it (foreshots and heads) as poison, which it is.

You'll find it a lot easier to learn with a bigger still...

i know about making cuts im talkig about if i do a stripping run then re run the collected grog in to still again how much wont come out again or will it run till dry ?

so if i put the alcohol i have caught from still say 4 litres of hearts will i get the whole 4 litres out ?

yes 5 litres is a bit painfull waiting for it to reach good temp each time but oh well my time is cheap ... i guess it would be great to put 25 litres through at once but it is what is is for now .. i guess i just need a bigger pot is all ?

I think your getting terminology a little confused as well.
If you have a 5 litre wash that is 20% abv, then theory suggest you could get 1 litre of pure 100% alc. which as we know isn't possible, so you might get 1.4 litres at maybe 80% during a normal run.
A stripping run, runs the still hot and fast, so you don't waste time, a strip run will reduce that 5 litres to - maybe 2 litres and the abv will be from the best your still can make right down to maybe 5% but what you have now collected that 2 litres will contain 95% of the available alcohol and that run will take you half the time or less than a "normal run".
If you the do a spirit run nice and slow, of the remaining 2 litres plus 1 litre if water, throw away the foreshots and what is coming out will be the highest abv your still has ever see and a flavour you didnt know existed. As its coming off on the spirit run, collect all of the run in 250ml glasses. If you want to throw them altogether at the end - go for it.
My bet is, you will smell and taste the double stilled hearts and the heads and tails(which there won't be a huge amount) and decide to maybe keep 500mlsof liquid gold and put the rest aside for your next spirit run.

Si.

For me it's simple .why would I make or use an essence when I can make the real thing ,sure on occasion I will get a few from the HBS ,but personally my goal is to go 100% natural .Biggest lesson ya soon learn is your volume of turdbo output is very high ,ya get a lot out for ya time BUT it's as rough as dogs -----.Go all grain and donot add sugar and the output is very low compared ,ya get low amount for ya time but 100% REAL FLAVOUR.Thats the temptation of the home brew shop metality fast and easy ,read up on infusions ,steeping and gin stills.I donot think the size of the still is the problem I never measured what I lost only what I kept as hearts from a run ,and I found the MORE I listened and read from this site ,the bigger and better that cut got.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

so i would put water in with what i put in pot for second run say 2 litres alcohol plus one litre water ? ?

keep in mind im only running tommato paste wash ?

Do you know the safe limit of ABV to charge your boiler with? :think:

i would like to know what it is ?'