by Smiffyandmissus » Sun May 13, 2018 10:26 am
So we’ve had ours for about 6 months. Bought the copper condenser and the pot lid dome whatever it’s called! A lot of crap was poured down the drain. You could say we did numerous cleaning runs! :)) so the way we’ve (well I do most of the distilling bit cos Smiffy gets bored sitting around! - I manage to do lots of cleaning in the kitchen and living area!) is I strip a 25L wash, flat out with the pot/dome. I generally get 5L or just over (a bit less for Macs Rum recipe as less sugar I think). It’s generally around 40% and I strip down to roughly 20%. The temp, which I use only as a safety guide, is generally around 98 (remember this is the dome lid not condenser so don’t freak out at 98). Put it away in glass. Strip a 2nd wash (of the same type) put it aside and then a 3rd and sometimes a 4th. Then I put all 4 strips together and strip the whole lot again through the pot. If it’s 3 strips I will get roughly 10L. From memory it’s around the 70% but I haven’t tested it in awhile, I know it’s alcohol so all good!
It’s then time for the spirit run. Out comes the temp controller. If it’s a dark wash I stay with the dome. If it’s TPW out comes the condenser. So for the condenser I Keep the temp up and water full on (well till it gets a little dribble out the temp probe) and leave it to boil away for an hour or so. Takes awhile to get up to boil. I do add filtered water to my strips so that the liquid is only about 35% ABV in the boiler. After that hour or so I reduce the power to about 3/4 and the water to around a litre per minute....yep still faster than the recommended. I get the drip drip dribble dribble drip drip drip dribble and I’m happy. Now off each strip run I’ve generally taken around 160 to 200mls of fore’s (including my second strip) so I again take around the same in fores from the spirit run. Yes not totally necessary but I figure it’s just heads anyway and it’s great window cleaner anyway! I do different sized jars depending on where I think I am....beginning is a stubby cos I know I won’t be keeping that first one, then onto 150ml glass beakers (don’t tend to keep the first 4 of those either), then slightly larger glass jars and glasses. I normally have about 15 of them then back to a few beakers and larger jars at the very end cos I know that will be going into tails. So roughly 12 hours or more after turning the boiler on (remember there is 3 or 4 washes in there) I can turn the sucker off and order pizza for dinner cos buggered if I’m cooking dinner now! So as an example from 3 washes of TPW and about a litre of feints from the previous spirit run of TPW we ended up with 4.5 litres of good drinkable stuff (90%) and 2litres of feints. Yep I take tight cuts. It’s not going to waste cos it goes back in with the next lot. So we end up roughly 10.5 litres of alcohol at 40%. I’m happy. It’s smooth, makes great Odins gin and espresso vodka. Yes a bit more work with the extra distillation but it’s working for us. Mates and family like it.
It’s a bit early to tell for the rum and CFW as the rum is only about 7 weeks old and the CFW about 4. Both are smelling good. Had a taste of the rum about 10 days ago and it was yuck but the after taste was semi ok....just like bundy! Had a smell yesterday and seems to have improved in that time. Done the same way with the 2 strips and one spirit run. Temp controller around half but water flow up more for the pot. So hopefully another month or so on oak and it won’t have that bundy after taste!
So it is possible, with a lot more distilling, to get a reasonable product. I’m about quality not quantity. I don’t want product that tastes like a cheap bottle from the shop. It’s about time and patience. Which I know sucks. That’s where the TPW is good. Cos we’ve got a smooth spirit to begin with, the essence isn’t too bad. I’ve added spices and oak to rums and whiskeys made from essence and made southern comfort with the recipe on here (tho I tend to use 3/4 of the sugar in all recipes) by making a bourbon essence first. Leaving it a few weeks to mellow then adding peaches etc. even with the essences they benefit from aging. Leave them at least 2 weeks. I also leave the neutral in the Demi with paper towel over the top (no rubber anywhere) as long as possible before I start mixing it. Time is your friend!