Hi All,
This is my first post, let me start by saying thanks to everyone for contributing to such a great resource for us newbies. Usually I lurk ok forums for ages but figured I would jump straight in and introduce myself. I am based in Launceston and have just recently added the Alembic Pot still to my grainfather. I have been all grain brewing beer for years and in the interest of loosing weight I have gone Keto and decided to start making spirits rather than beer.
So far I have run a sacrificial alcohol run through it, an old apple cider that after 2 weeks is now what I call drinkable but May age out OK. Is it OK to drink the first run after the vinegar run or should I dump it?
I have also done a 60L whiskey run with 30kg Gladfields distillers malt and 5kg prayed malt, OG1.1110 and after 2 weeks is down to 1.030 using Ec1118. Do you think this will ferment out any drier than that?
Just last weekend I also put down my first rum wash following the hook rum recipe. I am not much of a rum drinker, I hate Bundy. Not berry Australian of me I know but it is what it is. I used Ec1118 on that as well fermenting nicely at 25* apart from the mess it made of my germ fridge. I know people say it can be fermented at 35* using bakers yeast, can I push the Ec1118 higher than 25 without causing off flavours? Coming from a beer background I am used to low and slow to accentuate the hop characteristics so high temps are a bit foreign to me (apart from the odd Belgian or saison).
Sorry for the long first post and thanks again for this great source of knowledge.
Cheers,
DanteHicks