T500 First Run - Flavour

[DougK83]

Hey guys I have just run my first batch off my T500 still. I have flavoured and bottled some Still Spirits, Whiskey and Bourbon and some Vodka. The Vodka seems fine but after 2 days in the bottles the Whiskey and Bourbon still has a bit of a Metho kind of taste to it. My distillate came out at 40% ABV after filtration. Is this normal at this stage? Do I need to leave it to mature longer? Even if the taste is great would it still be safe to drink at 40%. Any advice would be greatly appreciated here.Thanks.

[MarkChap]

I suppose the first question would be what wash you used,
I am guessing that it was the Still Spirits/T500 kit/Turbo Yeast stuff that came as part of your kit
I have never used that, but am lead to believe that it don't taste too good, even after filtering

Maybe try one of the tried and true washes here, TPW/Shady's Sugar Shine/FFV/WBAB/ all produce nice clean washes to start with, which only leads to a better end product
Recipes - viewforum.php?f=32

Also, read up and learn about taking cuts, separating the different flavours/parts of the run as you,
Your T500 instructions have you collecting everything, apart from foreshots at the very beginning, and then filtering that for your end product, by taking cuts you keep the middle, good tasting, "Hearts" and discard the rest, yes you may get a smaller amount, but it will be way better to drink

[Professor Green]

Welcome to AD Doug.

Please pop into the welcome centre and introduce yourself.

Have a read of this to get you started on how to improve your product with the T500.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

[DougK83]

Mark Chaps, yeah I used the Turbo 6 yeast that came with my kit and yeah I have since done some reading on here on different washes, including the TPW and taking cuts which I will try for my next run of Whiskey. Any recommendations on amounts for each cut? Thanks!

[MarkChap]

Mark Chaps, yeah I used the Turbo 6 yeast that came with my kit and yeah I have since done some reading on here on different washes, including the TPW and taking cuts which I will try for my next run of Whiskey. Any recommendations on amounts for each cut? Thanks!

I do mine in 300ml at a time, just convenient for the jars I had

The smaller the amount, the more separated your fractions will be, but you have to balance time/effort/reward, I am happy with the way I do mine

[DougK83]

Mark Chap, after doing the cuts can I put all the distillate back into one lot? My TPW has completed fermentation and everything seems to have gone well with fermentation and I'm going to distill tomorrow, so thank you for providing me with the TPW!

[MarkChap]

Mark Chap, after doing the cuts can I put all the distillate back into one lot? My TPW has completed fermentation and everything seems to have gone well with fermentation and I'm going to distill tomorrow, so thank you for providing me with the TPW!

That's the idea, you work out what's good to keep and what's not so good and will be discarded.
The good to keep goes into a demi john (in my case) the not so good goes into a plastic bottle to use for cleaning/starting fires etc (I don't recycle my Neutral Feints, I am sure some do)

I normally leave my jars covered overnight and the come back to it next morning, I start tasting in the middle, as that is where the best parts will be, and work out from there,