Just discovered this forum, I have been using an american one, but saw this one and figured hey Much closer to home.
I am a novice and just did my very 1st run using a Euro 30-2 reflux still and the bourbon turned out the best I have ever tasted, so now I am addicted to making my own, as I couldn't go back to the commercial products after tasting my stuff.
Heres what I did.
I put 6kg of sugar to 23L of water and then added 1 pack of SUPER BREW yeast with nutrients included. A little bit too much sugar, thats why it took 3 weeks to stop fermenting. When it finally stopped fermenting it was about 1/2 inch below the 990 mark on the hydrometer, this was the best I could get it, it also had a very faint apple yeasty smell about it.
Then I distilled half as a sacrificial wash as the still was brand new, then yesterday I distilled the other half. I measured the potency at 20C and it read 92%.
I then added 100% water to water it down to 46%
After that I ran it all through a VERTAFLOW Carbon Filter at the rate of 1 drop per 1 second. A bloody long wait, and in fact I am still waiting for the last of it to drip thru today. Though it was well worth the wait as the was no longer any of that apple/yeasty smell.
Then I added 3/4 of a teaspoon of Ageing Smoothing Syrup, and 2 teaspoons of Black Label whiskey flavour to 900mls of 39% spirit and stirred it all up for a couple of mins................and VOILA the best bourban I have ever tasted.
I actually had some of my store bought OLD CROW bourbon on hand to compare, thinking that my stuff won't be as nice, BUT to my utter amazement, my stuff smelt and tasted way way better, incredibly smooth, fantastic buzz and no hangover. I think possibley it could also have to do with the fact thatas it was distilling I keep tasting wee drops and stopped distilling as soon as the sweetness over took the alcohol flavour, as it started out very alcoholly flavoured and gradually got sweeter as the distilling progressed.
Anyway for 1st attempt I am astounded at the results, just setting up my next wash now, as this stuff aint gonna last long at this house. I wouldn't hesitate pouring a bottle of commercial stuff down the sink, just so I could use the bottle to bottle my stuff. Seriously I won't ever be able to drink commercial stuff again after tasting my stuff. Where as before I didnt give a damn as long as it was bourbon and gave you a buzz.