BG's hooch thread.

[Balmoral Green]

Kit cost about £160 IIRC.

The Gin is good, one of the more reliable essences, and Gin is generally a mixer rather than drunk neat anyway.

Home distilling isn't illegal, but you should be licenced & registered, which is simply not possible on a home hobbyist level, they are only geared up for commercial. You are supposed to pay duty on what you produce.

I have spoken to C&E about it, they aren't interested in the home brewer.

As for harmful elements, it depends on what wash you're using to boil off from. With the system I use, it's all good, no nasties. But if you decide to boil off some anti-freeze, that's your look out

If you have unwanted beer/wine/spirits, they can be chucked in and boiled off. And if you mix up a flavour that you then don't like, again just recycle it, chcuk it back in the still with some water and boil it off to use again.

Have a look at the forum I linked too, under fermentation, there are other recipes that can be used rather than the packets of yeast/carbon/clear that I use.

[Mr Gearchange]

Do I understand this correctly that you make Polyalcohol from warm water, sugar and yeast then add 'flavouring' such as whisky flavour to it?



























Sounds terrible.

[Wadeski]

Id be interested to hear "third party" comments from someone really into their whisky like Lefty, as I must say anything flavoured with essences tends to be quite identifiable.

[madbadger]

Can you clarify what you do with the triple distilling?

First distill from 4l you keep 800ml @ 60% and bin 3.2l @ not much % + all the residues. I'm with you up to that point.

Then what mix do you do with distilled water and how much do you collect? Do you again throw the leftovers? Presumably you aim to dilute it down to a sensible level then distill off most of the Alcohol?

I agree with the multiple filtering. That works well.

[Balmoral Green]

Mr Gearchange said:

Do I understand this correctly that you make Polyalcohol from warm water, sugar and yeast then add 'flavouring' such as whisky flavour to it?



Sounds terrible.

I can well understand your doubts.

But some of this stuff is actually quite good. I do know whisky, and other people in the know have sampled it too, and have been very surprised.

Edited by Balmoral Green on Tuesday 29th June 15:38

[Balmoral Green]

madbadger said:

Can you clarify what you do with the triple distilling?

Ayup Andy.

I always throw away the 1st 50ml boiled off from each batch of the wash, as it is a bit pungent and rocket fuel like. I collect the 1st 800ml as normal, but continue to collect another 500ml. This I then put in with the next batch of the wash, and so on. This is because there is still a reasonable amount of alcohol in the back set, certainly at a higher level than in the wash, so you might as well collect it and bung it in with the next batch of wash and then boil it off as throw it away. On the last batch of wash, I still collect an additional 500ml and put to one side, to put in with the 1st batch of the 2nd distillation run.

All of the good stuff collected from the 1st distillation I then cut back to 40% with the distilled water, and then run it through a 2nd time. Same MO as when distilling the wash, collect 800ml (but you actually get much more this time, at higher ABV, and cleaner, so keep collecting until it drops below 60%) and then collect another 500ml back set and bung it in with the next boil.

And then repeat a third time, only this time, it comes out at 86% to start with, and you collect twice as much of it, and even then it is ages before it drops below 60%. But it drops off very rapidly so there is no point collecting the extra 500ml per run back set on the 3rd distillation. You can collect about another 300ml as it drops below 60% and on down to about 20%, but it's not worth the effort and you've got lots of good stuff anyway by then.

I know that you just do the one run, but it really is worth the time and effort to triple distil, the difference is substantial. It's cleaner and purer because you have cut it and boiled it off from a cleaner base the 2nd and 3rd time. You are refining the stuff and obtaining a higher %ABV yield each time too.

Probably a bit too good for your chilli vodka though, or liquers But it is a really good base for Whisky and Bourbon, I usually have it at about 60-62%, with the best recipes, it's almost like drinking a young cask strength.

Edited by Balmoral Green on Tuesday 29th June 15:25

[madbadger]

Ta.

I'll give it a go.

I know you have explained it before, but for some reason I forgot!

It must take ages to drop below 60% if it is 40% to start with as it takes over 2 hours to get 800ml anyway with a 15% wash. It's not like you have to sit and watch it though.

I normally collect an extra 300/400ml which comes out at about 30% anyway but it sound a much better idea to use your method.

Also I've never used distilled water to dilute down to 40% but I'll give that a go too. Maybe more need with your dodgy Derby water than the stuff we get out of the Dales.

For the chilli vodka I think it might actually make a big difference. The gin could definately do with being a bit purer.

[Ace-T]

I have sampled and got waaaaay too on BGs Bourbon. It is absolutely lovely. I don't normally like the American whiskeys, being a good former inhabitant of the land of deep fried Mars bars, but his was very flavoursome and extremely smooth.

Try it. What's the worst that could happen?

Trace