I've made a couple batches of brandy now and I can't seem to get enough fruit flavor through. My family drinks a lot of slivovitz and tsipouro, and I'm trying to make something similar, but mine always tastes harsher and has less fruit flavor.

This last batch was made with apples and grape juice and smelled really good as low wines. Then I double distilled it and it lost some flavor, but there was still a small amount. Now a couple days after bottling it it's pretty flavorless.

Am I doing something wrong? I'm doing a stripping and a spirit run, both using a digiboil with an olembic condenser. I'm making pretty big cuts I feel like. I started with 10 gallons of wash at around 8% before distilling

This is the second stripping run I'm doing for apple schnapps, and my sight glass is very active. I am using a bit of mesh to keep the copper scrubbies in place which I haven't done before, and I think it could be fine enough that this is just a result of that.

I wanna be sure, though. Could this be puking?

I’m trying to make my first attempt. I am going to need to get an air still for size reasons, and I want to make a 1 gallon rum or apple pie moonshine recipe. Does anyone have recipe recommendations?

I need advice from all the wise, experienced, and possibly a little snockered folk on this sub reddit. I bought a Vevor alcohol still off Amazon as I heard it was a good place to start for a first still. 3gal, capacity with thumper keg. Problems are, it's not compatiable with my induction cooktop despite the manufacturer saying it was, the condenser coil wasn't fully shaped, and the bottom of the still pot is slightly domed so it doesn't sit right. Basically, I'm returning that POC and want to know where else I might be able to find a good first time still. Don't want one of those electric "water distillers." Any advice anyone has short of buying copper sheet and building my own would be great.

Has anyone tried or even thought of using deer feed sugar beats as a mash?

I want to start one, and i just want to start up making my own product, then when it get profitable, I can probably hire employees.

I am looking at getting the 3' PolyPhoenix T-WRB-5 Copper Bubble Plate Still. I was wondering if anyone has used this or has any knowledge to impart.

Also looking at getting the parror for cleaner whisky

Hey community,

I’m new in the industry and i wanted to ask you if somebody can share with me some books about distillation that you think is a “must read”
I actually was looking for these 3:

-Whisky Science
- How to Distill
- Destilación ciencia y arte

Other books will be welcome 🤙🏼

Thank you very much!!

Made a lid out of 1/2” white oak. Charred on the inside for bourbon, using Buffalo Trace White Dog mash #1 proofed down to 110.

Made it just using hole saws and a chisel. Sanded sealing surface flat before charring then a light sand after charring as it had cupped a bit.

Looking at it as a mini bad motivator style aging setup. Using a 68oz kilner jar, lid has about 3.5” diameter of surface area contacting. Trying not to over oak while allowing container to “breath” in a manner that I won’t lose to angels share in a short period of time. Surface area on the lid is a little low compared to normal barrels so may throw in a small stave if additional oak is needed.

Storing it on its side, it initially dripped about 1 time per minute for about 30 minutes and has held tight since. Currently being stored in my garage in Dallas so curious to see how rapid aging is.

Thoughts/suggestions?

So I've been playing around trying to make the cleanest sugar alcohol that I can and turn that into something that tastes good as one does. I have a 13.2gal vevor boiler, the lyne arm and condenser worm are homemade. Ive been making a modified birdwatchers sugar wash (6kg of sugar, 1 can tomato paste, 1/4tsp of epsoms salt, 1 tsp of fermaid k and 1 tsp of diamonium phosphate, and one more 2 days into fermenting, 2 heaping tbls of red star dady yeast and a cheesecloth bag with oyster grit as a ph buffer, top to around 30L of water) 1.080og to 0.994-0.996fg in 8-10 days. Then I cool overnight, siphon off add my feints from last run and distill. Then take those low wines, saponify with sodium carbonate for 24 hours, add water and double distill. Then 150ml is foreshots, 300ml is heads, run hearts to about 50%(I know i should do cuts but im a drunk and can't trust my taste so I trust the hydrometer) and collect my tails for the next run. I end up with about 67% final collection. I Took apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and water, simmered and strained, added a bunch of sugar and used that to temper my 67% and it was incredible for once. I usually temper to 40% then try to add flavour but now I've learned to temper with syrups and whatnot. Anyone have any ideas? Gonna try melting candies with water and trying those, like fuzzy peaches, jolly ranchers, ect. Just wondering what people think sounds good? I have about 4 jars I can try, I'm doing fuzzy peaches 100% but need 3 more ideas

I wanted to ask for suggestions for making “rum” from sorghum juice and syrup. I made it a few times in the past using distilled water, sugar, sorghum syrup, yeast, and fermaid o. We are making sorghum syrup one more time this coming week, and I have plenty. I want to make from the juice in place of the water and sugar this time. The juice will probably be around 12-15 brix. I’ll know for sure when we grind it. I wanted to see what you all thought. I also have plenty of sorghum seeds that I could use as well. I have a small 5 gallon still, a new pack of fermaid o, and red star distillers yeast. I can also freeze some of the juice to make a second batch if I need to make the first batch just for the backset.

So basically the British Royal Navy acquired vast quantities of rum for their sailors from the Caribbean (Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, etc...) and blended and matured it in very large open wooden vats in dedicated warehouses along the Thames river in London.

Then they added caramel, also known as 'burned sugar'. As opposed to modern food coloring actual caramel always has some sugar left, which rounds the taste of the rum. The added caramel also makes sure that every batch has the same color. But besides that the caramel also became an integral part of the taste of Navy rum.

I made a 100% molasses rum, distilled on my little fully copper alembic pot still. I matured it in a large glass jar, only covered with a coffee filter to keep the bugs out. I put some lightly charred French oak in there as well. Kept it there for 6 months.

At the same time I made caramel of some Demerara sugar and dissolved it in undiluted and unaged rum from this run. Later I mixed everything and brought it down to 45% ABC, which is actually lower that the traditional Navy Rum.

I am under no illusion that I actually recreated traditional Navy rum, however this was a fun exercise and the end product tastes pretty good. Still a bit young and rough but also definitely sweet and rummy!

Hello,

I just built a pot still as I mostly imbibe rum, whisky, and brandy. I attempted to share a picture of my setup, but the auto moderator keeps deleting it due to a shortened link being used. The link is generated by Google pictures. Any suggestions? I am looking forward to sharing ideas. I have made 3 batches of rum, 3 slivovitz, 1 apple brandy, 1 whisky, and 1 muscat grappa. I have degrees in chemistry, and I was a pro brewer for 15 years. I feel like a noob all over again, and I am excited to learn.

Was gonna try to make a grain based (whiskey) new make spirit with muck to see what happened so I added fresh backset and a portion of spent/fermented grains from ferment (strained before distillation bc didn’t wanna scorch grains in homemade pot still) and left it covered with a brew bag/cheesecloth for 2 days before covering with a lid and airlock (hoping I inoculated it a bit then sealed it such that co2 built up and made it less favorable for aerobic mold) but I got the idea (good or bad) to give it a little inoculation with a dollop of sourdough starter and splash of fermented hatch chili water with the hopes of giving a good bit of lactobacillus and potentially other favorable microbes. This is after about 6 weeks. Thoughts?

I have aged a few rums in medium toasted American oak chips; first round was 2 weeks with 1.5% by weight in glass bottles with plenty of head room. I did want some oxidation.

I liked the results and didn't think any of them were close to getting over oaked.

What I have started now is 2% by weight in Worthy Park Overproof (medium ester count). Monymusk (low ester), Barbancourt Haiti Proof and Don Q white rum.

The plan is to taste and collect a 50mL reference sample of each at 2 weeks, one month, and 2 months, then compare and decide if further aging is desired.

My friend mentions ultrasonic baths for accelerated aging, and I have heard of sous vide/elevated temperatures.

In doing online research, and reading about those methods, I don't get a sense of the relative merits, and the flavor effects of the various methods.

Do any of you hobby distillers have some favorite methods, or any beginner friendly references to share?

Edit: Also, to get a wider range of possible flavors, any other wood chips I should try, and what would be the effect of lighter toast or heavier toast or charring?

Longer story short, I spent about a week picking wild grapes at the farm, and I got almost no alcohol out of it. And Im kinda crushed.

I really want to do grape brandy. I was either thinking of buying box wine, or bulk cooking wine and distilling it.

Has anyone tried this before? How did it go?

I know cooking wine is adulterated with salt, but the underlying wine tastes pretty good.

Doing my first batch ever tonight. My sugar/water mix is completely dissolved and in the fermenter, and I’m just waiting for it to cool to pitching temp before adding the turbo yeast and turbo carbon.

Only problem is I didn’t think about needing a proper long stirring paddle until everything was already in the bucket. The spoon I have only reaches about halfway down.

How important is it to actually get all the way to the bottom when mixing in the yeast and carbon? If I stir as deep as I can and give it a good mix, is that enough, or should I hold off until I can get a proper paddle?

The sugar itself is already fully dissolved, so I’m only worried about getting the yeast and carbon distributed properly.

Edited, wording. Carbon, not charcoal. ☠️

I've started noticing when distilling high abv spirits in my reflux still, I occasionally will experience some light lung irritation. Like a little out of breath, the way you feel a few days after getting over a mild cold. Anyone else experience this?

Sounds like a stupid question, but it's part of a curiosity of mine. I'm fairly certain that when a commercial spirit says 40% ABV, it's actually 40%, no matter how it was aged and bottled. They don't use alcoholmeters like us hobby distillers, but a laboratory process.

So, that's what I'm wondering (and hopefully I made you curious as well), what meter reading do you get from a Jack Daniels at 40%? Should be lower than 40% because it will float from all the wood sugars. But what's the actual reading (please take temperature conversion into account if you do it now).

I don't have any in my house as all that I drink is what I make, lol :))

Hello,
I am not getting a proper hydrometer reading on my box wine, can anybody help?

Same as title

Does anyone know of any adapters that can be placed where the glass typically goes in a bubble plate sight glass? Looking at 4"x4"x2" tees right now and they're not exactly cheap.

I don't want to rely on a company to make my alcohol, I want to make it myself.