I am relatively new to the world of personal home brewing. I have always gravitated towards mead and my next venture ought to be distilling some. I've read through lots of articles and threads on the topic and to no end have I found something agreed upon on the issue. Every other spirit has its own category based on its original ingredient, the process, or a slice of historical origin. Why on earth has distilled honey ferment not have a …
Does distilling mead produce methanol/how much comes off in the first run? So much conflicting info! 18l (ish) of mead started through a pot still & thumper keg until 1.8l (ish) distillate collected, then stopped the still. Distillate collected in 5 batches: 250ml then 400ml X 4 Plans for making a blend with some of the remains in the still, and some of the collected batches. Batches all look/smell/taste similar, safe to assume discarding the 250ml leaves the remaining 1.6l …
15 days ago I started a batch of wine from a Wine Kit. I went to measure the SG to begin the next step when I found the wine had a film layer at the top. Anyway I phoned the place that sold it to me and am getting a new wine kit tomorrow. Before I pour this contaminated wine down the toilet, I am wondering if I could finish the process and distill it? Can I do anything to …
Just wondering is it possible to turn fermented sugar water with an abv of around 15% into moonshine by freeze distilling it. Also wondering if i would have to worry about methanol when using this technique
I would like to freeze distill some hard cider I've brewed to up the gravity. However, it is well known that freeze distillation concentrates the methanol present in the booze. My question is, since methanol is the "first" thing that boils off during regular distillation; can I boil my cider for just a very short time to remove the methanol, cool it down, then proceed with freeze distillation? If so, what would be the best way to go about it …
I recently attended a rum making class with the intention of taking what I had learned and applying it to my own process... unfortunately (or fortunately ) we were plied with so much rum that I can’t remember the measures. I’m hoping someone can help fill in the gaps! The intention is to start with a base rum and create a spiced rum at the end. We were using the alembic distillers and started with a 700ml base rum. We …
I made sugar wash and let it ferment for a week. After that I distilled it but forgot to get rid of the heads. I let it go until it was enough to fill a cup and emptied my pot (I didn’t use all my liquid) I tried to light it on fire but it won’t burn. is it safe to drink or should I be worried about methanol poisoning
Not exactly a beer homebrew question but... I heard from many people that drinking 70-96% alcohol (not rubbing alcohol but distilling grapes). For example Cyprus traditional drink zivania is made by distilling grapes and the first few batches are pure alcohol that they say is good only for cleaning because of the toxins it has is bad for your health and also can get you blind. On the other hand, in a lot of liqueur recipes, like limoncello, they use …
So I'm making high ABV alcohol with just plain sugarwash, high alcohol yeast and freeze distilling. I added chitosan and kieselsol(turbo cleaner) to clear it before freeze distilling but my yeast was still live so it did nothing. I then heat up the liquid to 65 degrees to kill the yeast and maybe evaporate any weird things. Something smells and tastes really off, while before it was drinkable and actually pretty pleasant, even though it was just fermented sugar wash. …
This is just out of curiosity... I mean if you distill beer, you get whiskey... if you distill wine, you get cognac/brandy... if you distill fermented molasses, you get rum... if you distill fermented agave, you get tequila... if you distill apple-cider, you get calvados (if you happen to live in Calvados, France)... if you distill fermented horse-milk (kumiss), you'll probably regret it... But what do you get if you distill (honey-) mead? Does it even have a specific name? …
I have made "Lemon beer" using white granulated sugar, lemons and dry bread yeast. I had it in first fermentation for about 8 days then switched the container to second fermentation for a further 8 days. today i took it out to boil and cool to distill it but the fumes are really strong just a few whiffs and i feel drunk in the head already. Is this batch still safe to consume or should i toss it and start …
In my country obtaining a bottle of applejack is about impossible, while cider slowly gains some foothold. I have managed to obtain a few liters of apple cider for reasonable price and happen to have a decent quality freezer. I'd like to use freeze-concentration to produce some applejack from it, to have a glass of the legendary drink. I know the ground theory of how that process is supposed to work, but I don't know any details. What is the …
I experimented with turning a regular bock into an Eisbock. My bock had an OG of 1.088 and a FG of 1.014 (for an abv of ~9.5%). I froze that bock to varying degrees, and pulled the unfrozen liquid out, letting the ice thaw and refreeze. My "best" result had a gravity of 1.032, the "worst" result had only 1.006 (end of the experiment). How do I calculate the alcohol by volume in those freeze-distilled beers?
I have been letting it sit for 10 days and it is still not 40%. I would like to know how to raise alcohol content in my rum while it is still in the process of fermentation. There are bubbles rising from the bottom and I am not sure what to do.
Basically I pitted and smashed 10 lbs. of very ripe plums; heated the pulp, skins and juice to like 120°F and added 3 gals. of distilled water and 5 lbs. of sugar. Waited for it to cool below 90°F then strained it into a bucket and added 1-2 tbsp. of bread yeast. Then put it in a carboy with an airlock, it has been only one day and the airlock is already bubbling madly. I am going to distill it …
After several years of beer brewing, I started experimenting with moonshine. I figured since Im distilling I dont have to deal with all the exacting procedures of beer making and I just needed basic sugar water to ferment and distill. So I did just that. I added 2 packages of white table sugar (https://i.pinimg.com/236x/c5/a9/e0/c5a9e0778a611c8f8da53f1ec038ed2c.jpg) and 4 gallons of fruit juice to a bucket of water mixed it and added yeast. I sed this high ABV distillers dry yeast (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064O77LQ). The …
I have made a wine a few days ago. I used apples and grapes but that is not what is important. For my yeast I used baker's yeast. YES!!! I do know that I should have used wine yeast to get better flavor and alcohol yield. Anyway, what I would like to know is what flavors I would get if I distill my wine mixture.
I have decided to buy Chemistry Distillation Apparatus as in this image: Vacuum Distillation Unit I am using it to make absinth by following old recipes found on net. You need pure ethanol (97%) and soak herbs in it. After few weeks you need to distill it, but I am confused with all the foreshots, heads, hearts and tails. When you use regular wash, I am sure that during fermenting process you get bad stuff and it needs to be …
I am looking to distill 4 liters of 6.5% cider, would i end up with an amount of 90% plus, of what would essentially be flavored ethanol. Or would i end up with around 2 liters of around 13% apple wine? What sort of yield would i expect in terms of both liters and ABV?