I've got a pot still and I just extended my colum height a bit and throw in some copper packing for vodka only. I chuck in all my low wines at around 40% and take my hearts cut between 91 and 85%. I rerun my head and tails when I have enough and do the same. Get a very clean spirit with my pot still in Ellisras I find that in winter the cold ambient air gives you some added reflux for a better result than in summer
Good video, it's amazing what you can do with a pot still if you take your time and know what you're doing. On those rare occasions that I make a vodka to actually drink I'll use grain and only distill twice, charcoal filter, and add a few drops of glycerin (and usually 1/4 vanilla bean) before throwing it in the freezer at just over 50%.. For Gin and and other flavored liquors I find a little bit of body in the neutral to be desirable.
would have loved for you to compare taste and yield with one of your high reflux runs! Maybe a mini-segment of run times, abv, yield and taste notes between the two methods?
Hi Beaver maybe something to try is after your first run add a bit more more water to your low wines than the usual 40% safety limit. Water is good at holding impurities.
I don't understand the arbitrary 40% "safety limit." A still charged with a 6% ABV wash can achieve a stoichiometric mixture in the vapor path just as easily as one charged with 50% low wines. Those first minutes of running are the only time that mixture can "go boom" (
@@Miata822that’s an interesting point. I don’t know the specifics of the actual volatility of the spirit at 40 vs. 50% though. Not the vapor, but the liquid itself. That would be the only other factor I could see. I’ve always just followed the 40% ‘rule.’
@@kjdevault I have heard that said, that flammable liquid in the pot could spill. That is true, I suppose, but I always run the still as if I were distilling gasoline (i.e., very carefully) no matter what concentration is in it.
Bi Beaver, thanks for anowther awesome video. Have you tried Highly Spirited's video in sodium cardonatt? Tried it for thw first time, and for me it actually gets to the point of no smell and no taste around tester bottle number 4. Funky as it is but for me it worked
I wonder how much of that "sugar bowl" effect could be caused by reactions with the metals that stills are made with? Would it still exist if the product were run through lab glass?
I've got a pot still and I just extended my colum height a bit and throw in some copper packing for vodka only. I chuck in all my low wines at around 40% and take my hearts cut between 91 and 85%. I rerun my head and tails when I have enough and do the same. Get a very clean spirit with my pot still in Ellisras I find that in winter the cold ambient air gives you some added reflux for a better result than in summer
enjoyable experiment, i thoroughly enjoyed the video
Thank you very much. I was wondering and planing the same. Now you've saved a lot of people a lot of work! Thanks again!
Thanks Beaver. Very informative. Thank you.
Good video, it's amazing what you can do with a pot still if you take your time and know what you're doing.
On those rare occasions that I make a vodka to actually drink I'll use grain and only distill twice, charcoal filter, and add a few drops of glycerin (and usually 1/4 vanilla bean) before throwing it in the freezer at just over 50%.. For Gin and and other flavored liquors I find a little bit of body in the neutral to be desirable.
That was good really enjoyed it. I have a couple of pots stills and a couple column stills and it seems like I always go back to the pot still
Maybe you should try the experiment again but invert your sugar first to see if the sugar bowl smell and flavor carries over in fewer runs
New sub. I’m running a lot of sugar for flavored shines and thought about this exact thing last night mid run. 👌🏼 now I know. Thank you sir
Sugar wash first run taste almost exactly like the cane spirits we buy here in SA (Cape to Rio or Seven Seas or the old Mainstay)
Good experiment, thanks 🙂
would have loved for you to compare taste and yield with one of your high reflux runs! Maybe a mini-segment of run times, abv, yield and taste notes between the two methods?
Glad to see that you are still with us, so the Colm still, still produce the better one? probably the stripping run first on the pot still method?
Good to see you mate
Hi Beaver maybe something to try is after your first run add a bit more more water to your low wines than the usual 40% safety limit. Water is good at holding impurities.
I don't understand the arbitrary 40% "safety limit." A still charged with a 6% ABV wash can achieve a stoichiometric mixture in the vapor path just as easily as one charged with 50% low wines. Those first minutes of running are the only time that mixture can "go boom" (
@@Miata822that’s an interesting point. I don’t know the specifics of the actual volatility of the spirit at 40 vs. 50% though. Not the vapor, but the liquid itself. That would be the only other factor I could see. I’ve always just followed the 40% ‘rule.’
@@kjdevault I have heard that said, that flammable liquid in the pot could spill. That is true, I suppose, but I always run the still as if I were distilling gasoline (i.e., very carefully) no matter what concentration is in it.
Bi Beaver, thanks for anowther awesome video. Have you tried Highly Spirited's video in sodium cardonatt? Tried it for thw first time, and for me it actually gets to the point of no smell and no taste around tester bottle number 4. Funky as it is but for me it worked
I wonder how much of that "sugar bowl" effect could be caused by reactions with the metals that stills are made with? Would it still exist if the product were run through lab glass?
Where do you got your still? Did you build it?
interesesting