Hi new here. I’ve brewed a lot of craft beers and visited the Forum for tips. but have just been given a 4ltr water distiller so thought I’d have a go. For the first go I thought I’d use a turbo yeast wash. Ideally I’d like to try for a gin. But not sure when to add botanicals, temp to run distiller at, and if you leave heads in etc If anyone has any tips for any temps, volumes or just do’s and donts that would be awesome thanks.
Tips for using a water distiller
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bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
Hi Ben2084 Does your water distiller come with a variable heat setting? Can you set the temperature at which the substrate is heated?
Doesn't matter how you distill. The most volatile compounds that boil off first are heads and heads contain the various alcohols that you don't really want to drink (methanol and other higher alcohols that taste like nail polish remover). I would think that if your wash is made from fruit sugars and fruit has pectins and your SG was about 1.090 then the first 2 fl oz of each gallon are heads and you don't want those. The next 400 - 500 ml are the hearts and those you want to collect. After that the rest is tails (assuming the water distiller is typical, is commercially made and is designed to hold a gallon of liquid.
When to add botanicals? If you are making a brandy then you might make the wash a wine and so you've added the botanicals to the wash. BUT you could also add the botanicals to the still and allow the boiling liquid to travel up through the botanicals which you have suspended just below the tube leading to to the condensor. OR you might allow the botanicals to steep in the spirits you have collected
Doesn't matter how you distill. The most volatile compounds that boil off first are heads and heads contain the various alcohols that you don't really want to drink (methanol and other higher alcohols that taste like nail polish remover). I would think that if your wash is made from fruit sugars and fruit has pectins and your SG was about 1.090 then the first 2 fl oz of each gallon are heads and you don't want those. The next 400 - 500 ml are the hearts and those you want to collect. After that the rest is tails (assuming the water distiller is typical, is commercially made and is designed to hold a gallon of liquid.
When to add botanicals? If you are making a brandy then you might make the wash a wine and so you've added the botanicals to the wash. BUT you could also add the botanicals to the still and allow the boiling liquid to travel up through the botanicals which you have suspended just below the tube leading to to the condensor. OR you might allow the botanicals to steep in the spirits you have collected
hi thanks yep it’s 1gallon/ 4 litres. And had variable heat settings from 95 to 105 I think. I’ll give it a play and see how it goes. I think I’ll steep the botanicals after so I can try a few differnent options and recipes. Thanks for your help
mashpaddled
Well-Known Member
I believe you can buy a stainless steel mesh basket for those water distillers to put in the botanicals so they don't sit on the bottom and burn.
Thanks I’ll look into that. Cheers
It's really tough to make cuts with the table top air still... No way to measure the temperature of the vapor... But it's do-able and you can get decent results.
I try to make German-style fruit schnapps... Essentially fruit moonshine... The wash is a fruit wine of some sort... I've used pears, plums, loquats, grape wine pomace, etc.
My technique is to discard the first 50-75 ml or so of foreshots and heads, start collecting in ~100-200ml increments (so several small collection jars), frequently checking %ABV with a spirit refractometer. Usually starts off around 60-70%.
I start smelling and tasting... if it's OK, it goes into the final, large collection jar. I start paying closer attention when the output hits around 20%ABV, looking for off flavors. I usually stop adding to the final collection around there.
I'll keep collecting the tails down until around 10%ABV. But I put them aside to add to the next run. There's still ethanol in the tails that you can get to later...
this gives a decent overview... Distiller Cuts: Separating the Heads, the Heart, and the Tails | Distiller
I try to make German-style fruit schnapps... Essentially fruit moonshine... The wash is a fruit wine of some sort... I've used pears, plums, loquats, grape wine pomace, etc.
My technique is to discard the first 50-75 ml or so of foreshots and heads, start collecting in ~100-200ml increments (so several small collection jars), frequently checking %ABV with a spirit refractometer. Usually starts off around 60-70%.
I start smelling and tasting... if it's OK, it goes into the final, large collection jar. I start paying closer attention when the output hits around 20%ABV, looking for off flavors. I usually stop adding to the final collection around there.
I'll keep collecting the tails down until around 10%ABV. But I put them aside to add to the next run. There's still ethanol in the tails that you can get to later...
this gives a decent overview... Distiller Cuts: Separating the Heads, the Heart, and the Tails | Distiller
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
Interesting. I would have thought that when you get to 20% ABV you are pretty near the horse's arse when it comes to tails. And I would have thought that depending on the ABV of your substrate (the wine or beer) that you would be looking to obtain something like 400 -500 ml from any gallon being distilled (about 12 percent of the volume which is about a pint, assuming that the mash or wash was at 12% ABV) - Smelling and tasting might make it feel like you are very hands on but my guess is that after the removal of heads and foreshots the next 400- 500 hundred ml would almost invariably be used,
Yup... I get about 500ml or so at a final 45%. I usually just taste at the start of the hearts, to make sure I haven't made the cut too soon. And then again a couple times when approaching 20% so I don't cut too late... At least on my air still, there's no temperature control and no way to measure vapor temp, so there's no easy way to make the cuts beside ABV and taste...
And the stuff coming out at 20% isn't that great on it's own, but a smidge mixed in with the cleaner hearts isn't necessarily a bad thing. With german-style schnapps, you do want some of flavor of the fruit to come through and not have just a super clean "fruit vodka"... so *some* congeners are needed..
But I'm still a noob at it. Only 4 or 5 batches so far. I wouldn't put any of my schnapps up again the good stuff (the ones my wife's cousin makes in Germany are awesome) but they're very drinkable. And much better than some of the ones you can buy at BevMo.
Edit to add:
Here's one of the HBT posts that lead me to do it that way:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/water-distiller.660999/post-8499391
Last edited:
odorf
Guru of Nothing
First off do not use turbo yeast.
leaves a taste. i do not like but you might think it is yummy.
run it wide open till you start to get a stream. you want the stream to be a steady fast drip but not running. ahhh..the size of a pencil lead.
buy a case of 1/2 qt mason jars
fill the first one and toss it
fill each jar and set them aside in order that you filled
now. dip your finger in each one and feel it
smell each one
taste each one
notice the differences between them
get a Alcoholmeter and a GLASS test cylinder, DO NOT USE plastic
check each jar
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