Hi Let It Shine, the two recipes you mention will produce a neutral spirit, like vodka, though the Gerber can be run through the pot still to impart a bit of flavor. They are very good for your first time runs, easy to ferment and run.

A basic shine recipe is more like the UJSM and is a little more complicated to ferment. As far as running a wash or mash the distillation process is about the same, it's the mashing and fermentation that is different. Whiskeys, rums, and brandies are all run as a pot distillation so more flavor is imparted.

Stripping runs and spirit runs are both normally done in a pot still. The idea being to build up a larger amount of alcohol for a spirit run and yet maintain the flavor profile of your mash. A run through the reflux defeats the flavor profile.

A clearing agent can be used to settle out the solids from a wash/mash, but is not usually needed. It will speed up the clarification process but that can also be done by letting your wash sit in a cool-cold area to settle.

The carbon filtering is done to remove unwanted flavors from your neutral product. Filtering a whiskey,rum,brandie, etc, will remove their flavors also.