"Is it required to always filter and age every distillate? The stuff came out smelling like wet cardboard, which I imagine is typical for a sugar wash alcohol. Where do I go from here to turn this into something I can be proud of? I was careful to throw away the front and even the first part of the head. I also avoided the tail by collecting into different containers and when the smell started getting worse I stopped.

Is filtering always required? Or is aging the key? How long to age? I am using a pot still, if that makes any difference, and the end result is 30 proof."

"You're right, it was 30% ABV, I had to check it again. The sugar wash was something I just put together to try out my new EZStill and probably didn't put enough sugar into the fermenter. I only did about 3L, just being eager to get something started, so it wasn't ideal.

I had 12L of a peach/mango wine fermenting. After racking off the top 8L or so, I took the bottom 3L (didn't transfer the 1L of sediment) and put it in the still. It had a much nicer taste, but could benefit from charcoal filtering I'm sure. I was surprised that it came out clear, though, expecting at least a hint of peach/mango hue. Does everything come out clear? This actually was around 90 proof (45% ABV). Does everything benefit from aging? What would you recommend I do from here?

I plan to make whiskeys, brandys and flavored alcohols so I may not go the reflux route anytime soon, knowing that I can redistill and get a decent result if I should want to make a batch of neutral.

My next project is to make a dark rum. It's already fermenting But if it comes out of the distiller clear, I don't understand how the rum gets dark. Any help is definitely appreciated."

"The heads started at 90 proof, but closer to the tails it was about 75 proof. I'm running an EZStill and the problem is, it takes 200mL of distillate just to float the alcohol meter. I need to find something that can give me the percentage of alcohol using a smaller sample size.

I figured that rerunning the distillate would extract a higher proof alcohol and leave behind the flavors. I read somewhere that filtering through charcoal doesn't ruin the flavor, it takes out the impurities. However, I can see where the flavors could technically be impurities themselves, even if we want them in there. If I were to think about this a little more, I guess rerunning is to further purify the alcohol, and the flavors will come through better because of it?

I imagine I need to dilute the alcohol before rerunning to avoid drying out the still. Also, from what I've read, I have to let the alcohol sit for a few days with the additional dilution because it takes time for water to disperse evenly within the mixture. Is this true?

I'm going to put an inline 600 watt dimmer switch on my EZStill and see if I can get better results by turning down the power a little.

So... to become an expert at creating flavored alcohols, my goals are:

To find the hearts, not use charcoal to clean up my mistakes, and improve the quality of my fermentation by understanding the environments that affect alcohol production (and avoiding stressed yeast). Interesting. I'm loving this hobby more all the time. Thanks!"

"Properly made spirits do not need to be activated charcoal filtered!!!

blanik"

"A few questions about distilling wine.
First of all if you make your own wine like Luis just did do you age it at all or just rack it off a few times then into boiler?? second is would this be a good idea to try on some of my first few runs ? My plan is to get my potstillin down first and then give the reflux tower a whirl..
Thanks !"

"

ok cool. nope no less than drinkable just about an endless supply of these little buggers.[ATTACH]142[/ATTACH]"

Ok . Well that was my next question . To reflux or potstill it because I have tons of blackberries,peaches and apples (literally) at little to no cost . And well I want to concentrate my stilling to mostly brandies. So it's safe to say ferment,let it settle and clear , rack it into boiler , potstill it and then age on some good oak?

"

I normally rack my wine at least twice before running it through my PS. I find it to not be as harsh. I run in 100ml increments. I also find that if I was planning on making wine, my proof starts lower because of less sugar. Starts at 100 proof, and I run until I start getting 50 proof right around 98c. All of it very drinkable. The lower proof stuff I don't have to dilute and I do get a hint of flavor from my fruit."