"Does charred oak or hickory improve a sugar based pot stilled run? meaning if after I make a stripping run then a pot spirit run to about 70% will sitting on oak remove any nasties after a month or so?

My other thought was to get some of the carbon granules and put a small filter bag of it in each quart and let that sit over time. Anybody try that as opposed to funnel filtering it?

Thanks cc"

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I baked some small hickory splits to a nice medium toast last night in a aluminium pouch - 2 hours at 350F and 1/2 hour at 400F.

I also washed and drained a cup of 0.5mm activated carbon granules then simmered in water for an hour and dried for 3 more hours in the oven at 400F.

I will test both of these when my next wash is done in a week but will have to let it sit on the sticks/carbon for at least a few more weeks in order to do a taste test."

"Oaking and carbon filtering are 2 different techniques for what should be 2 different outcomes.

What recipe are you using?

Are you after flavored (oak) or nuetural (carbon) spirits

Did you strip before your spirit run?

Are you making cuts?

Pot stilling and oak indicates that you prefer a flavored spirit. Yes oak can polish and smooth your likker, but also adds nose and body. Something carbon can remove.

Shoot for a 10 or 12% ABV (or less), stay away from turbos, run your still low and slow and make very conservative cuts. Do these things with a good recipe and you won't need to carbon filter or use clearing agents.

I know, I know....I speak blasphemy"

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I bought the carbon filter kit from Brewhause over 2 years ago and read ebook then and concluded it was too much of a pain to do. I can't download willy nilly as I am on a limited g3 connection.

I just had lunch at McDonald's and since they advertise internet I took my netbook and it has 1 meg download speed, I will now enjoy a nice long cup of coffee there from time to time."

I did that a couple years ago and ended up with so many jars and buckets in varying stages of disarray that it became too hard to get the house remodeling done. I'd have jars of head/tail feints, buckets of wash, buckets of rack, jars of stripped, and jars of spirits. At the end of a long day and an even longer spirit run I concluded by saying the little tails I got was not worth the time and money.

Plus out of the hundreds of runs I think I made it sober to the end only twice - so when I hit the tails I also hit the sack.

I live out in nowhere, no heat or garbage disposal except for an outdoor garbage burner and an inside wood burner. The heads starts all my fires safely and cheaply, the tails keep weeds and other areas free from attack. I'm one of those guys who only eats the meaty part of the crawdad leaving the head sucking to the hearty people.

Thanks for checking though.

This is actually a moist county, restaurants with over 100 seats can sell liquor by the drink but nothing to go. Paducah pop. 25,000 is the closest big city about 65 miles but never get up that way.

I may start collecting heads and tails again as I have been saving up more glass containers, but running 3 gallons of low wines takes long enough. The still holds 7.5 gallons and may just get up real early and make a full day of it and run 6 gallons at a time.

What I did for the last 2 years was a JIT system of Just In Time production, make a wash, run it, drink it - start over when I hit the last jar. As of lately I have 4 washes running at various stages and when done I strip and store them with a tsp per gallon of soda then start a new wash. I have about 15 gallons of low wines stored and would like to keep adding to that throughout the summer when the temps for making washes is perfect.

Let me reiterate why I ask these questions, this house is in the middle of a massive remodeling job basically rebuilt from top to bottom from the inside out. A giant mess that had no walls or kitchen for a year and kinda like camping as it has never had heat in the last 3 winters, I wear long underwear 24/7 for 3 months as the average inside temps are around 40F.

Its hard to keep setting up the still in these conditions so I just want to make 50 -100 gallons of low wines, the PSII runs a 5 gallon wash in a couple of hours on my electric stove top (about 2500watts) I can make about 15 gallons a month, 100 gallons will take me into winter and the house should be done. I will then spirit run in pot mode rather then reflux for ease of setup and speed. It is that 2nd spirit run that I either want to put on charred hickory or carbon to store until the house sells next spring.

My new place in BFE will have absolutely no utilities and will build it during the summer with only a generator. Once completed I will only have PV for electricity, solar for water and hydronic heating, rain harvesting for water, and a homemade honey hole. This will take a lot of time and would like to stock up before hand. Propane will be the new cooker fuel but not until the place is 100% complete.

I have never drank a 2x pot run of sugarhead as I let my buddies be the rats on Memorial Day with the 140 proof All Bran wash, they made no mention of any ill effects but are also professional sots.

I will have to give that a try, I have never actually been to a restaurant that sells booze and just found out about them after being here for two years when they tried to pass a liquor amendment to allow package stores. It never passed as it never got enough votes to get on the ballot, I could not vote as I live in the country and only city residents were allowed and which I hear is a bit on the blue side.