Read 'Activated Carbon for Purivication of Alcohol' by Gert Strand. It can be downloaded free online. It will explain all that to you. Gert sent me an email and said 'do not bake new carbon after boiling'. I have read and think that baking is to get rid of the fusels, etc that the carbon filters out of the alcohol during filtration. There should be no need to bake it until it has been used somewhat. Download the article, it can explain it all much better than I can.