Distillation Page
1] Equipment
Beer Fermenter (with bung, and airlock etc)Spirit Hydrometer (to determine strength of product)Beer+Wine hydrometerPrimary treatment carbonSecondary (or finishing) carbonMeans of sterilisation5kg White cane sugar (for 20L wash)Continuous Filter5L Glass jar or similar
2] Sterilisation
Everything that comes into contact with the wash must be sterilised each time before use. This includes the Fermenter (barrel) and airlock etc. This is VERY important as some nasty bugs can get into your wash... I use Sodium Metabisulphite.
3] Fermentation
Use your beer fermenter to ferment 5kg of cane sugar (or Dextrose if you really want to), with 20L of water. The yeast that is recomended is a sweedish product called Alotech "Turboyeast", this will ferment out in 3-5 days (the packet says 2-3), depending on the temperature. The recomended temperature is 20-25C. Another suitable product is a yeast that has an alcohol tolerance of 15%, and a yeast nutrient. The reading on your hydrometer should be about 1.070 to start, and 990 when finished.
4] Distillation
The still that I am using holds the full 20L wash in one go, so is much easier in that respect. See the Still design pagefor further details on construction. In my still the first few drops of condensate appear from about 40C. The first 100mL of condensate needs to be discarded, as this contains the more poisonous parts (methanol, acetyl aldehyde, and ethyl acetate). The next 4-5L contains the ethanol (the alcohol that we drink), and will be collected from about 80C-95C, do not collect anthing above 95C as this contains a lot of water, and some keytones, and aldehydes. If the condensate becomes cloudy, or has a waxy film on it, do not collect any more. (I've never had this happen, but the book says not to...)
5] Carbon Purifying
The product you have now will still contain a minute amount of by-products, which can still be tasted, and therefore must be removed before consumption.
Primary Carbon
Add the primary carbon to the product. This should be done in a glass bottle. Don't seal the lid tightly. Allow to stand for 7-10 days. Strain out this carbon by pouring through a filter (a paper towel in a funnel does nicely) into another container.
Secondary Carbon
Take a small piece of cotton wool, and roll it into a ball, and place into the bottom of a funnel, and press into place (ie down the funnel). Add 100mL or so of water to check the flow, this should be about 1 drop per second. Further compress or add more cotton wool if it is too fast, or remove some if it is too slow...
Add the secondary carbon above the cotton wool, and support the funnel in the top of a container big enough to hold your product. Run the spirit through your filter, this will take a day or two... The first few drops may be a little dirty (about half the time this happens), if so, simply add the first small part back to the top of the filter.
A 2 Litre P.E.T. (Coke bottles are made from this in NZ), makes a good reservoir for the filter. Just fill up the bottle with unfiltered spirit, and turn upside down in the funnel. As the liquid level in the funnel drops below the mouth of the bottle, air can get in so spirit can get out, thus allowing a continuous filtration over several hours without constant supervision.
6] Additional Points
Primary and secondary carbon are for 1 batch only.
Only some plastics can be used with alcohol (especially high concentrations), if plasticiser has been used in the manufacture, it will be leached into the spirit. Some suitable plastics are HDPE, Polypropylene, and PET.
Don't forget to sterilise.
All spirit will become smoother over time (4-6 weeks makes a huge difference, 4-6 months is unbelievable).
See my Fruit Liquerspage for a suggestion on flavouring...