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GluD

Fri Dec 23 2011, 05:36PM

Registered Member #1221 Joined: Wed Jan 09 2008, 06:17PM
Location: Odense, Denmark
Posts: 196

Dr. Watt The Fork wrote ...

Well, I guess it's a bit of a geek point I'm trying to make, but 96% is the highest concentration of alcohol you can make by distillation (the azeotrope) so you're not actually distilling anything. You're just boiling the herbs in alcohol to get the flavours out.

Also if you were really distilling it, surely all the flavours would be left behind and pure alcohol would come out.

That's what I would argue if I were a lawyer anyway

Now back to the banana and chilli pepper wines.

If I ever need a lawyer it will most certainly not be you.

That is wrong, I have the very evidence in my kitchen - a bottle of home distilled absinth that tastes rather nicely of the herbs used.

Whiskey and Cognac is also distilled, have you ever tasted either of that? Does that taste like pure alcohol to you?

I used an apperatus very similar to this one on wikipedia

If that is not distilation well then what is?

I really dont know how to express myself properly here but you are seriously wrong, it is distlling and i am getting the flavour over. I dont know if it is because the flavour is dissovled in the alcohol which then distills over or if the flavour distills over by it self after or before the alcohol. To be honest I dont care, it works and I am getting a rather tasty result, maybe you dont belive it but what am I supposed to do about that?

I didnt just put it in a pot and boiled it, if I'd done that it would look and taste disgusting.

I am not a fool so of course I am aware of the azeothrope I never said anything about distilling it to more than or even 96%? All I have said is I BUY 96% and use it to distill my absinths with...

Steve Conner

Fri Dec 23 2011, 05:47PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

All I'm saying is, if the alcohol is already 96% then it's physically impossible to distil it. "Distil" means to separate substances according to their different boiling points, and that remaining 4% water won't separate because it's an azeotropic mixture.

Therefore, even though you might be heating 96% alcohol in a still, you're not distilling it.

Unless you're adding water to the 96% alcohol just for the fun of distilling it off again, which seems beyond pointless.

GluD

Fri Dec 23 2011, 05:54PM

Registered Member #1221 Joined: Wed Jan 09 2008, 06:17PM
Location: Odense, Denmark
Posts: 196

I am speechless, I have distilled serval times now, and then suddenly you say to me it is impossiable? Have I been living in a dream world of my own, doing things that were not real?

Steve Conner

Fri Dec 23 2011, 05:58PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Yes, you've been playing at moonshiners. It's wrong to call what you're doing "distillation" unless you started with a weak alcohol-water mixture and made it stronger.

Whisky and cognac are made from a weak alcohol-water solution similar to beer or wine, and the whole point of the distillation (and indeed, what Customs and Excise don't want you to do) is to remove water and make the drink stronger.

Edit: I looked at an absinthe recipe and it does indeed call for adding quite a lot of water and then distilling the water off again. Weird, but if that's what you have to do to make it taste good I won't argue! :/

GluD

Fri Dec 23 2011, 06:07PM

Registered Member #1221 Joined: Wed Jan 09 2008, 06:17PM
Location: Odense, Denmark
Posts: 196

I wouldnt say 60-80% is weak.

If there is not added water there is either wasted alcohol that has to be left behind so the herbs dont run dry or there is added some water to improve the yield, maybe it sounds silly if you dont have any understanding other than what you read of the wikipedia.
The absinth is rather unique in this regard, the purpose of distilling is not to concentrate the alcohol it is to seperate the diffrend compounds of the herbs, I dont know how else to say it but why dont you belive I am distilling?

It is rather frustation to be told what one has done serval times is impossiable and not know the other persons lanauge well enough to explain to him that he is wrong and how the distillation process works particularly with respect to the absinth manufactoring process.

Maybe I can try to explain it witht his particularly herb that I have done some experiments with myself, Artemissia Absinthium, if it is only mixed with alcohol and then drank without distilling it, it is absoutely horrible. But if it is distlled it gives a wonderfull and unique taste. Somehow the distillation process seperates "the good taste" from "the bad".

Steve Conner

Fri Dec 23 2011, 06:48PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Well, that makes sense, you're distilling the essential oils from the herbs. The good tasting compounds must have lower boiling points than the bad tasting ones.

I thought the whole point of distilling alcoholic drinks was to make them stronger, and the flavours were added afterwards, but there is obviously more to it than I thought!

Conundrum

Fri Dec 23 2011, 07:51PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062

Maybe use homebrew to run a cheap generator, which then charges your electric car? Win all round.

-A

doctor electrons

Sat Dec 24 2011, 02:01PM

Registered Member #2390 Joined: Sat Sept 26 2009, 02:04PM
Location: Milwaukee Wisconsin
Posts: 381

Some people are doing exactly that! Here is a link to a page that sells the supplies!

In fact, most of the supplies are the exact same ones sold by homebrew stores but some are
quite a bit cheaper. For example, a plate chiller from my local homebrew store is about 250-300 bucks.
The place above sells the exact same chiller for less than 100 bucks.
UH OH! My secret is out!!! I only kid, hopefully anyone here who is brewing can save a few bucks
with the tip i just gave ;)

Avalanche

Sat Dec 24 2011, 02:27PM

Registered Member #103 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:16PM
Location: Derby, UK
Posts: 845

Many years ago, when I was stupider than I am now, my parents went on holiday and left me behind. "I know", I thought, "I'll try and make some Vodka".

I got a load of potatoes out of the pantry, and crushed then up into a bucket. I then emptied half a bag of sugar into the bucket, and filled it to the top with warm water. I put it into the airing cupboard upstairs.

A week passed, and the smell was getting worse. With my parents due back in a day or so, I decided I had to throw it all out - but the smell wouldn't go away! I think I must have then gone and bought loads of air freshener and opened all the windows in the house, I can't remember. Whatever happened, they never found out.

Zum Beispiel

Sat Dec 24 2011, 09:31PM

Registered Member #514 Joined: Sun Feb 11 2007, 12:27AM
Location: Somewhere in Pirkanmaa, Finland
Posts: 295

I dabble in making Kilju

every once in a while, altough for legal reasons you have to imagine an orange floating there in the mix. Mostly just for fun as the swill is not exactly the highest quality drink around, and can have some, uh, side effects.

Still, It's fun and I've gotten pretty good at it over the years. Probably should try making wine some time.

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