Distilling botched batch of beer

[Coalface]

Hi Brainstrust, i recently brewed an 80L batch of lager, and all was going well until the cold crash... I have had major annoyance fitting the rubber seal to the lid of my brewbuilt x2 and then getting the lid on without the seal falling out first... I thought I had managed for this batch but apparently not.

I pressure fermented around 5psi for most the batch then turned the spund upto 15psi as it was finishing.... it was at 15psi when I cold crashed with glycol, and checking it a few days later I noticed there was no pressure at all...

Obviously as the temp has dropped the both pressure in the fermenter has dropped from cooling and also CO2 dissolving into the beer.

I fill my kegs with sanitiser and purge them with the excess CO2 created during fermentation, so when I'm ready to keg I hook the gas line from keg to fermenter and let the pressure equalise then connect the liquid line and drop the pressure in the keg and it siphons in a closed loop. when I connected the gas lines, it immediately started hissing out the bad seal in the fermenter lid...

I have one of the 4 kegs in my kegerator on gas, been there for almost a week, and it tastes terrible.

Has anyone had success distilling a botched batch?
I have a reflux still which I have yet to use and figure this is a better use than dumping the whole batch.

Would love to hear any tips or experiences from anyone who has done this.

 

[feralbass]

I've done it before with a batch you wouldn't give a Jap on Anzac day
Not a huge yield with the stripping run but when mixed with other batches of neutral and after the distillation run it was worth while

 

[Coalface]

Thanks mate, I've got 80L of the stuff, so it should yield a few litres... will update with progress after the weekend. The plan is to do it through the reflux and make GNS, then put it through a pot still with some botanicals. first time dabbling in distilling. fingers crossed.

 

[Dave70]

Yeah, give it a whirl.
Old mate did it with Corona and made a 'drinkable' product.
Dunno how bad your batch is, but thats a pretty low bar I'd say.

 

[livo]

I was always of the belief that the hop oils in beer were a problem.