Hey All

[joshlangmaid]

Hey. I'm new here and also new to brewing. My first brew is almost complete. I'm jsut wondering if it would be possible to brew a 1.5L spirit mix (liquer) in my 25L fermenter? Am i a idiot for asking? tell the truth.

Cheers

 

[pokolbinguy]

If you mean adding spirit to your beer ferment then I doubt it would work as you will kill your yeast with the high alcohol content.

If you are wondering if you can "brew" spirits in a beer fermenter...it is possible....sort of....yeast will really only ferment up to around 20% alc (yeast dependant) from memory (could be more depending on the yeast...some one on here will know)...there is one out called "turbo" yeast from memory. But your generic 'beer' yeast will not ferment to such a high alc %. Thus the need for a still.

Hope that helps

Cheers, Pok

P.S. No your not an idiot.....well maybe ...welcome to AHB


Note: I do not encourage the use of a still or similar to creat spirits which under Australian law is illegal. Check the laws before you proceed and if you do do not publish the fact.

 

[Kleiny]

Josh
welcome ro the AHB site
if your thinking of doing a mash fora bourbon which can then be distilled it would work

 

[joshlangmaid]

Ok thanks guys. That helps heaps.

Hopefully i'll get right into this forum.

I've been buying from www.westbrew.com.au - They seem great and a package i ordered got here, to tasmania, in less than a week.

Its looking like i'm going to be buying a heating pad. I have no other place for my beer brewing. No where with a constant temp. Hopefully a pad is the way to go. I think it will be better than a heating belt. But if someone knows more, please tell. Cheers.

 

[peas_and_corn]

I was about to say that most of the time you wouldn't need a heating pad because people have troubles keeping their temp DOWN to 20C, but then I realised you're in Tasmania and as such you would have lower ambient temperatures than I and brewers further north would live in.

 

[itguy1953]

Normal champagne yeast will ferment any sugars eg. malt, sucrose (table sugar), dextrose, brown sugar, molasses and top out at approx 17-18% ABV. If you add too much sugar, the yeast will die once it gets to 17-18%.

You can get Turbo Yeasts that will ferment up to 23% ABV. You can use both yeasts with your wash in your beer fermenter.

Once your fermentation is complete, you need to filter out the yeast from your mash, or add finings and allow enough time for the yeast to settle out. As the yeast is very fine, it can take a few days for it to settle out.

Once you have a clean mash, you have several options. Firstly (but illegal in Oz) you can use a still to extract the ethanol and make a distillate of up to 90% ABV. Then this needs to be diluted back to 40% ABV before you drink it. This distillate can still contain some fusel oils and needs to put through an activated carbon filter to remove these. Once put through the activated carbon it becomes neutral spirit, and is essentially vodka.

Alternatively (the legal way) is to add finings to and then filter the wash. Then put the clean wash through the activated carbon filter, and take a measurement of the ABV.

Then you can add water and flavours (available for the LHBS) to make up RTD's. You can buy Raspberry, Cola, Lime, Lemon concentrates, but you add less water to the mix, as the wash is only 50% proof (ie. around 20% ABV) vs the 100% proof you buy in the bottle from the bottlo. This approach will make Vodka and flavour (breezers). If you want to sweeten the brew, add sugar. Most RTD's are only 5% ABV.

If you want to make barcadi breezer type RTD's, add some rum essence from the LHBS. You can get almost any spirit flavour, so go for your life and make up your own RTD's at a fraction of commercial price.

To carbonate the RTD's, buy yourself a soda stream. Fill the bottles with the RTD mix, and add the CO2 and pesto, you had real RTD's.

It will be cheaper in the long run to buy post mix kegs and carbonate the RTD's in these, but you are up for a few hundred $'s to set up a system for this.

Barry

 

[joshlangmaid]

Thanks everyone! Thats very informative Barry. Bit over my head but i'm retaining the info for a rainy day. Think I'll stick to my beer for a few brews and continue to learn.

Peas and Corn. - Yes it is freezing down here.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[itguy1953]

Thanks everyone! Thats very informative Barry. Bit over my head but i'm retaining the info for a rainy day. Think I'll stick to my beer for a few brews and continue to learn.

Peas and Corn. - Yes it is freezing down here.

Thanks again everyone.

Yes it is slightly different to making beer. Bit more complicated, but still very easy.

You can make clean spirit (after filtering and carbon treatment) for approx $1 per litre of commercial vodka (ie. if you take into account the differences in ABV). This compares with around $40 per litre for Vodka from the large discount outlets). This is a huge saving, and all legal.

The only snag is that you cannot legally distill the spirit to get it to 40% ABV like the commercial stuff, so you cannot drink it neat and get the same taste. However, most people drink spirit with a mixer (to make up alco-pops) anyway, all you need to get is your mixer in concentrate form, and add this to taste. You can buy soda stream mixers from the supermarkets, BigW and KMart and blend this all up in your soda stream machine.

Do not get frightened off by the apparent complexity, it is not that hard, and can get you in sweet with the missus if she drinks the alco-pops. You can save yourself a fortune and its all legal.

Barry

 

[PostModern]

You can make clean spirit (after filtering and carbon treatment) for approx $1 per litre of commercial vodka (ie. if you take into account the differences in ABV). This compares with around $40 per litre for Vodka from the large discount outlets). This is a huge saving, and all legal.

Vodka ain't vodka unless it's distilled. Who the hell mixes their vodka???

 

[pokolbinguy]

So just fill a fermenter with water, a sheet load of raw sugar and a "turbo yeast".....and that about it....+ filter???

So how do you carbon filter the spirit? I would be interested in doing this to make a keg of "alcopop" for a party.

Pok

 

[itguy1953]

So just fill a fermenter with water, a sheet load of raw sugar and a "turbo yeast".....and that about it....+ filter???

So how do you carbon filter the spirit? I would be interested in doing this to make a keg of "alcopop" for a party.

Pok

Probably more accurate to call the finished result an "alchobase", as typically people think of "spirit" as distilled and 40%+ ABV.

Simplest way to carbon filter alcobase is to buy a few Kgs of activated carbon, add this to a 20 litre cube, and fill the cube with filterted spirit. Then shake up the cube everytime you go near it. This will allow the AC to go into suspension, and slowly fall through the alchobase to the bottom of the cube. Leave the mix for a few weeks, and all of the fusel oils will be absorbed into the AC.

You can buy AC cheaply on ebay. Search for "activated carbon". You can reuse AC many times before it gets saturated with fusel oils, and then it can be regenerated by heating it in the oven.

An alternative is available from your local HBS. They sell Z filters, which allow you to put in a few hundred grams of AC, and the alchobase travels slowly through the z filter, and drips out the end as clean ready to go alchobase.

Once you have your clean alchobase, test it for ABV. You can get a special alcohol hydrometer from your LHBS.

Now for the mixing. Best to do this on a small scale, and then get your recipe right, and then scale it up. Get a cold bottle of soda water, a 3-4 litre container, your alchobase and your mixer. Work out how much ethanol is in 500ml of your alchobase eg. 500*20%=100ml. Then work out the amount of water/syrup you need to add to get the mix to 5% ABV, by dividing the ethanol volume by 5% (0.05) eg with 100ml of ethanol in 500ml of alchobase, you need to make up the final mix to 100/.05= 2000ml or 2 litres. you already have 500ml, so you need to add 1.5 litres.

Work out how much syrup you need to add to 2 litres of liquid to get the flavour you want. You can get this from the instructions on the bottle, and test this dilution in 500ml of plain soda water. Adjust the syrup to taste.

Pour in 500ml of alchobase, the required syrup and (in this case) enough soda water to take the combined mix 2 litres. Drink and adjust to taste.

Once you have the recipe right, you can work out how much of each component to add to your cornie kegs, then chill them to under 4 degC and force carbonate them.

Drink and enjoy.

This is a great way to make up alchopops, and sure beats the extra tax slug thats coming up.

Barry