This recipe list has been tested by us at Marlin Coast Home Brew. It has been very well constructed and so we thought we would share it with you! This recipe list is designed to make alcohol that resembles the well known commercial bottles we all love! Please enjoy..

Similar to ‘Jack Daniels’ (Bourbon)

• 1 x 250gr Essencia Bourbon Chunks (1/2 a 500g Bag of Chunks),
• 1 x Essencia Tennessee Bourbon Essence,
• (Put all into a container, add 4 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 2-3 weeks, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Jim Beam’ (Bourbon)

• 1 x Maguire’s Kentucky Bourbon Essence,
• 1 x 100g Still Spirits Kentucky Bourbon Chips,
• (Put all into a container, add 4 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 2-3 weeks, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Wild Turkey’ (Bourbon)

• 1 x Noble Turkey Bourbon Essence,
• 1 x 100g Still Spirits Gobblers Bourbon Chips,
• (Put all into a container, add 4 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 2-3 weeks, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey’ (Honey Bourbon)

• 1 x Top Shelf Honey Bourbon Essence,
• 1 x 200ml Ezi Base Liqueur & Schnapps,
• 1 x 100gr Essencia Bourbon Chunks,
• (Put all into a container, add 4 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 2-3 weeks, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Jim Beam Red Stag’ (Cherry Bourbon)

• 1 x Top Shelf Cherry Bourbon Essence,
• 1 x 200ml Ezi Base Liqueur & Schnapps,
• 1 x 100gr Essencia Bourbon Chunks,
• (Put all into a container, add 4 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 2-3 weeks, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Jim Beam Apple’ (Apple Bourbon)

• 1 x Top Shelf Apple Schnapps Essence,
• 1 x 200ml Ezi Base Liqueur & Schnapps,
• 1 x 100gr Essencia Bourbon Chunks,
• (Put all into a container, add 2.25 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 2-3 weeks, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Makers Mark’ (REALLY Oaky Bourbon)

• 1 x 500gr Essencia Bourbon Chunks,
• ½ x Top Shelf Tennessee Whisky Essence,
• ½ x Classic Tennessee Bourbon Essence (1 entire sachet from double packet),
• (Put all into a container, add 5 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 3 weeks, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Bourbon Liqueur (Sweet & Smooth)

• 1 x Sup’ n Bourbon Party Pak Essence,
• ½ x Maguires Tennessee Bourbon Essence,
• 6 x Capfulls (12ml) of Top Shelf Mellow Oak Essence,
• (Top up to 2.25 litres with filtered spirit, mix well, allow to age in the bottle for 10 days to 2 weeks).

Similar to ‘Bundaberg Rum’ (Rum)

• 1 x Marlin Coast Green Label Rum Essence,
• 1 x 20gr Rum Barrel Shavings (Rum Wood Chips),
• (Put all into a container, add 1.4 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 1 week to 10 days, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Captain Morgan’ (Spiced Rum)

• 1 x Top Shelf Spiced Rum Essence,
• 1 x 220ml Ezi Base Liqueur & Schnapps,
• 6 x Capfulls (12ml) of Top Shelf Mellow Oak Essence,
• (Top up to 2.25 litres with filtered spirit, mix well, allow to age in the bottle for 10 days to 2 weeks).

Similar to ‘Sailor Jerry’s’ (Spiced Rum)

• 1 x Prestige Rum Spice Essence,
• 2 x Capfulls (4ml) of Top Shelf Mellow Oak Essence,
• (Top up to 750ml with filtered spirit, mix well, allow to age in the bottle for 10 days to 2 weeks).

Similar to ‘Lambs Navy Rum’ (British Dark Rum)

• 1 x Essencia Navy Rum Essence,
• 1 x 30gr Rum Barrel Shavings (Rum Wood Chips),
• (Put all into a container, add 2.25 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 1 week to 10 days, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Coruba Jamaica Rum’ (Dark Rum)

• 1 x Top Shelf Jamaican Dark Rum Essence,
• 1 x 30gr Rum Barrel Shavings (Rum Wood Chips),
• (Put all into a container, add 2.25 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 1 week to 10 days, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Canadian Club’ (Canadian Whisky)

• 1 x Top Shelf Rye Whisky Essence,
• 1 x Essencia Rye Whisky Essence,
• 12 x Capfulls (24ml) of Top Shelf Mellow Oak Essence,
• (Add 4 litres of filtered spirit, mix well, allow to age in the bottle for 10 days to 2 weeks).

Similar to ‘Johnny Walker’ (Scotch Whisky)

• 1 x Essencia Walkers Whisky Essence,
• 1 x 20gr Toasted American Oak Chips,
• (Put all into a container, add 2.25 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 2-3 weeks, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Glenfiddich’ (Scottish Single Malt Whisky)

• 1 x Gold Medal Glen Darroch Whisky Essence,
• 1 x 20gr Toasted American Oak Chips,
• (Put all into a container, add 2.25 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 2-3 weeks, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Glenmorangie Single Malt’ (Single Malt Whisky)

• 1 x Classic Single Malt Whisky Essence,
• 1 x 20gr Toasted American Oak Chips,
• (Put all into a container, add 2.25 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 2-3 weeks, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Jameson’ (Irish Whisky)

• 1 x Samuel Willard’s Gold Star Irish Whisky Essence,
• 1 x 20gr Toasted American Oak Chips,
• (Put all into a container, add 2.25 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 2-3 weeks, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Tullamore Dew’ (Irish Whisky)

• 1 x Classic Irish Whisky Essence,
• 1 x 20gr Toasted American Oak Chips,
• (Put all into a container, add 2.25 litres of filtered spirit, leave for 2-3 weeks, strain through paper coffee filters or paper towels to remove wood)

Similar to ‘Southern Comfort’ (Whisky Liqueur)

• 1 x Top Shelf Southern Haze Essence,
• 1 x 220ml Ezi Base Liqueur & Schnapps,
• 6 x Capfulls (12ml) of Top Shelf Mellow Oak Essence,
• (Top up to 2.25 litres with filtered spirit, mix well, allow to age in the bottle for 10 days to 2 weeks).

Similar to ‘Grey Goose’ (Vodka)

• 1 x Essencia Canard Vodka Essence,
• 6 x Capfulls (12ml) of Top Shelf Glycerine (Smoothing Agent),
• (Add 2.25 litres with filtered spirit, mix well, allow to age in the bottle for 10 days to 2 weeks).

Similar to ‘Bombay Sapphire’ (Gin)

• 1 x Essencia Blue Sapphire Gin Essence,
• 4-6 x Juniper Berries,
• (Add 2.25 litres of filtered spirit to essence, mix well then pour into bottles. Add 2-3 juniper berries per 1.125 litre bottle [squeeze them between your fingers to pop them then drop them in the bottle]. Remove berries after 2-3 weeks and enjoy)!!

Similar to ‘Jagermeister’ (German Liqueur)

• 1 x Prestige Jakt Snaps Essence,
• 1 x 100ml Ezi Base Liqueur & Schnapps,
• (Top up to 750ml with filtered spirit, mix well, allow to age in the bottle for 10 days to 2 weeks).
• **A shot glass of Jagermeister dropped into a glass of Red Bull energy drink makes a cocktail called a JagerBomb**

Similar to ‘Liqueur 43’ (Spanish Liqueur)

• 1 x Prestige Liqueur 45 Essence,
• 1 x 200ml Ezi Base Liqueur & Schnapps,
• (Top up to 750ml with filtered spirit, mix well, allow to age in the bottle for 10 days to 2 weeks).
• **In Mexico, mixing espresso coffee with Liqueur 43 and served on ice is called a ‘Carajillo’**

Vanilla Apple Cooler (Cocktail)

• 1 x Top Shelf Apple Schnapps Essence. Also needs 180ml of Ezi base added with it. Makes 1.125ltr’s,
• 1 x Still Spirits Vanilla Vodka Sachet Essence, Makes 1 litre.
• (Half a shot of vanilla vodka, half a shot of apple schnapps into a glass full of ice, 2-3 wedges of cut lime [squeezed into glass then left in there], top up with lemonade/Soda water!)

Lychee & Lime (Cocktail)

• 1 x Edwards Lucky Lychee. Also needs 300ml Ezi Base Liqueur & Schnapps added with it.
• Makes 1.4 liters.
• (One shot of Lychee liqueur into a glass full of ice, 2-3 wedges of cut lime [squeezed into glass then left in there], top up with lemonade/Soda water!)

In short, NO!

Carbon when in direct contact with stainless steel will corrode your filter, this will form tiny ‘pits’ inside the filter where the carbon has been sitting against the steel, and this pitting (corroded steel) will come out of the filter in your alcohol. In turn you will be ingesting small amounts of metal, and we would highly recommend using a plastic spirit filter!

Corrosion Of Stainless Steel Due to Carbon Contact: Remember that activated carbon may contain residues of strong chemicals (acids) that are impregnated during its manufacture. Carbon has the highest galvanic potential of all conducting materials, and in presence of humidity it will tend to corrode most ANY metallic surface. Look for a non-conductive and corrosion resistant material or coating for your vessel, like plastic!

Most definitely YES!

Carbon can physically only treat alcohol up to 55% and trying to run anything stronger than this through carbon is a total waste of time! Having said that, even though it can treat up to 55% we would ALWAYS recommend watering down and treating your alcohol at no higher than 40% for best results.

Note: Many brewers over the years have said they run their spirit straight from the still (at 80-90%) into their filter, and it taste fine so it must work!? This is incorrect, as the carbon is physically unable to do its desired purpose at such a high alcohol strength. Although the carbon may make the alcohol smell better, this is the only thing it has done for that alcohol. Most impurities that you are carbon treating are tasteless, colourless and odourless, therefore just because it looks and smells ok, does not mean it is safe to consume! Always water down your alcohol before carbon filtering.

Different stills run at different temperatures, and if in doubt you should check ­with the manufacturer/supplier of your particular brand of still. However majority of stills are designed to run similarly. The temperature that ethyl alcohol boils off at is 78C-82C and therefore if your still has a temperature gauge in the top of the condenser (usually in a rubber bung situated at the top) it should run between 78C-82C (with 78C being ideal). If your still has a water outlet thermometer to gauge the temperature, it usually sits between 50C-65C (dependant on the brand of still). For an Essencia Express Condenser (or Essencia water outlet thermometer used with any still) the temperature is 50C-55C. With a Turbo 500 Condenser, the water outlet temperature should sit between 55C-65C (with 60C being the ideal).

Making the cleanest and best tasting spirit is not a difficult process, but rather simple once you break it down into 4 main steps.

Step 1: Fermentables, when making your wash most people use white sugar, it is a cheaper option and easier to come by, but also contains ‘Fructose’ a complex sugar that is harder for your yeast to break down. During this process, the yeast creates a lot of unwanted flavours which will add to the taste of your finished product. Dextrose is a much cleaner alternative, and should not only give you a better finished product, but a better yield also!

Step 2: Yeast, a lot of nutrient is in almost all commercially available yeast, but it is this nutrient that gives your finished alcohol a harsher and less desirable taste. Yeast nutrient is what gives ‘turbo yeasts’ the added volume and fast fermentation periods, however think of this ‘nutrient’ as you do fertiliser. Pump fertiliser into your flowers and your garden grows fast and looks great, pump your tomatoes full of fertiliser and there not going to taste nearly as good as organic!? Well, it’s the same with distillation, the better quality ingredients you use, the better quality product you end up with! Using a yeast like ‘Essencia Super 6 Ultra Pure’ will give you a cleaner alcohol, but unlike most turbo yeasts you will get a lower volume. It is a decision you are faced with, quality over quantity, Turbo Yeasts with more nutrient will give you more alcohol, cleaner yeasts with less nutrient will give you a better alcohol!

Step 3: Fermentation temperature, fermenting for a longer period at a lower temperature is ideal! As with beer and wine fermentation, the same principles apply to spirits. The yeast you use will have a specific temperature range to ferment within, most yeasts will ferment as high as 35C (some up to 40C) but although they will manage this will little problem, the ideal fermentation temperature for almost all spirit yeasts is 20-25C and this is the temperature that will allow a slower ferment, causing less undesired flavours (created from stressing the yeast at higher temperatures) and a cleaner finished product.

Step 4 : Carbon Treatment, to ensure a great tasting spirit it is important to use an effective carbon filter system! The old way to carbon treat was to soak your spirit on Activated Carbon for a number of days to a week, then use a finishing carbon and an inline/drip filter to run through the soaked spirit. When this was the only method available it worked as best it could, but it really is an ineffective means of trying to carbon treat alcohol, and does not work very well compared to the filters of today. These days there are many filters that are not only faster and work more effectively, but produce a much better finished product as well! See our “Filters & Carbon” section to look at some of the latest and greatest carbon filter systems available.

Definitely YES!

During distillation different alcohols are boiled off at different temperatures, the impure alcohols before ethyl alcohol (drinking alcohol) are often referred to as ‘Heads’ and the impurities after are often referred to as ‘Tails”. The temperature drinking alcohol boils off at is 78C-82C, which is why we always try to run our still between these temperatures. Impurities like acetone and methanol have a boiling temperature which is a lot lower, and is why they are the first impurities to come out of your still, hence why you should always throw the first 150ml of alcohol (impure alcohols) that comes out of your still.

You then collect the ethyl alcohol that comes out between 78C-82C, switch off your still, and water down your alcohol to 40%. Now although you have kept you still at the desired temperature, impure alcohols do not stop and start directly at the temperatures they boil off at, there is a degree of ‘Tail’ impurities (eg: Propanol -1) that will be present in your alcohol. That’s where carbon comes in!

Any ‘Tails’ that have come through with your alcohol can now be removed by carbon treating. Carbon works like a sponge with many millions of tiny crevasse/holes that the impurities get stuck in, then once you remove the carbon, the alcohol is free from these undesirables. For a detailed scientific explanation on how carbon works see: “Carbon – An explantion on the how carbon works!“

The best method is to clear your wash before distillation using Still Spirits Turbo Clear, this will drop most of the excess sugars and sediment to the bottom of your wash. Then add some “Distilling Conditioner” or “Foam Stop” to your still boiler (when filling it with the cleared wash) immediately before starting your burn. The clearing agent stops most excessive sugars being transferred to the boiler at all, whilst the ‘foam stop’ stops foaming in the boiler during the burn, (which is caused by high concentrations of proteins and unfermented sugars in the wash itself).

Note: Distilling conditioner allows distillation even if your wash has not fully fermented out.

The usual carbon filtering process will in most cases remove the cloudiness, but as the cloudiness often stems from your wash coming through with the spirit, the sure way is to redistill the cloudy spirit. Simply pour the spirit back into your still, top up to the usual height with tap water, then run as per normal.

Helpful Hint: Make sure that you add the extra water (up to the usual level in your boiler) to ensure that the element will still be covered when all the alcohol has been boiled off, otherwise you will boil it dry and ruin the element.

You will produce small quantities of methanol when distilling using commercial ‘spirit yeasts’ and sugar/dextrose. The temperature ethanol (drinking alcohol) boils off at is 78C-82C, which is why we are always told to keep our still between these temperatures. The acetone and methanol boiling temperatures are a lot lower, and this is why they are the first impurities to come out of your still, hence why you should always throw the first 150ml of alcohol (impure alcohols/methanol) that comes out of your still. As we are only fermenting sugar with a known yeast and nutrient mix (often refered to as ‘Turbo Yeasts’), we know how much by products such as methanol are to be discarded at the beginning, making the process of distillation safe.

If you wish to distill other mixtures (other than brew shop yeast and sugar/dextrose) then the methanol quantity produced is unknown and could prove disastrous!

7 days (1 week) best case scenario using Turbo Yeasts, or 12 days using a slower cleaner yeast (Super 6 Ultra Pure).

General rule of thumb, 5-10 days to ferment your wash (dependant on the type of yeast used). 24hrs to clear your wash, 4-7 hours to distil (again dependant on the type of still unit used), and approx. 24hrs to carbon treat your alcohol (using the modern carbon filters available).

With some yeasts you may do, but do not add more than the recipe or manufacturer recommends as yeast varieties are selected for different properties. A yeast variety which can ferment rapidly, may not be very resistant to alcohol. If this is the case, adding too much sugar will stress the yeast and may result in unfermented sugar remaining in the wash. This can often cause the wash to foam up during distillation. Most spirit yeasts have a recipe printed on them, with the amount of sugar and there ideal fermentation temperature. Select the yeast that best suits your needs.

Generally yeasts will have only two options, either fermenting 6kg of white sugar (7kg when using dextrose), or they will ferment 8kg of white sugar (9kg when using dextrose). If the yeast gives the option to ferment either 6kg OR 8kg of white sugar, it is ok to add the extra 2kgs, however usually it will state that a faster and cleaner ferment will be accomplished using the lesser amount of sugar. This is due to the extra work and stress put on the yeast when adding the additional fermentables.

This is somewhat of a trick question because volume of alcohol is dependant on how well your wash ferments, and how much alcohol is present in that wash. Think of it like this, the newer reflux style stills (Turbo 500 & Essencia Express Stills) will produce a higher strength finished product. If you were to collect 3.5 litres using a super reflux still at say 80% or the same 3.5 litres of alcohol using a Turbo 500 at say 90%, then once you have watered both down to 40% the Turbo 500 should give you a higher volume of finished product. That being said you would have had to have collected the same amount from both stills for this theory to be relevant.

All stills collect alcohol from your wash at varying strengths, but at the end of the day though, the total amount of alcohol collected is dependent on how much is present in your wash. Newer Reflux Stills collect alcohol at a much higher strength than the previous model stills were able to, so in reality even if you are not getting more alcohol, you are in fact getting a cleaner and better quality alcohol!

Another advantage of newer stills is they have a considerably shorter run time than the older reflux/super reflux style stills, usually finishing in 3.5-4 hours as opposed to the older models 6-7 hours!

Alcohol should always be watered down to below 55%/V before filtering, as carbon physically cannot treat alcohol at higher strengths.

In a word Yes.

What happens is simple, during fermentation the wash produces fusel oils which need to be removed and the sooner the better. By adding 1 packet of Still Spirits Turbo Carbon (liquid carbon) to the wash at the beginning of fermentation the fusel oils are absorbed by the carbon as they are produced.

When to add the carbon?

Simply mix the dextrose and water, add your Turbo Carbon, stir till dissolved, and add your yeast – it’s that easy.

Once fermentation is finished, make sure you use ‘Turbo Clear’ to drop all of the unfermented sugars and excess carbon to the bottom of the fermenter before transferring the wash to your boiler and distilling.

Give it a go – you might be surprised by the result.

(Note that fermenter used for making a spirit wash with carbon will stain and can not be used for beer afterwards)

If the spirit runs through too quickly it is usually due to the filter paper not sitting correctly. This can occur when the continuous filter has not been cleaned properly after use.

Always ensure all Finishing Carbon is cleaned out of the cartridge. The filter paper can also be dislodged by the spirit reacting with the Finishing Carbon. Simply repack the cartridge using the same carbon and paper.

Helpful Hint: The carbons are designed to work in tandem. When you open the tap and start the flow of spirit to the filter cartridge, some of the HA Carbon comes down with the spirit.

This forms a coating on the filter paper which then filters out any more carbon. If you reset the filter and don’t have sufficient HA Carbon on the paper then the filter paper may not work correctly. To remedy this simply ensure some of the HA Carbon is mixed into the first lot of spirit that comes down the tube. Also ensure that you use Still Spirits HA Carbon as your first treatment in the Continuous Filter.

This may be caused by the following.
Too much high activity carbon has passed down the tube to the black cartridge after the tap has been turned on.
Helpful Hint: Put a 25 mm spacer under the continuous filter, at the front where the hose exits to the continuous filter.
This will tilt the container back, and ensure that the High Activity Carbon settles to the back of the filter.
This will avoid any carbon from settling over the outlet to the filter cartridge which could block it.
It is important to let most of the High Activity Carbon settle before opening the tap and letting the spirit flow through to the filter cartridge. This takes 24 hours. If you open the valve too soon then too much carbon may flow down the tube and clog the filter paper making the process go much slower.

The Filter Cartridge may have been overfilled with Finishing Carbon.
As the carbon reacts with the spirit it expands and heats up. Always leave a 10 mm gap for expansion.
Temperature: The filter system operates best at normal room temperature.
As the spirit cools down it becomes thicker. As a result, in winter the whole process slows down.
Try heating your spirit before adding it to the reservior or putting the Continuous Filter in a warm place.
Too many filter papers or the wrong type of filter paper.
A dirty or clogged tube, tap or cartridge.
The whole Continuous Filter should be rinsed thoroughly after every use.
Impatience: Remember that the Continuous Filter is removing unwanted impurities from your spirit.
Trying to speed things up too much will effect the quality of your spirit.

When using a glass thermometer, make sure that the thermometer is inserted into the bung so that the red bulb of alcohol at the bottom of the thermometer is positioned at the point where the steam is coming up and changes direction to go into the main condensing chamber, (usually about 2cm from the bottom of the bung, but ot so far as to be touching your packing). If the thermometer goes in too far then a higher reading will result. If it is not in far enough a lower reading may result.

NOTE: Switching to a ‘digital thermometer’ will be easier to read, they are much harder to break, and give a faster more accurate reading!

This is a very rare occurance. The fine sediment is in fact mineral salts which originate within the activated carbon itself. When spirit runs over activated carbon which contains some mineral salts, some mineral salts can be absorbed into the spirit. Later, once the temperature has dropped, these mineral salts start to become insoluble in the spirit and after a few days a fine sediment appears in the spirit. This fine sediment (sometimes looks like a milky haze, other times it drops to the bottom of the bottle) is the mineral salts originally from the activated carbon. These mineral salts are absolutely 100% safe (in fact essential for life!) but you don’t want them in your spirit.

Under certain circumstances, some of this residual mineral content gets dissolved into distillate spirit as the spirit flows over the activated carbon. Think of it this way, as the spirit passes through the activated carbon, the carbon absorbs the vast majority of ‘volatiles’ from the spirit and holds them within the internal pore structure – however, under certain circumstances, mineral salts contained within the carbon may pass into the spirit. Whether mineral salts do indeed get dissolved into the spirit depends upon 2 main variables:

1. The amount and types of mineral salts within the particular batch of carbon.
2. The pH and chelate chemical (eg organic acids like citrate are a chelating agent) content of the spirit.

Obviously, we have no control over 1. In a perfect world we would persuade the supplier to first wash with an inorganic acid like they currently do and then wash with organic acids to remove the remaining salt content.

These mineral salts remain soluble in the spirit for some minutes / hours because the spirit temperature is warm and so has higher solubility. After the spirit has cooled, these mineral salts will begin to become insoluble. If you had a spectrophotometer to measure even the slightest haze, you would begin to ‘see’ the spirit ‘go hazy’ after just a few hours. To the naked eye, you will not start to see these solids until after 2 or 3 days (may be less or more depending upon the level of mineral salts present).

Re-filtering through activated carbon will not help, but ‘re-filtering’ through an ordinary wine filter or even a coffee filter, say 1 week after the filtering through carbon would remove the insoluble mineral salts and hence solve the problem. But spirit should be stored cold (not frozen) during this week to ensure anything that is going to become insoluble, does become insoluble). If the spirit is left for long enough (3 or 4 weeks?), it should be easy to pour off the bright spirit from a white sediment at the bottom of the bottle.

This problem is likely to be influenced by certain environmental conditions like temperature and water quality.

Generally blue or green colour in the alcohol can be caused from to much nutrient in the wash. You are not able to ‘stack’ Turbo Yeast washes, meaning you cannot do a double brew in a 60L fermenter (with twice the sugar and two turbo yeasts), as the excessive nutrient gives the alcohol this colour and unpleasant taste. This is hard to remove, re-distilling and filtering may help but often wont remove it entirely.

Cloudy spirit (which is discoloured from the clear we are used to) is from foaming through of the wash into your spirit. See: What measures can I take to guard against cloudy spirit? section.

Yellow spirit can also be produced if too much spirit has been collected on the previous run. Byproducts build up inside the condenser and are flushed out with the next run. After watering down your spirit, carbon treatment should remove this yellow, but redistilling the alcohol gives the brewer peace of mind. Clean the condenser before re-use.

With older model condensers can sometimes produce discoloured spirit the first or second time that they are used (from new). All condensers are acid washed to remove welding flux etc. after manufacture but problems can still arise.

In my line of work sometimes it gets difficult explaining certain aspects of why we do what we do when making alcohol. One of these involves carbon, and more specifically, just how does it work. So I thought it was about time to clear up the confusion and get the story straight. The following is more a of a scientific explanation of just how carbon works, but hopefully it will give you better idea of exactly why we carbon filter.

First thing, some substances have the ability to attract and hang on to certain molecules by electrostatic attraction. Forget all the buzz words like Van der Waals forces and London forces (if you’ve ever read into how carbon works you may have come across these terms before). They all come down to essentially the same thing as a charged comb attracting a bit of paper, the only difference being the distance the attraction works over. Carbon is particularly good at this attraction thing which might explain why diamonds attract so many bits of fluff (diamonds are packed with dense carbon particles)

The other thing about carbon is that it can be prepared so that its structure resembles a sponge, with millions of tiny passages and holes in it (usually by a process of special aeration). This preparation is loosely called “activation”. These passages and holes can control what molecules get deep inside the carbon, and which cannot…..a purely physical matter of size. It is this physical structure that primarily that primarily governs wether a particular ‘activated’ carbon can be used to ‘target’ molecules of a particular range of sizes. If you are making a respirator, then you will want to know all about that, as some respirator cartridges are best for one range of gases, but not others. In our case, we need not be as fussy as all we are dealing with are very small molecules of water and relatively huge hydrocarbon molecules….the alcohols etc. The water can penetrate all the way into average activated carbon, but the large hydrocarbons can only penetrate by various amounts, according to how big they are. Just a simple sieve thing.

The other thing about a sponge structure is that it presents a huge surface area for molecules to stick to (the use of special manufacturing techniques results in highly porous charcoals that have surface areas of 300-2,000 square metres per gram….per gram!!!!)

So ‘activating’ carbon not only greatly increases its ability to deal with the quantity by having a huge surface area, but also offers a degree of selectivity by physically controlling access to this surface area.

The question of which hydro carbons are attracted strongly to the carbon surfaces they encounter, and those which are attracted weakly, can get a bit complicated. It is not simply a matter of size. Some hydrocarbon molecules, which alone would be attracted weakly, can form a loose association with water and then be strongly attracted to carbon. Water has a boomerang shape, with the two hydrogen atoms at the tips of the boomerang and the oxygen atom in the middle. This positive charge on the oxygen side (egghead/cocktail party term #1: it’s bi-polar). This enables water molecules to stick to parts of some hydrocarbons and give them a bunch of electrostatic anchors to hang onto a carbon surface.

Bottom line is that if a big hydrocarbon molecule can get to a carbon surface, and it is ‘sticky’ enough, then the carbon will onto it (egghead/cocktail party term #2: it absorbs the hydrocarbon molecule).

Bottom line to bottom line… it won’t necessarily stay stuck! Other molecules can come charging in and knock the molecule off the carbon surface it was stuck to (egghead/cocktail party term #3 adsorption is subject to dynamic equilibrium).

Absorption is primarily an electrostatic thing, so it follows that it is desirable to have some charge imbalance on the molecule you won’t to be held strongly. Yes, water is absorbed onto carbon, but you may recall that I said that absorption is also a dynamic equilibrium thing. Water molecules are tiny compared with hydrocarbon molecules, and their mass pales to insignificance when you add up the mass of all atoms in a large hydrocarbon molecule. Think of a large passenger liner coming into to dock and berthing. If any small boats are tied up at the quayside, what do you think their chances are of staying where they are when that massive liner comes bearing down on them? In a sumo wrestling match, the biggest guy usually wins!

Note: Alcohol is made up of hydrocarbons, the fusel oils and volatiles, which make up the ‘bad stuff’ spectrum and are what we are attempting to filter out, are made up of a different type of hydrocarbon, that is more attracted to carbon and slightly larger molecule the normal hydrocarbons.

In summary what have we learnt. Activated carbon is a type of treated carbon, which creates millions of passage ways to trap large hydrocarbon molecules (alcohol and in particular ethanol, which is what we produce when we make our own spirits, is made up of hydrocarbons) and let smaller particles through.

So if the fusel oils and volatiles are made up of bigger, and more attracted particles, so in turn more of them will stick to the carbon, and eventually they will knock most other particles off the carbon, resulting in the ‘bad stuff’ sticking, and the good stuff flowing through.

I hope this has somewhat helped you in understanding just how carbon has helped..

If you think we have it bad, check out some of these weird and wacky laws from the United States (bloody yanks) 😉

ALABAMA

About two of every three counties in Alabama are dry. That is, they prohibit the production, distribution and sale of any alcoholic beverages.

However, Alabama permits the sale of fireworks, tobacco and firearms and it does so with virtually no restrictions or regulations.

For example, there is no state permit required to purchase or carry rifles and shotguns, no licensing of owners of rifles or shotguns, and no registration of such deadly weapons. Similarly, there is no state permit needed to purchase a handgun, no licensing of handgun owners, and no registration of handguns. Even young children can carry and use dangerous firearms.

Alabamans apparently view a drink as more dangerous than fireworks, tobacco, or rifles, shotguns and pistols. Is a drink in the hand of a mature adult more dangerous than a gun in the hand of an immature child

ALASKA

There are 83 dry towns and villages in Alaska.  In addition, Fairbanks is a dry town for moose, where it’s illegal to feed a moose any alcoholic beverage.  Apparently they can’t hold their alcohol.

DELAWARE

A traveller through the Delaware Valley in 1753 compiled a list of the drinks he encountered; all but three of the 48 contained alcohol.

INDIANA

It’s illegal in Indiana for liquor stores to sell milk or cold soft drinks. They can, however, sell unrefrigerated soft drinks.

IOWA

Iowa has its share of temperance-oriented laws, of which here is a sample:

• It’s illegal to run a “tab.”
• If a law enforcement officer is having a drink in a bar in Iowa and an employee pours water down the drain, the water is legally considered an alcohol beverage intended for unlawful purposes.
• It’s no easier after work. An owner or employee of an establishment in Iowa that sells alcohol can’t even legally consume a drink there after closing for business.

MICHIGAN

It’s illegal in Michigan for a person under the age of 21 to give a gift of alcohol beverage to anyone, even to a person of legal age.

Permitting diners to take home an unfinished bottle of alcohol beverage, rather than consuming it all before leaving to prevent “waste,” encourages moderation and discourages intoxication. However, this is strictly prohibited in Michigan.

MISSOURI

Anyone under the age of 21 who takes out household trash containing even a single empty alcohol beverage container can be charged with illegal possession of alcohol in Missouri.

NEBRASKA

Nebraska state law prohibits bars from selling beer unless they are simultaneously brewing a kettle of soup.

NEW YORK

The longest recorded champagne cork flight was 177 feet and 9 inches, four feet from level ground at Woodbury Vineyards in New York State.

NORTH DAKOTA

State law of North Dakota prohibits serving beer and pretzels at the same time in any bar or restaurant.

PENNSYLVANIA

In Pennsylvania the tax on wine and spirits is called the Jamestown Flood tax because it was imposed in 1936 to raise funds to help the city of Jamestown rebuild and recover from a devastating flood that year. The city of Jamestown quickly rebuilt and recovered but the tax still continues. It currently costs the taxpayers of the state over $160,000,000.00 each year.

TEXAS

The county in Texas with the highest DUI arrests among young drivers is “dry;” that is, prohibits the sale of alcohol.

Texas state law prohibits taking more than three sips of beer at a time while standing.

VIRGINIA

George Washington was apparently the largest distiller of whiskey in the new American nation during the late 1700s. In 1798, the year before his death, Washington’s distillery at Mount Vernon produced 11,000 gallons of whiskey and produced a profit of $7,500. That was an enormous sum of money over 200 years ago.

WISCONSIN

In Wisconsin, an adult under the age of 21 who is married to one age 21 or older can legally drink with his or her spouse.

Interesting Facts on How Alcohol has Shaped Our Society

The Honeymoon

Babylonia, 4,000 years ago, it was customary that one month after the wedding, the bride’s father would provide his son-in-law with all the mead, (A honey beer/wine) that he could drink for its supposed aphrodisiac qualities. At that time, the calendar was lunar based, so the period called the honey month, or as we know it today as the honeymoon.

Rule of Thumb

Before the thermometer was created, brewers would immerse their thumb into the wort to ascertain the correct temperature before pitching the yeast. Too hot would kill the yeast, too cold and the yeast would not multiply. This thumb in beer antic would become what we know as the “rule of thumb”.

Mind Your P’s and Q’s

The English publicans served ale in days gone by, in pints and quarts. At times the pubs drinkers would become unruly, so the bartender would yell to the patrons to mind their pints and quarts and simmer down their anger and settle down. Today, the saying has been abbreviated to mind your p’s and q’s.

Grog

Around the year 1740, Admiral E.Vernon, of the British fleet, decided to water down the navy’s rum. This was not well received by the sailors and the admiral became known as the Old Grog after the rigid woollen grogram. Coats that he wore. The expression, grog, quickly became attached to the meaning of watered down drink. When one became drunk after consuming this grog, they were groggy. Thus the term Grog, was first coined.

Some Trivia

Fredrick the Great of Prussia tried to ban the consumption of coffee and demanded that the populace drink alcohol instead.

President Lincoln, when informed that the General Grant whisky while leading his troops, reportedly replied “find out the brand name of that whisky so I can feed it to my other generals”

During the reign of William the 3rd, a garden fountain was once used as a giant punch bowl. The recipe include 560 gallons of brandy, 1200 pounds of sugar, 25,000 lemons, 20 gallons of lime juice and five pounds of nutmeg. The bartender rowed around in a small boat, filling up guests punch cups.

The shallow champagne glass originated with Marie Antoinette. It was first formed from wax moulds made of her breasts.

In the 1800’s, rum was considered excellent for cleaning hair and keeping it healthy. Brandy was believed to strengthen hair roots.

“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is commonly believed to be the only sentence in the English language devised to include all the letters of the alphabet. However, typesetters have another such sentence: “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs”

A raisin dropped into a glass of champagne will repeatedly bounce up and down between the top and bottom of the glass.

Did you know that the human body produces its own supply of alcohol naturally on a continuos basis, 24 hours a day, seven days a week? Did you know that the world’s oldest known recipe is for beer

Your wash has most probably not fermented out properly. Make sure you are fermenting in an area under 30 degrees, and always check your wash with a Hydrometer before distilling. The correct reading for a finished wash is 990 on your hydrometer. Check your still for any steam leaks, and make sure you are following the operating instructions.

I love scotch…scotch scotch scotch….rum too, oh and bourbon as well. Actually I’m partial to the entirety of the brown spirit family. On the rocks, mixed with coke, mixed with ginger beer, its all good to me. Actually my love for the dark spirit has pushed me at times, no I’m not talking about borderline alcoholism or constant partying. No I much prefer a quite one or two at home, where I can really begin to appreciate the merits and uhh, demerits of my fine brews.

This fun little past time however has made me wonder, made me think, almost forced me at times to seek out the best spirit I can, forced me to tinker and play with my spirits, developing and re-developing my favorite drink. It is a never ending cycle but one that I love and I feel it is almost my duty to pass on the things I have learnt.

Let me first start by saying don’t feel pressured reading this article, most people find that just using an essence is fine, so do I, its just on special occasions its nice to know you have something truly fantastic in the cabinet. I have come across many a skeptic in my time, the snobby nosed ‘high class’ citizen who hear’s home brew and goes yuck! Its just nice to know you have something really capable of changing opinions.

Apart from creating your own essence, there is basically two ways of modifying your spirit. Either oaking or tailoring with an assortment of extracts (profiling). Lets start with the most simple and better known of the two, oaking.

Oaking: Oaking is a relatively simple concept. It involves soaking your neutral filtered spirit on wood. But not just any wood, most oak chips come from old whisky or bourbon barrels, used by breweries for centuries to soak there own spirits on. In turn the barrels have absorbed the flavor from the spirit, this is what you are trying to obtain from them (except in the case of “American Oak” chips, which are simply from an American oak tree).

Oaking you spirit will not only receive the flavor and receive the colour from the chips, but as you might have guessed, that woody and sometimes smoky flavor that is so prized in some of the top quality spirits.

The method is simple but varies slightly depending on the type of chip and the brand. In general it involves soaking 10gms-50gms of oak chips for every litre of spirit for about 1-3 weeks (dependant on taste). The longer you leave it the more flavor and woodiness it will impart. You can often reuse the same chips once or twice after, just soak it for longer.

Some people use the flavour just from the oak chips itself whilst others use it in conjunction with an essence, in an attempt to add an build on the flavour profile already present in the essence. If, and it will probably happen eventually, you leave it for to long and you find its like drinking bark, you can use more neutral spirit (unflavoured) and an essence to dim it down and smoothen it out.

Using Extracts: The best way to go about using extracts and flavour profiles is to obtain a whisky profiling kit. These kits come with all the basics that you need, plus some instructions and recipes and give you an easily to follow guide on what to do and how to go about it. The kits come with 4 different whiskies base essences, which generally the 4 different major styles of whiskies (as reflected by the different regions of Scotland), Lowland, Highland, Irish and bourbon.

The also come with a range of adjunct flavours used for exentuating certain flavour profiles in you drink. These Are:

• Oak cask (the main flavour which is present in most whiskys)
• Sweet vanillin (a sweet vanilla flavour with a slight sherry flavour)
• Peat Smoke (A strong almost pungent peat smoke flavour, a very prominent note in Scottish Whiskies)
• Astringent Notes ( A sharp bitter astringent flavour that helps to add some bite to the whisky)
• Fruity Esters (more prominent on the nose then anywhere else, they add a lot to the whisky bouquet)
• Cereal notes( often described as grainy, these flavour notes are a part of any grain and are contained in the whisky bases)
• Carob Notes ( a chocolate grain flavour that results from the use of some mildly roasted grains)
• Cedar Oak ( imparts a distinctive drier oak flavour, often found in Irish whisky styles)
• Distillers Caramel (purely for colour, imparts a warm golden hue)
• Glycerine (contribute to smoothness and mouth feel)

Using just this small list of flavours you can create almost any whisky, bourbon and add to many rums. What you do with them is up to you though!

The only way your going to know what your spirit can be is to try it. It was with the best of intentions that we all started homebrewing. We wanted to save money, maybe we wanted drink something a littler healthier? But somewhere along the way our intentions have changed, no longer do I homebrew just to save money, I homebrew to make the best quality drink I possibly can and I am proud to call it my own.