Distilling Spirit

As autumn comes along so fruit harvest is close to be due indicating distillers throughout the region firing up their stills providing some of the most valued and renowned clear spirits. Far from competing with those famouse guys for a variety of reasons, I concluded this early fall Saturday would be a good time to set up the distillery for a nice coffee chocolate spirit.

Coffee/chocolate spirit 43%vol. with added a 99% cocoa to it. I certainly was surprised in the smoothness of the final distillate what I account to the added cacao. Tasting right after distilling always recognize the alcohol strikes trough but likewise gives a clear perspective of the final quality of the distillate once its stored for an extended time, the addition of 99% cocoa surprisingly smoothed the alcohol right after the distilling and promises a terrific result in about 6 months.

The recipe is rather simple what made the result even more fascinating.

12% pure alcohol, 94,5%vol. (180ml)

88% distilled water (1.320ml)

28g Guatemalan grand crue Arabica coffee

(whole bean pestle broken in a granite mortar)

22g Lind’s chocolate (99% cocoa)

Evaporating steam temperature was rigged at 86° C. which resulted in a 72%vol alcohol level by 200ml distilled volume. I balanced it down to 43%Vol. with 130ml distilled water, concerns of watering down the decent flavor was of unnecessarily expense.

Since density of the distillate is in relation of temperature, the bottom scale of the dual alcohol thermometer gives a defined value to add or subtract alcohol grades at the present room temperature. 20° C = 0. For the recent distillate the rt was 20° C so it was just firn. Nice equipment and since distilling is a rather simple procedure by its set up, (3000ml flask, Liebig cooler – water pump, receiving flask, burner) The dual alcohol thermometer was nearly at the same expense as the whole distilling equipment.

With this excellent base spirit, the road goes clear to some Kahlua style liquor (34%vol), and of course a flavor upgraded Bailey’s.

Concerning distilling spirits I wonder how the legal situation is in different countries, are “homebrews” distills allowed or is it all moonshine bootlegging if not officially registered?

Note:

If the post contains propagated spelling errors I might eycuse myself due to extended product tasting.

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Comments

Samuel_68313

This is awesome, I love reading about things like this. Pretty sure in most states it's illegal to distil alcohol, and I am sure it is in the UK but by all accounts you just need a license that is very easy to get and has no requirements.

What is the approximate cost of the equipment? I'm really tempted to start doing stuff like this myself.

Manfred_18311

Distilling is fun to do; actually you can distill any fruit, nuts, even vegetables. For non-alcohol herb essence a still comes in handy too. All in all would say € 250,00/ $ 192,00 for the equipment, I collect it online from different laboratory suppliers. As you really just need just a basic distill you probable can get it to an even lesser price. From my observations US Laboratory materials have a much better price range than in Germany.

Complete distilling kids for home uses are in a higher price range ($ 500 –up) and mostly made of cupper. Since I’m using it for different types of distillates I opted for the laboratory version.

Interesting how differently countries view the home distilled spirits in terms of the law.

There are two types of distilling; one is actually making alcohol form fruits, malt or else with the help of yeast to break out the Ethanol from the glucose in a pre-distilling process, and the other using ready distilled food grade ethanol from the store. I opted for the latter as it is simpler to obtain a result with various flavors. The legal issue here is more a tax thing. If you produce alcohol you’re held to pay tax on it if the distilling body exceeds more than 500ml in volume, using already taxed alcohol from the store you’re more or less (amount) free to do so for private use only.

It’s defiantly fun and rewarding to play and experiment with different flavors.

Pepijn_31744

Sadly it is illegal in the Netherlands as well. You can get licensed, but as you would expect that is a painfully difficult and expensive process. I have considered just ignoring the legality aspect since the fines for personal use are pretty low and the chance of getting caught is minimal, but I haven't got around to it.

tshewman

When I read this, I become even more torn. :-) I've had a rotary evaporator on my wish list for a while (where it will likely be for a while), but this seems to be more approachable.

Manfred_18311

Just go for it. Sure, a rotary evaporator is a great toy to have depending on how often and to what extend you wanted to use it but if you want to get into distilling just collect a save and usable ensemble, you will learn a lot about distilling in the process. On this account I even opted out the electrical mantle heater with magnetic stirrer. Storage was another point of concerned. The Distilling unit is assembled within 10min. and otherwise nicely stored away. It’s lesser the equipment but the right execution, the distilling process and a balanced recipe what creates you outstanding results.

Manfred_18311

I’m surprised there is such a rigid regulation on home distiller while continuing a very liberal view on “coffee shops”.

There is another rather easy way to create flavorful spirits. Just set up a mixture 40% ethanol/60% distilled water and add Fruits to it, called “Set up”, let it rest for a while and á vau- l èau you have a nice apple spirit alike. There is a famous set up called Rum pot, In January you fill a bottle of rum and add every month’s fruits of the season to it, it’s a renowned Christmas drink.

But yes, a high taste spirit with decent and playfull flavor isn’t to archive without distilling.

Good luck,

Manfred_18311

Second Step: Coffee spirit distillate with a 100ml/7g Guatemalan grand crue Arabica coffee broken bean infusion (14 Days), the Coffee flavor is now slightly stronger whiteout dominating the underlying Cacao. 14 Days of storage already reduced the alcohol sharpness of the first taste sip considerable. Still at 43%vol. but by the color this will be the base for the 34%vol. dark coffe Liquor.

90% of clear spirit Coffee distillate as entrance product + 10% of the 14 Day bean infused dark spirit. The blend resulted in a beautiful deep amber color, not unlike of a classic brandy. The taste is smooth and balanced between coffee and cacao its tipping to coffee.

This one resulted perfectly and I’m seriously will send it in for the yearly distilling competition in Spring 15.