About a year ago, I produced thirty liters of moonshine.
Tasted as if distilled from dead rats and kerosine
Double distilled it. Still tasted as if distilled from dead rats and kerosine.
Forgot about it for a year. After a year, tried it again. Not bad at all.
This mean that the “dead rats and kerosine” where the most volatile part of the moonshine which just evaporated over time.
The proper way to deal with such is to throw away the “head” and “tail” of the condensate, i.e. the most and least volatile parts, which are usually no good (as you found out).
Distillation is an art.
I did throw away the heads and tails. And nothing evaporated over time, for those bottles are airtight.
It just got better sitting there.
I had the same experience with my first batch of beer. Very disappointing to spend all that time and money to end up with undrinkable nastiness. Then my procrastination attributes came out and force and 6 months later it was good.
This happens with my schnaps as well. It gets smoother over time. I think part of it is the microfines settle to the bottom and the air contained in the bottle does some work as well. Maybe through oxidation or some other chemical process.
How do you store your moonshine?
See the bottle
Good! Do you store it in a cool, dry place away from sunlight?
Not intentionally
Hmpfffff. I know for a fact that other spirits like wine and scotch – officially stop ageing when they’re bottled. I woulda thunk that the maturation process is all in the barrel…
Wine isn’t a spirit, and absolutely does NOT stop aging in the bottle! That’s the whole reason older wines need to be handled differently. Controlled storage in wine cellars only serves to delay the inevitable.
Try adding some oak chips and give it another year or three. You could also run it through activated charcoal after distilling but it’s a lot easier to start with cheap vodka.
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I don’t know why, but I really like this post. I feel this is among your best posts, Jim, though I cannot put a finger on why!