I'm new to winemaking. So far, I've made
two kits, one red (merlot) one white (piesporter).
I made the red first, and it's just been sitting in
a carboy for about three months since the last
racking. Then I made a batch of white, decided
to bottle it fairly quickly after the kit procedures
were over, and it actually turned out to be
reasonable, I've been using it as drinking wine
while I wait for the red and make other kits.

Next was an attempt at making just pure
alchohol and make my own liquors from
this. I mixed the alchohol in the same plastic
pail that I had done both the red and the white
wine in (for the initial week of fermentation).
I did make sure to clean the plastic bucket
thoroughly after each batch....but for some
reason....now that I'm racking off what should
be just straight alchohol....it tastes like very
diluted white wine. I'm wondering if maybe
it would be smart to have separate plastic
pails for white, red, and straight alchohol?
Or perhaps it's normal for this alchohol
mix to have a slightly sweet taste? Other
then the degassing, fining steps that I went
through with the wines, I treated the alchohol
mixture in the same way as the wine kits. One
week of fermentation, rack into a carboy, let
it sit there for 3 weeks with an airlock in place.
Today I racked it off, just to get rid of the
junk at the bottom and prepare to rack it off
later into gallon jugs.

The alchohol mixture was 23 liters of water, 11
lbs of sugar and the yeast and chemical mix that
came with the kit.

Thank you in advance for any ideas you might
have.

Ian

After reading your post I am presuming that you have been using a kit
advertised to produce liqueurs etc from a kit. In perfect fermenting
conditions they are reputed to produce a clear, colourless liquid at about
20% abv ( they usually refer to it as 40% proof to confuse the issue).
it is several years ago since I had a couple of tries at one of these kits
and then gave up dissatisfied by the results.

1. It is very important to maintain a strict temperature control regime, as
recommended by the kit instructions, to achieve the high abv. The yeasts,
aided by a package of chemicals to enhance their action, ferment VERY
quickly. Unless you are fortunate you will not achieve 20% abv.

2. The package of fining materials will have contained some activated
charcoal which is there to strip off any "winey" tastes -- but it still
tastes as you said!

3. You then have various flavour additives to produce your "gin", "whisky"
etc.

I personally found the results to be very poor and not worth the effort at
all. I made 2 kits at the time. The second one was done to see if I had made
some mistakes in the first one! But I finished up throwing in some cheap
bottles of Vodka to bring the abv up to a more acceptable level ---- and
that was a mistake as well -- I should have just drunk the vodka!

The flavour additives must contain some sort of "chilli" chemical which
imitates the "alcohol burn" the mouth experience when drinking neat
spirits.

I have never tried these kits since that time but what I do do is make my
own liqueurs using a basic cheap vodka at 37.5 or 40 % abv, using
flavouring additives with sugar and glycerines to make a very acceptable
liqueur. And I mature them as well for about a year before using them.

The results I get are definitely worth the effort and quite as good, with
higher abv, as commercial liqueurs. My most successful are "Crème de Menthe"
and an orange flavoured liqueur produced largely with the zest from oranges.
One thing I have found out is the high alcohol level ( at 40% abv ) leeches
out the flavours from vegetable bases very quickly. Many many years ago I
was introduced, by the Royal Navy, to chilli gin and chilli sherry for
flavouring soups and casseroles. Making chilli gin is easy and swift and is
ready to use in about a week or less but the sherry ( at a much lower abv)
takes several months to achieve a good flavour. I have best results form
immersing dried herbs and spices rather than fresh ones but I keep on
experimenting.

I would recommend that you try this route rather than the high alcohol kit
route for satisfaction

Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire, England
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"shiden_Kai" > wrote in message
news:zCgTb.360454$JQ1.194141@pd7tw1no...
> I'm new to winemaking. So far, I've made
> two kits, one red (merlot) one white (piesporter).
<snip><snip>
> Next was an attempt at making just pure
> alchohol and make my own liquors from
> this. I mixed the alchohol in the same plastic
> <snip><snip>

"Pinky" wrote

> After reading your post I am presuming that you have been using a kit
> advertised to produce liqueurs etc from a kit. In perfect fermenting
> conditions they are reputed to produce a clear, colourless liquid at about
> 20% abv ( they usually refer to it as 40% proof to confuse the issue).
> it is several years ago since I had a couple of tries at one of these kits
> and then gave up dissatisfied by the results.

Correct, it is a kit of sorts. You have the small bottles
of concentrate, which eventually get mixed with about 750 mils
of the alchohol and the appropriate amount of glycerine. Oh
well, I guess I'll just give it a shot and see what happens. I
thought that I had made some mistake, or the white wine
taste was leeching back out of the plastic pail (which doesn't
make a whole lot of sense I guess)

It was a nice gesture on the wife and kids part....(gave it
to me as a Christmas present).

Thank you for your informative reply.

Ian