Crazy Vodka Thoughts

Has anyone tried activated carbon in a gin basket on the vapor side... before the final condense?

Comments

  • edited June 2016

    Couple issues, the vapor speed before the condenser is probably pretty high. The other factor is steam is often used to regenerate activated carbon by driving out the volatiles, so it's possible it would be counterproductive.

    Always wondered if there was any benefit to treating low wines with AC though - I would imagine yes, but the treatment cost would probably be pretty high.

  • There was a post on HD once upon a time where the OP claimed to have placed AC into the liquid bed in his thumper.

    Claimed it worked. No first hand experience here.

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  • Have also wondered about chill filtering low wines.

  • Hoochy now has a centrifuge says low wines looks like beer when finished

  • But the Carbon in a spirit run...was a thought something different maybe just a sales aide like beechwood aged or whishey being charcoal filtered...

  • Activated carbon is "sticky" with respect to organic molecules. How does it differentiate between "good" organic molecules and "bad" organic molecules? Molecular weight?

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  • edited June 2016

    Indiscriminate, but you can target molecule size through pore structure.

    That was the big epiphany for me when playing around with removing color.

    All the carbons i was playing with were doing a piss poor job of removing color - but when I talked to the carbon guys, they pointed me towards a powdered carbon with a huge volume of macro pores compared to other pore sizes, and it really worked like a charm at removing color without massive flavor impacts, like the others.

    But, if you have a carbon that can capture an ester, it's going to capture most of them, good and bad alike. It's brute force.

  • edited June 2016

    I prefer to employ a different GAC - Good at cuts.

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  • edited June 2016

    How do you get undesirable color in your spirits? Mine always look like water, unless I get a puke.

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  • edited June 2016

    Short term wood contact, aging in used cooperage.

  • edited June 2016

    Playing with some botanical infusions which also take on a relatively unpalatable color. Straw, tan, green, I'm sure all of these would oxidize pretty quickly and brown out.

  • @Kapea said: How do you get undesirable color in your spirits? Mine always look like water, unless I get a puke.

    +1 Grim

    Lots of silver rums and tequilas for that matter finish in barrels and then filter the color out.

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