Brew UK Forum | General Brewing Discussions
Active carbon not settling
Hi Folks,
Just a quick question for anyone out there who has made one of the spirit kits.
So just for a change I thought I'd make the good lady one of the irish cream kits sold here to drink at Xmas whilst I enjoy my Xmas beer. Anyway fermentation went well and had pretty much finished with the yeast swettling out a bit and the liquid becoming a little less cloudy near the top - so as per the instructions in went the activated charcoal (and leave for 48 hours it says). So 72 hours on and the liquid is black where the charcoalis still in suspension - not a hint of any separation!
So what can i do as a next step??? I'm guessing just leave it to see if anything changes or do you think I need to filter it out?? is so any idea how fine that filter needs to be as the charcoal was like dust. Im guessing a standard coffee filter isnt going to cut it?
Any ideas?
thanks
james
Responses
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Never done one of those kits mate, is there a manufacturers website on the box that may shed some light?
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
Posted 1 year ago by Member
thanks Nath - I'll take a look tomorrow and see. Have done one of these (different make) kit years ago and you can see the layers separate as the carbon sinks out of the liquid. This one was just like adding black paint to it!
James
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Found the website but not email contact details
http://www.classicliquors.com/index.htm
ill leave it a few more days and will see where we are at
james
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Nice one James, keep us posted.
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hi there James, You're in luck as i've just bottled one of the liquor kits on Sat evening (coconut rum) very tasty kit indeed.
When you add the charcoal it will not seperate at all from the liquor and will remain in suspension until you move to the next stage which is making up and adding the finings to your liquor. It will then take 2 to 5 days to clear. If you leave the liquor somewhere really cold, you will find it clears really quick (mine took 2 days). Syphoning the liquor off the charcoal is a real hard thing to do as it doesnt pack down and stay put at the bottom of the container. I used a wine filter (Vin Brite) and this stopped any stray bits of charcoal ending up in my bottles. Any other questions, please feel free to ask - Good luck with your kit!
Conditioning - Theakston Old Peculier
Conditioning - Christmas 2010 (Strong Xmas ale)
Maturing - Peach wine kit
Drinking - Summer Lightning, Summer Wit
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Mr H are these kits any good taste wise i was going to try the sambuca one. What bottles do u use when finished ?
Fermenting:Dandelion wine
Conditioning:Fullers pride extract Elderflower wine,Dandelion wine,Ribena wine,summer ale
Drinking: Turbo Cider/summer ale/way to amarillo/funked up wherry
beerlover1983brew@gmail.com
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hi Beerlover, I have done just the one kit, and soon as you finish the process they are ready to go (Drink). Basically the kit allows you to make a liquor base upto 22% abv, and to add the flavouring it is a bottle of essence (various flavouring depending on kit) I would imagine the finished taste will be only as good as what the essence is. I did the coconut rum and had half a glass left over after bottling, and if i had been blindfolded I would swear i was drinking Malibu. It was really an excellent taste and worth the money. I will certainly order some more of these kits. As for bottling, I saved 4 wine bottles (75cl) with screw lids (bought at supermarket) and used these. The other 2 bottles were standard wine bottles which i corked. There is no worry of these going 'bang' as you add an ingredient to stop the yeast from working after fermentation is complete. As above, the charcoal is (or can be difficult) to filter the liquor off - I used a filter and that did the trick. Give it a go, you may be rather suprised!
Regards
Howard
(ps total sugar needed is between 1.8 to 2.3kg so need to budget for this also)
Conditioning - Theakston Old Peculier
Conditioning - Christmas 2010 (Strong Xmas ale)
Maturing - Peach wine kit
Drinking - Summer Lightning, Summer Wit
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hi,
I'm just starting my first liquor kit - irish cream - and I'm wondering if anyone might be able to help with the recipe translation of the cream and the condensed milk into uk stuff. I'm new at this so I want to be doubly sure! Is it definitely sweetened condensed milk (the sickly sweet Carnation stuff) I need and not evaporated? And what do I use in place of 35% cream? The closest I can find percentage-wise is whipping cream at 38% but I was wondering what others have used and how successful it was?
Sorry for all the questions but I want to make sure I don't end up with a vat of unusable gloop
Ness
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Sorry ness, missed this one, to get more people to look its better off starting your own topic
Im not too sure is my answer, which kit is it? and could you post the recipe, may be of more help then.
Ta,
Nath
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hi Nath,
It's an Irish Cream Classic Liquor spirit kit like the ones mentioned here (hence the posting here, I tried doing a search cos I didn't know what category to look under for spirit kits - I'm new to forums too lol). You make the base (sugar syrup, yeast, charcoal, sorbate, finings, glucose) then add the flavour extract and then finally add 200ml of sweet condensed milk and 100ml 35% cream to 1 litre of the flavour base.
Hope that helps?
Ness
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
I would imagine that 35% and 38% are so close it would not matter at all to be honest. As for the sweet condensed milk I would have to assume that it is that and not the evapourated. I have had a look on their site, but no help really, no email just an overseas number. Sorry I cant be of more help but I would go for condensed, even if it is sweetner as you have a 1kg sugar base to start with, which is a fair amount for 4.5 litres.
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Cheers Nath! I looked at their site before I came on here, it's not terribly useful is it? Lol. I was wondering about the sugar versus sweet condensed milk too, but we shall see what the results are. Thanks for giving a second opinion on the recipe, it always helps
Anyway, I've got about a week before I have to worry about it but I'll report back the results - assuming I've not been done in by a sudden onset of diabetes
Ness
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Lol, nice one. Keep us posted (and with piccys). Im sure all will be fine and you will be thinking what the hell was I thinking about!
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
Posted 1 year ago by Member
OK - added the finings and nothing has dropped out - the charcoal was like dust when it went in and is basically sat in suspension - have some beer finings here which I am now going to pop in to see if that helps - otherwise filtering will have to be my final solution - any idea what sort of filter paper is needed for this fine dust - I'm guessing a standard coffee filter will be too coarse? or should I invest in some Whatman filter paper??
james
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Okay, I'm verylate reporting back the outcome of this kit!
Firstly, after adding the finings I thought it was going to turn into a disaster because it turned black and didn't look as though it was going to settle. It turned out that it was, but was sticking to the sides of the demi-john so didn't look like it - very slight agitating of the demi-john cured the problem. When it came to filtering I used two coffee filters which took ages but did the trick - it filtered through crystal clear.
I used the whipping cream and sweetened condensed milk in the end. The resulting drink was very sweet with a definite hint of toffee. I personally found it a bit too sweet, but had absolutely no trouble getting rid of the bottles to friends and family who all loved it. I've had requests for more since!
Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos but take my word for it, by the time it was done it looked just like "the real thing". Although I don't think I'd drink this myself, I would definitely buy this kit again and make it as gifts. It's also made me very intrigued about the other kits in the range
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
So to make it more to your liking, what would you change or leave out?
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
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