Making "the Wash"
The fermentable solution is called the
WASH. It will be transformed by yeast into alcohol and carbon dioxide. A
wide variety of materials can be turned into fermentable components, as
long as they contain starch and/or sugar. For the our purpose, home
distilling, we will limit ourselves to three main sources of materials
which are readily available.
The base materials for preparing a wash
are
- Sugar; a cheap material which
produces clean and odorless alcohol
- Fruit; gives the fruity flavor to
alcohol like in "eau de vie", suitably for schnapps, (fruit) brandy and
grappa
- Grain; gives more flavor to alcohol,
suitable for wiskey, gin, and bourbon
These materials will all have a
different impact on the flavor of the alcohol. Therefore we need to decide
what kind of drink we want to produce. Also the availability and price of
the materials are a factor which need to be taken into consideration.
Of course, you can also distill (home)
made wines or beers. You don't need to read all the stuff about preparing
a wash...
Bear in mind that not only the materials
used to prepare the wash determines the flavor of the alcohol, also the
type of still you are using has an great effect. A pot still always leaves
a great deal of flavor in the alcohol while a reflux still completely
eliminates all flavors.
What do you want to
make:
- Clean odorless alcohol:
go to sugar based wash using a pot still or
any wash using a reflux still
- Tasty alcohol: go to
Fruit based or
Grain based wash
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