How to Make Smoother Spirits with Activated Charcoal

[@scottclay4253]

Very informative, Brewbird. You don’t edit out unexpected results, that impresses me, most people are not that honest. Thank you and thanks for the good vibes. Congratulations on passing 8,000 subs and 400,000 views!

[@MissBrewbird]

Sending you back some good vibes too!

[@agustinprestia3657]

In my own experience, the reason of the bad taste of the spirit after you filtered it with charcoal is due to a poor washed of the charcoal, you have to washed it multiple time until the water is tasteless

[@MissBrewbird]

hmm could be

[@MissBrewbird]

My Basics of Distillation Course is out now! missbrewbird.thinkific.com/courses/basics-of-distilling-in-the-beverage-industry The first 35 people to use this coupon code lmtd299mbb can purchase it for $299.

[@rickdallarosa6939]

You need to use active stone carbon and 0.3 to 0.5mm size grains to get the best results, and wash it well with tap water and I use R.O. (Reverse Osmosis) water in the final rinse. You can pick up R.O. water at any aquarium it's very inexpensive and totally free of the crap found in normal tap water. Don't even entertain the idea of using aquarium charcoal to polish your moonshine, that is unless you have acquired a penchant for cats piss.

[@MissBrewbird]

Hmm ok thanks for the tip.

[@titahibayflier3160]

You need to use finishing carbon, which is much finer. you also need to wash and rinse it first. soak it in the spirit for a day or two. You should see bubbles coming up out of it. Then filter it through coffee filters with the activated carbon in the filter. That stuff you used looks like aquarium charcoal to me.

[@MissBrewbird]

thanks will give it a go

[@davidcloutman2949]

You probably needed to siphon the vodka off the charcoal layer, let gravity pull out any particulates in the second container for a few days, and siphoned again before tasting.

[@MissBrewbird]

hmm maybe, it felt like the activated charcoal giving off flavours to the spirit though, so I'm inclined to think the charcoal itself was the issue.

[@iam1smiley1]

Yes, that's EXACTLY what you need to do. The bad taste is from the fines of the carbon...siphon without disturbing the liquid then filter, if you just have coffee filters- don't be afraid to use 6 - 8 of them together as 1 or 2 won't do it.

[@top6ear]

I was at Jack Daniels a few years back and they get wood from local farmers and have an expert burn the wood and they drip it through.

[@MissBrewbird]

That'd be cool to visit Jack Daniels. I think I read online that they use sugar maple trees for their activated charcoal.

[@austinwhitaker6439]

​@@MissBrewbird Hi, it's Austin, Yes they use sugar maple for their activated charcoal. That would be a great place for you to visit and show us 😊

[@dudleygraham7178]

You don't use carbon for a charcoal filter for a fish tank,gotta use the right spot of carbon ,get from ,home brew shops

[@MissBrewbird]

I've actually used fish tank charcoal before for distilling, so I thought it wouldn't be an issue. Will have to give it another go with some different charcoal.

[@jonathanmarkconnolly7592]

🐇🫙🍸 enjoyed the video. Informative. She's cute. I subscribed

[@MissBrewbird]

Awesome! Thank you!😀

[@hiltonizzett777]

The ethyl alcohol reacts with O2 in the presence of carbon to produce Acetaldehyde and the longer it sit on carbon the more Acetaldehyde is produced. If you have a neutral spirit you are walking a fine line puting it on carbon. It requires a very short retention time to get the other carbon catalysed reactions that give vodka its unique flavour. In Russia, if the vodka filtering process is halted for whatever reason, they have to throw away the spirit in the carbon filters because it will exceed the allowable Acetaldehyde concentration (about 3mg/litre). Taking a non-neutral spirit and running it through carbon will improve the flavour for sure.

[@doug5978]

For one that is not the right size charcoal. Buy brewers it finner. cheers

[@MissBrewbird]

Thanks, my friend just gave me some of his charcoal. I am going to try it again with his.

[@titahibayflier3160]

I know it is used in sugar washes to remove SO2. Personally I don't use it myself typically but have done. I find while it maybe remove unwanted esters etc I much prefer to carefully control the fermentation process and make tighter and more cleaner cuts. I find that the activated charcoal will take out too much flavour for my preferences and leave me with what to me tastes like a pharmaceutical/industrial grade ethanol I typically make double pot distilled whiskey's and brandy's over column and I reflux mainly sugar based washes.

[@karl_sigurjonsson]

Yes best to wash the activated charcoal with distilled water before use. There are impurities in activated coal. To get the most out of your activated charcoal. Filter it ice cold. The coal can absorb much more this way do not use it inline with steam. If using for finishing, a very fine and thick paper particulate filter should be used. Not a coffee filter. Though this can be used as a cost effective pre filter. Also to get the most out of your activated charcoal, use it in stages. Finishing with new charcoals and starting with used charcoals. The activated coal with be less effective after absorption of impurities as it reaches its saturation point. At this point it may leach impurities into your product. Which fully depends on how much impurities you have at your starting point. Colder coals have a higher saturation point

[@JunoBrannick]

I've heard conflicting reports that this process (does) and (does not) remove alcohol content from your spirit. What do you say?

[@Denis_NOT_Dennis]

I've been binging your videos, and generally enjoying them. One thing I need to point out though... there is plenty of scientific info online regarding filtering spirit with activated carbon. One thing all the papers I've read have in common is the ABV must not exceed 50% for the filtering to be effective. This one fact makes me wonder how placing carbon in the vapour path in the still column can filter the spirit at all, as the vapour would be higher than 50% ABV in most situations, except nearing the latter half of a pot still run perhaps. There is also a lot of misinformation regarding cleaning activated carbon and reusing it, as to clean the carbon properly requires a 500-degree Celsius oven with an oxygen free environment. Not something many home distillers have in their brew shed 🙂

[@robinjohnson2749]

I have a question can people eat charcoal and coal dust or is it harmful to their body the woman eats a bowl 🥣 of coal dust could you leave me a message

[@robertvoss1365]

I would love your opinion on my method of charcoal filtering. I filled a five foot long white PVC 2" pipe with activated charcoal. Attached a half gallon reservoir at the top and a valve at the bottom with a bit of copper mesh at the top and bottom to hold charcoal in place. I first pour water through the charcoal since the charcoal does tend to absorb some alcohol. Then I pour my three gallon batch of one time distilled spirits through the charcoal three times. Then the spirits are ready for the second distillation through botanicals. After three batches, I roast the charcoal in a 350* F oven for an hour to dispel undesirables. This seems to work OK. What do you think?

[@MissBrewbird]

Hi Robert, sorry for the late reply. From what I've read online, it say that to reactivate activated carbon (AC) the carbon must be heated to 600C or higher. Although, when I look at home distilling forums and other posts, people seem to be reactivating the carbon in their oven like you. I suppose baking in the oven would help reactivate the carbon to a degree. I would be curious to know what people would say in a blind taste test if you filtered the spirit through virgin AC versus AC that had been used several times and then reactivated. That would give a clearer indication of how successful this reactivation method is.

[@wenjohnlima3356]

Hi Kristie, good to see you posting more videos. I believe the kind of charcoal is important. The Sugar Maple charcoal is the one used here in several distilleries in Tennessee. Also, the liquid flowing though the charcoal is what actually maximize the adsorbing effect. Usually that is how it happens on the mellowing vessels. Thanks again for the amazing videos. :)

[@Niaaal]

How about running it through a Brita a couple times?

[@iam1smiley1]

You have to rinse out the new cartridges or you get lots of fine dust that tastes bad. 6+ coffee filters and siphon without agitation to transfer works well.

[@Niaaal]

@@iam1smiley1 ok thanks!

[@GaryBoyd-fs2zj]

You need to use activated stone carbon,aquarium charcoal is not good for filtering. Just to save time on this subject George Duncan @ Barley and hops has a video on the subject and so does Cyrus @Still in the clear. I use the same technique to filter my vodka and sugar shine but my filter tube is designed a little different from theirs. For easier cleaning after use. Hope this is helpful and Have a beautiful day and a lovely star lit night.

[@Dankness-e6i]

4.30 the video you asked for begins.

[@gordslater]

re: the taste - you may need to wash the dust off the cheap charcoal by soaking in good clean water first for a hour or two. Aquarium charcoal is rather low purity and has a lot of contaminants and is probably false economy. It can be used to soak at the bottom of a stripped batch but the taste carries over when it's new. I find it more palateable when used once or twice rather than when new, similar to oak chips used in aging. One conventient source of small amounts of good activated carbon is health capsules and I add 500-1000mg to a 20L fermenter at the end of the ferment a day or two I start to clear it. Used like this it can keep any yeasty tastes down especially if I don't have time to strip it as soon as it clears. Used like this it tends to float on the top as a just but stirring to degas the liquid just like when adding clearing agents distributes it through a little. It makes everything a pain to clean though - beware :)

[@MissBrewbird]

Thanks for the tips. I really like the one about the health capsule in the fermenter, that's pretty ingenious.😀

[@knightmare1015]

Very nice. The best thing that I've used has been a ZeroWater filter pitcher.

[@MrDavesbox1]

me too....zero filters clean my whiskey up nice.

[@distlledbrewedreviewed]

It does wonders for fish tanks and ponds. Great video, cheers my friend.

[@MissBrewbird]

Yes it does!

[@tafrog5552]

but it also removes nuanced smell and flavours that you may want to keep in your liquid

[@arashkhatibi5871]

Hey brewbird Try soaking the charcoal in some acidic liquid like lemon juice plus water . Soak it for at least 24 hours then rinse the charcoal ans let it dry. Now its ready to use . Thanks for your very useful informations .

[@MissBrewbird]

Ooh thanks for the tip, I will give this a try

[@hansmaulwurf9051]

I'd go for food grade charcoal. Aquarium grade doesn't sound very food safe.

[@pyro5847]

Activated carbon usually works best at low temperatures, so cleaning the steam in a still makes no sense. Additionally, the lower the alcohol concentration, the better, usually 40%-50% is recommended. I plan to do a test by diluting the distillate to 30%, leaving it with activated carbon for a week, then distilling it again to increase the concentration.

[@MissBrewbird]

Let me know how the experiment goes.

[@mixmasala7787]

Your videos is very informative. Please make another videos on Silver and Platinum filter Process, how its work?

[@codeaccount2434]

HI, I want to learn distillation but I can go to the school, is there any book that explains it in detail and I can learn or if you teach online then I will be interested in joining the class.

[@MissBrewbird]

Hi, I have an online distilling course. Here's the link to it: missbrewbird.thinkific.com/courses/basics-of-distilling-in-the-beverage-industry

[@Britbikerss]

I only do wash Liquor and whiskey essence and I am up to run 7. My first run was total disaster.. learning Curve ~ LOL But Now I run my distill thru charcoal 5-6 times and separate charcoal filter lots ~ Brilliant results ~

[@MissBrewbird]

Wow that is a lot of distillation runs! I have never had to do so many for a product, I guess the next step is figuring out how to decrease the number of your runs.

[@elberttanner6189]

Try Willow Charcoal and boil it then dry it prior to use.

[@Ansis99]

Hi! Activated charcoal is "dirty" if you take it directly from "store". You must wash out all acids/ oils e.t.c. I recommend to use first distillation fraction to clean out all garbage from store byed charcoal then recook it in jar on electric/ gas stove (slow flame - long time - about 30 minutes - temperature will rise to +300 Celsius and all very nasty smells will wanish) and then you are safe to use your super clean filtered vodka. Cheers! 🥂

[@MrDavesbox1]

whaaaat? cook the charcoal with a fraction of distillate and heat on stove to 300 C??????

[@Ansis99]

@@MrDavesbox1 AC you buy from store. If this AC is not for fish tanks (this type is washed after factory and is more expensive) - it is for use in water containers. If you use it for vodka cleaning, than you must "wash away" oils/ acids from it, if not, your first filtration makes white residue in spirit. Of course you can drink it, but your vodka will be cloudy. Every AC is recycled if we cook it in jar/ cattle at +300C. You don`t need to throw it away. Be Happy! 🥂

[@jdudz3003]

Video should be titled how NOT to if your experiment failed as it did.

[@MissBrewbird]

I have successfully used activated charcoal to make smoother spirits. The methods I listed are all valid and are commonly used to clean up spirits. Just because it didn't work in the one instance I was filming doesn't mean it never works.

[@rommelchatman6827]

I love how in depth she goes. I always learn a lot from her videos.

[@MissBrewbird]

I appreciate that!💙

[@davidhowick3665]

Great explaination , is the water you rinse charcoal pure, or filtered water from tap?this may have an effect if there are chemicals in your tap water.

[@MissBrewbird]

I rinsed with tap water, but the horrible taste was definitely from the activated charcoal, someone else said to filter through the activated charcoal for 30min for the final polishing step

[@JasenRaser]

Megasite. Clean water essential.

[@jasonb7947]

I have never heard of putting a charcoal basket in the still, have you tried it, Have you seen it or is it theoretical? I usually make vodka from my brandy feints and this trick sounds like it will save me a whole process. How far up the column do you suggest putting the charcoal?

[@MissBrewbird]

We used to do this in a distillery I worked at. We took aquarium grade activated charcoal and put it in the baskets of our still. We put it pretty high up, closer to the condenser. You can see how we did it at the distillery here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6OUnHmbZc2lqdU

[@jasonb7947]

@MissBrewbird Thanks Brewbird for the reply and another excellent video

[@humanearthlingthing]

Hi,..I live in Asia and my first thought was that the carbon has been recycled/ reactivated and may have been from an aqauarium in its first life ...lol They even recycle used cooking oil here... they sell in the market cheap and people cook with it again, not good.

[@MissBrewbird]

Interesting. I never imagined people would sell reactivated carbon and pass it off as a new product.

[@humanearthlingthing]

@@MissBrewbird Just came across an interesting tip from an old manual... some say to boil the activated carbon first to de-gass the air out of it. Probably has nothing to do with the flavour but I thought that was interesting tip..

[@MissBrewbird]

ooh I will try that, someone else recommended I soak the charcoal in lemon juice

[@dp5548-g1e]

A zero filter works great

[@glenzoid999]

amateur

[@barrypurves4524]

An avid ameteur ichtheologist and knowing a fish's extreme sensitivity to toxins, my prefered choice of a convenient source of very, very clean activated charcoal is the local aquarium shop. A kilo at a time is perfect for my applications.

[@pungvarlarsson6451]

This is a superb video on activated charcoal! The best on youtube. I came here to find out how it works, and this is just what I was looking for.

[@davigarciachef]

Seus vídeos são sensacionais e seu conteúdo é muito informativo. Fico feliz em ver novos vídeos no canal

[@MissBrewbird]

Thank you!😊

[@TrakaBat]

Nice video - saved me from aquarium grade carbon in a nice way. Appreciated.

[@MissBrewbird]

You're welcome! Though I have used aquarium grade carbon during the distillation by putting it in the still, so it can still be used.

[@TrakaBat]

@@MissBrewbird I do know that some 'turbo' use it when pushing the ABV. Better to make a kale sugar wash at 10% max - it is very clean and the 18-year-old me would have partied with it 50 years ago had I known.

[@mustyditch4703]

Good work BB.

[@allenfrancom2809]

The long process of dripping through a column of charcoal appears to be the go to thing for the vodkas. This was very interesting, my first thought was "uh oh, not paper..." that would be another thing to remove from the experiment, the filter paper

[@ShvetaSc]

Hello, im from India and thanks for posting a much needed video. I tried what you suggested but adding cleaned and soaked charcoal is imparting a black color to my fermentef hard seltzer. Do you have any trick to not to have black color imparted and at the same time remove aromas and hazy color from fermented hard seltzer. Thanks

[@MissBrewbird]

Hey sorry for me late reply. I would not add the activated charcoal to the seltzer (carbonated water) directly. I would filter the spirit (alcohol) component through the activated charcoal, and then add in the seltzer and other flavourings.

[@WeightlessBallast]

Lots of valuable advice, thank you! I "need" as clean-tasting base alcohol as possible for making absinthe (nano-distillery). Never quite figured out how to use the activated charcoal. Instructions from the manufacturer do not cater for distillers, for obvious reasons... TY again.

[@MissBrewbird]

You are welcome. I imagine with absinthe you may be able to get away with not having perfectly neutral spirit since absinthe has such a dominating flavour. This probably helps mask other flavours.

[@robertbeirman107]

wrong Charcoal..

[@ianhui3719]

Miss Brewbird. This is a long awaited video about the technical aspects of distilling once again. Interesting and informative. Sorry, this experiment wasn't successful. Hopefully not for too long, another video about the technology in improving spirit distilling that the commercial distillers would not reveal. Keep it up and look forward for another interesting video.

[@timhofstetter5654]

"Absorption is when a substance is absorbed". 8)

[@nellynelson965]

Nice one Brewbird. I stopped using it for exactly the experiance you had. Makes great drinking water though, go figure. Got a possible thing for you. Un-fermented sugars in molasses, mainly feed grade. How to get better yeild? There must be a way. Alph Amalayse and Beta Amalays did not do much for me unless I am doing it wrong and there is a temp they work at I missed.