Some people like using carbon filtering and some people don’t. If you are going to do carbon filtering, the most important thing to do is to make sure that if you are using any plastic tubing that it is food grade. Spirits with a high alcohol content don’t far well with low grad plastic.
Many of the top distillers, such as Jack Daniels, use charcoal filtering. However, charcoal filtering is not needed to make fine spirits. Many distillers claim that using charcoal can have a negative effect on the spirits. This is due to the fact that charcoal filtering can filter out some of the more desirable flavors of the gain.
If you have made a poor product than you are much better off watering it down to 40% alcohol and re-distilling it. The best way to make high quality Moonshine is to do a good job in making your cuts. Putting your moonshine through a charcoal filter could also strip out the flavors that you like and bring out the flavors that you are trying to get rid of.
Retaining the taste and flavors of the original grain is something that most if not all home distillers and professional are going for. You are better off ageing your moonshine with charred maple than you are with filtering with charred maple.
With all that said, many distillers like to carbon filter their spirits. The first thing you will want to do is to make sure that you have a wide, food grade, tube, the wider the better (within reason). You will first want to run water through the filter in order to swell the charcoal and get rid of some of that charcoal dust. Once you begin filtering you will want to put a coffee filter over your collection jar as a means to filter out any residue charcoal that come out.
You may find it advantageous to use bottled water when it comes to both your filter and watering down your moonshine to a drinkable proof. The reason for this is that some tap water can cause your Moonshine to turn cloudy. This will not affect the taste of your moonshine in any way. It’s just not as aesthetically pleasing.
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