StillSmart

hey all
just put on my first sugar wash 8kg sugar dissolved in 21litres water with a start temp of about 35deg, I thought this may have been to warm but it has maintained that temp since then well nearly cause it has dropped to 32 deg over night but the air lock has been going non stop. I used a 48 hr alcotec yeast and am planning on leaving it for about 7 days, I would like to know from the experts though if it stays at a higher temp will it finish sooner and if it does finish sooner and I still leave it till the 7 th day will this cause any problems? any advice would be great

You wont have any problems, I have left a wash sitting for 2 months before.
Just make sure to keep it sealed and keep the airlock in place.

thanks for the reply Andy will post up as soon as done this is the first crack at spirits so am excited to see the results

if its not finished, give it a quick taste as it will probably be a little sweet, meaning theres still unfermented sugar in it.

With 8 bags of sugar i assume youll be going for the full 20%, but it may come up short %age wise, but it shouldnt affect the taste of the final spirit.

yep am trying for the 20% but won't be to disappointed if it comes up short i would like to just be able to have a clean wash to start with and then improve with each new wash

wait what..... Santa ain't real!!!!!! I knew about the tooth fairy but santa??? I'm devastated lol if I can get a clean wash at the end of this first run then I'll be happy Percentage is not a big concern but as with most brewers I'm guessing there will allways be the voice in the back of the head saying... showme the numbers... thanks for the advice though im sure I'll have a lot more questions I have read a fair bit before I started. it's now day 3 and slowed right down the wash looks like a slightly watered down milk kinda

I asked about the carbon when I brought the yeast and was told that it's not needed so trusted in what the said so this first wash is strictly water sugar and alcotec 48 hr turbo yeast but I have also just put a smaller second wash on with a triple distiller yeast and I have added carbon to this one (black wash) even the instructions on the alcotec say nothing about adding carbon to the wash so this will I say be the first learning curve

Hi webby I stopped using liquid carbon early last year as i found that there was very little difference when using alcotec 48 or vodka star washes i have a home made stainless steel filter full of carbon granules that i used with my air still. I ran a 48 turbo yesterday through my t500 came out very very clean 3.9liters 92% no need to filter I started reusing my yeast from previous washes and adding just a couple of spoon full"s of fresh turbo. i have just started on a 4th generation wash
alan

I read recently, that you can split turbo 48hr yeasts into 2 batches to make double the quantity. Apparently this helps prevent the bad flavours that can occur in short turnaround turbos.
Extra nutrient may be required.

MM

I'm sure you could reuse the same yeast indefinitely - or at least use it to farm others - I'm really lax sanitary wise so normally end up getting an infection at some point - don't use air locks - my fermenting bins aren't air tight any way - so don't see the point - tea towel over the top then the lid put on.

I've done 7 back to back ferments on the same yeast - using half the yeast bed from the previous wash - the large pitching quantity - and pitching yeast that have done well on the type of wash your doing - the ones that didn't do well were breakfast for the survivors. >:D

There is some good info over on the beer brewing forums about cleaning the yeast for long term storage - but as I'm mostly doing neutral and not looking for any nice falvour form a specific yeast, I'm not in a hurry to try that.
If I end up with an unusual whiskey or rum that I think the yeast has contributed to then maybe I'd look into it.

CC

thanks again for the advice now down to 1 bubble every 20 seconds and the black wash is fizzing away nicely

going to give degas tonight and then again in the morning then I'll ad the clearing hopefully sat morning I can start distilling with the air still will it still get as high as 80% if using a air still?

Airstill is quite inefficient so the best use is to do a stripping run where you collect everything (no cuts) until the output get down to 30%. (you should get about 1.5lt or more depending on the strength of the wash)

When all 6 X 4lt batches are done you'll have about 9lt+ of cleaned wash - not really good enough to drink yet although some do!!!!.

Check the ABV and cut to 40% (if higher) then do spirit runs and what you'll get from your Airstill should start at 82-83%. Discard the first 50ml for safety - this is where all the nasty stuff is and 50ml is more than enough.After that the cuts are up to you.

I cut off spirit collection at 70% and what comes after that, down to 30%, goes in my next wash - when its finished to boost the initial ABV going into my still.

Good luck

AM

well i ran out of time this morning so did the degassing this afternoon and tasted and is dry no sweetness left did part a and then hr later did part be I thought it would take a few hrs to see it work but can see it separate within the hr 2 inch layer on the bottom so should be good by tomorrow afternoon

I'm also somewhat impatient and decided to take 2 liters of the top and just ran it through the still came out at 65%