StillSmart

My Wash
42 litres water at 40c
10 kilo’s white sugar (tesco £5.70)
1 x Alcotec 48 yeast 135gm £3.19
1 x finings part a and b £1.89
Total £10.79
After degassing and clearing etc I have approx 44 litres of wash with a spg of 990, all in all I think it’s a good cheap wash.
I have now adopted this as my standard wash.

all comments welcome.

ginger

You can save £3 a wash by getting your sugar from ALDI and not bothering with the finings and searching for Alcotec 48 at a better price, I pay £2.95 from Leyland Homebrew :-)

I've just done 90litres of this, 2 x 25 litres, 6kg sugar in each and one Alcotec 48 split between them, plus a 40litre one with 9kgs and a full pack of Alcotec 48, didn't bother fining though, just chucked it in cloudy and stripped it.

Did the spirit run yesterday, jars are still airing but looks promising, I'll definatly do some more, although I did find it took just under a week to ferment, not 48hrs.

If you are happy with your wash,good,I won't knock it.
I seldom use finings these days,but now run a larger still,maybe better able to cope with a cloudy wash than an airstill.
Anavrin is also running a bigger still.

However I would advise trying one of the variations of the Lentil wash,hell,make up your own,I did.
It will cost less,and I think you will find it gives better product,especially with an air still;after a double distillation,I find it much cleaner tasting than the turbos that I have tried.
I used to fight for the Alcotech team; I now have packets of the stuff almost out of date,and may just chuck them away.
Others here,of longer tenure than myself,are happy with the no mess simplicity turbos offer,but seem to favour Vodka Star for the most part,one that I didn't like.
I guess it is as well that we are all different.
Cue Graham Chapman,"You're all different! You're all individuals!"
"Yes!,we are all different! .....How should we should f*ck off,Oh Master?"

Robert.

I agree there are better wash's to make for vodka, but as a standard sugar wash for neutral, The Alcotec 48 is pretty good I think, my other half has discovered the prestige Irish cream essence, that uses up 600ml of 40% at a time to make a litre of the stuff!!

I've made and stripped two 25lt batches of a bran flake wash and need to do two more before my spirit run on this, but I'm hoping this will make a good vodka, better than the turbo's

Here's my recipe

5-6kg of sugar (can't remember exactly how much)
400g bran flakes, crushed and boiled into a mush
Top up to 25lt
Half a tub of Allinsons yeast.


It ferments down to 1.000, maybe a touch under, you can smell the bran flakes when you strip it, I read somewhere on another forum it give more of a vodka flavour than sugar turbos.

It's all bran wash on the American forums, American all bran is British bran flakes from what I can gather, it's has lots of vitamins added already so no need for yeast nutrient, saying that, I think I put two teaspoons of DAP in for good luck

Not quibbling your bran flakes,with which I wish you luck,or use of turbo's,but if your other half is using up your spirits,and wallet on essences, do you remember this link- viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3388&p=23964&hilit=bailey%27s#p23964,that I sent you awhile back? I admit to not trying with neutral yet,but it is SO good,and less costly than the Prestige version when used with raspy scotch blends that you maybe ought to give it a go.
TBH,so should I!
Just sayin'

Robert.

Whoopey doos,clickable links seems to be working for me again,some of you people have inter-stellar overdrive fibre-optic connections at breathtaking speeds.
I have a sad little dongle that hangs off the end of my laptop,(yeah,heading into more smutty jokes,)trying to hoover up stray internet bits and bobs,as I live in the 5% of the UK with shitty internet coverage.
The scenery makes up for it.
Mostly.

Easydrinker wrote:I have a sad little dongle that hangs off the end of my laptop,(yeah,heading into more smutty jokes,)

Us lot??? surely not sir.. ..you do us an injustice...

cheers guys, think i will try the bran flakes this weekend

ginger

Hi Cat5

Just a hint, make sure you boil the branflakes in a non-stick pan, I did my first lot in a stainless pan and it took quite a while to shift it with a Brillo Pad!!!

Here's a link to the original on HD Forum

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 14&t=47479

Although I don't bother inverting the sugar, I did on my first wash but not on the second, doesn't seem worth the effort.

I have read the link - does it mention boiling the bran flakes at all??? I didn't read it like that.

Don't know where I got boiling from then, I thought I'd read it on there, in any case mushy bran flakes will be easier to get nutrients out of, maybe that's why I did it.

i have just completed the strip run on my airstill but was only getting 800ml per 4litres at an average of 45% if i let it run to 1000ml it dropped to approx 41% so looks like that wash was not so good

dang it

ginger

Boiling: IMO nutirents don't like it much. Bu33ers 'em right up!

Strip run: I have a lentil coming up soon. We can compare notes.

any progress on your strip run mashy ?

ginger

I got 6L at 40% - but used firmipan.

Anavrin wrote:Did the spirit run yesterday, jars are still airing but looks promising, I'll definatly do some more, although I did find it took just under a week to ferment, not 48hrs.

Why do people put it in glass jars?

Silly question time, sorry!!