Yet another new neutral wash,yawn....
Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 8:31 pm...But I may have weaned myself from the turbos!
Having had a couple of in-date alcotec 48 washes under perform for my "neutral" barrel,I looked in the cupboard.
Imagine: 380g Yellow split peas
80g chopped raisins (yeast food)
1/2 teaspoon Amylase enzyme(I've a dirty great bag of it)
Soak it in a pan,blitz it with a hand held doody,apply [u]gentle[u] heat until it looks hot enough.
Dissolve 4Kg sugar in enough water that when you add the above and 1/2 tsp DAP,1/4 tsp Magnesium sulphate and 100g of Bread yeast you get 23 litres.
It may sound complicated,but I had all ingredients to hand.
I did two of these,SG of 1.068.
I did add aquarium heaters,set at 30°C.
I then tried to fight the yeasty monster back into the fermenters,on many occasions,and mopped up much yeasty monster from the floor.
THREE days later I racked off the first @ 0.990.
The next day I racked the second,at the same FG,and ran the first as a strip,only 17L,some on the floor and some sludge.
Having an easy clean boiler,and running a Pot,I tend not to worry about totally "clear" washes these days.
Stripped the second the next day,21L this time,possibly due to some dipping out and pouring in where fermentation seemed to be slowest.
Oh,and disagreeing with some here,I consider the minimal costs of stripping to low alc % to be worthwhile.
Result,13L at 29%.
Spirit run,after cuts yielded 4L @ 63%.
Run through my newly charged Essencia it is the cleanest neutral I have yet produced.
It even impressed my chief tester,the neighbour with the clever palate.
Leaving out my labour,and cost of building still,it came in at £1.30 a bottle.
I'll have another shot at this tomorrow,but divide between 3 fermenters,in the hope of less yeast monster escaping!
I'm sure there are a zillion recipes out there,just thought it was time to share.
Robert.
Having had a couple of in-date alcotec 48 washes under perform for my "neutral" barrel,I looked in the cupboard.
Imagine: 380g Yellow split peas
80g chopped raisins (yeast food)
1/2 teaspoon Amylase enzyme(I've a dirty great bag of it)
Soak it in a pan,blitz it with a hand held doody,apply [u]gentle[u] heat until it looks hot enough.
Dissolve 4Kg sugar in enough water that when you add the above and 1/2 tsp DAP,1/4 tsp Magnesium sulphate and 100g of Bread yeast you get 23 litres.
It may sound complicated,but I had all ingredients to hand.
I did two of these,SG of 1.068.
I did add aquarium heaters,set at 30°C.
I then tried to fight the yeasty monster back into the fermenters,on many occasions,and mopped up much yeasty monster from the floor.
THREE days later I racked off the first @ 0.990.
The next day I racked the second,at the same FG,and ran the first as a strip,only 17L,some on the floor and some sludge.
Having an easy clean boiler,and running a Pot,I tend not to worry about totally "clear" washes these days.
Stripped the second the next day,21L this time,possibly due to some dipping out and pouring in where fermentation seemed to be slowest.
Oh,and disagreeing with some here,I consider the minimal costs of stripping to low alc % to be worthwhile.
Result,13L at 29%.
Spirit run,after cuts yielded 4L @ 63%.
Run through my newly charged Essencia it is the cleanest neutral I have yet produced.
It even impressed my chief tester,the neighbour with the clever palate.
Leaving out my labour,and cost of building still,it came in at £1.30 a bottle.
I'll have another shot at this tomorrow,but divide between 3 fermenters,in the hope of less yeast monster escaping!
I'm sure there are a zillion recipes out there,just thought it was time to share.
Robert.