StillSmart

Hi everyone,after about a year of wanting one I have finally bought myself an air still.
I have made a wash using alcotec triple still yeast and 6kg of sugar. After 8 days, after no more activity I transferred into another bin, degassed and used the turbo klar. Its now 2 says later and although all of the carbon has dropped out, I am still left with a cloudy wash. Should I leave it for longer or will it be ok to put through the still? I have read loads of posts on here over the last few months to gain knowledge and experience and am a bit concerned about blowing the Lid off the still.
Can anyone advise me please. Tia

If you have thoroughly de-gassed it then I don't think you will blow the lid off. Some washes just don't clear as well as others, if you have the means then 24-48hrs in a fridge can help drag some solids to the bottom of the bucket.
I know you said there was no activity but did you check the final gravity before adding the finings & carbon? Sometimes a wash won't clear because it isn't finished, it could have been stalled for a number of reasons.
You won't be the first person to run a cloudy wash, get some flat copper bits in the bottom of that airstill & go for it!

No I didn't check the gravity it had about 24 hrs with no movement so just racked it off. I thought I am probably being a bit impatient to get going with it but also thought the turbo clear would have gone better. I think I will give it another 24hrs and go for it tomorrow, now got some old 2p's soaking in coke. Do I lay them flat without overlapping to cover as much of the bottom as possible? And then put the rings on top of that that came with the still?

Benoit wrote:
You won't be the first person to run a cloudy wash, get some flat copper bits in the bottom of that airstill & go for it!

Bang on. I never clear mine excessively. seems to make no difference.

paulf wrote:No I didn't check the gravity it had about 24 hrs with no movement so just racked it off. I thought I am probably being a bit impatient to get going with it but also thought the turbo clear would have gone better. I think I will give it another 24hrs and go for it tomorrow, now got some old 2p's soaking in coke. Do I lay them flat without overlapping to cover as much of the bottom as possible? And then put the rings on top of that that came with the still?

Check the gravity..it's not too late...it won't harm anything..

I and a lot of other members don't use turbo clear..most straight sugar/GS wash's clear well.

As for the 2p's just drop them in...you can throw in some of the rings also..

Best of luck for your strip tomorrow...hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for the reply all. Just put some in a tube to test gravity and it stopped right in and went off the sale, lowest reading on it was .995 and its floating at about .990. So should be good yes????? Also tested strength and its so difficult to read as the lines are so close together but its between 15-20%.
What do you all use to measure abv, I've seen people post on here things like its 13.5%, how can you read that accurate??.
Thanks for all you replies, feeling more confident noe

Wow that's a high abv wash! What was your original gravity Paul? I use a hydrometer, spirit hydrometers can come in a shorter range which makes them more accurate hence some people giving a half degree measure. Different ones have different ranges, it all depends how good your eyesight is I guess! Some people are very clever / fortunate & have digital parrots which can give a 0.1 degree accuracy.
.990 is almost certainly done mate yes, get it in there!

paulf wrote:... Also tested strength and its so difficult to read as the lines are so close together but its between 15-20%.

What are you testing on... A hydrometer?

Using this, it was sent free with the still

Temperature, clarity of the brew and the fact the digits are really close, will make this inaccurate. Don't worry but treat it as a guide not a definitive statement.

There are more accurate hydrometers.



You can also use refractometers which are easier to use and less easily broken.

Thanks, Il keep an eye out for something better.
Wash looking clearer today, just put the still together and started my first ever strip run.....woohoo, here we go

Mrs at work and im not in work til tonight so Think Il start another wash....

paulf wrote:What do you all use to measure abv, I've seen people post on here things like its 13.5%, how can you read that accurate??.

You can't read abv of a wash with a hydrometer, it has to be calculated.

And you can't read abv of a wash with a spirit hydrometer because any residual sugar in that wash will give you a wildly inaccurate reading.

With a conventional hydrometer you need to measure the Original Gravity or OG of your wash and then the Final Gravity or FG when you think fermentation has finished.

With 6kg of sugar in 24 litres of wash my OG is usually 1.090 and using Vodka Star yeast I expect it to finish around 0.984

Get rid of the decimal points and subtract the FG from the OG

1090 - 984 = 106

Divide that by 7.36

106 ÷ 7.36 = 14.4% abv

Or search for an online calculator, enter your numbers and hit the ‘go’ button.

Thanks for that I was just reading about the calcs actually, I have used them before when making beer but forgot to take sg before fermenting and was trying to use spirit hydrometer to get abv but struggled, one minute it looked about 13%, then it looked more like 20%. Makes sense now about it not working very well until its put through the still. I've just got my second wash Started and made a note of sg (1.095) so hopefully will remember to do that in future. Thank you

Do you know how much sugar you started with? You could still calculate it

Used 6kgs of sugar, how would i work it out?
Just finished first strip, marked the jug at 1500ml as that was where I planned to stop collecting. Seemed to take ages. I then realised I've messed up my mark was actually at 2.5l. Don't know what I was thinking. Spirit hydrometer says about 40%. It will be ok wont it? As its going to go through again anyway.